Hello friends! I imagine every single one of us can easily think of our favorite comfort foods - those delicious morsels that offer a moment of solace, pleasure, and even joy. We know the food won’t solve anything. That’s not the point. Rather, like humor, food can give us a moment of welcome respite from whatever’s happening in the moment.
For me it’s chicken schnitzel and mashed potatoes, grilled cheese sandwiches, cake, and ice cream.
What about you? What is your definition of comfort food?
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Doesn't that sound delightful? If you have time, I'd like to know more about your surroundings and people who helped make that your comfort dessert. There's a story there!
Oh we've spent a lot of time bumping all over Asia, including former British colonies, hence our predilection for English classics ☺️. Of course, rice puds are pretty popular in many cultures.
I actually read an article recently as to why! The writer, David Renwick, retired and said he just didn't have anymore in him. That the plots were so complicated and difficult to craft he just felt he couldn't do it anymore.
Have you seen A Touch of Brimstone, where Mrs Peel infiltrates the villains' Hellfire Club and beats them at their own game decked out in a Queen of Sin dominatrix outfit? Very tongue in cheek 😝
Crispy bacon bits are great over almost anything - soft runny eggs, smashed spuds, flash-fried greens, puffy Yorkshire puds, silky onion soup... My friend even dusts her vanilla soufflés with it - not quite my cuppa tea 😝
For savoury, it's plain congee (Cantonese style) with silky slivers of lightly poached cod, or moong dal (dhaba style) tempered with strong spicy tadkas, or a well-charred pizza Margherita straight out of the oven.
For sweet, it's sticky toffee pud, tarte fine aux pommes or scones with oodles of clotted cream. Or maybe a beautifully creamy buko pie.
Sticky toffee pud and scones are childhood faves. Tarte fine aux pommes was introduced to me by a friend when I told her I absolutely detested soggy apples in pastry. Buko pie, we fell in love with after a colleague brought it back for us all the way from Tagaytay 😋
I've read a great story about Sticky Toffee Pudding. We consider it the height of British puddings but it's not British. There is evidence that a Canadian baker wrote a letter with the recipe to a British Chef, and he passed it off as his own.
Haha our family never bothers with mealtime conventions - we just have what we want, when we want, so we often grab dessert at breakfast, or well before any entrees are served.
As @thesimmeringchef says, it's situation driven. The first thing that pops into my head is 'crisps'. Preferably a good brand, cheese flavour. French branded ones I've just finished eating up are notably superior. Comfort eating doesn't always denote cooking. A bar of chocolate does the trick because if I'm in need of comfort it doesn't always follow that I'm willing to wait through the preparation and cooking time. I'll sometimes consider a takeaway but I never follow through. Even if I don't want to cook I know my food would be better! If I want to cook it's a bowl of steaming hot basmati rice with a knob of butter, cooked with a chopped onion and garlic. Sometimes with a pressure cooked easy dahl on the side. A baked potato, insides scooped out, mashed with grated cheese, butter and spring onion, then flashed under a grill. Occasionally I'll crave a fishfinger sandwich, but I don't have bread or the only bread I have is my homemade dark rye, far too wholesome to work. This memory has just flashed into my mind: a bowl of chilled Ambroia custard with a sliced banana 🍌. That's the epitome of comfort.
Custard anything always hits the spot for me! And I relate to what you're saying about wanting to just grab something that tastes good right now. Ice cream is usually my go to but I'd never turn away from good chocolate.
I make an egg yolk custard with thick cream and a vanilla pod that I only serve half of so I can stand alone at the kitchen counter after washing up and spoon the rest out of the pan into my mouth
Chocolate never fails! We always have a bag of Cacao Barry couverture callets (70% single estate) in the fridge so we can just pop a few when we're stressed out - a great quick fix 😝
Cheryl! Thank you for the shout-out. Much appreciated. Rice with a knob of butter or a piece of chocolate sounds perfect right now. Hmm, chocolate rice pudding? Sorry, I got distracted. Would you share your memory flash that partners with the chilled Ambrosia custard with a sliced banana?
