Translated by Chen Weiming 
Produced by Zhonghua Book Company-Food Menu in Sui Garden 

Among Yuan Mei”s various hobbies, the love for delicious food, making friends, travelling, and furnishing house are all connected with his preference on the delicious food. His home cook is Wang Xiaoyu, a celebrity chef of a generation, and these two have a deep acquaintance based on food; he makes friends and travels all over the country to taste delicious food; Suiyuan, where he retires after resignation, is a famous local food production base. Yuan Mei admires the way of eating. Forty years of food tasting practice has enabled him to understand the selection and matching of food ingredients, the use of condiments, the mastery of cooking conditions, the requirements and procedures of eating, and the method to follow. In Food Menu in Sui Garden, Yuan Mei described 326 kinds of North and South dishes, rice and wine and famous tea popular in the 14th to 18th centuries in witty language. He not only shared food experience and production skills, but also summarized dietary theory. In this case, this book can be called as a cookbook and a tasting guide for experienced gourmets. The theories put forward in the book such as the original taste is the most important thing, adjustment should be conducted appropriately, and the food hygiene is the most important thing, still have a strong guiding and reference significance for today”s food culture and health thinking. Criticism on food preparation and some bad habits on the table shall always alert people.