What’s your family comfort food?

When your kids crave the comfort of home, what food do they ask for? Maybe it’s a steaming bowl of your hot chicken macaroni soup. Maybe it’s Dad’s grilled steak and corn. Or it could be Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies. We all crave certain dishes when we’re yearning to be comforted. More often than not, they’re food straight from home.

Memories are associated with comfort food. A bowl of hot and sour soup can conjure images of the times spent at the family home in the province. A basket of blueberry muffins could remind one of the times she and her sister spent baking together. When he takes a sip of that soup, he’s transported back to the comfort of his childhood. When she bites into a blueberry muffin, it seems like a gap between she and her sister has been bridged.

Perhaps we can’t choose what comfort foods our kids crave, but when they do crave it, it would be ideal to cater to their craving. It gives them a signal that we are here to provide them comfort. It gives them a signal that they can always rely on us when they are in need of security and familiarity. Food can help fulfill that longing.

What’s your family comfort food? Is it a bowl of macaroni and cheese, prepared by your Mom on Sunday mornings? Is it the Chinese noodles Grandpa cooked with you growing up? Is it a bowl of raw cookie dough, much like the one you and your sisters ate when you baked together? Comfort food, especially one associated with family memories, warms not only the tummy but also the heart.