Rice, dal, yoghurt, pickle. Dal made in the slow cooker, and tempered at the end with mustard seeds and curry leaves, cumin and fennel, fried onions. I eat this very often and it's always the perfect comforter and filler. (Brown basmati with a bit of turmeric and Himalayan pink salt in the cooking water, for the rice part).
Oh, that is such a hard question because the food I eat is situationally driven. Am I happy? Then maybe it's ice cream, cookies, or cake. Am I sad? I reach for the chips or make a big bowl of pasta. You can gauge my emotional stability by what I'm eating and drinking. HA!
I'm the same, it really depends. Anything potato related will always make me happy. But sometimes I'm in the mood for pizza. Or something hot and cheesy. Or something sweet.
My favorite comfort food and one that I have an occasional craving for is a creamy potato leek soup. There's something about it that I can't put my finger on that gives me great comfort. My mother fixed this a lot when I was a child and it has carried over into my adulthood. The next soup I go to when not feeling my healthiest best is chicken noodle soup. That really soothes my soul and body aches.
Claudia--Do you think your love for potato leek is more complex than just food? Maybe it's the sum of all the parts of comfort, care, safety, love, and childhood.
Well, my mother wasn't the best cook but her potato soup wasn't bad. As a child, her cooking was the only thing I knew. When I became an adult, my husband's favorite soup was potato soup. I kept improving on the flavor until I discovered leeks. It really brought the soup to a new high for me. I haven't made the soup any other way since. You can say I poured my comfort, care, love and safety towards my husband in a childhood soup. Wouldn't a lot of our comfort foods be the results from our childhood in some way, shape or form?
Mmmm leeks take a bit of work to bring out the true flavour, but it's worth the effort. And I think for many of us, food and the making of it are how we show love and care.
Yeah same here. Mum always made me congee when I wasn't well - it's that sense of warmth and caring that we keep going back to, that just naturally gives us the comfort we're seeking.
I was going to say chocolate. But then I saw your gorgeous chicken schnitzel picture Rebecca and remembered my ultimate comfort meal.
I was heavily pregnant, and just come home from a long commute and tough day at work. My husband handed me a garlic butter chicken kiev (from the freezer, not homemade), with baked beans and potato alpha bites spelling out my name.
It isn't molecular gastronomy. But this is the food from my childhood and I cannot tell you how happy this meal made me. In that moment, all of the woes of the world had disappeared.
I relate to that story so much! I have a similar memory of a meal I had when I was also pregnant. I had been sick but was finally feeling better and we went out for roast chicken and mashed potatoes and it was the best thing I've ever tasted. I'm not sure it's possible for roast chicken to ever taste that good again. :-)
That sounds immense! Particularly after you had been unwell. Roast chicken and mash, what could be better.
On a similar note, just after I'd had my son they gave me jam on toast at the hospital. I hadn't eaten in about 26hrs. Sweet ambrosia, it was the best jam on toast I've ever had!
Fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy is the ultimate comfort meal for me! I think it reminds me of the Swanson TV frozen dinners (remember those?) that my brother and I would get if our parents were going out and a babysitter was coming over. We didn’t get packaged foods like that normally so we thought it was such a treat, lol. Do they even make those anymore?
I remember those TV dinners! We also had them on nights with baby sitters! I remember really liking the Salisbury steak one but I am almost completely certain that my adult self would not like it nearly as much as my child self did. But, fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy sounds good to me all the time. So good!
My brother liked the Salisbury steak one too! What was that even made of? Lol. I’m with you - I don’t think I could stomach eating one now as an adult.
How I remember those Swanson TV dinners. I only tried a few in desperate moments and decided I really didn't care for them. I couldn't stomach any of that now.
Betty! I remember those! "Hungry Man Meals," as the ads used to say. I don't buy those now, so wouldn't know if they still make them. Oh, the days of TV dinners eaten on a tray while watching some Saturday night show.
