“When the yellow croaker arrives, ten thousand taels of gold follow.” Wild large yellow croakers are traditional banquet staples and auspicious dishes in Zhejiang and Shanghai. Along the Chinese coastline, perhaps no fish has experienced a more turbulent fate than the large yellow croaker. In October this year, I witnessed…

Foodthink Says On Sunday, 3 December at 10:30, our editorial team, currently in Guangzhou for the Harvest Festival, will be hosting a discussion on pre-prepared meals and indigenous ingredients. One of our guests, Doudou, is a kitchen expert renowned for her home-made pre-prepared meals. She shared her journey and a…

Have you ever tried sourdough? Commercial sourdough often uses isolated, high-purity yeast, which speeds up production and ensures more consistent quality. However, these advantages come at the cost of the more distinctive flavours, textures, and mouthfeel provided by traditional mixed microbial cultures. In reality, yeast is omnipresent in our environment.…

I. The Beginning In 2018, in a scattered village in Hong Kong’s New Territories that was facing imminent demolition, I baked my first sourdough loaf using a jar of fermented starter I’d just received from a friend. Looking back, it hadn’t really risen properly; it could hardly be called bread.…

Foodthink says Foodthink has hosted several reading groups focused on fermentation. During the process of selecting books, we noticed something: while fermentation culture is booming among foodie circles abroad, why hasn’t it taken off in China? This is a sentiment shared by the publishing professionals featured in this article: China…

A Word from Foodthink Sour chillies are a traditional Chinese fermented delicacy, particularly popular in the south. While each region has its own unique flavour and slightly different supporting ingredients, the method and principles of fermentation remain largely the same: salt is used to create an ideal environment for lactic…

I’ve lived in Eren Valley for over two years now, and the annual cost of labour and farmyard manure for the fields is quite a substantial sum. The locals I hire often can’t resist doing the sums for me, pointing out that growing things this way is far more expensive…

Foodthink Says Cheese is a profoundly traditional fermented food. Before the Industrial Revolution enabled mass production, the vast majority of cheese was handmade by farmers and small-scale producers. The flavour of the cheese was intimately tied to the season, the climate, and the methods used for producing the raw milk,…

  Early autumn finally brought the first self-reliant harvest since the inception of Evil Valley. I particularly want to stress the “self-reliant” part: from transplanting the seedlings to the final harvest, I handled every step myself, taking complete charge of the whole operation single-handedly. Having moved into Evil Valley in…