December posting: favorite comfort foods

For chomiji, "Favorite comfort foods — what and why"

I have so many!! These are only going to be a few off the top of my head, and I am afraid they are rather typical.

Mac and cheese! I think this has been a comfort food for as long as I can remember, probably from when I was growing up in the US. In Taiwan, it wasn't something we could get very often, which made it all the more special; whenever we were in the US on vacation, I always had to have Kraft mac and cheese, the terrible neon orange stuff from the box. I usually like "real" mac and cheese more, but sometimes I just want the stuff from the box. And of course there was EZ mac and cheese during college, which I consumed a lot of. And aside from box mac and cheese, I love stove mac and cheese and baked mac and cheese and new-fangled mac and cheese with stuff like truffle oil or goat cheese + peas or whatever else they come up with. Although lobster mac and cheese was not that great the one time I had it. The growth of specialty mac and cheese restaurants is BEST.

Noodles in soup. This is one that's very weather-based; I am almost never in the mood for soup noodles when it's hot outside. But the second it turns cold, I start craving them. It usually only applies to Asian noodles in soup, and usually I am satisfied by pho, jjampong, kalguksu, ramen, hand-shaved noodles with preserved mustard greens and pork, beef noodles, plain noodles in chicken soup, and even (and sometimes especially!) instant noodles cooked in a pot with random vegetables and an egg thrown in.

Dumplings. This is another cold-weather food (which obviously I am focused on right now!). I am kinda picky about dumplings because I really hate it when there's cooked ground meat that's kind of crunchy, which grosses me out. But oh, good handmade dumplings are SO GOOD. I used to be more of a potsticker person, but these days, there is something very comforting about shui jiao/boiled dumplings with soy sauce and vinegar. There was a period of time I didn't like them because it was the default lunch item for when my mom didn't have leftovers to put in our biandang/bento for school... pretty much anything coming out of the steamer at school had this terrible flaccid cabbage smell to it. But even then, I love the dumplings with the thick handmade skin. Shanghai soup dumplings are also amazing, but they are not quite comfort food in the same way, largely because they're much harder to get.

Chicken pot pie. This is another one from childhood, obviously, and another one that had to be fulfilled in the US during summers. I would always make my mom buy the frozen Swanson's chicken pot pie and eat them. Nowadays I am not so much into the Swanson's ones, although tbh, the Marie Callender's ones really hit the spot when necessary. I feel kind of weird putting this in because not all chicken pot pie works for me, but when it does, it really really does.

Chocolate. Usually I have more a sweet tooth than anything else, but most of my comfort foods are savory except for chocolate. I don't think I get the same kind of comfort out of it? It's not the warm blanket type feeling, but it is definitely a go to when I'm feeling down and really just want to savor something.

... I suspect there are a ton of summer foods that I'm not listing because I am just not in the mood to eat them right now!

December posting: soup: yea or nay?

For via_ostiense, who asked, "Soup: yea or nay?"

Soup: YAY!

Although I actually like chunky or thick soup better than thin soup, mostly because thin soup doesn't really feel like a whole meal to me. Of course, I make an exception when the thin soup is for noodles. Or the super thick Chinese chicken soup you get when you stew the chicken for hours and it leaves that lip-smacking collagen-y feel of stock. Also seollongtang. And even then I like stuff like rice in there to make it more like jook!

And jook is its own special brand of soup that is awesome. I love jook so much! Especially when you accidentally or not so accidentally forget to stir a bit so you get the wonderful chunky bits of rice at the bottom. My mom always made pork and preserved egg jook, but right now I think my favorite is the jook you make and put thin raw slices of fish on, and the heat of the jook cooks the fish just enough so it's tender and delicious.

Other soups I like: New England clam chowder, potato and leek, corn chowder of nearly any kind, mushroom, miso soup with lots of eggplant or onion instead of the usual tofu and seaweed, doenjangjjigae, tom yum soup especially with coconut milk, and French onion soup.