I've always found it laughable that because I'm a skinny guy, people scoff when I tell them I love food. It's true though. I love to eat and I love to eat a lot...so writing about my favorite comfort foods is a breeze.
We watch a lot of Food Network in my house, and "comfort food" is a phrase that professional chefs and TV personalities love to throw around a lot. Until now, I've never thought much about what comfort food actually is. I always assumed it's exactly what it sounds like--food that brings you comfort or makes you feel good when you're sad.
Always a stickler for accuracy though, I looked it up just to be sure, and it seems there's an element of nostalgia attached to comfort food too. Anything you eat that transports you back to your past, or to a happy time in your life is considered comfort food.
(I realize everyone but me probably already understands this, but whatever.)
With both aspects of the definition in mind, here are a few of my favorite comfort foods, in no particular order as always.
1. Arroz con leche - Literally translated, it means rice with milk...and it's not much more complicated than that. It's usually made with sweetened condensed milk and cinnamon. More complicated recipes can include lemon zest or cloves, but I don't recall any of that being in the version my grandmother made. I haven't had a bowl of it in years...decades probably...but it's one of my favorite Saturday/Sunday morning meals as a kid and something I have always thought I should ask her to show me how to make myself.
2. Strawberry milkshakes - Over the years, I have come to see myself as something of a milkshake connoisseur, but my love affair with them began in early childhood when my grandfather would take me to McDonald's. I'd get a Happy Meal and he'd get two cheeseburgers and a strawberry milkshake. Of course, he'd never finish it, which meant I got to. To this day, I can't have a strawberry milkshake without thinking of all time I spent with him growing up.
3. Homemade flour tortillas - Not that I'm going for a theme here, but homemade flour tortillas always make me think of all the Saturday and Sunday mornings I spent with my grandparents. I would often wake up to the sound of my grandfather's metal rolling pin clinking against the wooden cutting board as he methodically rolled out his tortillas. The radio played music from the local Spanish radio station and I just knew breakfast was going to be awesome! He made a stack of them that never seemed to end, even though I did my best to eat my way to the bottom of it until he made me stop so other people could have some.
4. My wife's lasagna - Like I said, some things are on my list because of the nostalgic connection I have with them, and some are on my list because they just taste good. Marci's lasagna is one of the latter. It takes a relatively long time to make, which just serves to heighten my anticipation every time she makes it, but it's absolutely worth it. We don't have it as often these days because we are eating healthier (and this lasagna is most assuredly not healthy), but it's still one of my favorites.
5. My Tia Sandra's cookies - Along with tamales, this is the food I miss most when I don't travel home for Christmas. She usually makes a couple trays full of giant, soft cookies (chocolate chip, peanut butter and oatmeal raisin) and it's usually nowhere near enough. Everyone in the family has their favorite (I'm partial to the oatmeal) and there's usually a fight over how they get divvied up. They are that good.
Now that I've possibly made you all hungry, I'll wrap this up and leave you to go find some of your favorite comfort foods to fill your stomach.
Until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment