Comfort Food

Fore Check

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Folks, I live in North Texas. More specifically: I live close enough to Dallas/Ft. Worth to claim them as proximity markers.

I didn't "grow up" here. I was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. Moved away after college and ended up here (for now) 6 years ago.

With that background information, I move us along to the subject matter of this post. "Comfort food."

Think about what you would call "comfort food." You know - good ol' home cookin that just makes yer belly grin. I'm sure that it is different for all of us, but, in general, I would also argue that there are patterns that can be drawn somewhat geographically due to local cuisine patterns and preferences.

For example: When I speak to my co-workers here in Bridgeport, Texas about their ideas of "comfort food," I get responses like: Chicken Fried Steak, Chicken Fried Deer Cutlets, All-Meat Chili with extra jalapenos, "red velvet" cake, Bar-be-que brisquet with beans, that kind of stuff.

YUCK!

Well, Ok. Occasionally, for lunch, those dishes are fine.

But "Comfort Food?!?!?!?!?!"

Those same co-workers call me a Yankee. To be more accurate, they call me a "damned Yankee" (the difference being that a "d*** yankee" won't go home....) and thus give me a hard time about my tastes every time I open my lunch pail.

These guys have never heard of toasted ravioli, canneloni, Imo's Pizza (drool............................)

But what made me think of all this was the dinner my wife brought home today.

So I got home today from work, paid the babysitter as she handed off the baby to me, and sat down. The baby immediately started to cry. And cry. And cry. And cry. No matter what I'd do - she cried.

My wife came home 2 hrs. later. And the baby was still crying.

But my wife redeemed herself. She brought home dinner! A pound of deli sliced corned beef, a can of saurkraut, swiss cheese, rye bread, and Russian dressing.

So I sit here, just floored by heavenly mounds of Reuben Sandwich yumminess. Is there a better sandwich? I don't know - and I certainly couldn't name one right now. You can't get a Reuben sandwich at a restaurant in Texas, I think. Yes, I believe it is a state law that such Yankee food shall be outlawed and replaced by jalepeno covered chicken fried red velvet cake.

ACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those of you who haven't ventured far from the nest (so to speak) may not appreciate this as much. But I'd love to chuckle at some of you other world travelers experiences with the long-lost tastes of "home."
 

rstaff3

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Fore Check, if you don't consider ckicken fried steak, BBQ, and chili comfort foods, you deserve to be a yankee! :) Those are all on my list but add Mexican food for me (green chicken enchiladas, pork tamales, and even them newfangled fajitas). And maybe some gulf shrimp. Then theres gyros and Phill cheesesteaks. Ack I gotta quit, I've started moving north with my list!
 

rstaff3

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Hehehe, I remember when I was working in Houston a guy came down to work for a couple of weeks from the MD area. When his chicken fried steak came, he told the waitress he got the wrong order. Hey, where's my steak? Where's my fried chicken? Boy did we get a chuckle.
 

SecretSquirrel

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Originally posted by Fore Check



These guys have never heard of toasted ravioli

You can't get a Reuben sandwich at a restaurant in Texas, I think.

You just don't know where to shop
 

cls

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hmmm... maybe it's "discomfort food" but just about anything with some really hot peppers suits me just fine!!

oh by the way Fore Check, my infant daughter cried every day from 16:30 to 18:30 PM. it was just the "cranky hour", she just wanted to get it all out. maybe your baby is like that too?
 

jflis

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Originally posted by rstaff3
Fore Check, if you don't consider ckicken fried steak, BBQ, and chili comfort foods, you deserve to be a yankee! :)

I *am* a yankee and *still* list all of those as my comfort foods :D

Add to that pot roast with potato and carrots
New York style pizza (*real* NY pizza!)

pan fried trout or yellow perch

hot wings

raw rubarb with salt :D

buttered white toast with chocolate milk... mmmmmmmmm

:)
 

Fore Check

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Originally posted by Elapid
ahi tuna...
white rice...
sushi ROCKS!

MMMMMmmmm.....

Kampachi

Zuke

Edamame

Toro

I *love* sushi................
 

teflonrocketry1

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I have fond memory from when I was in Leipzig, Germany. We had been there most of a week and decided to see what "American" food was like in Germany (since we were starting to miss our American comfort foods). My coworker and I walked to a nearby Burger King Restaurant. Aside from having beer to drink with the meal at a fast food place, the stuff they gave us in the little white plastic packets for the fries wasn't Ketchup; it was Mayonnaise! I wish Burger Kings served beer like that in the 'states, but I am not sure about putting Mayo on the French fries. The German locals were shocked when we asked for Ketchup to put on our fries!

Bruce S. Levison, NAR #69055
 

rocketkid88

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lets see:

mamaliga with branza

warm chocolate chip cookies w/milk

sarmale

pIzZa!

