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Ah, dear old comfort food. You're that one friend who's been there with me on the climb of whichever mountain I'm facing, be it an emotional meltdown, a horrible day or just a massive pile of maths homework. You wipe away my tears with your beautiful savoury embrace, filling both my stomach and my heart with joy. And somehow, someway, you manage to become more than just a delicacy. You manage to become an experience, wrapped in nostalgia and longing for simpler times. And it is this exceptional experience that is the topic of our blog today.
For me, comfort food has always meant the hand-made, creamy Rajma curry that my mother makes. It was the go-to solution for all unhappy days and sad occasions, for all the glum faces and weary hearts. With time, this special dish became more than food - it became an integrated part of my childhood and consequently, my mother. Now, I associate that dish with how much time and effort my mom took to turn my frown upside down, and it manages to turn any mountain that I face into the molehill it really is. Recently, I was reminded of this curry, and it led me down quite the rabbit hole of thought in pursuit of the answer to 'what other forms does this universal edible comfort manifest in?'
Turns out, there are more sources about comfort food than one would think! Firstly, comfort food does more than help us wallow in sadness. In fact, more often than not, comfort food is representative of a person or a place with which happy memories are entangled. These happy memories are connected to the food in your brain, and hence the food is used to celebrate triumphant moments. For example, if you are celebrating your birthday alone and you're used to crowded family parties with a certain delicacy, you'll find yourself craving that delicacy quite unconsciously. This is also the reason for the rapid increase in comfort eating in the pandemic, where most people were separated from their loved ones. Rather interesting, isn't it?
Moreover, apparently, foods that are rich in oil, salts and sugar are 10 times more likely to be comfort food than foods that are rich in minerals. This is because nostalgic moments are usually memories that are out of the ordinary, and out of the ordinary memories often feature such foods, which are rarely eaten and reserved for special occasions. This is also grounded in physiology where such foods give us a dopamine boost, or quite literally increase our happiness levels.
But is this strange preference for certain foods constant? According to studies, no, it quite certainly isn't. People tend to gravitate towards comfort foods when times are uncertain and unstable while going for newer options during calm days. Psychologically, this shows that comfort food acts as an anchor in the midst of a stormy sea or a point of familiarity within unknown faces.
With that, we come to the end of this post. Or rather, I come to the end of this post. What about all of you? What special dishes have a place in your heart? What stories are connected with your comfort foods? Unfold your comfort cuisines in the comments! Till then, farewell.
