That One Childhood Food That Comforts You

[Anonymous]

In one of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy books, there is a scene where Thomas Cromwell is surrounded by all of the fancy foods you could be surrounded by in England in the mid-fourteenth century, and he is feeling sad and wanting only a purslane salad -- the food they ate when he was a child and there was no food to be had other than what you could wander outside and pick. That scene had me thinking: what is that childhood food that you wish for like this?

For me it is lasagna. My mother was not a good cook, and served very little that I liked (or that anyone would like, really), but she made decent lasagna (following the recipe on the pasta box) and it is what I asked for for my birthday every year. I find it very soothing to have it, now. And I don't want a fancy one from a restaurant. Just the basic recipe on the back of the pasta box, and it is better as a leftover.

[Anonymous]

Fried rice with onions. My mom learned it from her college roommates, and it’s my favorite food to this day.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I don't think I have one?

I love food and love to cook and my mom is a good cook but tired of it after I grew up and now her food isn't the same. My grandparents are gone, but I am nostalgic for some of whey they made when I was a kid: for one grandmother it was a simple salad dressing, and the other it was te traditional meal we got upon arriving at her house (meatballs, mashed potatoes, cucumbers, beets, polish cabbage, and rye bread). That is probably the one meal I'd like to revisit.

Again, not shading my mom's cooking at all: she is excellent. But with variety comes less room for nostalgic!

[Anonymous]

Onigiri. My father's version of teriyaki chicken.
My mother's apple tart.

But honestly, I'm a better cook than either of my parents, so my comfort food today would be lasagna that I make myself. My husband makes a killer fried rice!

[Anonymous]

Grilled cheese sandwich w/bowl of tomato soup (Campbell's made with milk, not water).

[Anonymous]

Drop dumplings on top of crock pot stew. I would only eat the carrots and potatoes and the dumplings. Never the meat. Best meals ever.

[Anonymous]

Macaroni and cheese made with the block of velveeta.

And agree lasagna is better the second day- i purposely cook mine the evening before when I make it as a drop-off meal for meal trains.

[Anonymous]

Rice pudding.

[Anonymous]

My grandmother would make the most amazing scrambled eggs served with toast. No idea how she did it— I’ve never been able to replicate the method. They were like a pillowy custard. She’d add butter, a Tbs of water per egg, a pinch of salt, and a load of pepper. She tried to teach me how several times when I was a kid but to this day, mine have never been as good as what she made! But I still try.

[Anonymous]

Grilled cheese or macaroni

[Anonymous]

My mother made homemade pralines at Christmastime to give to people. We would take grocery bags out to an area with big pecan trees and pick up the pecans from the ground (I have a sneaking suspicion we were not supposed to be there, lol). I've never been able to buy one that was anywhere near the same as what she made.

[Anonymous]

Cinnamon toast

[Anonymous]

Smoked salmon with fine noodles or short grain sushi rice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cinnamon toast

+1

[Anonymous]

Or toasted very thin sandwich bread with ham and mayonnaise.