A Recipe For Spite
22-03-2025
Currently Eating: Canh Cà Chua Trứng
Currently Reading: The First Garden, by Anne Hébert
Currently Watching: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, part 6
Currently Playing: OMORI
Currently Listening to: The Nowhere King, from Centaurworld
I have created a recipes section on my website fuelled by spite.
On the MelonLand forum, there was a thread asking, "name one small change that would ruin the retro web for you". I wrote this: "My mischief would be poorly functioning popup ads. You know, like those on every single cooking site on the commercial web. The kind where, for some reason, closing the ad slingshots you back to the top of the webpage that you just spent the past three minutes scrolling through, trying to find the actual recipe somewhere amongst the drivel about how this pasta cured the author's mom's dog's counsin's chakra cancer. The ads continue to pester you for another five minutes, and when you finally reach the recipe, you find that the only seasonings used are salt, a single grain of pepper, and Cool Whip. I need a pepcid."
One of the things I loath most on the large web is cooking websites. Finding anything takes infinitely longer than is necessary, to the point that I have devised a personal system that involves jotting out the recipe - or rather, a conglomeration of bits and pieces of different versions of the same recipe - in simplified terms in a personal document, giving me an easy reference to test the recipe, before then writing it down in my physical recipe book if I end up liking it. It's a bit of a nightmare. And so, I've made my own recipes page to be the antithesis of these stupid cooking websites that pollute the world wide web.
Firstly, I've made it aggressively minimalist. I want it to be easy to find the recipe you're looking for, and easy to read said recipe.
Second, I have not included any personal stories or anecdotes or any other horse shit on the actual recipe page. If I have something personal to say about a dish, I'll create a blog post about it, and link it separately, as I have done with this post on the main recipes page.
Third, I wrote it in a very loose manner, to reflect how I view cooking, with optional ingredients and alternative methods. I don't want any of the recipes to seem intimidating to those who are not very familiar with cooking, or to those with various disabilities that make cooking difficult at times, like myself. Cooking is meant to fuel your body and make your mouth happy, regardless of what diets or restrictions you adhere to.
And finally, I added a small note encouraging people to just ask if they have any questions. Cooking websites on the large web are magazine-esque in their impersonal vibe, with obligatory comment sections that don't seem to fulfil any particular purpose or facilitate any actual discussion. If you have a question about any of my recipes, want me to recommend a substitution or an easier method, or if you want to recommend something for ME to try, go for it.
I struggle with bouts of ARFID, and yet, I love food. The last thing I ever want is to gatekeep food. I'm not a chef, or a passionate hobbyist that owns a bunch of fancy gadgets and other weird shit. I just like to cook, and try new things.
And I encourage others to try new things too.
Icons by pixel safari