What does comfort food mean to you?

[Kestrel]

I'm reading an interesting book: The Feast Nearby by Robin Mather. She describes the book as "How I lost my job, buried a marriage, and found my way by keeping chickens, foraging, preserving, bartering, and eating locally (all on forty dollars a week)." I came across this section, which really struck home with me.

"I guess we all define "comfort food" a little differently, though. For me, the definition involves the dishes that my mother cooked when I was a kid, but she cooked some dishes that only lately have I come to realize never appeared on the tables of my friends' homes. They ate meatloaf, pot roast, and spaghetti with ground beef in red sauce. We ate oxtail stew, steak-and-kidney pie, and braised beef short ribs. I don't mean to suggest that one is better than the other, mind you. I mean to say that the foods you ate as a child will be the ones that comfort you as an adult. If you're raising children now, you might pause for a moment to consider that. Are your children going to become adults who think McNuggets are the most comforting things in the world?"

So, what does comfort food mean to you? Please also say what area of the country you grew up in (northeast, Midwest, ect - or more precisely if you'd like); I wonder if some answers are climate or ethnic related?? Also, how do you feel about the last line? What will today's kids think of as comfort food?

[jgenie]

This rings true for me. I'm from the south, of Mexican descent, transplanted to the northeast. My comfort foods are the foods my mom made us growing up. Scrambled eggs with butter and cheese, homemade biscuits, homemade tortillas, carne guisada, etc. She often made this simple ground beef and potato dish that I ask her to make whenever she visits us. DH thinks it's odd but it's pure comfort for me. As for the last line, my kids are extremely picky and I feel like I fail every day at getting them healthy home cooked meals. I'm not a natural cook just figuring cooking out now. I try to cook from scratch 3 or 4 nights a week unfortunately my kids usually eat the rice or pasta and leave the rest. So frustrating!

[baymom]

How interesting! This totally makes sense, though I never gave it much thought. I'm of South Asian decent and my mother loved to cook. Many of those dishes are my comfort foods still and the ones I make for my own family. Sadly, I don't make any of her more complex (complex to me) dishes from scratch the way she did. But, I do make Indian food from scratch about 3 times a week. The other nights, I cook other foods. Unlike cuisine from other places, there aren't really any 'one pot' type Indian meals. You always need to prepare several dishes to make a balanced meal. Its more work for me than making pasta and salad, say. But, food is such a strong part of identity and I'm doing the best I can. They are no longer fluent in our native language (though they used to be), have few opportunities to wear ethnic clothing, ect. I hope someday my own kids will find some Indian dishes to be their 'comfort foods' and hold onto that part of their Indian roots.

[Pennylane]

I am from the South and when I think of comfort food the first thing that comes to my mind is Salisbury Steak and mashed potatoes that my mom used to make.Scrambled eggs on toast, fried apple pies from my great grandmother.

I don't make any any of these , other than the scrambled eggs, as my husband is from the north and not a fan of "cheap meat cooked a long time and doused in gravy" . Hopefully I have a few things my dc consider their comfort food .

Ann