Comfort Food

Do you have a comfort food?

Mine is Hagen Daz coffee ice cream. I zip to the store to buy a pint (or preferably a quart) if I'm sad, angry, sick, disappointed, or just plain grumpy. Last summer I was at Walgreens, searching the freezer, when a clerk told me they were discontinuing Hagen Daz coffee. I rushed home and fired off an e-mail to Hagen Daz, pleading with them not to destroy my comfort mainstay, and found, to my relief, that it was only being discontinued by Walgreens, not the entire universe. Sigh of relief.

My next favorite comfort food is French toast with jam, usually if I'm sick.

When Ralph was hospitalized, I indulged myself in daily smoothies, usually accompanied by a large cookie, either chocolate chip or peanut butter. A year later, I returned to M.D. Anderson Hospital for an appointment with my G-I specialist, who had moved there from another hospital but was still seeing his former, non-cancer patients. I hated being in that building but decided to treat myself to a smoothie to relieve my stress. God, it was awful. So sweet I ended up tossing most of it into the trash. How did I consume one every day? I guess I needed the sugar high at the time.

One food I don't eat, alas, is chocolate. It gives me migraine so the most I can do is imagine it.

How do people choose comfort foods? To remind them of childhood? To load up on carbs? To give them a way to focus, even for a few minutes, on something besides their troubles? Whatever the reason, everyone seems to have one. What's yours?