Healing Food, Healing Love (2022)

Nice, light, sweet, and uncomplicated story

This is a cute and light show that does not derail into melodrama three quarters of the way through or get bogged down by annoying exes and villains. Everyone is likable and mature. At no more than 25 minutes if you skip the credits, it's also short and sweet -- a good candidate if you are looking for something easy to watch, but also seeking something with better acting and production values than most of the short-length, modern C-dramas that are proliferating everywhere.

If you are looking for something more sophisticated, however, this isn't it.

All the friendships are just really nice and supportive, the relationships are healthy, the side couples are not annoying or draggy. The villain is kind of bland, and there are returning exes, but they generally resolve nicely in their own way and do not drag on for too long either. There is a brief 2ML/childhood friend that comes onto the scene, but that too is handled with grace and maturity and also does not drag.

It's also nice to see Zhang He in more leading roles after watching him in supporting roles over the years (Three Miles, Love O2O, etc.). He might not be the most amazing actor, but he holds his own and is very likable in this particular role. (He also looks amazing for 38.)

Some might find it all just too vanilla, but overall, I thought it a very pleasant watch with a story line that moves along at a reasonable pace. In my view, this is currently rated low at 7.7 and is worth an 8, even for what it is.

(Caveats and other notes: Like so many modern C dramas, colourism unfortunately comes up briefly in a couple of off-hand remarks. The quality of the dubbing was also very hit and miss. I had to completely ignore clear issues of conflict of interest and ethics as well, especially during the competition at the end. Finally, I found it hilarious that one of the main characters unrealistically held two very demanding full-time jobs.)

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Some Healing Love but Not Much Healing Food in this Drama

This is one of those dramas where it doesn't stand out but it's not bad either. It's one of those dramas where you just watch in your spare time or while waiting for another drama. It is an easy drama to watch as in it doesn't really give you much frustration, stress, or headaches. It's an enjoyable watch for me but still has its flaws.

Things that I liked about this drama:
* Chemistry of our ML & FL together
* Mature & short love triangles: I normally hate love triangles, but the writer actually wrote it pretty well for this drama. There were 2 short ones, one in the beginning from FL's childhood friend and one towards the end, the ML's ex. Both may still have some feelings for the leads, but both were non-toxic. Both were also supportive for our leads in the end of the love triangle arc. Best part, this love triangle arcs lasts for only a few episodes.
* Love the intro and ending osts to this drama
* A Happy & Sweet Ending

My issues with this drama
* Story plot is lacking: It seemed promising in the beginning with a heartbroken FL & a traumatized ML's past but the writer didn't follow through with the idea for the whole drama. Instead, it ended up being a company focus drama with few scenes about the FL's & ML's personal issues.
* Not enough food emphasis: For a drama that has healing food in its title, there wasn't much food representation in this drama as I would've liked. There were also lack of scenes where it showed that food provided comfort and healing.
* No purpose of the old geezer CEO pulling dirty tricks to take down Zheng Dao. This was a nuisance to this drama and really made me annoyed with this drama a bit. This guy pretty much got away with his evil tricks as the writers went down the route of all is forgiven after quickly showing a pity scene.
* Transitions from scene to scene have been out of place/random at times. It doesn't flow well going into the next scene in certain episodes. There was probably a lot of filmed scenes that had to be cut.
* Way too much company scenes and not enough scenes where our leading couple are together without the company aspect to this.

Overall, it's a decent drama with a happy ending. Main couple was great. Though the story plot had some good ideas in the beginning, it wasn't implemented well throughout the drama. Also, don't expect too much when it comes to the food content or even the healing aspect of this drama, as majority of the scenes were about the company.

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