Forget the Anthrax, Honey: Eat your Apple Pie

October 24, 2001 2:11 AM

Forget the Anthrax, Honey: Eat your Apple Pie According to the NYT's restaurant critic William Grimes, comfort food is making a comeback in the wake of WTC. Mine is cream and butter-loaded mashed potatoes with garlicky lamb chops. What's yours? And what does it all mean? (This is No. 629 in the All-American Anti-Terrorist Counter-Measures Series) Reg: rebarba/pachacha
posted by MiguelCardoso (47 comments total)

MC: no offense, but when wasn't comfort food making a comeback? What a lame premise for an article. Pass the rice pudding, please.
posted by ParisParamus at 4:52 AM on October 24, 2001

My favorite comfort food: The souls of virtuous mortals.
posted by Optamystic at 5:12 AM on October 24, 2001

Mine is cream and butter-loaded mashed potatoes with garlicky lamb chops.
Do you eat that or is it something you just inject directly in your ventricle? War on cholesterol, anyone? :)
Mine is chocolate, anyway.
posted by matteo at 5:19 AM on October 24, 2001

Comfort food? Making a comeback?

I've seen Americans. I've seen the size of Americans. Hell, we even discussed at length the size of Americans.

Things like this worry me.
posted by Frasermoo at 5:21 AM on October 24, 2001

To hell with comfort food. I can eat anytime. Where can I get me some of that "terror sex" I keep hearing about?
posted by Optamystic at 5:26 AM on October 24, 2001

Lame topic or not, only Peanut Butter-n-Chocolate ice cream does it for me.
posted by davidmsc at 5:33 AM on October 24, 2001

Now you're talkin' !
posted by Frasermoo at 5:34 AM on October 24, 2001

uh, i meant 'Now you're talkin'' about the Terror Sex, not the Peanut Butter-n-Chocolate although both are hard to find in the UK.
posted by Frasermoo at 5:35 AM on October 24, 2001

The two could, theoretically, be combined.
posted by Optamystic at 5:42 AM on October 24, 2001

Peanut Butter-n-Terror sex cream, anyone?
posted by rodii at 5:48 AM on October 24, 2001

Isn't that the title of a Tenacious D song?
posted by Optamystic at 5:50 AM on October 24, 2001

I have it on my Pancakes all the time.
posted by Markb at 5:58 AM on October 24, 2001

Peanut Butter-n-Terror sex cream, anyone?

Oh, go on then.
posted by Summer at 5:59 AM on October 24, 2001

Would you believe, oatmeal? Maybe it's a holdover from when I was a little kid. I just like hot cereal when I'm feeling low.
posted by alumshubby at 6:01 AM on October 24, 2001

Comfort Web sites?
posted by ParisParamus at 6:01 AM on October 24, 2001

Terror Sex? Sadly, no mention of erotic peanut-butter lubes, but lots of mention of sex being used to sate terror.
posted by tpl1212 at 6:02 AM on October 24, 2001

I ate some Lobster Newburgh the other day.
posted by adampsyche at 6:22 AM on October 24, 2001

Comfort food is a Big Deal with me.

Last night's dinner: BBQ shredded pork (done at home with my own dry rub and sauce, just hot/spicy enough to make you break a tiny sweat), potato salad (no commercial mayo for me, thank you, only the homemade), baked beans, hash and rice, peach cobbler, sweetea (as we say in the South).

Then I believe I exploded, but my memory is hazy.
posted by ebarker at 6:31 AM on October 24, 2001

Oh, go on then.

God, I love it when you talk British.
posted by rodii at 6:39 AM on October 24, 2001

ebarker! feed me! now!
posted by o2b at 6:41 AM on October 24, 2001

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup. The grilled cheese must be made with butter (on both sides) and good ole' processed American Cheese Food. The tomato soup must be made with milk, not water, thus producing cream of tomato soup.
posted by internal at 7:15 AM on October 24, 2001

I'll take a bag of Shit Stains to go please.
posted by JohnBigBoots at 7:43 AM on October 24, 2001

Articles about Food-Type ____ is Making a Comeback are always amusing. Not only is comfort food always making a comeback (as ParisParamus says), food in general is always on the rise in the States.

