On Comfort Food.
Dec. 27th, 2008 07:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
randomnessChristmas food--and boy, there was some yummy food on Christmas, thanks to various members of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bedfull_o_books's family--got me to thinking about comfort food.
As anyone who has been around me much at all can confirm, I get wacky food cravings. Many times these cravings are for dishes I consider comfort food.
This led me to consider what those dishes are, and why they have that place for me.
I think many of my comfort foods are ones I've eaten for many years, like 干炒牛河 (gān chăo niú hé: a. k. a. beef chow fun), or macaroni and cheese. Meat loaf is another. So are 水饺 (shuǐjiǎo: boiled dumplings), with some fairly pedestrian filling like 猪肉白菜 (zhū ròu bái cài: pork with Chinese cabbage). Some dessert foods are also, like ice cream sandwiches, or a 蛋挞 (dàn tà: egg tart). Or 杏仁豆腐 (xìng rén dòu fu: almond jelly/almond tofu/almond junket) but the kind made with agar, not tofu or gelatin (despite the names).
Occasionally, though, the craving is for something I never ate as a child, but nonetheless still fills the comfort food niche, like Cincinnati chili or Saag (साग/ساگ). (bedfull_o_books also considers Saag a comfort food. Neither of us grew up with it.)
I suppose it's all about keeping my not-so-inner child fed. That kid likes fat, sweet, and salt, it seems, and searches for the uncomplicated, unchallenging tastes I grew up with.
What foods say "comfort food" to you? What about them makes them comfort food?
bedfull_o_books's family--got me to thinking about comfort food.As anyone who has been around me much at all can confirm, I get wacky food cravings. Many times these cravings are for dishes I consider comfort food.
This led me to consider what those dishes are, and why they have that place for me.
I think many of my comfort foods are ones I've eaten for many years, like 干炒牛河 (gān chăo niú hé: a. k. a. beef chow fun), or macaroni and cheese. Meat loaf is another. So are 水饺 (shuǐjiǎo: boiled dumplings), with some fairly pedestrian filling like 猪肉白菜 (zhū ròu bái cài: pork with Chinese cabbage). Some dessert foods are also, like ice cream sandwiches, or a 蛋挞 (dàn tà: egg tart). Or 杏仁豆腐 (xìng rén dòu fu: almond jelly/almond tofu/almond junket) but the kind made with agar, not tofu or gelatin (despite the names).
Occasionally, though, the craving is for something I never ate as a child, but nonetheless still fills the comfort food niche, like Cincinnati chili or Saag (साग/ساگ). (
bedfull_o_books also considers Saag a comfort food. Neither of us grew up with it.)I suppose it's all about keeping my not-so-inner child fed. That kid likes fat, sweet, and salt, it seems, and searches for the uncomplicated, unchallenging tastes I grew up with.
What foods say "comfort food" to you? What about them makes them comfort food?
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-28 08:40 am (UTC)Comfort foods: mashed potatoes, risotto, oatmeal, osechi ryori, mutabbal, dill pickles, Japanese curry, unagi, corn chowder
Comfort foods that I specifically want from my parents: miso soup, dill shrimp, tuna salad, omochi (either with red bean paste or the way my mom makes it: smothered in soy sauce and honey then wrapped in nori)
Comfort foods that I request from my partners: PB&J (this would be included in the above category except for the fact that as a child, my dad was a stuck up bastard who told me that if I wanted him to make me a PB&J I had to eat it his way, which was with butter and crunchy PB, neither of which I liked when I was, oh, 6. He has since mellowed out a bit but I still don't trust him to make it the way I like it. :P)
Yum.
Most of these are reminders of my parents or of living in certain places (new england, Japan, middle east).