The world grows suddenly dim; the landscape has turned to autumn. A foodie does not conjure sorrow just to pen a poem, but simply follows the footsteps of the seasons to eat, and eat, and eat. Flowers bloom in their time and fade in theirs; as the fifteenth day of…
Editor’s Note A plate of steamed chicken fillet with peas left the child craving more and had the dining companions of the reopened ‘Small Dining Table’ salivating. Yet, even with such impressively delicious farm-to-table produce, if you miss it this year, you must wait until the next. Farm-grown food always…
Editor’s Note In the previous instalment of this column, Sister Yiguo showed us how she uses her ‘Little Dining Table’ in the city to provide her friends with wholesome, delicious meals. Even more dedicated than her is the producer of the rice served at that table—Chen Ying, the owner of…
Editor’s Note We are what we eat; eating well has never been a trivial matter. The scandal involving edible oil transported in tankers has once again sparked anxiety over food safety, highlighting the immense difficulty of tracing the origins of what we consume. Along the long chain from farm to…
Editor’s Note In the Yulin community of Chengdu, a vegetable “blind box” from farmer-friend Hu Xuemei brought a little “shock” and an unexpected change to Xia Lili, the cook of the Little Dining Table. This is the fourth instalment of “Master One-Pot’s Little Dining Table”, which will discuss Xia Lili’s…
Editor’s Note In the opening of the “One-Pot Abbess’s Little Dining Table” series, Xia Lili begins with a series of memories, explaining her “dining table” philosophy and the origins of the Little Dining Table project. In this piece, Xia Lili takes us into the vivid reality of the project. Stationed…
Editor’s Note In a corner of Yulin, Chengdu, Xia Lili—known to the locals as “Master Yi Guo”—has launched a new experiment: The Little Dining Table. This is a warm, collective dining initiative where neighbours team up as “dining buddies” to purchase and share meals, establishing regular eating habits and enjoying…
Foodthink Author Kouzi A determined farmer-trekker and village brewmaster. Full-time foodie, part-time farmer, and amateur writer. Some people might look at the title and think it’s wrong: ‘Isn’t the New Year supposed to make you put on a few pounds? How on earth can you lose weight…
In the first instalment of the Foodie Philosophy of Villain’s Valley series, I mentioned that a single pot of White Dew soup requires ten ingredients, nine of which are home-grown. I viewed “self-sufficiency” as the ideal for life in Villain’s Valley; on the surface, the self-sufficiency rate reached a staggering…
I. I. First Snow It was already the eleventh lunar month and the first snow had fallen on the small town, bringing a sudden chill that even the weather forecast had failed to predict. At the time, we had just emerged from a temporary lockdown a week prior; while shops…
