When the chicken foot arrived - sticky, crisp, unapologetic - the room softened; curiosity was sparked from bone to heart to broth, and through this shared experience, strangers began to feel like kin.
We hosted this pop-up dinner at Embark Dining, designed to be a live case study in connection: what happens when we eat together with intention? The 2025 World Happiness Report says meal-sharing is a powerful signal of wellbeing - people who share more meals report higher life satisfaction and more positive emotions, across ages, genders, countries, and cultures. We shared with guests the musings of Ester Perel - that rituals around a table create the kind of three-dimensional presence and vulnerability that screens can’t hold - “stories are bridges,” and setting the table as ritual is part of the work of rebuilding communities, tolerance and connection. Throughout the meal we held up the notion of active hope and with this, our belief that coming to the table - in person - is a way to repair confidence in the future.
Menu highlights
Charred eggplant soup with baobab, marjoram and a roasted “Vunjíka” tomato croquette
Trio of amuse bouche — smoked papaya; sage+millet croquette; skin-on sweet-potato cake with habanero cream; BBQ watermelon with watermelon-seed crumb and mango-coconut dip
Four-way root salad — kimchi / roasted / smoked / cured: mango & ginger peels, broccoli stems, cassava leaves, and whatever “unwanted” veg we could salvage
Beetroot chapati with chicken thighs, beet yogurt & shredded beet greens; vegetarian twist with oyster mushrooms + paneer
Chicken + matoke casserole (weekend veg rescued, roasted cassava flour; broth from feet + carcass). Vegetarian version: wasted-veg & matoke casserole with slow vegetable-and-stem broth
Broccoli & cauliflower mousse with star anise, cinnamon + Latitude white chocolate
Home-brewed kombuchas — passion+banana skin; pineapple-skin+cinnamon stick; papaya-skin+tulsi
Ripple
People named what matters: everything moves in relationship. Our takeaway was a practice tend to the links between the parts and choose in ways that deepen connection. Active hope is what we do together, not what we wait for.
