Anatomy of Comfort Food

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder....... and so is "comfort food". Ok. Not quite, but whether something is or isn't comfort food is purely subjective. For me, comfort food has to have certain characteristics.

Taste!
Obviously, it has to taste good. But in order to be comfort food, it has to go beyond that. Its taste cannot be tiresome, no matter how many times you eat it in one week. Its taste also has to transcend the physical boundaries of the food itself so that it makes your mouth water when you just think about it. Taste that exists separate from the food (this is integral as it underpins the very nature of comfort food which is something that provides emotional and mental support and escape)! There's lots of food out there that tastes good.. but comfort food has to have these additional qualities.

Ease of Use....
I always turn to comfort food when I'm feeling down mentally or when I'm compromised physically. In these situations, the last thing I want to be doing is cracking open shells, or pulling out seeds or making intricate incisions with a sharp knife. Comfort food has to be easy to eat and easy to chew. It has to have the perfect texture so that it can soothe the mouth at the same time that it is tingling the taste buds. If you can eat it with your hands, then all the better.

Versatility
Comfort food has to taste good when it is hot and cold and whether it is fresh or 1 day old.

My New Comfort Food
The catalogue of foods that I've acquired over my life that fit these criteria goes like this.... Kentucky Fried Chicken (ok, it contains bones and is not the easiest food to navigate as a result, but due to the Colonel's healthy use of grease the bones pretty much fall out when you pick up a piece of finger lick'n good), thinly sliced fried Kam (for those that are not familiar with Kam, it is a knockoff of Spam the tasty meat like substance that comes in a cool metal container that you open using the little wrench like tool that comes with every can) and Sapporo Ichiban instant ramen noodles, beef flavour. The best damn Japanese ramen noodles which oddly enough are not even from Japan (apparently they are made by a company in the US).

Recently, I have been able to add one more item to my catalogue of "go to's". Butter chicken roti (mild) from Gandhi Roti in Toronto. This stuff is the real deal. A healthy dollup of butter chicken and potatoes wrapped in a steamy soft roti and weighing in at what feels like 3 pounds.

Word has gotten out in the city that this is the best roti around, and for once I can say that this isn't all hype. This is truly good food. In addition to butter chicken, Ghandi offers roti's in many other variants with your choice of spice (from mild to hot). I don't know if the other menu items are good because I've only eaten the butter chicken (mild).

Butter chicken roti.. 5 out of 5 stars in my opinion... the only knock on butter chicken roti is that it doesn't smell like sweet roses when it has been sitting in your knapsack for over 8 hours.... but hey, nothing in life is perfect, right?

Someone once wrote that they hated "lunch indecision".... well if that someone voted for ghandi roti WE WOULDN'T HAVE LUNCH INDECISION!!!!