Curious what makes you decide to cook something completely outside your normal routine or culture?

[u/LadyOfGlory]

I’m curious about how we all break out of our food ruts. I, myself, have recipes/dishes I rotate through because they are familiar and part of my culture.

But what was the exact trigger that made you do it?

And what was the hardest part about making it happen?

For me, I am willing to venture out because of that lingering craving from traveling. And the difficulty is mostly finding which specific recipe to trust because I fear that could majorly mess up my whole effort. I usually end up mixing a few recipes into one. (Is that normal approach?)

Keen to hear your stories!

[u/ThoughtfulInhibitor]

Cooking is a hobby of mine. Sometimes I just look up recipes and if something sounds good I make it.

No trigger, just looking.

[u/GrizzlyIsland22 → u/ThoughtfulInhibitor]

Yeah if I want to eat it, I make it. Its not that deep. I don't need to have a vision from the heavens or some shit to wanna make a bahn mi

[u/Mabbernathy → u/ThoughtfulInhibitor]

Same. During Covid I didn't have much to do but try new recipes.

[u/The_Poster_Nutbag]

It's yummy and I want to eat it.

[u/Comaweather → u/The_Poster_Nutbag]

Same, also if it looks not so complicated. Ex: bigos

[u/angelicism]

Tried Egyptian lentil soup in a restaurant. Found out it's fucking delicious and very easy to make. It is now one of my staple legume meals (.... not in the summer because soup in the summer is masochistic as far as I'm concerned).

[u/PunkShocker]

Curiosity.

[u/4cupsofcoffee]

boredom, curiosity, seeing something in a restaurant or media or cookbook.

[u/1percentsamoyedmama]

Cravings, curiosity, nostalgia, desire for connection.

Not that hard since I live in a huge city where most things are available. Finding the time and effort is probably the hardest.

[u/himit]

Picture & videos on the internet, mostly

[u/Academic_Ad6486]

For me, it was this Korean restaurant near my college that was run by a culinary chef from Seoul who studied at the Culinary Institute of America. I fell in LOVE with it, the Bibimbap, the Japchae, and everything else.

So, I ended up researching a bunch and followed Maangchi and Chef Cho to learn the fundamentals.

[u/rancidpandemic]

I didn’t learn how to cook until I started doing keto a few years ago. When I cut out the carbs, I was basically forced to start making everything myself. It was only then that my tastes expanded, and I began to seek out recipes for low carb versions of foods that I never dared to try before. I learned a lot, and made a ton of dishes, but eventually fell into a rut—I think because I felt like I had ran out of new things to try, even though I hadn’t.

Recently, I decided to take an indefinite break from keto, and that’s reinvigorated my love for cooking. Since I started reintroducing carbs back into my diet, I’ve started to explore basically any dish that catches my attention, no longer restricted to purely low carb options.

I’ve been watching a lot of J Kenji Lopez on YouTube, which has gotten me into an Asian food kick. Not only that, but a ton of different dishes with rice.

After that, who knows? I have a whole world of options out there, and I want to take my time exploring it all. No cuisine is off the table, assuming I can acquire the ingredients at a reasonable price. I’m confident/competent enough in the kitchen that the sky’s the limit.

That’s pretty dang exciting. Man, I love cooking.

Edit: To answer your question more directly, it’s both my love for cooking and the desire to experience new things. I love making and perfecting a new dish. The whole process is fulfilling to me in ways I cannot describe. Cooking may be my one true calling/passion.

[u/jaegerbombastico]

Seeing random videos/recipes while scrolling, or looking up what I can do with ingredients I have and trying new recipes that sound good

[u/bellamente123]

Curiosity, boredom, and after traveling I always want to try making some of the dishes I loved the most

[u/svel]

if i spot something interesting that seems tasty then I'll make it. why would i stick to specific recipes just because of "my culture"?

[u/Tasty_Impress3016]

Funny you should ask, I'm considering trying to copy a Mexican dish I had about a year ago at a local restaurant. Just as I would say a wild hair up my ass. But I looked at the refrigerator to see what I had and remembered this special that a local place did and I loved. I thought "why not give it a whack?" Normally I don't make Mexican because I live in a highly hispanic area and there are a) mexican restaurants everywhere and b) everyone can cook this style better than me.

But it was SO good and they closed.

[u/laikocta]

Most of the time, it's seeing a delicious-looking food o video of a food online. Made Muhammara recently for the first time because I saw it on r/GirlDinnerDiaries.

I do consume a lot of food/recipe-related content so I stumble over something new and interesting every few days.

Also I have a penpal, and one of our traditions is that we send each other one of our tried-and-tested recipes with every letter.

[u/mufasa_supporter]

If I try something really tasty at a restaurant and want to be able to eat it whenever I want for less money :)

[u/FormerBethelElder]

The Munchies make me culinarily creative

[u/Exciting_Spell5064]

For me it’s not too hard. I buy groceries for a meal at a time and usually when I’m craving it; so if I’m feeling tacos tonight, I go get taco stuff. I also prep and freeze a lot so a lot of the times I’m craving something, it’s just pull it out, thaw, and heat it.

