Comfort Food

What is comfort food? 

Mac and Cheese?  A good hamburger?  Spaghetti with meat sauce? 

How much of comfort food is cultural, and how much is personal.  On TV, you often hear chefs and presenters talk about comfort food as if it was cultural.  They talk about comfort food as if we all thought that a pot roast with potatoes and gravy was comfort food, but is that really true? 

One part of comfort food seems to be the memories that it evokes.  The roast may be a comfort food because so many of us, at least in my generation (end of the baby boom) had a big roast with potatoes and gravy almost every Sunday.  We saw that on TV and it became a shared cultural icon.  Like a good turkey dinner on Thanksgiving. 

But, I think that many of you are like me, you have comfort foods that aren't part of the larger cultural definition.  It might be something your mother made when you were sick, or the breakfast she made you every morning.  It could be that food that you celebrated big occasions with...now, I don't suppose that beer can really be a comfort food, but that is what many Americans celebrate with. 

Personally, I have some rather strange comfort foods, but they all have one thing in common.  They remind me of a certain time in my life, and were a special treat that I bought for myself.  Fritos and bean dip is one of my comfort foods.  When I get depressed, it is one of a small group of food that I turn to, because once upon a time it made me feel better.  Pizza is another comfort food, at least for me.  It was the food that my friends and I often went out for, sometimes for celebration, sometimes as a reward for moving a friend, and sometimes just because, and when I eat pizza it reminds me of all those good times. 

And, I think those good times are a key ingredient of comfort food.  Sometimes it is the thing we eat when we are flush, and others the thing we eat when we are broke, but in each case, that food becomes connected with a good memory, a comforting memory, and the memory is just as important as the food.