They should run all these articles under the same headline: "Increased Food Consumption Reassures Nation, Food Critics".
posted by mattpfeff at 7:46 AM on October 24, 2001

Pizza! And then when that's done, more pizza.

Sadly I am equally unsuccessful in finding this "terror sex" that people keep talking about... I guess it's one of those things that are much talked about but seldom seen/heard/experienced, no unlike the much-touted "death of irony".
posted by clevershark at 7:56 AM on October 24, 2001

Cream of Wheat: made with milk, topped with maple syrup.
posted by Carol Anne at 8:13 AM on October 24, 2001

Risotto, bagels with lox and cream cheese, chicken and dumplings, martinis with extra olives
posted by jennyb at 8:39 AM on October 24, 2001

Carol Anne, I'm right there with ya! A pat of butter, some warm whole milk, warm real maple syrup, and Cream of Wheat!
posted by gen at 8:55 AM on October 24, 2001

Maybe not a direct correlation, but this is something to consider:

Childhood Obesity Becoming Global Health Problem

Americans 'Super Sizing' Their Servings: Study
posted by zeb vance at 9:00 AM on October 24, 2001

ebarker: I moved from the South a few months ago, and MAN, it is impossible to find shredded BBQ up here - even more difficult than finding already sweetened tea that isn't from Lipton or Nestea.

Uhm, all this amounts to -- I'll trade you some authentic Philly cheese steaks and hoagies for a "Southren" care package!

Oh yeah, comfort food. --Now I don't go to Starbucks as a general rule, but I'm all about their coffee-flavored icecream. Mmm-mmm-mmm. Coffee Fudge Almond Bliss (or whatever it's called) is decadent enough to cover any comfort food craving.
posted by precocious at 9:41 AM on October 24, 2001

(swishes brandy snifter, removes cigarette-holder from mouth)

Americans are fat! a-ha, a-ha, a-ha!

(goes back to reading 'Pretentious Continental Magazine')
posted by Hildago at 9:49 AM on October 24, 2001

precocious: I don't think BBQ travels very well. Plus, I'm in South Carolina (Charleston, specifically), smack-dab in the heart of the Yellow Sauce Aberration Triangle.

But there's always Melvin's BBQ. They might even ship, I dunno.

As far as comfort food desserts, if it's not peach cobbler, it's definitely rice pudding. Roasted pecans, raisins, cream, vanilla, sugar.
posted by ebarker at 10:10 AM on October 24, 2001

Honestly, the point isn't that Americans are fat, the point isn't comfort is good and yay for cobbler and bbq and oatmeal. The point is that in the wake of the emotional upheaval of 9/11, people are being less observant of restrictive dietary practices in favour of eating food that makes them feel good. Pizza sales are up -- at a time when the overall economy is down and McDonalds has been a "worst stock performer' for the last 11 sessions straight -- 3.2% in the last five weeks. Though the numbers haven't been widely spread, alcohol sales are up too.

People aren't just turning their attentions on themselves, either. Domestic and child abuse reports and animal cruelty incidents are up all around the country, too.

Bottom line -- people are hurting and looking for ways to quell the pain. A pizza, a bottle, a fist to your wife's head -- all symptoms of a larger underlying problem which isn't getting the attention that it deserves. New prescriptions for sleep aids, anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds are on the rise, too, but clearly not everyone who needs medical/psychological intervention is seeking it.

We are going to have a long road of recovery ahead of us and for those personally affected by the tragedy (loss of a loved one or job, those on the scene, rescue/clean-up workers) all indications point toward things getting worse before they get better. We can shrug off the reports which focus on the symptoms of the trauma, but it would do us all good to recognise what these things are about so that if we see them manifesting in ourselves or those around us, we can try to deal with the root issues instead of ignoring them and allowing them to worsen.
posted by Dreama at 10:36 AM on October 24, 2001

internal: Almost perfect, just add some dill to that cream of tomato soup. Mmm. My high school used to serve this for lunch sometimes and it was always my favorite lunch food combo.
posted by nstop at 10:41 AM on October 24, 2001

OK

Circus Animal Cookies
Cheez-Its
Coca-Cola
Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup made with less than a can of milk, and not stirred all the way so that you end up with little snotty blobs of concentrated soup goo that are little islands of unnatural tastiness in a sea of thin chickenish liquid. Don't ask.
And the finest food product on this planet and probably any other ...Black Olives.

ahhh, who am I kidding? The real winner in any comfort-requiring situation is Comfort Booze! And lots of it!