[u/noargentinianbeef]

I got my hands on so many different cuisines - thai, japanese, southern states, Italian, French, German, Korean - that at this point it's hard to know what's outside my "normal" routine.

[u/figs_and_flour]

I try to cook many different recipes so I can say “I can make this at home” at every opportunity

[u/Next-Librarian-7428]

It helps to regularly try a wide range of cuisines when you eat out. In a given month, i could eat Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Mexican, and Turkish dishes. Familiarity with each culture’s palette makes cooking a bit easier.
Ex. If I buy a bunch of cilantro and mint, I know I could make a Vietnamese salad, Indian chutney, or Mexican chimichurri.

[u/Mysterious-Region640]

YouTube video mostly

[u/allie06nd]

I was in a rut last year but needed to start cooking every day because I was living on my own again. That happened to coincide with when grocery prices skyrocketed, so I started looking to see what whole foods were going to be the cheapest to make my staples. And then I went down rabbit holes with them. My favorite rabbit hole was cabbage. It's incredible how versatile it is and how many different cuisines it's found in.

I realized my rut was just that I'd been basically repeating the same recipes over and over for like a decade, so cooking wasn't exciting anymore. Once I started looking into dishes with lentils, tofu, cabbage, rice, etc., it got exciting again. Now I really pride myself on being able to make elite "struggle meals."

[u/tkdch4mp]

Box Kit Meals, cookbook exposure (I worked at a bookstore and we were promoting a cookbook and had to pick a recipe that sounded good to talk about to customers.... I found a lot of recipes that sounded good and so I bought it myself, lol. Fandom cookbooks are also intriguing to me -- actually, I haven't made meals because of fandoms, but I have seeked out regional dishes while I visited an area because of entertainment exposure -- like bouillabaise in Marseille.), trying it in a restaurant and wanting to recreate it at home because I can't afford restaurant prices but I love the dish or because I'm craving the dish and the restaurant is not accessible at that time, buying (an) ingredient(s) for one recipe but having it leftover and needing new inspiration (or wanting to try a specific combo of ingredients in a new way, like cherries and thyme instead of as a crostini, rolled into pork loin with goat cheese and spinach or simmered down with red wine to make a yummy sauce/compote.

[u/vesper_tine]

There are certain dishes that every culture has a variation of. I love a good beef stew/braised beef dish, and every Latin American country has its own version. From there, I’ve made a Filipino variation (mechado), Greek (stifado), middle eastern (so many versions of this), the Italian peposo, etc. My favourite is a Guiness beef stew with cheddar herb dumplings, but it’s very time-consuming. 

Same thing with chicken soup - there are so many variations of this and I haven’t found a recipe that has steered me wrong yet.

Basically, I look for regional recipes of a dish that I already enjoy. It helps to change up the rotation, using slightly different ingredients/seasonings. 

[u/Far_Sandwich_514]

I grew up in a really multicultural community, so I was raised with foods of all cultures. When I stayed at friends' places for dinner, I got to try a wide range of different cuisines from around the world.

Now, I try to cook foods from different cultures on a regular basis.

[u/Sufficient_Layer_867]

I live to cook dinner. I’m retired so I have the time and it’s a hobby. My meals are triggered by the desire to improve my greatest hits and master a technique or ingredient. As far as dishes go I have found traveling a disappointing inspiration. The ingredients are never the same. A chicken in South America will not taste like a chicken on Long Island, not to mention the whole feel is different. That said, I am very intrigued by many cuisines from all over the world. Some work better where I live than others but many surprise me.
Final words of advice: I trust cooks, not recipes. I trust them because more often than not I’ve liked their recipes. And, when cooking something for the first time I select a recipe and strictly follow it. Then I (and my spouse) figure out what we liked and didn’t. Then I look at other recipes to refine it.
Good cooking is never a one and done. It’s a constantly evolving skill.

[u/boggycakes]

Craving it. That’s all I need. Sometimes I see it in a movie or on IG and it’s like I could wait until I go to that restaurant in that country which could be years away or I could make it and get my fix while learning a new dish.

[u/cellalovesfrankie]

I like experimenting. I like to eat all sorts of foods. So if something new pops up and it’s fairly easy to make I’m gonna try it ,

So vibes lol

[u/MastodonFit]

Mostly from reels or shorts. Sometimes something clicks and I make it. Am rarely impressed by eating a new dish.

[u/Naive_Arachnid_8526]

I love to cook and food so I am always trying to find something new to cook. Different cultures opena up new range of tastes and techniques which makes it great.

Regarding the recipes, usually if you ask gpt for the most authentic version you will be fine. Watching some youtube videos before to see the differences is also great, I understand what are the pillers behind the dish, regardless of minor changes and variations.

[u/rancidpandemic → u/Naive_Arachnid_8526]

I know using AI is basically synonymous with committing wars crimes in a lot of spaces, but it’s very useful for coming up with suggestions for new dishes to try.

If I’m feeling a bit stuck and don’t know what to try making next, I’ll ask Gemini for some random suggestions. That usually gets the creative juices flowing enough to motivate me to try something new.