CookLikeHOC: the community transcription of the Laoxiangji dish sourcing report

What CookLikeHOC transcribes, and who it is for

The repository collects the dishes published in the Laoxiangji dish sourcing report and organizes them as a browsable documentation site. The README states that all dishes published in the report have been entered, that the text is copied in large part from the report itself, and that it has been edited and reorganized. It also states plainly that this is not an official Laoxiangji repository and that the only relationship between contributors and the chain is that of customer and merchant.

The audience is narrower than a general recipe site. This is for people who want the specific dishes a Chinese fast-food chain has published about its own menu, arranged so they can be read one after another. The top-level directories show the taxonomy: 主食, 凉拌, 卤菜, 早餐, 汤, 炒菜, 炖菜, 炸品, 烤类, 烫菜, 煮锅, 砂锅菜, 蒸菜, 配料, 饮品. That is a menu structure, not a cuisine structure, and it is the clearest signal of who the project is for.

The README also points readers to How To Cook, an unrelated project, which is a fair hint that CookLikeHOC is not trying to be a general cooking reference.

How the site is built: Markdown folders plus a VitePress index step

The repository is a VitePress site. package.json declares vitepress as the only devDependency, sets "type": "module", and defines the build chain. Two scripts matter: prebuild:indexes runs node ./.vitepress/scripts/generate-indexes.mjs, and both docs:dev and docs:build run that script first. The generated indexes are what turn the dish directories into navigation, so the script is not optional in the dev loop.

The content itself lives in the Chinese-named top-level folders, and the README notes that images are contributed by the community. The site is published at cooklikehoc.soilzhu.su, and the README states that this is the repository's only web page, with a promise of no cross-site trackers, ads, or other monetization. There is also an AI-illustrated version at ai.cooklikehoc.soilzhu.su, with hand-drawn images contributed in PR #143.

The README carries a separate disclaimer about cooklikehoc.com, stating that the repository has no connection to that site, that it is not an official site and not operated by the maintainers, and that its content, including trackers, ads, and possible redirects, is not endorsed here. Anyone who searches for the project by name should read that paragraph before clicking.

Installing CookLikeHOC and serving it locally

The README points to docs/development.md for development and to docker_support/README.md for Docker, contributed in PR #141. The package.json scripts give the npm path directly. Install dependencies first, then start the dev server, which regenerates the indexes before VitePress starts.

npm install
npm run docs:dev

After the index generation step completes, VitePress prints a local URL; open it and the dish categories from the repository folders should appear as navigation. For a production build, the docs:build script runs the same index generation and then builds the static site, and docs:preview serves the built output.

npm run docs:build
npm run docs:preview

The Docker route is documented separately. The README links to the docker_support directory rather than inlining the commands, so read that file for the image name and port rather than guessing. The repository's primary language on GitHub is listed as Dockerfile, which reflects how much of the repository is packaging rather than prose.

The limits of an edited transcription

The README is explicit that the text is copied in large part from the sourcing report and then edited and reorganized. That is the central limitation. What you are reading is a community transcription with editorial decisions layered on top, not a primary document, and the repository offers no per-dish provenance showing which lines came from the report and which were reworded.

The repository also does not state a licence. GitHub lists the licence field as unknown, and the README does not resolve it. If you plan to mirror the content, republish it, or build on it commercially, that gap is the first thing to check, and it is a question for the maintainers rather than something a reader can settle from the repository.

Finally, this is not a general-purpose cooking reference. If you want technique, ratios, or tested quantities for arbitrary dishes, the README itself points to How To Cook. CookLikeHOC answers a narrower question: what did this particular chain publish about its own menu.

CookLikeHOC versus How To Cook

The README links to How To Cook at cook.aiursoft.cn, and the contrast is instructive. How To Cook is a general cooking guide: its unit of content is a technique or a dish you might cook at home, and its organization is built around cooking in general. CookLikeHOC's unit of content is a menu item from one chain's sourcing report, and its organization follows that chain's menu categories: 早餐, 卤菜, 砂锅菜, 饮品, and the rest.

That difference changes what the project is good for. A general guide can absorb new cuisines indefinitely. A transcription of one report has a natural boundary, and the README reflects this: it states that the main body was completed in 2024 and that dishes appearing in the 2026 report have since been added. The project grows when the source document grows, not on its own schedule.

If your interest is cooking in general, How To Cook is the better starting point. If your interest is specifically what Laoxiangji has published about its dishes, CookLikeHOC is the transcription to read.

Maintenance, licence, and what to verify before depending on it

The last push to the default branch was on 2026-09-17, and the repository is not archived. The README nonetheless describes the main body as completed in 2024, with later additions drawn from the 2026 report, and states that the project is unrelated to the public discussion around the chain in September 2025. That combination, a recent push against a body of work described as finished, means you should expect additions rather than a steady development cadence.

There are no retrieved releases, so there is no versioned artifact to track. Upgrading means pulling the repository and rerunning the build, which regenerates the indexes from the Markdown. Because vitepress is pinned with a caret range in package.json, a fresh npm install can resolve to a newer VitePress than the one the site was last built with; if a build breaks after a long gap, that dependency is the first place to look.

On licensing, the repository does not state one. The README's disclaimers cover the relationship to the chain and to cooklikehoc.com, not reuse terms. Treat the reuse question as unresolved until the maintainers answer it.

Editorial conclusion

CookLikeHOC is worth adopting if you want a browsable, self-hostable copy of the Laoxiangji dish sourcing report and are willing to treat it as an edited community transcription, not an authoritative source. Skip it if you need per-dish ingredient quantities with a stated provenance, or if you want an actively maintained project: the README states the main body was completed in 2024, with additions from the 2026 report, and the last push was on 2026-09-17. Before relying on it, check the repository licence field, which the repository does not state, and read the disclaimer distinguishing the repository from cooklikehoc.com.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Gar-b-age/CookLikeHOC on GitHub
2. Issues
3. Project website
4. README