Comfort Food - Salami, Cheese and Bread

As a young man growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Marin County and Corte Madera to be specific, I remember going on camping trips and hikes as a Boy Scout and having to pack a lunch/dinner, either to eat while hiking, or while driving to where ever we were camping.  I remember buying a Gallo Dry Salami or Salame, as they say on their website.  The Salamis we bought back then weren't very big, only about six to eight inches long and maybe two across.  Sometimes, a couple of us would split a salami, a chunk of cheese and a French Bread. 

Now, there are two mistakes that you should not make as you imagine this lunch.  First, do not think of Cotto Salami when I mention Dry Salami.  They are utterly and completely different.  Cotto Salami is more like coarse ground bologna with more spice and whole pepper corns.  It is nothing like the heaven that is dry salami.  Nor, should you think of hard salami, which is dry salami's poor cousin.  Hard Salami is close, but not quite there.  Also, you should not compare San Francisco French Bread with the weak stuff they call French Bread in most of the US.  If you have a good bakery in your home town, you may compare it to that, but it will still be missing one key element, sourdough.  There is something about the San Francisco that produces a unique, and delicious sourdough that is used to make the signature French Bread.  San Francisco French Bread is crusty and delicious, and can even give a true French Bread...yes, I mean one from France, a run for its money...and yes, I do know that, as I have tasted both.  I grew up in the Bay Area and then spent two years in France. 

Now, with a true understanding of Salami and Bread, you may finally understand this nostalgic lunch of my childhood.  I have spent years trying to find Salami similar to the Salami of my childhood and the closest I have come is Boar's Head Bianco D'Oro Dry Salami.  It takes me back to my childhood.  I sometimes buy it for my lunch,  along with some of the Boar's Head Black Wax Sharp Cheddar Cheese, which is very good cheese, even better than what I remember buying all those years ago. 

Unfortunately, I have had to give up on good French Bread.  I can buy the Salami and Cheese at a local supermarket, but I have to go to a bakery to get the right French Bread, and it often isn't worth the trouble.  Here in Texas, HEB sells Pan Frances.  I am glad they use the spanish name, because it doesn't really deserve even that.  It is nothing like true French Bread. 

To me, this is an example of comfort food. Not only do I love it, but I get to relive pleasant moments from my childhood when I eat it.

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.