Monday, July 07, 2008

Comfort In a Bowl

Ice cream. Chocolate. Meatloaf. Cookies. Pudding. Peanut butter. Mashed potatoes. Not my ideas of comfort food.

Whenever I feel ill (emotionally or physically), I always go for a bowl of soup and noodles or congee. I guess it all depends with what you grow up with. My parents and brothers don't have very much of a sweet tooth so there wasn't a lot sugary stuff in the house. Unfortunately for me, I do have a very big sweet tooth but that's another entry.

Whenever I got sick as a child , my mother would make a small pot of congee for me for dinner while everyone else ate normally. The congee was always very thick and had little bits of pork in it. I suppose she made it very thick so that I would still get some food in me instead of me just eating a big bowl of rice water. I always knew if someone else in the house was sick if there was a small pot of congee on the stove. If it wasn't full of congee, it was full of a pungent black medicinal tea and that meant that someone had or was on the verge of having a cold. There was no comfort in that nasty tasting tea.

Soup and noodles is comfort food because my mom would make a big pot of it almost every weekend and that was what we would have for lunch on the weekends. Leftovers were for after school snacks. The comfort of that came from the routine of it and also because my mom would also make soup and noodles whenever she was stressed and too busy to make our regular dinners. I need to spend some time in the kitchen with her to learn the recipes. I've been able to pull off some of the stuff she makes but not as tasty. Perhaps it's because food generally tastes better when someone else has done the work in preparing it for you and because they made it for you because they love you.

I went for a bowl of congee today because I was feeling a bit low. The congee made me feel better but since congee is piping hot and not cool and creamy, like ice cream, I burnt the roof of my mouth. Boo-ers!

Now as far as mashed potatoes and meatloaf go, it just goes to show it all depends on what you grew up with. I don't remember my parents ever making mashed potatoes outside of our time at the C.V.M. Café in Carberry and even then it was from instant mix. When we got an order for a plate with mashed potatoes, my dad would send me to get a little juice glass of homo milk. I thought it was the oddest thing and I kinda still do. The only time I ever encounter mashed potatoes at a family dinner is on holidays and only at Uncle Dave or Jim's place. A couple of my cousins LOVE potoates. I don't get it.

Meatloaf just grosses me out. Meat shouldn't be in loaf form - ever!

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