It’s a Wednesday evening and you’re heading back home from a busy day at college. The wind chills the environment and you deeply crave something familiar and warming, something homemade with easy ingredients. That’s when the idea comes to mind: comfort food. The moment when food connects with the soul, and the dish leaves your mind satisfied.
Comfort foods are cultural. They are those homemade jewels that tie back to our roots and cherished memories, back from those moments when that meal was exactly what we needed.
This can vary within each culture, as the concepts of homemade and nourishing are constructed distinctly. As an example, here in North America, some people love the grilled cheese sandwich (either by itself or with soup), a staple meal coming out of simple ingredients that manage to combine amazingly that has delighted the hearts of many throughout the years. It’s a generational favourite, like its counterpart sandwich, peanut butter and jam.
Comfort food is not defined by its fanciness, but rather its significance—the way it makes you feel and the joy that’s found in each bite. In other parts of the world, like in Latin America, people might like a grilled cheese sandwich, but they might find deeper connection with a warm arepa or a hearty tamal; those dishes that people grew up with and that bloomed from times when families had to innovate and make do with what was available in the kitchen.
My comfort foods are linked to the people that I love, like Sundays at my grandmother’s house, having precious meals that were full of love, warmth, and intricate joy. But my favourite meals also originate from days when I went home and made myself Kraft mac and cheese. Comfort foods are all about sharing; it’s about intentionally giving a bit of yourself in those dishes that might not be the fanciest but are worth everything to you.
It’s a creative play, where you take the lead as a chef and reinvent what’s already there and what’s unseen, like, for example, instant ramen but with a “you” twist. I like to add to my own veggies, an egg, and even some soy sauce—a simple but effective upgrade catered to my taste.
When cooking meals as students, it’s often a priority to use affordable ingredients. Keep things budget-friendly with potatoes, rice, eggs, bread, lentils, canned items (sauces, proteins), and ensure your stock is well-maintained so as to not be tempted by take-out after a long day’s schoolwork. If you have one of these as a base, then, believe me, you have half a meal ready. Also, explore online different ways to cook something; there are multiple YouTube tutorials that you can see on how to cook an egg, for instance, so you can now alternate between hard-boiled and something more fun, like poached or steamed.
A tip to elevate anything is to garnish or add toppings to meals, such as herbs, spices, and sauces. I challenge you to go into your kitchen and see what you find. Mix things and come up with your own creation, and maybe you’ll find your favourite new topping for your egg fried rice, unique to you.
As an incentive to guide you through your foodie voyage, I recall the words from the 2007 animated film Ratatouille: anyone can cook. To that, I add the following: anyone can make a five-star dish, even with budget-friendly ingredients. It’s only a matter of creativity and trust.