There's nothing better than the home-cooked meals you ate growing up. You know, the ones that transport you right back to childhood.
So, we asked AAPI folks in the BuzzFeed Community to share their favorite meals as a kid. Here's what they said:
We also included responses from this and this Reddit thread.
1. "My obaachan (grandma) cooks the best Japanese food, especially her karaage (Japanese fried chicken). I also love Japanese curry, chicken katsu, ramen, and udon. And Japanese snacks are literally the best. When my family visits Japan, she works so hard cooking my family amazing food, and I'm so grateful for that."
2. "I love the homemade pan mee (板麵) my dad would make, and we would top it off with dried anchovies, ground pork, and Chinese mushroom topping mixed in soy sauce and honey. For some reason, the ones sold at restaurants in Malaysia never taste quite the same."
3. "HALWA!!! My grandmother made it for special occasions, and no food will ever measure up. Her special recipe, which has been passed down to me, is something even restaurants can’t recreate. Also, many establishments in the US don’t serve it (nobody knows why, LOL). I have so many fond memories of Diwalis, birthdays, and sick days when I have eaten halwa out of a tub (she always made it in large amounts for parties). Halwa is probably the BEST food ever growing up!"
4. "Loco moco. It's a Hawaiian dish of white rice, burger patty, gravy, and a fried egg on top. Yum."
5. "Ang toh kueh 红桃粿 'peach' dumpling (aka Pung kueh 饭桃 rice dumpling). Peach-shaped pink dumplings stuffed with glutinous rice (peanuts/lapcheong/dried shrimp). Fry it up, and you get a crispy, chewy skin. Unfortunately, it is also a lost recipe for our family. There are recipes online, but the dumpling skin chewiness is never the same."
6. "Bo Chien Bo (translates to butter-fried beef, essentially Vietnamese BBQ). A griddle is set up, there are a bunch of proteins to choose from, and everyone grills their own protein. Lots of butter, lots of marinated meats. You can just eat it with vermicelli, or you can wrap it with rice paper. It’s such a fun way to eat, and I remember being around the table with my entire family."
7. "Niu rou mian, or beef noodle soup! Any time my mom makes it now, I get transported back to childhood. And it's delicious, too!"
8. "IDK about favorite, but I ate the same stuff because my parents were busy. Repeat: Asian curry, doenjang-jjigae (Korean fermented bean soup), and kimchi-jjigae. Leftover and really busy: bibimbap or instant ramen. Good days: kimbap (my mom makes the best) and yukgaejang (spicy beef soup)."
9. "Whenever fall and winter hit, I love to drink my mom’s homemade tonic soups (don’t know their exact names but they’re Cantonese). I loved the ones that are chicken-based with goji berries, ginseng, and whatever ingredients she’d put in. Nothing beats having a hot soup (with rice) when it’s raining or snowing."
10. "I am so grateful for the home-cooked meals I get. Some of my favorites include soft poori, chole (chickpeas with onion and tomato gravy), and uttapam (a savory pancake made of lentil rice batter with vegetables inside). They taste awesome hot, and I always look forward to eating them!"
11. "Sapasui is Samoan chop suey. I have sooo many wonderful memories of attending family events where I'd pile this high on my plate! Absolutely delicious."
12. "Growing up, we didn’t have much, thus I have found so much love for the traditional but simple Chinese dishes that my mom would make for us. As for many Asian parents, food is their way to show love. Now, as an adult, I make those dishes in my household. Nothing beats some good homemade steamed/braised Chinese food when I am sick or feeling a bit down. My favorite is steamed pork belly with shrimp paste, plus a bowl of white rice."
13. "Vietnamese, so I honestly love Thit Kho. Super easy to make, but always reminds me of simpler times."
14. "My personal favorite that I've luckily mastered is biryani."
15. "Sinigang, caldereta, and adobong pusit are my favorites! My mom taught me how to make them, and I joined a Filipino cooking group on Facebook, too, so I get a lot of tips. I make it the way that my family and I like it!"
16. "I loved congee or porridge. It was such a delicious comfort food. Whenever I was sick, my parents made it for me, and I always felt better. It was one of the few things I could eat while sick because it wasn't inflammatory, and it was nutritious. I still crave it whenever I'm feeling sick."
17. "I’m Taiwanese. In Taiwan, there’s this noodle soup made with a specific type of pickled vegetable used to flavor the broth, along with small, thin strips of pork. Sadly, I do not know the English name for this soup (or for the pickled vegetables used), but what I do know is that my grandmother made it for me all the time. To this day, I never get tired of it."
18. "For me, it's tuna curry and upma."
19. "My dad made Zha Jiang Mian all the time (our version is a bean curd sauce and crumbled turkey), over rice or noodles. It was something we ate all the time growing up because my younger siblings were too picky to eat anything else."
20. "Fried spam and eggs with rice for breakfast. It's still one of my favorite breakfasts now that I'm grown up."
21. "Sinigang and white jasmine rice!!! The more sour, the better. And with okra."
22. "My mom used to always make stir-fried cucumbers with eggs paired with hot sticky rice. It was the best and still a comfort food for me! Also, I remember my grandpa used to make us the Mama brand of instant noodles. At the end, when there were no more noodles, he would put a ball of sticky rice on a spoon and dip it into the leftover broth to feed me."
23. "Daal chawal. It’s basically white rice with lentil soup made with lots of different spices. Kids usually mash it up, and it’s a dinner staple in South Asian homes!"
24. "Panikeke! One of my absolute favorite Samoan foods. They're fried pancake balls, and I especially love the ones made with bananas. You can eat them plain or top them with things like butter, jam, or chocolate sauce."
25. "Lubia polo! It’s rice, green beans, beef, and that’s pretty much it! It sounds simple but tastes so delicious!"
26. "One of my favorite food memories growing up was of my grandmother's sticky rice, which we would often have for breakfast whenever we visited my paternal grandparents. Grandmother would steam glutinous rice and mix it with fried onions, crumbled hard-boiled eggs, chopped Chinese sausages, and other ingredients prior to wrapping it in banana leaves and steaming it."
27. And finally, "Every year for New Year's, my great-aunt would make somen, Japanese noodles normally eaten cold. Even after she passed away years ago, I make sure we keep up the tradition of having it on New Year's Day."
Do you have any favorite childhood meals? LMK in the comments below!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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