Category: Prompts

Comfort Food is a real thing.

The idea of eating for comfort might be new to you.

Or you may have experienced how food can bring relaxation and a sense of well-being since you were a child.

Perhaps you are an “eat to live” person and became a “love to eat” person during shelter in place, when activities were limited and frustrations were high.

Here’s what happened to me with comfort food during shelter in place, summer 2020.

“Comfort food took on a new meaning. It was more than comfort food. It was about how to cope with feeling scared. When food filled my belly, there was more than a feeling of satiation. There was a feeling of we’re going to be okay. We can handle this. I tell myself this is just a moment in time. It’s temporary. But I know we are forever changed.” —“Things I Never Thought I Would Do,” excerpt from The Write Spot: Musings and Ravings From a Pandemic Year.

What is your definition of comfort food?

One idea is that when sugar, salt, and fat hit the pleasure center of the brain, we experience contentment.

Perhaps an interesting concept to explore.

Today’s writing prompt: Comfort Food.

What does comfort food mean to you?

What do you eat that offers a sense of well-being and security?

What was your comfort food as a child?

Note: When I was looking for an image to go with this writing prompt, my first thought was mac and cheese. But I didn’t like any of the images I found. Then I thought “popcorn.” Again, couldn’t find an image I liked.

I decided to take a poll on Facebook. I was surprised at the range of responses to my question “What is your comfort food?”

From the informal poll: Ice cream is the most popular comfort food, followed closely by potatoes (mashed and baked).

Some of the answers were specific: Hazelnut gelato, rice cakes with strawberry jam, mushroom risotto, toast and peanut butter and bourbon whiskey, my wife’s mother’s grandmother’s spaghetti sauce, warm blackberry pie with ice cream, Belgian fries with mayonnaise.

Also: Granola, hot dogs, jambalaya, lemon bars, meatloaf, pot roast, tapioca pudding, tuna melts, artichokes, and yams.

A cousin in Grand Rapids responded with “Tamales from the Roosevelt Tamale Parlor!”

And a couple of “whatever anyone wants to make for me.”

Your turn: Write about comfort food.

“Our obsession with sugar, salt and fat.” By Alexandra Sifferlin and TIME.com, March 1, 2013