Hey guys, it’s Dolly here with Goldthread.
A lot has happened over the course of 2018.
We launched our publication back in June,
just half a year ago.
Since then, we’ve published over 100 videos,
taken more than a dozen reporting trips in greater China
and beyond,
and filmed almost 1,000 hours worth of footage.
To celebrate the new year, and our half-birthday,
let’s take a look back at some of our favorite stories from 2018,
with some behind-the-scenes notes
left on the cutting room floor.
Our first countdown?
Favorite meals of 2018.
Chef Aiwai is from Yunnan,
a province in China that borders Myanmar.
That means the region’s food is a mix of Chinese
and Southeast Asian flavors,
with ingredients like lime and chili.
The Wa people are an ethnic group dispersed throughout
eastern Myanmar and Yunnan in southern China.
Aiwai is from the China side, and his hometown is in Ximeng,
located right on the border.
He came to the city for work,
but insists on cooking food from his hometown,
where the flavors tend to be more reminiscent
of Southeast Asian cuisine.
It is especially heavy on chilis and lime.
To him—a mountain guy now living in the big city—
this dish is a reminder of his culture’s resourcefulness.
For those who don’t know,
the Wa people are one of 56 ethnic groups in China.
The majority of Chinese are Han,
but there are over 100 million people
who belong to the other ethnic groups living in the country.
Some of the best meals we’ve had this year were the least fancy,
like this beloved Hong Kong street snack,
fish balls, also known as yudan.
They’re fish patty meatballs on a skewer,
and the ones featured here are from Tak Hing.
Personally, I grew up eating yudan
and I have never seen them made with fresh fish before.
So this story was a first for me.
Last but not least,
our best meal of the year came from Sichuanese chef Jenny Gao,
whose cured rabbit salad had us thinking about it
long after we left her home in Chengdu.
The salad has made the biggest impact on me.
My name is Jenny Gao
and I've been exploring Chinese food as a writer and cook
for the last 10 years.
I was born in this town here right outside of Chengdu.
Chengdu is in the Sichuan basin
and it's flanked by mountains on all sides
and because the land is so fertile,
because of the warm and wet climate,
it's actually a perfect breeding ground for rabbits.
There's a lot of rabbit meat in Sichuan
and people really love eating it
because not only is it tasty, it's also lean and healthy.
My parents and I moved away from China when I was about 5,
but we would come back every couple of years or so
to visit my grandparents.
One of the dishes that really
was imprinted in my memory was this
red rabbit salad.
The salad had vermicelli, carrots, leek, celtuce, and rabbit.
When I started making my own chili sauces,
I was able to incorporate those into the dressing as well.
I hope that I can draw more attention to
Sichuan's amazing food culture
because it is cooked in homes and on the street,
it's like street food.
It's full of soul.
I felt like in the West, people knew Sichuan food
as just the stereotypical extremes
like the diabolic heat or the face-numbing spice.
But I think as an outsider coming into Sichuan
it's easy to miss the subtleties that are underneath.
Food was such a visceral thing that I could
grab onto
and explore through my senses.
In a lot of ways, I think it's brought me closer to my family,
like my grandparents.
When my Chinese was still not that good,
it was sort of this common language that we could speak.
It's been a journey and I'm still discovering
the culture and myself through it.
I loved this meal because,
one, I’ve never had anything like it,
two, it’s a regional dish
that makes use of a meat that’s abundant in Sichuan,
three, we got to share this homemade meal
with chef Gao’s grandparents.
Of course, three dishes is not nearly enough
to cover all the amazing food we’ve discovered this year.
I highly recommend watching our Chef’s Plate series
to hear from other chefs we’ve met.
So, talk to us.
Which videos were your favorite?
And what type of food coverage
would you like to see more of in 2019?
Comment below,
and don’t forget to like this video
and subscribe to Goldthread
for another year of delicious stories.