Yes! So many memories of that. My brother likes the one with Salisbury “steak” lol whatever that was. It’s funny I haven’t eaten off a TV tray in years and now I kinda want a set of them.
Well, if I'm remembering correctly, they were made of some kind of steel so I bet they would still be in good condition. I'm not too far from Palm Springs, which is a retro kitschy kind of town, so I might have to check out some yard sales and thrift stores there next time.
Often I turn to a roast chicken with Basmati rice and salad. Sometimes it is paella, other times I might go off of my usual path and choose fried chicken. A cup of tea can solve almost anything in my opinion.
It really is impossible to beat a really good roast chicken, isn't it? It's something that always sounds good to me. And I agree with you about the magical qualities of a simple cup of tea.
It really depends - generally anything carby, creamy and cheesy will hit the spot when I am in need of comfort. My mum's Käsespätzle (Germany's answer to Mac and Cheese) are definitely at the top of the list. But so is Jansson's Frestelse - a Swedish casserole dish made with potatoes, onions, pickled sprats and lots of cream. Then again, once I discovered Japanese food, Unagi don - rice with grilled eel and typically a bowl of miso soup on the side also joined the list of my favourite comfort foods.
If I'm on my own and feeling poorly, even a simple bowl of porridge can be the comfort that I crave.
Sophia! You are getting me off my butt to look up how to make Käsespätzle now. Everyone on this thread is giving me a little push to keep on learning and I love it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I'm sure there are as many versions as German, Swiss and Austrian housewives. And while I like it best with homemade Spätzle, you can also use store-bought. But what the dish absolutely needs is cheese that packs some punch - e.g. a Swiss or Austrian mountain cheese - like Gruyere or Appenzeller. You can always mix those with something more mild, like Emmentaler. And be generous with the cheese! And you also want lots of caramelised onions.
And because the dish is so rich it helps to have a green salad with a sharp dressing on the side.
Yes, there are so many foods mentioned here that I've never heard of. Where have I been all my life? I feel so out of place! But the adventure and exploring is awesome fun.
There are quite a few recipe developers I follow and have discovered cooking techniques, enhancing flavors and great recipes. My cooking has improved greatly because of this, much to my husband's delight. 😁
Haha his tastebuds must be having a field day! Yeah, especially since discovering Substack, I've learnt so many new things from the incredible food writers who post their work here ☺️.
I’ve just discovered Substack and delighted I did. There are so many good writers in all areas. I’m going to enjoy the Food Substack immensely. To me, you sound as if you already know a lot about foods.
Ooh unagi - one of my all-time loves! We once had it in the thick of winter, and the eel was so thick with fat that it melted right in your mouth.
These days, we tend to order it shirayaki style (grilled with just salt) for a lighter meal, but I'll never forget that incredible winter unagi.
Yup, nothing like a steaming bowl of una-don to perk you right up. We had a colleague in the accounting department who would fly all the way to Fukuoka after a rough year-end just to have his kabayaki fix!
Yes, Unagi Don is rarely a light meal but I guess that why it's so comforting as well - delicious carbs from the rice and then the sweet, fatty and soft eel and then some salty miso soup to wash it all down with. Hmmm, I could have some right about now!
And I totally understand your colleague - when I was still working in law firms Unagi Don was my go-to dinner order when facing another unexpectedly long night at my desk!
N Leana--You wrote, "We once had it in the thick of winter, and the eel was so thick with fat that it melted right in your mouth." That's a perfect sentence because you triggered every sense. I could see it, smell it, and taste it. Perfect sentence.
Quite a fruitful way to spend the weekend - as our very own Lynn has proved by example, we should never stop learning ☺️.
It can be hard to find deep dives into unagi culture (and the art of preparing it) that are written in English, but for a start, you can check out the Osaka-based Uoi website, which runs briefly through the main processes.
Something oozing with melted cheese always hits the spot - macaroni cheese, cheese on toast, a whole baked camembert......................... There are so many to choose from!
