Last year I made a post that listed everything I had made in 2024 and ranked them so to continue that tradition, I am doing it again this year.
This year I am changing up how dishes are ranked slightly. Dishes are still ranked on flavor but their ranking might be adjusted based on how healthy something is. This doesn’t usually play a factor unless it is an extreme.
Also note that this is purely based on how I cooked each dish. It does not fully represent the recipe or the dish since I might have screwed something up.
Ordering within each rank is arbitrary.
Here is the list:
S - Extremely good; I could eat these all week
- Pho
- Cumin lamb
- Nasi goreng (indonesian version)
- Green beans (with garlic)
- Chicken shawarma
- Taiwanese pork belly with a “Mei cai” twist
A - Very good; Would make again
- Baked salmon with herbs and spices (this one gets an A instead of a B just because it’s healthy and extremely easy)
- Chicken fajitas
- Pad thai
- Garlic eggplant
- Butter chicken (I ended up making several versions of this in 2025, this is just ranking the best version I made)
- Japanese curry
- Teriyaki chicken
- Hot and sour soup (with a mushroom + chicken stock base)
- Braised beef noodle soup
- Nasi goreng kampung (malaysian version)
- Lemongrass pork vermicelli bowl
- Lemongrass chicken vermicelli bowl
- Fuqi feipian (aka thinly sliced beef organ meat with a spicy “dressing”) (good but too much effort, I will look for a lower effort version of this recipe if I make this again)
- Kimchi fried rice (various, eg. with spam, chicken breast, broccoli, frozen veggies, etc).
- Kimchi (napa)
- Kimchi (radish)
- Beef broccoli
- Tonkotsu ramen (a huge amount of work)
- Simple broccoli + garlic
- Gobi manchurian cauliflower (it tasted good but it was also a lot of effort)
B - Decent; Would make again
- Kimchi stew (This was an S in 2024 but I think I either got tired of eating it or made it with too much meat)
- Beef tacos
- Mapo tofu
- Spaghetti + meatballs
- Fish sauce chicken wings
- Gong bao ji ding (I like to make this “dry” by limiting the amount of sauces and by cooking on high to dry up the juices)
- Banh mi
- Pork vindaloo (traditional style which is with pork and NO potatoes)
- Regular burgers
- Hot pot
- Oven roasted turkey breast + stuffing
- “Greek style” salad (the usual greek salad ingredients + lettuce + sundried tomato dressing)
- Smash burgers (smash burgers really highlight the beef so it wont taste nearly as good with crappy quality beef and unfortunately I made this with crappy quality beef)
- Simple bok choi + garlic
- “NYT broccoli salad”
- Chinese beef stew
- Pork bone soup
C - Ok; Would probably not make again (at least not for myself)
- biang biang noodles (I used store bought noodles, in order for this to be worth it I think the noodles need to be hand made)
- Chinese style dry pot
- Sundried tomato chicken with orzo (the chicken was horrendous, but the orzo was good)
- Southern style mac & cheese (this is a B taste wise but it’s just too unhealthy, I feel like I can’t eat too much of this especially now that I know how it’s made)
- Chinese cauliflower (the veggie is fine, I think my recipe sucked)
- Greek salad
D - No.
- Pork liver (the organ flavor was way too strong) (should probably try this with chicken liver instead if I decide to run this back)
Overall I think I repeated too many dishes in 2025. For instance I probably made pho for at least 4 different weeks in the year. For 2026 I will be making more of an effort not to repeat any dishes.
As for the best newest dish I learned it has got to go to nasi goreng. Not only is nasi goreng delicious but it’s also so versatile, having many many different variations and versions. I will definitely be adding this dish to my rotation.
One other call out I want to make is I got addicted to Greek frappes near the end of the year although I’m not sure if I should list it here.
I love Pho but have never even considered making it myself. Was it difficult or use specific ingrediants that I might not have. There a great place nearby and never saw the need but love cooking asian cuisine.
I was in the same boat.
Originally I never made pho at home because I thought it was too much effort. Every traditional pho recipe has the dreaded “boil for 6+ hours” step that always intimidated me and turned me off to the idea.
The first time I tried making pho was when I saw campbell sold a premade pho stock. I thought it was a great idea since thats the most annoying part to make so I tried it. It was pretty bad but it made me want to try again.
That’s when I stumbled across this 1 hour recipe. It got me curious if you could actually make a good pho in such a short period of time with little effort and no pressure cooker. So I tried it and honestly it was not bad for the effort.
These days I actually do make pho closer to the more traditional methods. I reduce “cook time per meal” by always making a large amount of stock each time I make it (4 - 6L). I bought some huge mason jars that I use to store the pho and put it in the fridge or freezer depending on how long I plan on using it for.
If you are in the same boat as I was and want to get your feet wet I would definitely recommend trying one of the “fast pho” recipes like the one I posted. And then later on you can decide whether you want to try the more traditional recipes.
The thing with pho is I swear every one has their own stock blend and I almost never use the same blend myself. What I use is based on what’s on sale and what I can get my hands on most of the time.
I’ve seen pho stock at the Asian grocery by my house and have been tempted. I might try it out. I have resisted making my own stock forever. It’s the storage for me really.
Try the 1 hour recipe. In my opinion is likely far better than any stock you can get from a grocery store. It is more work but it’s worth it.