*hic!*

But I do remember periods of trauma in my life during which one main feature was coffee. Cup after cup after cup, and it never kept me up. Thank you Doctor Valdez!
posted by Kafkaesque at 10:49 AM on October 24, 2001

precocious: as someone born, raised, and still living in the north, all I have to say is that ice tea which is made correctly doesn't need to be sweetened. Sugar is only to cover up the bitter taste of tea when it's been overbrewed.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:24 AM on October 24, 2001

macaroni & cheese. and not the kind in the box, either - my mother's recipie, carefully altered from the old good housekeeping cookbook but with the alterations never written, merely understood.

I sort of freaked out when I bought a newer version of the cookbook and the recipie wasn't even in the book. had to call my baby sister & get her to read it to me over the phone, then experimented with changes from memory until I got it right.

velveeta & evaporated milk, yum. fridays still don't seem right w/out mac & cheese.

(and none of that tuna or vegetables, neither.)
posted by epersonae at 11:38 AM on October 24, 2001

Kafkaesque, thank you for doubling me over with laughter!

So, there are two of us who crave All Black Olives, All The Time...
posted by alumshubby at 12:40 PM on October 24, 2001

Am I insensitive because the events of september 11th haven't changed my eating habits in the least?
posted by Hildago at 12:45 PM on October 24, 2001

Now I know who's bogarting the olives!

My wife theorizes that I have an iron deificiency or something, and that's why I sometimes come home from work and devour an entire can of the suckers. My olive of choice: Early California, Large.

Hey, to each his own obsession, right?
posted by Kafkaesque at 12:52 PM on October 24, 2001

DevilsAdvocate: Good point on the iced tea. I drink it unsweetened all the time, and use a blend of teas, including American Classic, the one grown right down the street from me.

Tea plantations are cool, too.

But sometimes, regardless of how well it's done, it just HAS to be sweet.
posted by ebarker at 1:39 PM on October 24, 2001

the one grown right down the street from me.
Oh the envy! Imagine sippin' and watchin' the leaves flutter in the breeze. The nearest I ever got to this was eating lobster in front of a lobster tank. Not the same thing, right? I lost my appetite...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:10 PM on October 24, 2001

Hey, to each his own obsession, right?

Habanero salsa, the hotter the better.
posted by rushmc at 3:35 PM on October 24, 2001

You eat that stuff?

I got a bottle of this once as a present and dabbed a small drop on my tongue. I swear to God it was like someone had sliced my tongue open with a razor blade. Not that I would know or anything.
posted by Kafkaesque at 3:52 PM on October 24, 2001

Mmmm...yummy. I like the hot sauces (except those abominations that are nothing but capsaicin extract scoping for Scovilles and not real sauces) but prefer fresh salsas, which I usually make myself. Of course, I'm a sucker for all hot food, be it Mexican, Thai, Indian, or whathaveyou.
posted by rushmc at 7:45 PM on October 24, 2001

Waffles. Big, thick, crunchy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside. Plenty of warm maple syrup.

Bacon. Crisp. Darn near burned. Sitting in a shallow pool of over flowed syrup.

Orange juice. Ice cold.

Then a nap.
posted by Blacktooth at 10:51 PM on October 24, 2001

My choice for all-time best thread. I really did *lol*!
Comfort food? All my food is comfort food. But I have been
making and eating a lot of coffee cake with crumb topping
lately and there's something soothing about Lindt white
chocolate truffles, too.
posted by Lynsey at 10:53 PM on October 24, 2001

Chocolate sorbet. Dairy-free frozen chocolate. It's not that I have a problem with chocolate ice cream, it's just that the milk molecules are taking up space where more chocolate could go.
posted by basilwhite at 9:32 AM on October 25, 2001