I don't really think I'm at the point where I have a signature dish or anything, most of the time when I cook it's either for myself or it's more of a sudden decision. It'll usually just be something like fried eggs on toast or some kind of breakfast, but honestly one of my favourite things to make is just a simple mac and cheese. It's really comforting to me, pretty easy to make, and doesn't really take up a lot of time. My bf also asks me to make him fried rice pretty often, but it's really nothing special, just chicken marinated in soy sauce and garlic, a bunch of whatever fitting vegetables are in the fridge, an egg or two, and the rice itself. Still really nice. And there's this great tortellini salad my dad would make all the time that was the one thing that convinced me that cold pasta salad could be good. Rainbow tortellini, cubed ham and mozzarella, artichoke hearts, olives, balsamic and oil and some seasonings, and it's pretty much always fantastic. I was really surprised when my bf's mom asked me to make it for a party they were having, and it seemed like people liked it. Cocktail meatballs are also great and fairly simple to make, and while I haven't made them myself, they're another of my dad's go-to meals because they were easy to make for whenever he had to attend a potluck lol. I think he used mainly a mix of grape jelly and ketchup for the sauce, and while it sounds strange to say that out loud, I always loved em.
I
love watching cooking videos, especially really heartwarming home-y Japanese cooking videos, like those from
Party Kitchen or
Tina's Life (who sadly hasn't uploaded in years) but my favourite is probably
Imamu Room, who had a long-running series of making bento boxes for her husband to take to work every day, and continued to make the same style of content every month or two even after the two of them left to move countries. A lot of things I've watched any of them cook are things I've wanted to try, and both because of my roots and just good memories with the cuisine over my life, I've really wanted to do more Japanese-style cooking. Owning a pan for Tamagoyaki was really cool to me. I've sort of had this dream of just hosting a small little stream online for friends to join while I cook dishes I've wanted to make sometime in my life, and that includes stuff like Tonkotsu Ramen from scratch, Katsu Curry, and especially a full traditional Japanese-style breakfast. Udon and Pho (despite it not being Japanese) are also some things I'd love to try to make.
For people who say they don't know how to cook, I think the best thing to do is really just throw yourself into it and expect to mess up and learn from it. Not knowing how to cook was something that stopped me from trying to learn and I've messed up so many times but have improved from pretty much nothing. I remember burning an entire pot of milk while my parents were out one night and it was hell trying to clean it to try to make sure they wouldn't notice by the time they got home lol
