Last week we served up the first helping of this extra special double Dish, featuring Chef Brad Turley of Goga. Now regular Dish writer Austin Hu of Madison sounds off on what he thinks is to come in the wonderful world of food in 2012.

Hard as it may be to believe, the time has come once again to reach for my magic eight-ball of culinary clairvoyance and look towards the future. I do feel a tinge of compassion for all you readers out there, as this means that you’ve been exposed to my meandering trains of thought for another year now and I’ve undoubtedly cost City Weekend hordes of loyal readers who have thrown away their magazines in disgust, but until they say otherwise it seems I made it through another year as your dining guru.

I can say with some pride and only the merest smirk of self-satisfaction that some of the predictions I so gradiosely waxed on about last year did in fact come true, as much to your surprise as my own. And because of that, I did toy briefly with the idea of basing my entire column around the benefits of the military rations and bottled water that may become our only source of nutrition as we approach the apocalypse of 2012.

But the reality remains that 2011 was something of a landmark year for the hospitality industry in Shanghai, at least in my opinion. I feel as if the gap between the dining scene in Shanghai and the rest of the world is shrinking, and not really at all because Paul Pairet’s finally going to open Ultraviolet, his ultra-fine dining spot, or that the Bocuse Institute has come to town (the kids there are on work-study programs, so it will be a little while before we feel the effects of that).

Culinary trends once relegated to wistful food dreams are becoming increasingly real and present. Before you know it, hordes of young affluent Chinese and expats will be chasing exotic food trucks all over using Weibo and debating the virtues of Peking duck burritos and mala ramen. Between pop-up restaurants, guerilla marketing and organizations like Slow Food making their debut, the distance between Shanghai and New York seems closer than ever.

Another trend that I can only hope continues is the recent collaboration between different restaurants and chefs. Hai 5 was flat-out one of the highlights of my year. As someone who has put in more than their fair share of time in flickering, fluorescent underground kitchens, the notion of cooking outside with a group of like-minded peers while having a few drinks and listening to some good music is almost unreal. But when you can make it come true, it’s pretty hard to top. The industry is hard enough as it is; in my opinion there is little room for petty competitiveness. I’d rather do what I do with a smile on my face and a good thing to say about my neighbor.

I said this last year, and the sentiment still prevails: it’s an exciting time to be cooking in Shanghai, the future looks bright and the people look hungry. I’m happy to just be here for the ride.