People who bring ice are the foundation of celebrations.

All right?

It seems like such a small job, but it is the job that keeps the party going.

Because you know what people in America love? Cold drinks.

We're obsessed with it. Americans love ice more than like any other country in the world.

This is a fact.

Yeah. And the worst thing is when you assign the ice to somebody who's never on time.

Exactly.

This is the Sporkful. It's not for foodies. It's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people,

and welcome to our salad spinner year-in-review edition. Get ready for a rapid-fire roundtable

discussion of the biggest, strangest, and most surprising food stories from this past year.

2024 was the year when Japanese sake was added to UNESCO's list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity,

and NFL players consumed an estimated 80,000 uncrustables, a treat that if you ask me, should also be on that UNESCO list.

In politics, Donald Trump had a photo op slinging French fries at McDonald's and Rudy Giuliani announced he would start hawking his own brand of coffee.

Then on social media, we saw the rise of dirty soda, the TikTok cucumber salad, and much more.

Of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg wedge.

There's a lot more that happened. We've got a lot to cover.

Today's salad spinner will talk about some of the biggest food trends of 2024, the ones we want to see more of, and the ones we wish would go

away. Then later, some of the best things we ate this year. Now, I can't cover all these big

topics on my own. Joining me in the spinner today to help our two very special guests, first up in

Washington, D.C., we have Joe Yonan. He's the Food and Dining Editor at the Washington Post and also just released his latest cookbook

Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking. Hello, Joe. Thank you. So glad to be here. This is going to be

...