Comfort Food & Memories

As I sit on my couch this weekend nursing my cold while slurping my spicy kimchi instant noodles, I asked my also sick hubby whether he wanted me to make him some. Something in his face expression tells me he isn’t too impressed with my food choice 😀

Got me thinking about comfort food and what that means to different people. Whenever I’m sick, certain food like my trusted instant noodles always come to mind & they come to mind not because always of the food itself but more importantly, the memories attached to it.

Now I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that food is a Singaporean past time 🙂 & judging from international sales of instant noodles, I’m not far behind when I say that Asians are obsessed with instant noodles lol. Don’t believe me? Check out this interesting article at https://kontinentalist.com/stories/we-are-just-that-into-mie-asia-s-obsession-with-instant-noodles

According to the World Instant Noodles Association (and yes, I actually can’t believe this is a real website lol), Asians are the biggest consumers of instant noodles.

And instant noodles really have come a long way from its humble beginnings of just chicken or beef instant noodle. You can pretty much find any variety you like these days – the choices are endless. Well if you head to a western supermarket in Canada, you will still likely only find the beef, chicken & maybe one or two other variety but head to any supermarket in Asia or a Asian supermarket in Canada, you are gonna see a whole lot of variety that you never see before.

So our obsession is not the only reason why instant noodles is my comfort food. Because you are right. They are completely unhealthy and in no way provide any form of nutrition. But it’s not like I’m eating it as a staple food. I only eat them once in a long time such as when I’m feeling sick.

I think I started eating instant noodles when I was a teenager and when you are a teenager, nutrition was the last thing on my mind lol. But not my mom.

The way my mom made us instant noodles – it definitely didn’t feel instant at all. In fact, she always put so much work to pack so much nutrients in those noodles. I actually remember mocking & teasing my mom that if she had to put so much work in making instant noodles for me, it might as well not be called instant noodles. Kinda feel like a jack ass now lol. Never really appreciated her for all the things she did for us.

So how my mom would cook our instant noodles – instead of using the seasoning powder, she would use homemade chicken broth (not Campbell chicken broth but made from scratch wholesome good chicken broth). Instead of using any artificial ingredients that came along with the instant noodles, she packed it with tons of fresh green leafy vegetables, egg and healthy protein. See how much more extra work that took for her. Best mom ever. I love you Mom!!

And this is why instant noodles is one of my comfort food 😀 . Because now that I’m so far away from my mom, making food the way she does makes me feel closer to her. And now that I’m a mom, I finally understand why moms do the “extra” things we do for our children like how I tried to add vegetables to Ryan’s meatballs or chia seeds to his blueberry muffins.

So for my instant noodles, I cheated and used Campbell no salt chicken broth lol. I mean I call myself a lazy mommy for a reason. But I added tons of green leafy vegetables, fresh mushrooms, crab meat and instead of the artificial dehydrated kimchi that came with the noodles, I used real kimchi to make the broth a bit spicy.

So there you go – slurping my instant noodles. What’s your comfort food? What’s the first thing you crave for when you are sick or when you are having a bad day? I bet that comfort food is tied to some pretty awesome memories 😀 .

Happy weekend everyone!