Podcast episodes, transcripts, interviews, and related content.
From Jingyang in Shaanxi to Hainan, Harbin and Beijing, four Spring Festival tables each have their own flavour. Small-town dining is quietly drifting towards big-city standards — yet the rice noodles a Shaoyang local scoops into their own basin still hit the mark better than Dianping’s high-rated chains.
This episode of Food Talk visits Pingren Farm in Changping, Beijing. Food doctoral researcher Zhou Chen, cultivation technician Zhao Fei and home cook Auntie Li discuss releasing the fixation on looks, learning more about production and engaging all five senses to come closer to truly “good food”.
At Ji Shi in Beijing’s Sanyuanqiao, all produce comes from local ecological smallholder farmers—cabbages alone span multiple varieties from different farms, and farmers come in person to recommend how best to enjoy their produce. The Foodthink conversation extends from selling vegetables to efficiency, consumption and gentrification.
In her late fifties, Kouzi moved to Scoundrel Valley, Fujian, in 2021 – building her own light-gauge steel-frame home, growing perennial crops, and buying almost nothing beyond a little fruit, sugar and salt. Foodthink lived and ate alongside her, exploring the endless shrinking inward behind her “lazy farming method”.
Beijing-born Liu Yang, from IT, fell for cheese while studying in France. From a small Huilongguan Farmers’ Market stall in 2009, he crafted over a dozen handmade cheeses blending French tradition with Beijing’s terroir, yet Bule Cheese Workshop faces the growth challenge of “from workshop to factory”.
Food Talk’s first crossover with Dàxiǎo Diànbō: Qiaoli Ke founder Nánshān and host Gǔsì chat about fermented foods—from cacao beans becoming chocolate to cheese and kombucha—and a new goal of growing homegrown cacao in Hainan.
Two fermentation engineering graduates founded Nine Inches Craft Brewing after starting with home-brewed beer, then visited fermentation artisans across the country – from mead and Stinky winter melon to suanye – hoping that flavour will help more people see the diversity of the fermentation world.
Sun Shan, farming in Canada, turned kale earning rave reviews but selling poorly at the Farmers’ market into Korean-style kimchi, building a fermentation kitchen at Chi Garden Eco Farm. Fermentation touches gut microbiota and memories of home; she shares beginner insights from chilli sauce to fermented pickled vegetables.
Wayina’s Banong and Guilin musician Shiba returned to farm and sing. Pesticides have nearly emptied the fields of fish and frogs, heirloom rice is all but extinct, and schooled young people can no longer tell herbs, catch insects and frogs, or reclaim old ways of singing while working.
What’s in sugar-free cola, Bingfeng and preserved plums, exactly? Sugar-substitute formulations stretch ingredient lists, and sweetness signals that can’t be relayed from gut to brain make quitting sweets even harder. Lulu, cardiovascular medicine doctoral student at Fuwai Hospital, takes us from ingredient lists to humanity’s evolving sweet tooth.
