Hu Szu-Hui had been an imperial dietary physician under several short-lived descendants of Qubilai (Kublai Khan) during the early 1300s, and his book was presented to the court in 1330 as
Proper and Essential Things for the Emperor's Food and Drink. It is mostly concerned with the medical values of foods and recipes in terms of medieval Chinese nutritional therapy. Buell
(history, Horst-G繹rtz-Stiftungs-Institut, Berlin) and Anderson (emeritus anthropology, U. of California-Riverside) place the work in historical and cultural context, then analyze the text in
relation to the persistence of the Steppe in Mongol thought, Turko-Islamic influences, the Chinese framework, Song-Jin-Yuan correspondence medicine, Chinese culinary traditions, and the social
context of the book's foodway. Then they present an edition of the Chinese text with English translation. The first edition of the study seems to have appeared about 2000, and this second
corrects identified errors and updates the treatment somewhat. Annotation 穢2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
