Comfort Food....A resonance of sorts!!

Comfort Food – What is it?

Wikipedia and the like define the term as "Food that is simply prepared and associated with a sense of home or contentment." Hmmm....my thoughts exactly!

Simply put, the term 'Comfort food' refers to any food or drink to which one habitually turns for temporary respite, security, or special reward. The reasons that something becomes a comfort food are diverse but include the food's familiarity, simplicity, and/or pleasant associations with say one's childhood, for example.

'Comfort food' conjures up different visions to different people. To some it is bread pudding, to others - steaming hot bowl of chicken sweet corn and noodle soup, and yet to many others, it is 'dal chawal' or rice & curry'.

For me it's mom's cooking or for that matter simple home fare. It's funny...growing up I wasn't a big fan. Given a chance, I was happier eating out and sampling all the gourmet delights & junk food. Who wanted to eat boring vegetables and the same old preparations day-in and day-out?!

But there's a saying: "the apple never falls farther from the tree!" I've realized that the very things I tried to minimalize contact or association with in the formative years of my life, (perhaps in an attempt to experiment with alternatives, rebel to given norms or merely trying to adhere to peer-pressure....not sure what I would attribute my behavior to); I now tend to gravitate towards those very same things.

Moving out of the comforts of home at the age of 17 to head off to university, and then eventually entering the working world & living on my own does that to you, I suppose. After subjecting myself to countless insipid and gastronomically mind-numbing variations of dorm food, fast food, eating out/take-outs, being the experimental object for various friends' culinary skills, and last but not least...being my own chef, I crave wholesome healthy yet always magically perfect fares that would be conjured up at home. I remember how the whole family would gather around the dinner table - my parents, my two younger siblings and ofcourse....yours truly - where inevitably my dad would mention how delicious everything was and how we kids should learn and perfect the recipes for ourselves!! :)

Now, I'm especially reminded of various dishes after I come back to my apartment after a long hard day at work or if I'm sick and feeling down and out. How I fervently wish then that someone would whip me up a bowl of 'comfort food'?!

It kept me healthy, happy and peaceful. Comfort food for me strikes a resonance of all things familiar and all things cherished...which all of us so want to hold on to....but are not always able to. A metamorphosis of sorts happens over the passage of time.