Comfort food
A dinner at home, of noodle soup with chicken, choy sum and enoki mushrooms, with fried garlic and shallots sprinkled on top. Jac made the chicken broth and steamed the chicken breasts. It was just what I needed at the end of a bad day.
The chicken noodle soup was perfect comfort food on this occasion, but sometimes I crave the comfort of junk food; sometimes I want to eat something I’ve loved ever since I was a child; sometimes I need very wholesome, hearty home-cooked food. And sometimes all I need to do is crack open a can of baked beans, get a spoon and curl up on the couch.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt comforted by fresh/cold vegetables e.g. salad. I love Caesar salad, for example, but I’ve never found it particularly comforting. Hot vegetables can be very comforting though: Oven roasted vegetables (even more comforting if accompanied by roast pork with crackling), fries, mashed potato… Oh yes, potatoes: starchy, caramelised, crispy, the ultimate in comfort food. A favourite dish from my childhood, minchee – cubed potatoes cooked with onion, garlic, oyster sauce and seasoned pork mince – always makes me feel better.
Food blogger Su-Lin recently posted a photo of/tweeted about Danish butter cookies. I loved these as a kid. Friends and relatives often gave my family a tin of these at Christmas and we kids would share them. My favourites were the sugar-coated pretzel and rectangular shaped cookies. I always tried not to look like I was going straight for those, but I totally was (kind of like how I try not look like I’m diving straight in to grab one of the thigh pieces in a box of KFC :)). Buttery cookies covered in crunchy sugar-crystals – a special treat and comforting at the same time. I haven’t eaten Danish butter cookies for years. I’m going to get some soon.
So what’s your ultimate comfort food? And what food totally fails to comfort you?
Hmm. That’s a lot of “comforts” in one post.