By Dora F., Grade 9
Food. It’s one of my personal favorite things in life, and it is for a lot of other people too.
What even are comfort foods? It is up for interpretation.
Red B. and Dora F., Grade 9, at Dami in Munich (Shawn B./Buchhof Bulletin)
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Comfort foods are foods we seek out when dealing with life. While eating itself is a human necessity, the psychological aspect of food is quite interesting. Comfort foods are a way of coping. We attach emotions or memories to certain foods, conditioning ourselves to seek out those foods when we want to feel those emotions.
And now, what are the 9th grade students of MIS eating?
For Eva L., Grade 9, one of her comfort foods was sushi. It is a very versatile food. It can be really fancy, but it also can just be something you grab from the grocery store. She eats sushi on her birthday, so it just has a lot of positive associations. She suggests going to Maggie’s Sushi Bar in Munich for some good sushi.
Josephine B., Grade 9, whose comfort food is Indian Buttered Chicken, told an emotional tale about how she tried buttered chicken for the first time via take away—only to discover that Indian Buttered Chicken is extremely different from what her mom was cooking.
“Things that you enjoy, give you emotional comfort,” she said.
Josie said that the relationship that people can have with food is very intense and that it can be very specific—with different factors coming into play such as texture and routines. Those elements can encourage people to fall into patterns that people can fall into. Food has a modern culture around it, while it is something that people need to fuel their bodies, food has an aspect in society and in modern diet culture.
“Eating is something you have a personal relationship with and the patterns in which you eat something-”
Melek Z., Grade 9, loves a plethora of different comfort foods—peanut butter noodles, chickpeas and rice, chicken dumplings.
“I’ve never had soup dumplings but I’m sure I’ll like it,” Melek said.
Chickpeas and rice bring back nostalgia and cures homesickness, as it was a very common dish for students and dinners in Turkey, Melek said.
Red B., Grade 9, has a comfort food that is not a defined food but rather just whatever food that her dad cooks. Their dad is typically the head chef of the home, especially during COVID, when their mom’s motivation to cook dwindled. These foods can range from fish tacos to Saffron rice to pasta — he does it all.
Libby B.’s, Grade 9, favorite food is dumplings and she suggests going to LeDu Happy Dumplings for some delicious food. I would personally suggest the “Noodles with Wan Tan” because those are delectable. She also suggests going to Slurp Noodle Cafe. Both of those recommendations are in Munich.
Libby agreed that food can bring comfort to people.
“Yes. 100%, when I’m sad or had a bad day, I just want to eat something warm and comforting just makes me feel…better,” Libby said.
Libby also believes that the comfort that dumplings brings is a mix of the food itself but also the fact that time is passing.
English Teacher Ms. Gabel, a surprise guest — the only teacher in this student interview — said her comfort food is Poutine: french fries and melted cheese with some gravy on top. She makes her own fries and it reminds her of her home in Canada, where it is the national dish.
Other comfort foods of hers are junk food or candy like Jolly Ranchers.
“But I also don’t go a day without chocolate,” Ms. Gabel said.
Ms. Gabel said comfort food does not distract her, rather helps her focus on things and be in the moment. She tries to have a very positive relationship with food. Miss Gabel enjoys the experience of food and the culture around it, opposed to just eating for sustenance.
And she stressed that emotional eating was not the same as comfort foods.
“I feel like with emotional eating, it seems to become more disordered, like that you’re eating without being conscious of it or something, that’s like an escapism,” Ms. Gabel said.
One opinion among people remained the same, though—all believe everyone has a comfort food, even if they do not register it as a comfort food.
Do you have a comfort food?
We did talk briefly about disordered eating, just in case you wanted to know more, here are some resources where you can learn more about it.
https://www.eatright.org/health/health-conditions/eating-disorders/what-is-disordered-eating
https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com