— nicky hui

So it starts with you experimenting again and again and you're not coming to the table a blank slate, right? You're coming with a palette that's been set. Um, you can change your palette absolutely, but uh, are you a super taster? Are you sensitive to fat or sugar? Um, are you a thermal taster? All of that comes in when you're sit standing here ready to make your recipe, your palate comes with you. Your whole cultural tradition and what was passed down to you, if anything was passed down to you, what you're used to eating that surrounds you. So when you see a recipe, you put your flavor into it again. So if you see a recipe and you really like the recipe, and I do this, so like if I see a recipe for something new that I hadn't had, like, okay quesadillas, right? I never made a quesadilla until like two years ago. 'cause my kids wanted a quesadilla. So I learned how to make a typical quesadilla and I was like, okay, this is good. But then I added my own spin on things and added the ingredients that were, uh, that spoke to me and to my family, to my cultural tradition, to my palate, my kids' palates. And I tweaked it. And you're gonna continue to tweak the recipes again, looking for those foundational elements. There'll be a base if something calls for rice, maybe use quinoa instead, or millet or amaranth or buckwheat roasts or whatever it is. But you can interchange the grain that's in the recipe. You can interchange the, uh, herbs and spices that are in a recipe. You can interchange the protein sources and you c continue to create a delicious dish. And they might not be the same. Any two might not be the same mine. Mine never are. Either I'm making a soup and I'm like, ooh, I have this today. And some of them are like, oh my gosh, I wish I remember what I did there, which I kind of do, but, and then I move on to the next one. So you need to experiment and that's the best way to find the recipes that are gonna be your own. You're gonna put your own spin on it. And I can't tell you how to put your spin on it because I'm not living in your body and I haven't lived your life and I don't live where you live. So, um, experiment and I hope deliciousness follows you wherever you go.