SC - Kohlrabi

[Richard Keith]

This might have made the list while I have been off-line, if so... sorry.
Thesis happens...
In service,
Bogdan

> This may to of interest to those who study the Mongols and (of course)
> Cooks…
> Chinese Dietary Medicine of the Mongol Era as Seen in Hu Szu-hui’s
> Yin-shan Cheng-yao, London, Kegan Paul International, 2000
> Paul D. Buell, Seattle, Washington (email as above or
> <mailto:pbuell at titan.cc.wwu.edu> pbuell at titan.cc.wwu.edu)
> To be Published March 2000: A Soup for the Qan (ISBN 0 7103 0583 4) by
> Paul D. Buell, Eugene N. Anderson and Charles Perry
> In the tradition of Edward Schafer and Berthold Laufer, this is an
> elegant and scholarly study of a remarkable text which brings to life a
> long vanished civilization, and adds to our understanding of practices
> and concerns which are still of fundamental importance to us today.  In
> 1330, the Mongol Emperor Tugh-temur of China - a descendant of
> Qubilai-qan - was presented with a dietary manual, the Yin-shan
> Cheng-yao, or “Proper and Essential Things for the Emperor’s Food and
> Drink,” written by the imperial dietary physician Hu Szu-hui.  Since
> Hu’s primary interest and charge was the medical aspect of nutrition,
> always a central focus in the Chinese world, much of the book is an
> account of the medical values of foods and recipes, in terms of medieval
> Chinese nutritional therapy.
> Containing both prescriptions for life and health and instructions for
> the preparation of court delicacies, it describes the cuisine of the era
> in great detail, disclosing the long-term Chinese assimilation of
> foreign foods and foodways, and the effects on China of conquest and
> rule by foreigners with only limited interest in Chinese culture.  Food
> and foodways are sensitive barometers of material and social conditions,
> revealing change in process and cultural interactions in unique ways.
> This edition includes a reproduction of the compete text of the Yin-shan
> Cheng-yao based primarily upon the 1456 Ming edition but also including
> surviving fragments from the Yuan Dynasty original.  For the first time,
> it is presented here in full English translation, and also in facsimile
> Chinese, along with the text’s many woodcut illustrations. A full
> background and analysis are provided from the textual, anthropological
> and culinary points of view, giving the historical and cultural context,
> and a detailed study of the text with sections on Turko-Islamic
> Influences, including Islamic materia dietica and medica, and The
> Chinese Framework, including the social context of Yin-shan Cheng-yao
> foodways.  A special feature is a section on how the recipes in the book
> can be adapted for cooking today.  Whether it is read as a work of
> history or of anthropology, a translation, a culinary resource or
> medical manual, this is an exceptional work, one that makes a highly
> important contribution to many fields.