The Hearty and Comforting Foods.
Some foods are comforting, so nourishing of body and soul, that to eat them is to be home again after a long journey. To eat such a meal is to remember that, though the world is full of knives and storms, the body is built for kindness."--Eli Brown
Some foods that we eat don't just make us fill the cravings of our mouth, but they also fill the hunger of our hearts and soul. They give us comfort after that long and tiring journey.
After the tiring things that I have done for the past few weeks, I wanted to eat something. Maybe more of a craving but somehow, I know that eating this food will make me feel like, someone is patting me at the back and saying, "you did a great job." Or something that will make me feel that I am back on my own home, my own self, my own comfort.
My comfort food and that is fries dipped on that salted caramel sundae. And why is that? This is unhealthy but the salty, savory, sweet and mixture of hot and cold gave me this comforting feeling. It made me feel like a child again.
Sundae dipped with fries
*Image si credited to Rain Tajon via www.bitlanders.com
What is comfort food?
Comfort food are the food that provides nostalgic or sentimental value to someone and they are being characterized by its high caloric in nature, high carbohydrate level or just being prepared in simple way. Psychologically, they are being eaten to relieve those negative feelings and turns it into positive ones.It gives this feeling like our souls has been beeing soothed. And most of the time, they are eaten by people who are going through some tough times.
*Image is credited to Rain tajon via www.bitlanders.com
What are the most common Filipino Comfort food?
Here in the Philippines, we got a lot of food that we call comfort food. Since food scientist researchers have learned that food high in carbohydrate increseases trytophan's availability. Trytophan increseases the amount of serotonin inthe brain, which then results in improving a person's mood. With that, most common Filipino comofrt food are high in carbohydrates and here are some of them.
1. Arrozcaldo or lugaw. This is rice porridge or some call it congee. This is often serve to those who are not feeling well since they are are easy to digest and at the same time, the carbohydrates coming from the rice is a sure energy giving food. In arrozcaldo, there is chicken on it and has a lot ginger that gives the stomach a fill and a feel of comfort.
2. Champorado. This is like a "sister" of lugaw. Champorado is a sweet chocolate rice porridge. A cocoa powder is being added to the boiling sticky rice that gives that brown color and some times, a fried dried fish locally called "tuyo" is being serve with it. Filipinos really love to have a different tastes on their food indeed, the champorado is sweet and the "tuyo" is salty.
3. Suman or glutinous rice cake.This is another comfort food that has rice as its main ingridient. Suman is a glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk often wrapped in banana leaves the steamed. Here in our province we have the suman that is not being wrapped in banana leaves, but close to it and we call it "Sinuman". Just like suman, it has the same ingridient only being cooked differently. The glutinous rice is being cooked/steamed just like the way we cook our regulard rice, and on a separate pan, coconut milk is being cooked until its natural oil had come out, then brown sugar or muscovado is added and mixed well and the cooked glutinous is being tossed on it until it is cooked.
Sinuman
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4. Miki noodle soup. Locally, this is often served with sinuman. This noodle soup is called miki because of the name of the noodles, miki. The noodles are made fresh, it is made out of flour, egg and water. The noodle soup is orange in color due to the anatto that is being mixed with it. Chicken, pork and sometimes shrimps are added into it.
Miki noodle soup.
*Image is credited to Rain Tajon via www.bitlanders.com
5. Lomi noodle soup. This is another noodle soup but what make its different to Miki noodle soup is its noodles. The noodles are thick egg fresh noodles, soaked in lye to give more texture. The meat on this noodle soup can be from pork or chicken but most of the time, it has pork or chicken liver. This has a thick soup, cornstarch make it thick and freshly beaten egg is added while they are being stirred.
Lomi noodle soup.
*Image is credited to Rain Tajon via www.bitlanders.com
6. Sinigang. This is a Filipino stew, that can be cooked with seafood of meat, that has a distinct sour taste on it. Traditionally, sinigang is a tamarind-based soup but since we are in tropical country, we have a different sour fruits that is being added to make the soup sour aside from the tamarind. We have guava, calamansi, kamias and some uses the unripe mangoes. Despite the availability of the instant souring powder in the market, I still prefer to use fruits, more natural on my palate. Sweet potato tops are added too in this dish and there are more, like eggplants, okra, water spinach, taro corms(that sometimes thicken the soup) and yardlong beans. Definitely a complete dish.
Shrimp sinigang
*Image is credited to Rain Tajon via www.bitlanders.com
Comfort food from other parts of the world.
Most countries has their own food that they consifder their comfort food, and here are some of it.
1. Fried chicken. This maybe the most loved comfort food in all parts of the world.
2. French fries. Unhealthy to some, comforting to the others. Salty and oily might it be but it surely gives a feeling of comfort.
3. Chicken soup. They can either have noodles or pasta, this is just one filling comfort food.
4. Pizza. I admit, I just have a food delivery last week because I felt like I need to eat a couple of slice of it.
5. Burgers, whether cheese or plain beef burgers.The savory and filling beef patties with tomato, cheese and lettuce, this is surely comforting.
*Image is credited to Rain Tajon via www.bitlanders.com
Overindulgence with comfort food.
The main reason or the culprit of me gaining weight is my overindulgence with those comfort food, since I eat a lot of it while dealing with too much work. The high fat and sodium contenton on them made me heavier.
Now, I am changing the way I eat them. I can have them if I wanted too but I make sure I have a lot of physical activities and not to have them as often as before. We have a family history of diabetes and heart diseases, I have to be careful now.
They maybe be comforting but we have to be careful in giving in to their comfort.
*Image is credited to Rain Tajon via www.bitlanders.com
