Family food culture, local food memories, workers’ table stories, and personal relationships with food.
Open Xiaohongshu and search for rainforest hiking, and you’ll find plenty of creators using phrases like “pristine wilderness”, “enveloped by nature”, “disconnected from it all”, and “connecting with primal life force” to describe the emotional resonance the rainforest provides. In September 2024, friends and I also ventured into a tropical…
Foodthink Says As autumn sets in, the Little Dining Table in Yulin, Chengdu has been up and running for six months. This half-year of practice has undoubtedly fostered a growing rapport between the cook, the dining companions, our partner farmers, and the food itself. Alongside the planned changes, life has…
Delicious chocolate chip cookies are high-fat traps that trigger a cycle of fear, plunging us into one nightmare after another steeped in dread; the crisp crunch of potato chips offers a crunchy release for pent-up anger, lending a hollow sense of reassurance; sugar-free cola is a ‘cheerful deceiver,’ akin to…
Autumn settles over the landscape before we know it. Food lovers need not feign sorrow to write a verse; they simply follow the rhythm of the seasons, eating along the way. Flowers bloom and fade in turn, and as the fifteenth of the eighth month arrives, foodies are once again…
Another Mid-Autumn Festival has come around. Gifts pass between relatives and friends, and mooncakes invariably take centre stage. The tins range from ornate to understated: Cantonese or Suzhou style, fresh meat or strictly vegan, handmade and organic. Here comes a venerable Hong Kong brand; over there, it’s the latest viral…
Editor’s Note A plate of steamed chicken with peas had the children salivating, and left the regulars at the recently reopened Little Dining Table licking their lips. Yet, however memorable a farm-grown dish may be, miss it this year and you must wait until next. Food from the land grows…
As a food lover, I do not eat meat, but I simply cannot live without beans – soybeans, mung beans, adzuki beans, black beans, and chickpeas. Although I generally shun commercially bought food and strive to eat what we cultivate ourselves, the consumption of soy products at Evil Valley has…
I. Returning to the Countryside: A Connection with Pengcheng Natural Farm I was raised in a Hakka village in eastern Guangdong, and as a child, I frequently yearned for the outside world. In 2015, my wish came true when I moved to Guangzhou, a major metropolis, to continue my education.…
Editor’s Note In the previous column, Master Yiguo showed us how, from an urban setting, she uses a “small dining table” to serve friends in her neighbourhood meals that are both wholesome and delicious. Yet even more “hardcore” is the grower of the rice served at that very table: Chen…
A tanker truck caught mixing mineral and edible oils has thrust cooking oil into the spotlight, capturing unprecedented public attention. While people are asking how to ensure the vegetable oils they consume are safe, as a food enthusiast, I’m posing a different question: do we really need to be eating…
