2023: Do We Really Need New Year’s Plans? | Food Talk Vol. 14
In 2022, Foodthink’s podcast, Food Talk, launched, producing twelve episodes over the course of the year. Beyond its previous writing and events, Foodthink could finally reach friends across the country through the medium of sound. What made us happiest was that more than 1,400 listeners subscribed to us on the platform — our heartfelt thanks to every one of you.
With the Lunar New Year approaching, the entire team gathered in Foodthink’s office, united by the theme “Please Answer 2023,” to look back on 2022 and share their hopes for the year ahead.
If one word could sum up 2022, it might be “lockdown.” Six Foodthink colleagues were sealed in the office together for seven days. Although only two months have passed since the restrictions were lifted, in our minds it already feels like a distant memory.
In the full fury of the lockdown, some colleagues unlocked new kitchen skills — making kombucha, yoghurt, kimchi, bao, mantou and all manner of other dishes; others, longing for a connection with nature, spent nearly every weekend on the wild hills around Beijing with their homemade bread; and still others, after much deliberation, left the country at the height of the lockdown to pursue a master’s programme in Barcelona, Spain…
Looking ahead to an open 2023, what kind of New Year plans is everyone making?
This episode is nonstop, high-octane energy from start to finish, with gags landing one after another — far more entertaining than the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Whose commentary about a colleague had everyone in stitches? Who is working on a project yet has their heart carried away by it? Whose story prompted Xiaojing to exclaim, “I won’t watch Rock & Roast without you”?
So, press play and tune in to this full-cast xiangsheng performance, live.
This Episode’s Guests
Tianle
Foodthink’s founding editor, the culinary floor of this office, and grandmaster of fast, half-hearted cooking. Also the convenor of the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market. New Year’s wishes are pretty much the same every year, because they rarely come true.
Wanlin
Foodthink project officer. A Chongqing person who can’t handle spicy food. The culinary ceiling of this office, a nifty household helper, and a decluttering master.
Ze’en
Foodthink editor, QQ sticker enthusiast. Neither fastidious nor picky, but with a foodie heart brave enough to try making all manner of dishes (manually sending a QQ smiley face).
Wang Hao
Foodthink editor. All because of their food preferences, they claim to be from the North in front of Southerners and from the South in front of Northerners. Actually a Beijinger.
Qihua
Foodthink project advisor. Grew up on the delicious meals Dad made at the stove, with good-cook genes that got waylaid by studies and work.
Xiaochao
Foodthink project officer. Winding her way between decluttering and hoarding, and in the process developing cooking skills that swing from good to not so good.
Fang Yuan
A Foodthink newcomer, coordinating the Beijing Harvest Festival, and working hard to pick up a hodgepodge of food and agriculture knowledge from various articles.
This Episode’s Host
Xiaojing
This episode’s questioner, a food and agriculture newcomer, and a mother of two. Her New Year plan is to “at least make it to an airport once,” she reckons.
Timeline
00:30 Human Sample Analysis: What changes did we all undergo in 2022?
01:32 Wrapping up 2022 — what is it like when six office colleagues get locked down together for seven days? Is a real-life Friends any fun? Foodthink’s founding editor Tianle recounts it, tears in her eyes.
04:29 Colleague Wanlin, crowned Foodthink’s Monica (hence “Wanica”), tells the story of trying to perfectly recreate Chongqing suānlà fěn (spicy and sour rice noodles) during lockdown.
09:20 Colleague Fang Yuan, who had only been with the team a month before being locked down with colleagues she’d met just three or four times: “I’ve only been here a little over a month, but everyone feels so strange.” “Why are you more serious about food than about work?”
09:20 Colleague Ze’en, in her second year at Foodthink and still unable to cook, has unlocked a whole series of skills — starting with kombucha, then kefir, pickled vegetables (a fail), and mantou and baozi (steamed buns).
19:43 Colleague Xiaochao, who started climbing wild mountains every week, has successfully gone feral and decided to quit her current job in the new year — is that something I’m allowed to say?
24:34 Host Wang Hao takes you through the 2022 Food Talk podcast recording journey: after finally finding a room with air conditioning during a 41-degree heatwave, having to switch it off to avoid noise — so it gets turned on for a cool-down every 20 minutes of recording.
30:52 Carrying the hopes of the entire editorial team, Qihua ultimately decided to travel to Barcelona, Spain, for the in-person component of her master’s programme before full reopening. She shares her experience of pushing through the pressure to travel: “Your husband’s love for you is only 20 euros; your love for your son is 20 gigabytes.”
40:27 What did you see in Barcelona’s “European Vegetable Garden”?
44:59 What plans does everyone have for 2023? Travelling abroad / becoming a “veggie buddy” who grows vegetables at home / shaking off post-COVID symptoms quickly… Then again, is there really any point in making New Year plans?
01:02:27 Foodthink sends New Year’s wishes to everyone!
On this auspicious Spring Festival,
we’ll also be sending gifts your way!
Leave a comment below and share this post to your WeChat Moments. We’ll pick the five readers whose comments receive the most likes and send each of them a set of Douban natural tableware (green)~
Foodthink wishes everyone a Happy New Year!
May you all eat well and stay in good health!
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Podcast Production Team
Planning & Production: Xiaojing
Podcast Cover Art: Wanlin
Music: Banong
Post Editing: Wang Hao
Contact Email: [email protected]