Caroline! Melted cheese makes everything better. My favorite evening is baked camembert with chunks of sourdough, a tasty wine, and good friends who laugh and vibe. Comfort isn't always what we do alone, but can also include the time we have with others.
Oh my goodness.... your Chicken Schnitzel with a squeeze of lemon and cream cheese mashed potatoes... absolutely over the top comfort food!!! Making me hungry :) My comfort food is a plate of pasta. Any pasta, any sauce.
Thank you Nina! There's something about that combo of the crispy breading with creamy mashed potatoes that just does it for me. But, I'm also always down for pasta. Any pasta, any sauce, as you say.
There are few things in life that are better than warm, melty chocolate chip cookies. And, it seems everyone in this discussion agrees with you about cheese. 😋
We make these giant chocolate chip cookies as gifts for friends cos they get a huge kick out of them, but the last round, we couldn't resist and gobbled up the entire lot ourselves, so we had to bake a whole new batch!
Ooh saucy meatballs, how did we manage to leave them out?! Pairing them with bolognese is classic, but you should try them with a Thai red curry too ☺️
Mashed potato, preferably with roast chicken. Also risotto with peas and Parmesan. A baked potato with cheese, bacon and homemade coleslaw on the side.
For me a comfort dessert is Rice Pudding. In the old days we would have a skin on the top dusted with Grated Nutmeg. Serve with jam every time.
Oh I LOVE rice pudding!
Doesn't that sound delightful? If you have time, I'd like to know more about your surroundings and people who helped make that your comfort dessert. There's a story there!
Oh we've spent a lot of time bumping all over Asia, including former British colonies, hence our predilection for English classics ☺️. Of course, rice puds are pretty popular in many cultures.
Oh that's a true classic! Haven't had a really good one in years.
I’ve just thought of something else. Stew and Dumplings.
Yes please. I made parmesan dumplings a couple of weeks ago and now I want to put them in literally everything.
Yeah you can find a version of that in almost every food culture ☺️
This weekly discussion never fails to make me so hungry. 😂
Ditto.
Heinz Baked Beans under a thick cloak of melting Cheddar cheese eaten in bed watching the best TV series.
I have never topped baked beans with cheese and now I don't now what I've been doing with my life. That sounds absolutely delicious.
Wow, that is positively naughty! (In a good way!)
For me, it would have to be a whodunnit series. Maybe something retro like Jonathan Creek.
Why wasn't that continued??!!
I actually read an article recently as to why! The writer, David Renwick, retired and said he just didn't have anymore in him. That the plots were so complicated and difficult to craft he just felt he couldn't do it anymore.
Have you seen A Touch of Brimstone, where Mrs Peel infiltrates the villains' Hellfire Club and beats them at their own game decked out in a Queen of Sin dominatrix outfit? Very tongue in cheek 😝
I'd forgotten that one! Thanks for the memory. Joanna Lumley made a good foil, but Mrs Peel was always better dressed.
Ah Joanna Lumley is always a joy to watch but Diana Rigg really brought something special to her role as Emma Peel.
That sounds worth a watch!
It's absolutely hilarious - when it first came out on dvd, I immediately grabbed a copy. You can easily find excerpts on YouTube ☺️
Haha for me, that would be The Avengers, especially the 2 seasons with Diana Rigg as Emma Peel - probably with a huge slab of tiramisu.
She was The Best!
Absolutely!
That sounds positively divine! I'm imagining a cold, drizzly day would match this dish perfectly.
Sometimes crispy bacon was crumbled over the top...Sigh
Crispy bacon bits are great over almost anything - soft runny eggs, smashed spuds, flash-fried greens, puffy Yorkshire puds, silky onion soup... My friend even dusts her vanilla soufflés with it - not quite my cuppa tea 😝
Love!
Heaven
For savoury, it's plain congee (Cantonese style) with silky slivers of lightly poached cod, or moong dal (dhaba style) tempered with strong spicy tadkas, or a well-charred pizza Margherita straight out of the oven.