Rabbit BBQ!!.... nothing makes my mouth water like that!


those would be my all-time favorites, the 'mamaliga' and the 'sarmale' are foods that I learned to love while i lived in Romania.
 

n3tjm

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Me? I love Tacos :)

When I smell that familiar smeel..... droooool

I also quite fond of a good ham and cheese sandwich.

Oh!

And chicken parm with that creamy noodle stuff

OH OH OH!!!

And Fried Chicken with Rice-o-Roni!

DROOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLL


(keyboard shorts out)
 

Hospital_Rocket

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Ok

Comfort Food

I was raised in El Paso until age 19 anf then the USCG took me to new England for the 25 years since

Here they go:

Pork Tamales - absolutely nothing compares
Red Cheese & Carne Enchiladas
Chicken Flautas

Wienerschnitzel with Schupfnudeln....drool

Grits - how to pick a southern boy out of the crowd.

Iced tea with a sprig of mint and/or a hint of lemon (by the gallon)

And finally my ultimate - Chocolate Malto-Meal (no excuses)


As to Sushi - bring it on, just make sure you bread it and fry it first
 

rstaff3

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I'm from EP (an actual native) so we share an affinity for Mexikin food it appears :) Despite being over 1000 miles from TX and about 2000 from EP, we have pretty decent mexican food here. In fact our favoritie place is an off-shoot of a greasy spoon in EP. This was not the case 20+ years ago when we moved to MD. We also have a pretty decent Texas style BBQ. As for chili, we make the best (and yes we put beans in ours).

BTW Hospital, where in EP did you live? We (my wife and I) lived on the West side. We were just there a week ago.
 

jflis

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Originally posted by Fore Check


I *love* sushi................

I love sushi too...

...but here in New England we call it bait...

gud stuff!

:D :D :D
 

Hospital_Rocket

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Ah the ritzy side of town....

I grew up out in the far northeast in the area of where Trans Mountain Intersects Dyer

Parkland High area.

I was last there about 2 years ago when my Dad passed away. I moved my mom up here do I doubt I will ever go back.

I miss:

The Cattlemans Steakhouse in Fabens
Leo's Fine Mexican food
Pancho's

By the way, my mom makes the absolute best Green Chicken Enchiladas you will find on the east coast. I'll make you a deal..,You help me get my L2 and I'll get you a tray.

My brother flies out from San Diego with 5# of Tamales on dry ice once a year. I set some water boiling to steam them and settle down to polish off about a pound in the firsst 30 min.
 

Steward

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After passing over the title a couple of times...
I'm glad I checked it out... now...

For the life of me though... earlier I couldn't decide which food was comfortable enough to sleep on...:cool:
 

brianc

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Originally posted by Fore Check
All-Meat Chili with extra jalapenos,
There is no other kind of chili!!! If you add beans, it's no longer chili! ;)

Check out my award winning chili recipe-

<a href="https://www.linuxwidows.com/mirror/bucket/recipes/chili.htm">Coyle's Caustic Chili Concoction.</a>
 

brianc

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Although I haven't eaten hamburger since I read Robin Cook's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0399143165/102-4977384-9869736?v=glance#product-details">Toxin</a> many years ago,
there's a place in Fort Wayne, Indiana that serves up the best sliders-

Power's Hamburgers

Every town probably has something similar- and White Castle's and Krystal's have attempted
to mass market these. But there's nothing that compares to the small counter (15 seat),
family owned diner with a 50 year tradition and grease on the grill that's almost as old. ;)

And nothing beats grilled onions and steamed buns at 2am after a night on the town!
In fact, in most circles, "Powers before home" was the phrase most often heard after
"last call!".
 

SwingWing

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OOOh, I'm with ya on the Reuben forecheck!! (I'll take hot mustard instead of the dressing tho...)
Corned beef and cabbage is good once in a while too.

Fresh Walleye shorelunch can sure make my day.:cool:
 

rstaff3

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Originally posted by Hospital_Rocket


I miss:

The Cattlemans Steakhouse in Fabens
Leo's Fine Mexican food
Pancho's

By the way, my mom makes the absolute best Green Chicken Enchiladas you will find on the east coast. I'll make you a deal..,You help me get my L2 and I'll get you a tray.

My brother flies out from San Diego with 5# of Tamales on dry ice once a year. I set some water boiling to steam them and settle down to polish off about a pound in the firsst 30 min.

The Cattleman's is one of the few places that makes a steak better than me. There was a place out of town on the west side off of I10 that was just as good but I hear it's closed/changed hands. And Leos is one of our favs.

The Rio grande restaurante here in MD makes Tamales that rival anything I've had in Texas/Mexico. They make them fresh and coming from El paso they know their tamales!

Man I'm hongry!

