I'm Vietnamese but born and raised in the US. I grew up with a large family where everything revolved around food and keeping the Vietnamese cuisine going. My extended family gets together every weekend to have dinner. I have always helped in the kitchen, but now that I'm married, I get to be the head cook and I'm loving it! It's been fun trying new things and trying to recreate all the yummy meals my mom and aunts make. Vietnamese food definitely. I also like cooking healthy food that doesn't taste boring. I'm also big on baking. Cheesecakes are my ultimate weakness! Since we cook large meals every week (to feed about 20-25 people), I love that everybody has a specialty. Sometimes we'll cook a meal from start to finish together and sometimes we'll bring dishes already prepared. I love at the end of the meal when we're all stuffed and we're already planning what to have next week! I made a very traditional Vietnamese dish one time, shrimp paste on sugar cane, and my grandfather who is very particular and doesn't really compliment anything or anyone said that it was really good and asked who made it. That was definitely a triumph! One Thanksgiving I was in charge on the mashed potatoes. I was given this great idea to add chicken broth to the potatoes to give it extra oomph. I of course added too much and the potatoes tasted utterly too salty. Nobody could finish their potatoes and I felt so bad about it! Now I never add chicken broth to my mashed potatoes.