Comfort Food (for Thought)

Comfort food. Let’s just sit with that idea for a moment–Comfort Food. Food that brings comfort. After a crummy day, or a trying week comfort food is the elixir that recalls life’s normalcy and returns out of whack emotions back into balance. I don’t know about you, but when I think about comfort food I think of something substantial, and likely making the not THAT on the Eat This, Not That top ten list. Lasagna. Dirty Tots. Deep Dish Pizza. Cheeseburger. Smoked Chicken Wings. If savory isn’t your thing…Chocolate Lava Cake. Chocolate Chip Cookies. Double Dutch Brownies. I think you are picking up what I’m putting down.

Food has real power. Perhaps Mike Myers playing Stuart Mackenzie in So I Married an Axe Murder captured food’s grip on us best. Stuart Mackenzie: “Oh, I hated the Colonel with is wee beady eyes! And that smug look on his face, “Oh, you’re gonna buy my chicken! Ohhhhh!” Charlie Mackenzie: “Dad, how can you hate the Colonel?” Stuart Mackenzie: “Because he puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes ya crave it fortnightly, smartarse!” Right?! Okay, KFC isn’t your thing? How about Lay’s Potato Chips, you can’t eat just one. Or in my case, tortilla chips. Specifically, Tostitos Whole Grain Scoops, which allow me to secure the maximum tonnage of Mrs. Renfro’s Habanero Salsa per bite.

Recent world events have heightened comfort food’s importance for me personally…for many of us. Through the stress created by shelter-in-place as a result of COVID-19, food has been salvific in its ability to bring comfort. Wait, Kroger, COSTCO, and Piggly Wiggly are out of toilet paper? Let’s cook something! No flour? Let’s cook something (that doesn’t require flour)! Can’t chill with my friends at Guggman Haus? Let’s cook something! My whole family is stuck in this one-floor house for the unforeseeable future? Let’s cook something! For me, that meant, for the most part, my go-to food therapy of the smoker and the grill. And, like many of you, I took to Facebook to display the pictorial evidence of my culinary efforts. It was a thing, wasn’t it? People I hadn’t heard from in years were giving me the thumbs up. At first, I was pretty stoked…”Hey, they think I’m great.” NOPE. It’s the food. Food has real power, especially comfort food. Food is the great emancipator. It frees us from our current condition and transports us to our preferred destination, albeit if only ephemerally (<< fancy word for short-lived).

On Facebook and Instagram, my social media weapons of choice, what should have been only an exhibition, became a competition. All of us in the social media world began hilariously one-upping each other. “Oh yeah, well watch this!” My Wagyu beef was dry-aged in Bob Dylan’s old gym locker at the University of Minnesota. What?! In my case, smoking and grilling had become a pretty pedestrian affair. I can do this stuff blindfolded and backward. Let’s try something new…something outside my comfort zone. Baking. Oh yeah, baby. I became a regular Betty Freaking Crocker. Bread. Muffins. Bagels. I was seriously proud of myself. This would be like a 3 chords and the truth 80s hack guitarist playing in a proper jazz band. I was riding an all-time high. I had transcended my limited scope of culinary expertise and was getting double-digit “likes” on Facebook. HUGE for me.

Then…the dark side of food’s real power. The non-comforting side. To quote the lyrics of the U2 song Exit, “The hands that build, can also pull down.” Food had produced a connective coping euphoria for so many of us, but it proved fleeting. Just like that, poof, it was gone. Well, what am I supposed to do now? I tried to pass the time by deconstructing a pallet and building a raised-bed planter (how-to soon to follow). That was pretty cool, but it just rang kind of hollow. Nothing quite satisfies the soul like spending good quality time with your charred food vessel of choice. I returned to the comfort of preparing food without pretense. Back to the smoker and the grill.

There is a certain comfort the relationship you have with your smoker, grill, or oven brings in the midst of uncertainty. The relationship you have with your grill or smoker isn’t a one night stand. Oh no. It’s a commitment. If you’ve ever heard someone who grills a lot say, “You got to know your grill.” That’s not hyperbole, it’s true. Smokers, grills (and yes ovens too) have a personality. They have hot spots, sweet spots, prefer one kind of charcoal over another, and will burn you in an instant if you turn your back on them. Well, hello old friends, I’m back. Let’s get back to the business of comforting. What shall it be tonight?

Whether it is rote mindlessness or intentional escape, the calming effect of pouring your essence into culinary pursuits for yourself, or to share with family and friends, is undeniable. Social media or not, preparing food has been my escape, my comfort, during this trying episode…it always has been. Bon Appétit to everyone on the journey.