The 2023 Annual Report.
This newsletter does not exist without its readers.
The subscribers are the shareholders.
55 posts (including this) were produced in the year 2023, hitting the target of one post a week. That’s AUD 1.09 per post for subscribers, well above the market rate in terms of entertainment value as dividends.
Tick, Don’t Cross.
2023 has also been a success in terms of establishing establishment.
With revenue generated from Substack’s subscription, I’ve been able to purchase the ‘blue tick’ from Instagram. Noobs snicker at the desperation but from a marketing point of view the ‘blue tick’ provides legitimacy, an image of a creative with the will and pocket to drop $300 per annum on being taken seriously.
No objective measure has been taken to prove effectiveness, but PR and marketing are the same as superstition - it works when you think it’s working.
Raw Fish, Vinegar Rice, Alkaline Noodles.
I’ve been 200% more active with Broadsheet. All omakase restaurants I covered were awarded a hat; the ramen joint was awarded the best new restaurant of the year. I agree with 50% of the assessment. Ask me which in private.
Interviews.
Editor Lee Tran, chef Victor Liong, Sydney celebrity Jennifer Wong, food writer Dani Valent, food godmother Jess Ho, coffee legend/QC Toshiyuki Ishiwata, chef Hansol Lee, and New York comedian Jocelyn Chia are an all-star cast of any publication and it was under extreme luck I was managed to chat with them.
The collaborations happened due to published work on Gourmet Traveller and The New York Times, from the cook book Soy Sauce, Sugar, Mirin, and the investment of the aforementioned blue tick.
2024 will focus on local Melbourne stories with a mix of old casts and favourites. Personal food tours are here to stay.
The Silent Partner.
Data hides, but it doesn’t lie.
Japan (also Sydney and Indonesia but mainly Japan) is the MVP of the newsletter. Readers are mainly here for the food reviews and travel story. Just like how we were able to book a hotel apartment in Tokyo for $200 a night during COVID, it will be a challenge to replicate the same experience in 2024.
Recipes
Recipe sharing was lackluster due to fatigue. The more I cook, I less I believe in recipes. I think professionals like
provides a more insightful, scientific method when it comes to cooking Asian food.Having said that, I discovered my strength in 2023 - a micro-authority and resource on recipes translated from foreign *cough Japanese* magazines and cookbooks which softens my liability when they do not work.
The plan for 2024 is to increase recipe output to once a month.
A Focus on Sugar Daddies.
Three women - one within the industry, one client, and one stranger - gave me the same advice in 2023.
If you respect your work, you will charge for your newsletter.
I can understand this from a photographer/designer’s point of view. Yet the urge to be read and understood by thousands dwarfs the reward of being a ‘paid writer’. I don’t know.
On the other hand, I do feel guilty that paid subscribers are getting the short end of the stick here.
Since my astrology readings for the year of the Dragon are pretty dire and risk-averse, the focus will be on retention rather than acquisition.
After two years of free sampling, Immortan Joe is switching off the free-flow tap.
The paywall will return in 2024.
The Dream of Electric Sheep.
One thing I learned this year from reading
is that a country that invests a significant proportion of its GDP to achieve growth has less GDP leftover for income and consumption.Translation: If I save my income to buy houses / mortgage to maintain asset value, then I have less for eating out.
There are consequences if EVERYONE is doing it, creating a mirage of a ‘first world country’ while the dwellers of each million-dollar mansion eat instant ramen and suffer from depression, diabetes, and cardiac arrests. Without the well-being to maintain productivity and produce offspring, the net worth on paper will be short-lived.
Translation: what’s the point of earning money if you can’t be around to spend it?
In 2023 most of the fund was allocated towards the end-of-year party/birthday celebration/my first photo exhibition in November, which was perceived as a success.
There is an incentive behind this; the more subscribers, the bigger the party.
To date, six out of twelve photographs from the show have been sold, which will aid in keeping the health fund healthy.
The event also became a marketing push for Soy Sauce, Sugar, Mirin to break a milestone.
1000 orders aren’t 1000 books (that was surpassed in 2022 through bulk orders, Amazon purchases, etc), but it provided psychological comfort. Thank you Carl.
Conclusion
2023 has been a success for the newsletter.
I am more than satisfied with the standard of my written work, considering this is my side side hustle.
What can be improved is engagement, subscription, and confidence.
Thank you to those who stayed. Thank you sugar daddies.
See you next year.