The comfort of food.

We hear the term "comfort foods" thrown around all the time. There's an entire industry, even a style of restaurant cooking, devoted to comfort foods. In this age of dietary hyper-awareness, some foods are considered "off limits" from the scrutiny of the overactive, self-righteous health nuts that have tried to dominate the food landscape for decades, with only moderate success.

Please understand, I am an advocate of healthy eating, though I don't always practice what I preach. I am overweight and have nasty digestion issues. (which is something I'm dealing with as I write this.) But I believe in moderation is the key to nearly all things that are good in life and eating the freshest, most nutritious food available is part of that.

With that being said, there are certain foods and dishes in this world that will make me extraordinarily happy when set before my gaping, hungry maw. Most people think of comfort foods as pure nostalgia, something that mom or grandma used to make back when you were but a wee lad or lass that you loved, and perhaps still do. For me, that's only a part of it. I think of comfort foods as belonging to one of three categories:

Nostalgic- stuff that mom and grandma made way back when. My mom was young when she had me, so she wasn't a great cook in the beginning, (she's an AMAZING cook now!) My comfort foods in this category are things like mac n cheese with tuna, buttered extra wide egg noodles with cottage cheese, and vanilla wafer banana pudding. We weren't completely poor, but we were definitely lower middle class. Money was tight and sometimes mom had to make due with what she could afford. Pasta dishes with alternative protein sources were common and I still love them to this day.

Indulgence- good Catholics, children of Jewish mothers, and dessert lovers everywhere see guilt as an old, trusted friend that has been there since the beginning. Indulgences in food are something that are often savored with the intensity normally reserved for religious experiences and sex. Two desserts fit this bill for me: a really well made New York style cheesecake and a Baker's Square French Silk pie.

And lastly, Therapeutic- there are some foods and/or dishes out there that just make you feel good eating them. Sometimes this is because what your eating is not only unbelievably delicious, but it's also good for you! Sometimes it triggers a wave of happy thoughts. Sometimes, it's just REALLY fucking good. My favorite therapy dish is the chicken shawarma plate at Mediterranean Cafe on State Street here in lovely Madison. It's quick, easy, cheap, has my favorite hummus ever on it, and it's just plain good!

What foods and dishes do you find comforting?

The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.

"Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself." - Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891


Cravings. We all have them.

This past Saturday, the sandwich above was mine.


Cravings can take on many forms. Sometimes it's as simple as a desire for a taste of chocolate, easily satisfied with a candy bar or even some chocolate milk.

Sometimes cravings enter the realm of obsession, requiring a tremendous amount of time, money, and/or effort to placate oneself. Take, for instance this website: http://www.kleincast.com/maps/mcrib.php This is a user-driven website devoted to locating the elusive McRib sandwich around all of North America, complete with a map, a forum,(to share McRib-related stories, I assume) and a blog.

Some cravings defy logic. For instance, I love White Castle hamburgers. Much like the McRib, White Castles are horrible examples of food. They're of the lowest quality in almost every conceivable way: the meat, the onions, pickle, the buns...fucking horrible! Does the 30+ years worth of knowledge of this fact stop me from eating a sack of 10 every time I go to a White Castle...hell no! My internal organs feel like death an hour after finishing them, but the nostalgia, the fucking nostalgia!

Which brings me to this past Saturday. I wanted the sandwich pictured above with a vengeance. It's a Seafood Delight from Subway. I don't eat them very often, but when the craving hits, I will scour the landscape until one has been located. And only after I've eaten 12 inches of beautifully horrible fake-crabby goodness will I be satiated. This past weekend, however, it was just not meant to be.

Subway has discontinued the Seafood Delight here in the Madison area. I went to three different stores, all told me the same sad tale. No more fake crab mixed with mayonnaise and god knows what else stuffed between fresh baked bread with cheese and lettuce and tomatoes...I think I'm going to cry! Making matters worse, none of the other sandwich chains here in town make one either. Not Jimmy Johns, nor Milios, nor Cousin's, nor Silver Mine...nobody. My desires, short of going out and buying the ingredients and making it myself, would be left unfulfilled.

I settled for some mediocre seafood salad from a local Italian-style deli. It was a sad day, indeed.