What’s this? An actual blog post on this blog?
As you may or may not know, this blog has been in a “closed beta” state for many months now. With the help of my much appreciated testers, I’ve been constantly iterating over the style, technical aspects, and contents for the better part of 2024. Ever since I built the photo set last winter, I’ve invested hundreds of hours into this innocuous hobby, and I still learn something new every week. Being a half-decent cook is only one of the countless aspects to running a food blog, it turns out.
I don’t want to blab on too much about my origin story here (because I already did here) and instead would like turn to the future: Early next year, I’m going to finally launch the blog – i.e. this website, but also various social media accounts – publicly. It would mean the world to me if you supported me on this journey by following my accounts, cooking the recipes, providing feedback, and telling your friends about Hideout Recipes.
Unrelated photo I took in Osaka this fall to break things up 🐙
Culinary travels
At first, however, I’m going to fly to Bangkok once more. I won’t be able to post any new recipes for the remainder of November as a result, but I already booked two cooking classes, and will be sure to pass on everything I learn through my future recipes.
Over the past two years, I took cooking classes in various countries across Asia and Europe with varying degrees of educational value – they’re mostly for entertainment, after all. However, I will say this (although it’s probably been said 1.000 times before): Food has got to be the one aspect of culture that brings us together like no other. There are many ways to experience and appreciate the craft of people from other parts of the world, but tasting the local cuisine, to me, is the most immediate and intuitive one.
Took this photo early last year from King Power Mahanakhon (over 300m above Bangkok!)
Of course, as you can imagine, I also travel for the futuristic, Cyberpunk-y vibes and views, and therefore usually gravitate towards the big cities. I’m barely back from my Tokyo–Seoul trip and already feel like a fish out of water in my tiny German home town.
Maybe I’ll sprinkle in some more food- and cooking-related travel blogging in the future. For now, I want to sign off by saying: If you’re in the beta right now and haven’t had the time to provide feedback or try out any of the recipes yet, there’s still a little time left. Once I’m back, there will be a few more weekly posts in December (including the first Vietnamese recipe!) before the blog goes live in January.
Thanks again for your time. I hope your remaining 2024 will be awesome!
Julian
Shibuya Sky, Tokyo, September 2024
2 Comments
Love the idea and the looks. Don’t care about food in general but this stuff looks good. More veggie-recipes would be great. Came here via Tumblr.
Thank you very much! I’m glad the aesthetics are even catching the attention of some less cooking-enthused people. And I have to say, Tumblr in general has given me such a warm welcome.
I just amended the search on the site, so if look for “vegetarian” now, it’ll show all the recipes that are either already vegetarian or include instructions in the text on how to easily turn the dish vegetarian. Still, most foods here are admittedly on the greasy and meaty side!