These are all my family recipes. I have a deep commitment to cooking – I insist that every dish I make tastes exactly the same each time. I want the flavors to feel familiar to those eating them, bringing back memories of the last time they enjoyed the dish. That’s why I document all the dishes we cook at home, making sure to follow the recipe’s measurements and methods precisely each time to recreate the same taste.
Initially, I recorded these recipes in a spreadsheet. But when the spreadsheet grew to over a hundred tabs, it became difficult to use and update. So, I decided to move everything to a website. This website has essentially become our household menu. My husband browses through it like he’s ordering from a restaurant – though, of course, in my restaurant, orders have to be placed several days or even weeks in advance. My rules!
Sometimes, when I’m not home (though that rarely happens!), my husband follows these recipes to cook for himself, so he can still enjoy the familiar flavors.
For a long time, this website was for our private use only. I didn’t make it public because, to me, it was just our personal family recipe collection. I never intend to turn it into a professional cooking resource. Even though these recipes have been incredibly helpful for my own cooking, I wasn’t sure if anyone else would be interested in seeing how another family prepares their meals. After all, home cooking is deeply personal – everyone has their own way of doing things, and they should!
My husband, however, has always wanted me to make the website public. He has an Instagram account (which he started during COVID – that’s when our cooking journey began!) where he shares what he eats at home. Often, he posts dishes before I even have the chance to write down the recipe! When family and friends ask him for details, he doesn’t always know how to explain. He told me that making our family recipes public wouldn’t hurt if no one reads them, there’s no loss. And when I thought about it, I realized he had a point.
The value of family recipes isn’t that they’re superior to others, but that they are perfectly suited to the people who cook and eat them. In our home, even after making these dishes countless times, we still crave them, and I never get tired of cooking them. Plus, once you accumulate enough recipes, a natural family menu forms, eliminating the daily stress of deciding what to cook (though I still like to try new dishes from time to time).
I hope my family recipes can be a helpful tool for you in creating your own family recipes and menu. If you find a recipe you like here, feel free to add it to your collection – it would be an honor! And if something doesn’t suit your taste, think of these recipes as a framework you can tweak to match your family’s preferences.
If you try a recipe, I’d love to hear about your version – feel free to share your take with us on Instagram (@wfhfoodie #wfhfoodie)!
這些都是我的家庭食譜。我對做菜有一種執着，我要求自己每次煮出來都是同一樣的味道。我希望這些味道能夠給吃的人熟識的感覺，我希望他們能想起上一次吃這個菜的美好時光。因此我將所有家裏會煮的餸菜都記錄下來，之後每次都會跟據食譜的份量和做法去做出同一樣的味道。
我本來把這些食譜都記錄在一個試算表中，後來這個試算表有過百個分頁時實在不太容易去使用和更改，所以我就把食譜都放上來網站。這個網站就好像變成了我家的菜單一樣，我老公會翻看這個菜單，然後像在餐廳點菜般下單（當然我的餐廳要提前好幾天，甚至幾個星期下單，反正規矩是我訂的。）。有時候我不在家（雖然我很少不在家啦！），我老公也會跟著這些食譜來做菜，這樣他就可以吃到熟悉的味道。
然後過了好一段時間，這個網站都是我們自己私人閱覽的。我沒有把網站變成公開，因為我覺得這就只是我們的一個家庭食譜，我也沒有辦法將它變成一個專業的煮食教學資源，縱使它確實幫助到我的煮食工作，我實在不確定是否有人想去看別人家怎樣做菜，畢竟做家庭菜是很個人的事情，每個人都有，亦應該要有自己的風格。
我老公一直想我把網站公開。他有一個Instagram戶口（從Covid開始，那是我們開始下廚的日子！），記錄了他在家裏吃的東西，很多時候，我還沒有把食譜寫出來，他就急不及待地放上Instagram，家人朋友問他詳細的步驟，他也不好回答。他跟我說把我們的家庭食譜和菜單公開，沒有人看也沒有損失的，我想想他也說得對。
家庭食譜的價值不是在於它們比其他的食譜出色，而是它們都是最切合那一個家庭的菜式，無論是做菜的人，還是吃的人。就我們家來說，我在做過這些菜很多次以後，我們還是想吃這些菜，我亦沒有對再做這些菜感到煩厭，還有就是當這些食譜積累到一定數量的時候，一份家庭菜單就會自然形成，免卻了思索菜式的煩惱（當然有時候我仍然會嘗試做新的菜式）。
希望我的家庭食譜能夠成為一個工具幫助你建立你的家庭食譜和菜單。如果這裏有哪個食譜你喜歡的，請把它直接加入你的家庭食譜，我會覺得很榮幸哦！不合口味的，也可以把食譜當成範本，改做你家喜歡的調味和做法。歡迎在Instagram (@wfhfoodie #wfhfoodie) 告訴我們你的做法！