Melon #2: Two Faces of Asian Delicacies 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.