Dietary health, food safety, nutrition, and food culture.
Editor’s Note You are what you eat; dining well is never a trivial matter. The recent scandal involving edible oil transported in tanker trucks has once again reignited anxiety over food safety, while tracing the origins of what we consume remains fraught with difficulty. Along the lengthy chain from field…
Recently, the chaotic practice of using tankers intended for coal-derived oil to also transport edible oils has sparked public outrage, once again bringing food safety and public health to the forefront of national concern. In truth, hidden risks in our food supply have always been present. In March this year,…
Shelling and grinding buckwheat groats into flour, mixing it with wheat flour to form a dough, and then slicing it into fine, slender noodles yields one of Japan’s most everyday staples. In Japanese, *soba* (buckwheat) is a homophone for “beside”. Consequently, asking for “buckwheat noodles” sounds identical to saying “please…
Editor’s Note In the opening piece of the “Master One Pot’s Little Dining Table” series, Xia Lili draws on a handful of personal recollections to explain her philosophy of shared meals and the origins of the project. This time, she brings us straight to the lively heart of the kitchen.…
Foodthink Says As May arrives, Yunnan once again enters the season for foraging wild mushrooms in the hills. In recent years, wild vegetables and mushrooms have surged in popularity. Not only are pricey varieties now regularly stocked in supermarkets, greengrocers, and online grocery platforms, but “wild foraging” (the practice of…
A Word from Foodthink Today is International Day for Biological Diversity. This year’s theme is “Biodiversity: A Shared Endeavour” (Be part of the plan). For most people, the most direct way to get involved is simple—through what we eat. Through our diet, we can savour the wonders that biodiversity brings,…
Editor’s Note In a corner of Yulin, Chengdu, Xia Lili—affectionately nicknamed “Sister Yiguo” by her friends—has launched a new experiment: The Little Dining Table. This is a warm, collaborative dining initiative where neighbours team up as “meal partners” to shop and cook together, establish regular meal times, and enjoy wholesome…
Anyone who has visited the grasslands of Inner Mongolia will be familiar with steaming pots of salted milk tea and traditional Mongolian dairy foods. Last summer, during my fieldwork in Sangendalai Town, Zhenglan Banner, Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia, local herding households would invariably treat me to these delicacies. Initially, I…
The Spring Festival holiday has passed. What hometown flavours did you enjoy when you went back this year? In this episode of Food Talk, the Foodthink team gathers to share their culinary memories of the festivities. From Shaanxi to Hainan, and on to Harbin and Beijing, each region boasts its…
Foodthink Says 315 refers to Consumer Rights Day. Each year on this date, the public habitually turns its attention to what new fakes CCTV has exposed. Yet in everyday life, products are not merely a matter of being genuine or counterfeit. Consumers also care about quality and whether they are…
