Melon #2 - Two Faces of Asian Delicacies: Crisis Food and Colonial Blends

Melon #2 – Two Faces of Asian Delicacies: Crisis Food and Colonial Blends invites readers to look beyond the fashionable image of “Asian food.” What appears today as trendy, comforting, or exotic often carries complex histories of colonial extraction, agricultural reform, and ecological transformation. Many ingredients now circulating globally as delicacies were once emergency foods, wartime substitutes, or by-products of imperial trade. By tracing these layered trajectories, the issue reveals how taste, survival, and power intersect, offering a critical perspective on contemporary food culture and its entanglement with histories of crisis and empire.