Not Great can still be Good

Subtitle “I’ll even eat things I think are terrible”

Not having a goal, for the purpose of blogging, makes it hard to blog. I had already discovered this, the first time I finished the A to Z restaurant journey. The next few weeks I felt aimless, not with eating but with writing. I lost the urge to write, I have only ever lost the urge to eat briefly and that was due to a medical condition. So as I prepare for my next food adventure, and there is one coming, I wonder what to fill this fortnight with.

I didn’t have to wonder for long by the way.

See in the last two weeks I went to two places that had food that wasn’t amazing, but was still pretty good. It made me realise that there are a lot of things I have eaten that are good, but not fantastic, that I would happily eat again. For most of us, these become our comfort food. Before anyoen says anything, you can have some pretty amazing comfort food, but most of the time when you need comfort food great is not what you are looking for. Good can be, well, good. This entry was going to be about the Rustic Olive and the German Club, but instead it will be about the comfort food I like. I don’t expect any of the following to surprise anyone.

My comfort food, is probably not that much different than a lot of peoples, though I have noticed the variety seems to be broader than some. The act of eating itself has always been a comfort to me. I eat when I am stressed. I eat when I am tired. I eat when I am happy. I eat when I am sad. The most important of all though, I eat when I am hungry. I am hungry a lot.

I also really enjoy the all of the acts of eating. The act of sitting by yourself eating your favourite ice cream from the tub. The act of sharing the food off each others plates when you are with good friends. Especially the act of eating your left overs, because there was too much (that is my favourite).

That also brings me to my first comfort food, and don’t worry I am not going to list all of them.

Left overs

This is mostly me being lazy. May as well get this one out of the way first. There are times when all I want to do is grab a plate of already prepared food, heat it, cover it in sriracha and sit in front of QI or something similar. This particular ritual makes me feel like time is on pause for a bit. Everything that is bugging me, or that I need to do, is put on hold while I sit and eat. Unfortunately, the speed I eat at means time is only paused for a minute or two, but sometimes that is enough.

Chips

I can’t go very far into a list of comfort food before chips become involved. Not hot chips, while I love them they are not as much of a comfort food to me. There is nothing as relaxing as sitting down with a large Bag of chips and sprawling out on a couch to watch a movie, or chat to friends. My ultimate comfort night in would be four or five large bags of chips and some sort of slow paced movie. The more I think about this, the more I think this is a younger me ultimate comfort night. I still love chips. They are still my go to snack food, mainly for ease, but as I have gotten older I think I’d prefer a cheese platter or fruit platter…but I can’t be arsed making that.

Grapes

There are times I prefer a bag of grapes to a block of chocolate, not many though. With grapes it is more about the feeling of eating them. I love the pop as you break the skin and the rush of sweet juice. If I am hungry, but feeling indecisive, or lazier than normal, a couple of grapes works well to keep me going until I have found something else to eat or given up on that and gone out. I have also used grapes as a palette cleanser, in cheese platters, so I wonder if having a couple of grapes kills the craving for a bit.

Chocolate Coated Nuts

Regardless of how you get them, I really like chocolate coated nuts. These are my favourite thing to snack on if I need to graze throughout the day. The common sense adult part of me, while usually gagged, does mean I don’t eat these as often as I would like to. Usually I eat them in the form of m&m’s, but I really prefer the plain chocolate coated nuts. That’s about all I have to say on them.

Restaurant food.

Ok, this is mainly an older me thing. If I really need comfort food, I go out. Depending on the reson why is depending on where I go. Usually I want comfort food as a mental get away type thing, too much to think about so I need to go and clear my head. I will grab my coat and head off into the wild. Ok the city. Like most of the things here, my preferance is for things I can eat with my hands, or things I can eat in one bite. Dumplings, Korean fried chicken or cheese platters are my foods of choice in these cases. Things I can graze on, rather than eat all at once. When I am in need of this, I will also usually pick somewhere quiet, with a few people in it, and tuck myself into a corner.

This is also what I do if I want to work on a drawing.

Enough of the list.

It occured to me as I wrote this, almost all of my comfort food is stuff I can eat with my hands. When I was younger I used to eat as an escape, amongst other things, so I would eat whatever I could, whenever I could. Now, I eat because I love to eat. I love blending flavours, I love eating with friends and most of all I love trying new food.

Eat well, I will explain my new food adventure when I embark upon it (In a few weeks).