Comfort food

Captain's Log, Stardate 11.06.2008

So this week, I’ve been sick. I think I got sick at church (I always seem to get sick at church).

I was feeling so miserable that I resorted to comfort food. What surprised me was the comfort food I picked to eat.

Normally I love chicken noodle soup or mac and cheese. This time, I made something completely Japanese-Hawaiian (Mom would have been proud of me).

I made shoyu egg rice—an egg scrambled with soy sauce and then fried like scrambled eggs, served over hot rice (the Japanese short-grain rice, not Uncle Ben’s), and topped with furikake, which is small pieces of dried seaweed and toasted sesame seeds and other spices formed into a dry shake topping which is typically used with rice.

I sat at the table and just reveled in the comfort the dish brought me. My sensitive stomach liked the bland rice, my ion levels like the salt in the furikake, and I’m sure something else inside me liked the protein in the egg.

(My arteries probably didn’t like the cholesterol, but we’ll ignore them for now.)

What’s weird is that I never really thought of shoyu egg rice as “comfort food” before. Mom would always make it for breakfast for us (usually sans furikake) so it wasn’t anything particularly special, or even something particularly bad for us.

But this time, being sick, my body just craved it. Weird, huh?

How about you? Any weird comfort food stories you want to share?

Comments

Anonymous said…

Oh, I hate being sick. But my comfort food is Mac and Cheese. It reminds me of when I was a kid and mom took care of me... Weird?

Anyway, I hope you feel better really soon.

Thu Nov 06, 04:55:00 AM 2008

Pencildancers said…

I know I'm really in need of tender care when I reach for a bologna sandwich and cambles bean with bacon soup.

Thu Nov 06, 10:06:00 AM 2008

Avily Jerome said…

My comfort food usually isn't when I'm sick. But I'm hardly ever sick, so there's that.

But I tend to want comfort food when I'm emotional, and that typically means chocolate or doughnuts...

Good thing I'm not emotional too often, either, huh?! :)

Thu Nov 06, 10:46:00 AM 2008

darbyscloset said…

Oh, I'm sorry to hear you are sick...that's rotten! You've been running yourself pretty hard thou lately so it is w/out a doubt your bodies way of telling you to slow down and rest!! The egg dish sounds interesting. Is that sprinkle a fairly common item in the states? My comfort food when I am sick is Campbel's Chicken Noodle soup with saltines.....yes I love home made chicken noodle soup made with the egg noodles yet for some reason when I am ran down, I just cannot get enough of the Campbel's version!!!!! I think it is their broth soaked into the saltines...talk about a sodium overload!!!
Well hope you feel better soon!!!
Watch some silly TV!
Darby
darbyscloset at yahoo dot com

Thu Nov 06, 01:25:00 PM 2008

Camy Tang said…

That all sounds good to me right now!
Camy

Thu Nov 06, 02:59:00 PM 2008

Reihaisha said…

Camy-
I just had a cases of the stomach ick and I resorted to my regime of bananas, appelsauce, bread and hot toddies (tea and honey with rum).

If I am just streesed I go for a bowl of rice with katsuo mirin furikake.

Hope you tummy is all better soon.

reihaisha(at)yahoo(dot)com

Thu Nov 06, 03:17:00 PM 2008

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