For sweet, it's sticky toffee pud, tarte fine aux pommes or scones with oodles of clotted cream. Or maybe a beautifully creamy buko pie.
This list of desserts sounds amaZing!
Sticky toffee pud and scones are childhood faves. Tarte fine aux pommes was introduced to me by a friend when I told her I absolutely detested soggy apples in pastry. Buko pie, we fell in love with after a colleague brought it back for us all the way from Tagaytay 😋
I've read a great story about Sticky Toffee Pudding. We consider it the height of British puddings but it's not British. There is evidence that a Canadian baker wrote a letter with the recipe to a British Chef, and he passed it off as his own.
That is fascinating, Shell!
Oh how interesting!
Yes to all your first para right now! (And I'm reading this at breakfast...)
Haha our family never bothers with mealtime conventions - we just have what we want, when we want, so we often grab dessert at breakfast, or well before any entrees are served.
Your family is my kind of people!
Mine too!
N. Leana--My imagination is running wild. Your comfort foods are loaded with flavor. Absolutely delightful!
Well, it's sort of opposite ends. I end up wanting things that are either super plain or super hyped up.
As @thesimmeringchef says, it's situation driven. The first thing that pops into my head is 'crisps'. Preferably a good brand, cheese flavour. French branded ones I've just finished eating up are notably superior. Comfort eating doesn't always denote cooking. A bar of chocolate does the trick because if I'm in need of comfort it doesn't always follow that I'm willing to wait through the preparation and cooking time. I'll sometimes consider a takeaway but I never follow through. Even if I don't want to cook I know my food would be better! If I want to cook it's a bowl of steaming hot basmati rice with a knob of butter, cooked with a chopped onion and garlic. Sometimes with a pressure cooked easy dahl on the side. A baked potato, insides scooped out, mashed with grated cheese, butter and spring onion, then flashed under a grill. Occasionally I'll crave a fishfinger sandwich, but I don't have bread or the only bread I have is my homemade dark rye, far too wholesome to work. This memory has just flashed into my mind: a bowl of chilled Ambroia custard with a sliced banana 🍌. That's the epitome of comfort.
Custard anything always hits the spot for me! And I relate to what you're saying about wanting to just grab something that tastes good right now. Ice cream is usually my go to but I'd never turn away from good chocolate.
I make an egg yolk custard with thick cream and a vanilla pod that I only serve half of so I can stand alone at the kitchen counter after washing up and spoon the rest out of the pan into my mouth
Evil!
Chocolate never fails! We always have a bag of Cacao Barry couverture callets (70% single estate) in the fridge so we can just pop a few when we're stressed out - a great quick fix 😝
Cheryl! Thank you for the shout-out. Much appreciated. Rice with a knob of butter or a piece of chocolate sounds perfect right now. Hmm, chocolate rice pudding? Sorry, I got distracted. Would you share your memory flash that partners with the chilled Ambrosia custard with a sliced banana?
Honestly there wasn't one. My mind works like that. It may be an ADHD thing but I never know what's going to arrive and what connections I'll make.
It reads like you make delicious connections.
Rice, dal, yoghurt, pickle. Dal made in the slow cooker, and tempered at the end with mustard seeds and curry leaves, cumin and fennel, fried onions. I eat this very often and it's always the perfect comforter and filler. (Brown basmati with a bit of turmeric and Himalayan pink salt in the cooking water, for the rice part).
Caroline--You made my mouth water because I could smell all those flavors wafting through the house. What a wonderful home to grow up in.
Haha! I was thinking the same thing as I read Caroline's answer - I can smell it!
Yeah the tadka really makes the dal ☺️
Delicious!
so aromatic! i bet that wafts through your kitchen
Macaroni and cheese please!
Haha that's a go-to any time 😊
That's a favourite of mine too! But anything with melted cheese works for me!
Anything with melted cheese works for me too!
Oh, that luscious cheesy creaminess with that slight toothy bite of the pasta? *Homer Simpson impersonation.
