4 . I love cooking. Food has always been a love language in my family, and I seem to speak it well-both in consumption and preparation.

I love cooking food, whether it’s a holiday feast or a quickly imagined meal.    1    : grilling and smoking, recipes for slow cookers and Dutch ovens, and simmering (煨) soups and pasta sauces all day on the stovetop.

    2     It makes me feel like I’m being better for them, showing love and gratitude. And since cooking is an art that takes practice to get better, I enjoy the feeling of making a meal that earns a bit of praise. I think I inherited (继承) this relationship with cooking from my mother.

My memory of her food probably goes back to a day when my mother was making Bolognese-style spaghetti sauce (意大利面酱). The kitchen was small, but the centerpiece was a stove. That’s where my mother showed her art of cooking with love.     3    

One of my first memories of cooking for my family was making my mom’s spaghetti sauce for my wife when we began to live together. I left work early to prepare dinner, before heading back out to pick her up.     4     I knew the sauce wasn’t as good as my mom’s, but it was good enough.

Cooking for my family is a way of connecting with my mother, even though she’s no longer physically with us.     5     I feel happy in the kitchen, and I try to put my heart into the food-when my family loves it, it feels like a hug.

8 . When I graduated from college and moved to Washington, D.C., in 2017, I left all of my friends behind. Treating new associates with home-cooked meals was my best attempt at making new friends and curing my loneliness. Soon enough, everyone was asking me for the recipes(食谱), which is how Bun Bo Bae, my Vietnamese cooking blog, came into being in 2019.

I’ve probably been destined(注定的) to start a food blog. I spent most of my childhood in the kitchen with my mom. As a child, I’d sit and watch her cook. My duties started with just passing her the ingredients(配料). Soon, I was measuring, steaming and stir-frying my way toward kitchen mastery. I left for college before I could learn my mom’s best dishes.

Studying abroad, I was desperately homesick in the beginning. So, I started calling my mom and asking for the recipes for my favorite dishes. It turns out that my mom doesn’t have any recipes. She grew up in the kitchen with her mom too, and my grandma passed on her knowledge orally(口头地).

Bun Bo Bae was initially a space for me to put what I learned into writing. I didn’t want all of the secret knowledge behind dishes like my mom’s bún bò hué (a spicy beef and pork noodle soup that inspired the blog’s name) or my dad’s thit bǎm sôt cà chua (a pork-based tomato sauce) to vanish one day if the oral tradition ended. I wanted to write down every piece of advice I was given in detail to make sure people could keep creating these dishes as authentically as possible. As my food blog and follower count grew, so did my confidence in the kitchen.

Bun Bo Bae also promoted my confidence at work. I taught myself social media and web building, and the skills helped me land my job at NPR (National Public Radio), where one of my recipes was served in Sound Bites. I even hosted a cooking class for my colleagues to celebrate AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) Heritage Month.

9 . The Comfort of Cooking

Most people like eating delicious foods since they believe those foods can make them relax and help get rid of (摆脱) the tiredness of daily lives.     1     Cooking can provide you with many benefits. It can also be fun and a comfort for you when you are feeling down. Can you remember your first time of cooking? Perhaps it’s making dumplings with your grandma, cooking scrambled eggs with tomatoes alone, or helping your family to prepare a large meal during festivals.

Cooking has been found to improve confidence, according to The Mental Health Foundation.     2     You can use different ingredients (原料) and your imagination to create whatever you want to. Just following the cookbook or the video is also meaningful. You will get a sense of achievement when you see the final works after all the hardships.

    3     You will be freed from your worries or anything else that troubles you when focusing your attention on cooking. There is no time for your mind to wander. It is common that we may come across something unexpected which is a burden to us, but remember to find a way to relieve the pressure. Cooking is a calming activity waiting for you.

Cooking is a great way to experience different cultures as well. Different countries have different ways of cooking which lead to various featured foods.     4     By cooking those foods, it seems that you are a native to that country.

Cooking also brings people together. Prepare a meal for the family reunion. Invite some friends to your home. While you are doing the cooking, happy laughter and cheerful voices may fill every corner of the house.     5