BTW I'll be happy to give you tips on L2, with or without enchiladas!
 

rstaff3

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Originally posted by brianc
There is no other kind of chili!!! If you add beans, it's no longer chili! ;)

Check out my award winning chili recipe-

<a href="https://www.linuxwidows.com/mirror/bucket/recipes/chili.htm">Coyle's Caustic Chili Concoction.</a>

Call me a heretic but I like beans in chili! :p
 

SecretSquirrel

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For toasted ravioli try Campisi's the orginal on Mockingbird only. Not only do they have kicking toasted rav, but the Randy White Toasted Ravioli (has extra goodies on top) is so good it should be illegal. As for a Reuben Sandwich, try any deli in the Preston/Hillcrest area.

Terri
 

Fishhead

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Here in Cincinnati we enjoy the occasional toasted Cardinal. The crop has been pretty thin this year, but tonight was a good harvest. (I'm smellin' a collapse.) :D
For us, anything involving Cincy chili qualifies as comfort food. We were at a funeral tonight for my wife's aunt and I overhead my brother in law, who lives in Akron, telling one of his cousins about their dinner plans. The funeral home was near an old Chili parlor that was noted for their Slaw Dogs years ago. (Basically a hot dog with Cincy chili, cheese, and slaw. Excellent 3:00am beer blast food, trust me.) He had driven past the old site, but it was no longer there. He was greatly relieved to find that they had moved just down the street and was already counting off the amount of Slaw Dogs he was going to conquer. Then I told him about the Slaw Way.............
(Chili, spaghetti and cheese, all topped with cole slaw. Great going down, but rough on the rebound if you're unlucky that night.)
 

Pippen

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Well, this is a fine time to tell me!

For years I have been taking meals to families due to new babies, illness, emergencies, etc. I've been taking them things like cheeseburger soup, homemade rolls, spinach salad, and apple cream pie. And now I come to find out that I should have been taking chili, enchiladas, Rice-a-roni and sushi.

Geez... ;)

The ultimate comfort food for me is homemade bread warm out of the oven.
 

Fore Check

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Originally posted by SecretSquirrel
For toasted ravioli try Campisi's the orginal on Mockingbird only. Not only do they have kicking toasted rav, but the Randy White Toasted Ravioli (has extra goodies on top) is so good it should be illegal. As for a Reuben Sandwich, try any deli in the Preston/Hillcrest area.

Terri

See, I don't get down there much - living about an hour NW of Ft. Worth, and further away from Dallas. It takes me darn near an hour to get to Denton and an hour + 15min to get to Lewisville.

I guess I should say those things are unheard of and completely unavailable unless you go looking for them in the "big city." The local people of wise county would sooner gnaw their arms off than prepare (let alone eat) such things. :rolleyes:

And things like toasted ravioli were available at darn near every restaurant in town where I grew up. And it didn't have to be the fanciest and/or most unique Italian place in the city. Every pub, family restaurant, and Italian joint has got T-Ravs.
 

BlueNinja

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Hmmm... I got weird tastes, then... :D


Chicken fried steak- yuck
CHicken-yuck
Reubens- without the swiss cheese yum
Mexican food and any of it: YAHOO!
 

Chuck Rudy

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Cheese steak wit fried onions on an Amoroso

Pork Roll and cheese on an Amoroso

Scrambled egg, scrapple and cheese sandwich

Soft pretzel with the brown mustard

Pizza with sausage, onions and green peppers

Poppers

Maryland Blue claws

Tastykakes ......especially the Tandy Takes

Beer soaked Brats-thanks Wisconsin

New England Clam Chowder--or French onion soup


Gotta go, this got me hungry......and I looooove Reubens!!
 

hokkyokusei

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Meals (and attempted translations) I couldn't live without:

"Full English Breakfast"
Grilled or fired smoked bacon rashers (NOT canadian ham and NOT those anemic crisp insubstantial "things" I've been served in the states), fried eggs (sunny side up), grilled or fried pork sausage (links), fried mushrooms, tomatoes, fried slice (of bread), baked beans, fried black pudding (blood sausage), buttered bread and a large mug of strong tea.

"Stew & dumplings"
Stewed beef, peas, carrots, onions and suet dumplings.

"Fish & chips"
Battered, deep-fried cod, haddock or plaice with thick-cut "fries", and "mushy" peas.
 

SecretSquirrel

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Originally posted by Fore Check


And things like toasted ravioli were available at darn near every restaurant in town where I grew up. And it didn't have to be the fanciest and/or most unique Italian place in the city. Every pub, family restaurant, and Italian joint has got T-Ravs.


Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant isn't exactly what anyone would call fancy, but it is unique. It opened in 1946, sometime in the mid 50's they remodeled the place and it's pretty much stayed the same to this date. You go there for the experience as much as for the food.

The place has been famous in Dallas and now nationally. It was featured in the documentary 'The Men Who Killed Kennedy.' Joe Campisi was the number 2 man in the Dallas mafia at the time of the assisination. Jack Ruby ate there the night before Kenndy was shot (conspiracy theorists go nuts).
 
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