Oh, that is such a hard question because the food I eat is situationally driven. Am I happy? Then maybe it's ice cream, cookies, or cake. Am I sad? I reach for the chips or make a big bowl of pasta. You can gauge my emotional stability by what I'm eating and drinking. HA!
Oh yes, food is so driven by emotions or memories.
Memory? So true. A simple scent can trigger something and then I crave it!
I'm the same, it really depends. Anything potato related will always make me happy. But sometimes I'm in the mood for pizza. Or something hot and cheesy. Or something sweet.
Sophie--Oh, my goodness. I've found my food twin. Are all potatoes your friend?
I'm trying hard to find a potato that wouldnt be my friend. I like them in all their forms, fried, baked, roasted, chips, scalloped
Turned into soft pillowy gnocchi?
Omg yes forgot they're potato too!
My favorite comfort food and one that I have an occasional craving for is a creamy potato leek soup. There's something about it that I can't put my finger on that gives me great comfort. My mother fixed this a lot when I was a child and it has carried over into my adulthood. The next soup I go to when not feeling my healthiest best is chicken noodle soup. That really soothes my soul and body aches.
I'm not sure what it is about potatoes, but they fall in the category of comfort food for so many of us.
Claudia--Do you think your love for potato leek is more complex than just food? Maybe it's the sum of all the parts of comfort, care, safety, love, and childhood.
Well, my mother wasn't the best cook but her potato soup wasn't bad. As a child, her cooking was the only thing I knew. When I became an adult, my husband's favorite soup was potato soup. I kept improving on the flavor until I discovered leeks. It really brought the soup to a new high for me. I haven't made the soup any other way since. You can say I poured my comfort, care, love and safety towards my husband in a childhood soup. Wouldn't a lot of our comfort foods be the results from our childhood in some way, shape or form?
Mmmm leeks take a bit of work to bring out the true flavour, but it's worth the effort. And I think for many of us, food and the making of it are how we show love and care.
I’m certainly leaning towards that idea. I bet some smart person has done a study on it, but I wouldn’t know how to find it.
Yeah same here. Mum always made me congee when I wasn't well - it's that sense of warmth and caring that we keep going back to, that just naturally gives us the comfort we're seeking.
Second this- potatoes and leeks are star crossed lovers, meant to be together!
I was going to say chocolate. But then I saw your gorgeous chicken schnitzel picture Rebecca and remembered my ultimate comfort meal.
I was heavily pregnant, and just come home from a long commute and tough day at work. My husband handed me a garlic butter chicken kiev (from the freezer, not homemade), with baked beans and potato alpha bites spelling out my name.
It isn't molecular gastronomy. But this is the food from my childhood and I cannot tell you how happy this meal made me. In that moment, all of the woes of the world had disappeared.
I relate to that story so much! I have a similar memory of a meal I had when I was also pregnant. I had been sick but was finally feeling better and we went out for roast chicken and mashed potatoes and it was the best thing I've ever tasted. I'm not sure it's possible for roast chicken to ever taste that good again. :-)
That sounds immense! Particularly after you had been unwell. Roast chicken and mash, what could be better.
On a similar note, just after I'd had my son they gave me jam on toast at the hospital. I hadn't eaten in about 26hrs. Sweet ambrosia, it was the best jam on toast I've ever had!
Shell! This is a great memory and also charming. Your husband knew you enough to cook exactly what you needed om the moment? What a gem.
Thank you! Yes he did well ♥️
Oh a husband who really gets you!
I did very well in the marriage department, he is a love!
Fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy is the ultimate comfort meal for me! I think it reminds me of the Swanson TV frozen dinners (remember those?) that my brother and I would get if our parents were going out and a babysitter was coming over. We didn’t get packaged foods like that normally so we thought it was such a treat, lol. Do they even make those anymore?
I remember those TV dinners! We also had them on nights with baby sitters! I remember really liking the Salisbury steak one but I am almost completely certain that my adult self would not like it nearly as much as my child self did. But, fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy sounds good to me all the time. So good!
