It comes as no surprise to people when I tell you I’m a foodie. I adore all things culinary, from raw ingredients to different knife types, from a McDonald’s breakfast Sausage McMuffin to a Michelin stared scallop ravioli with truffle shavings. However my love of food started in the “comfort food” category, and no matter what gastric adventures I go on, these are things that will always bring a smile to my face!
Cookie dough icecream, mapo tofu, turkey nuggets, instant ramen, chicken congee, chocolate chip cookies, cheesy chips, brioche rolls, steak.
#10: Chocolate Chip Cookies – I actually cheat with these. I love the Betty Crocker instand cookie dough mix. It takes only 15 minutes to bake fresh chocolate chip cookies, and having them pipping hot out the oven with a cold glass of milk has to be one of the best feelings ever!
#9: Brioche Rolls – This one is a bit weird, because no one else I know likes to just eat them. You can get them with chocolate or custard in the middle, and in Vietnam they are sold individually as a thing for kids. They always remind me of when I was in Vietnam and would get them as my “dessert” in my lunch box.
#8: Instant Ramen: I can be very picky about instant ramen. I actually like to eat them raw, as in just straight out the packet, sometimes sprinkling the flavouring on top. This can only be done with certain types of the instant ramen packs, so that’s why I’m picky. I actually started eating it like this when I was 6, I had a bed which had a compartment underneath it. I cut a hole in the fabric on one side, so that I could crawl into it. Then I would stash the instant ramen packs under my bed, and eat them at night when I was hungry. Now though when I want to actually add water, then I’ll normally go for Cup Ramen or this Chinese brand that has a piece of tofu with it.
#7: Cheesy Chips – Or Cheese Fries as some of you might call them. Potato and cheese were just meant to go together I think. Either melted cheese or a cheese sauce works, and for extra unhealthiness, eat with mayo and tabasco sauce!
#6: Mapo Tofu – A classic and well loved Szechuan dish, soft tofu in chilli sauce with minced meat! It’s heart warming, and can be very mouth warming with the use of Szechuan peppers and red chillies!
#5 Chicken Congee – although the vietnamese call it “Chao Ga”. This is my go to food when I’m ill, the vietnamese equivalent to chicken soup. Full of flavour but not too strong to upset your delicate stomach, full of nutrients you need without being flashy. There is also a billion ways to make it more interesting by simply adding stuff, from basic green onion, to typical Chinese fried dough sticks, to fried shallots or even cuts of roast beef. You can literally throw anything into it.
#4: Cookie Dough Icecream – It should come as no surprise to you that cookies appear twice on my list. Really they should be in more, but I wanted to mix it up a bit. There are two times that I HAVE to have icecream. The interval of a theatre show, and at the cinema. I don’t like popcorn too much because the corn bits get stuck in my teeth, so I always go to the Ben and Jerry’s counter and get the cookie dough with melted chocolate and chopped hazelnuts on top.
#3: Turkey Nuggets – When I meet up with my little sister, we always make sure one night we can have chicken nuggets for dinner. That is, chicken nuggets for her, turkey nuggets for me. This comes down to our age gap. We both love school dinners (apparently this is weird) but when I went to school we were always given turkey nuggets instead of chicken nuggets, and so I prefer turkey nuggets. Also, for the perfect meal, we buy the potatoes shaped as smiley faces.
#2: Yo Sushi – Does it count if it’s an entire chain store? When I’m out, nothing is as easy and cheering up-y as going to Yo Sushi. Especially on their blue monday deals. The thing with Yo Sushi is that they have a surprisingly large selection of food, although the menu is catered towards western tastes with very little adventure in the way of actual raw fish. My instant pick me up is to get the salmon sashimi, masago gunkan, soft shelled crab handroll and seaweed salad. I would put the salmon and masago into the handroll for a super mega handroll and the salad would be to make sure i was still being healthy. All with unlimited green tea. Plus I love their chocolate mochi.
#1: Steak – Steak has always been the number one thing to cheer me up. In fact, it’s so bad that when I lived with my bestfriend and first housemate, he could tell how my day was depending on what I cooked for dinner. Steak nights were also our “let’s watch anime and not talk” nights because my day had to have been that bad. I like to eat my steak blue, or as rare as I’m allowed. I can’t remember ever liking it done any more, even from a young age. Some people find this disgusting, but then I find well done steak a waste of good meat.
So the question that is burning on everyone’s minds! Where is the burger? The burger is a hobby for me, and thus I can’t put it on this list! Alas!