My brother liked the Salisbury steak one too! What was that even made of? Lol. I’m with you - I don’t think I could stomach eating one now as an adult.
I don’t think we ever want to know what that was made of. 😂
Hahahaha!
How I remember those Swanson TV dinners. I only tried a few in desperate moments and decided I really didn't care for them. I couldn't stomach any of that now.
I don't think I could either now!
What is it about mash and gravy? So lovely!
Yeah something super comforting about that combo.
Yes!
Betty! I remember those! "Hungry Man Meals," as the ads used to say. I don't buy those now, so wouldn't know if they still make them. Oh, the days of TV dinners eaten on a tray while watching some Saturday night show.
Yes! So many memories of that. My brother likes the one with Salisbury “steak” lol whatever that was. It’s funny I haven’t eaten off a TV tray in years and now I kinda want a set of them.
LOL! I wonder if you’d find any at a rummage sale? Has it been too long?
Well, if I'm remembering correctly, they were made of some kind of steel so I bet they would still be in good condition. I'm not too far from Palm Springs, which is a retro kitschy kind of town, so I might have to check out some yard sales and thrift stores there next time.
Often I turn to a roast chicken with Basmati rice and salad. Sometimes it is paella, other times I might go off of my usual path and choose fried chicken. A cup of tea can solve almost anything in my opinion.
It really is impossible to beat a really good roast chicken, isn't it? It's something that always sounds good to me. And I agree with you about the magical qualities of a simple cup of tea.
Agreed
Root vegetables- onions, potatoes, yams, turnips, carrots, beets. It's the starch and the heft and everything you can do with them!
There is something deeply instinctual about craving starch when we are in need of comfort, isn't there?
That’s so accurate- love that it’s a lil universal!
My husband has an awful cold...so I spent the day making chicken in a pot...my version but threw in some dill like his mother used to do
Lucky husband. :-)
That's a new one to me. Dill with chicken in a pot.
It really depends - generally anything carby, creamy and cheesy will hit the spot when I am in need of comfort. My mum's Käsespätzle (Germany's answer to Mac and Cheese) are definitely at the top of the list. But so is Jansson's Frestelse - a Swedish casserole dish made with potatoes, onions, pickled sprats and lots of cream. Then again, once I discovered Japanese food, Unagi don - rice with grilled eel and typically a bowl of miso soup on the side also joined the list of my favourite comfort foods.
If I'm on my own and feeling poorly, even a simple bowl of porridge can be the comfort that I crave.
"carby, creamy, and cheesy" - that sums up comfort food for almost all of us, doesn't it?
Yeah that must be practically universal!
Sophia! You are getting me off my butt to look up how to make Käsespätzle now. Everyone on this thread is giving me a little push to keep on learning and I love it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I'm sure there are as many versions as German, Swiss and Austrian housewives. And while I like it best with homemade Spätzle, you can also use store-bought. But what the dish absolutely needs is cheese that packs some punch - e.g. a Swiss or Austrian mountain cheese - like Gruyere or Appenzeller. You can always mix those with something more mild, like Emmentaler. And be generous with the cheese! And you also want lots of caramelised onions.
And because the dish is so rich it helps to have a green salad with a sharp dressing on the side.
Huge amounts of melting cheese AND caramelized onions? Be still my beating heart!
Yes, there are so many foods mentioned here that I've never heard of. Where have I been all my life? I feel so out of place! But the adventure and exploring is awesome fun.
One reason I can talk about food all day is that there's always something new to discover, some taste I've never tried ☺️
There are quite a few recipe developers I follow and have discovered cooking techniques, enhancing flavors and great recipes. My cooking has improved greatly because of this, much to my husband's delight. 😁
Haha his tastebuds must be having a field day! Yeah, especially since discovering Substack, I've learnt so many new things from the incredible food writers who post their work here ☺️.
I’ve just discovered Substack and delighted I did. There are so many good writers in all areas. I’m going to enjoy the Food Substack immensely. To me, you sound as if you already know a lot about foods.
Right there with you, Claudia! I got my learning-pants on.
Ooh unagi - one of my all-time loves! We once had it in the thick of winter, and the eel was so thick with fat that it melted right in your mouth.
These days, we tend to order it shirayaki style (grilled with just salt) for a lighter meal, but I'll never forget that incredible winter unagi.
Yup, nothing like a steaming bowl of una-don to perk you right up. We had a colleague in the accounting department who would fly all the way to Fukuoka after a rough year-end just to have his kabayaki fix!
Yes, Unagi Don is rarely a light meal but I guess that why it's so comforting as well - delicious carbs from the rice and then the sweet, fatty and soft eel and then some salty miso soup to wash it all down with. Hmmm, I could have some right about now!
And I totally understand your colleague - when I was still working in law firms Unagi Don was my go-to dinner order when facing another unexpectedly long night at my desk!
Ahh! That's one way to get through a miserable night...
N Leana--You wrote, "We once had it in the thick of winter, and the eel was so thick with fat that it melted right in your mouth." That's a perfect sentence because you triggered every sense. I could see it, smell it, and taste it. Perfect sentence.
An artisan kabayaki just makes you wax lyrical 😂
Now I have to look kabayaki up. Oh, Saturday is lining up to be a day of learning. That's a good day for me.
Quite a fruitful way to spend the weekend - as our very own Lynn has proved by example, we should never stop learning ☺️.
It can be hard to find deep dives into unagi culture (and the art of preparing it) that are written in English, but for a start, you can check out the Osaka-based Uoi website, which runs briefly through the main processes.
https://www.sumiyaki-unagi.com/en/sp/about/
This post from The Japanese Food Lab, set up by a Western trained chef who fell in love with Japanese cuisine, is also worth a read.
https://thejapanesefoodlab.com/unagi-don/
Great resources, N Leana. Thank you!
Something oozing with melted cheese always hits the spot - macaroni cheese, cheese on toast, a whole baked camembert......................... There are so many to choose from!
Caroline! Melted cheese makes everything better. My favorite evening is baked camembert with chunks of sourdough, a tasty wine, and good friends who laugh and vibe. Comfort isn't always what we do alone, but can also include the time we have with others.
Melted cheese makes everything better - 100%! I don't know why it's true, but it's true!
Oh my goodness.... your Chicken Schnitzel with a squeeze of lemon and cream cheese mashed potatoes... absolutely over the top comfort food!!! Making me hungry :) My comfort food is a plate of pasta. Any pasta, any sauce.
Oh I think that gorgeous shot of Rebecca's chicken schnitzel had us all drooling as soon as we opened the page 😋
Thank you friend!
Thank you Nina! There's something about that combo of the crispy breading with creamy mashed potatoes that just does it for me. But, I'm also always down for pasta. Any pasta, any sauce, as you say.
Definitely chocolate chip cookies. Or even just a simple baguette with cheese, or fondue, or mac and cheese. Actually, anything with cheese!
There are few things in life that are better than warm, melty chocolate chip cookies. And, it seems everyone in this discussion agrees with you about cheese. 😋
We make these giant chocolate chip cookies as gifts for friends cos they get a huge kick out of them, but the last round, we couldn't resist and gobbled up the entire lot ourselves, so we had to bake a whole new batch!
A saucy red pasta (bolognese or meatballs!) and my mom's apple pie. Doesn't get much better than that for me. It's a warm, knowing hug every time.
I am making spaghetti and meatballs in marinara for friends this week for exactly this reason.
Ooh saucy meatballs, how did we manage to leave them out?! Pairing them with bolognese is classic, but you should try them with a Thai red curry too ☺️
Fabulous idea! Love a cozy curry
That should be Ambrosia!
I didn't even see that. My mind automatically read "ambrosia."
Mashed potato, preferably with roast chicken. Also risotto with peas and Parmesan. A baked potato with cheese, bacon and homemade coleslaw on the side.