What Are Your Comfort Foods And Seasonings?

[Mother Dragon]

It seems to me that different areas have different comfort foods and cook a lot with different ingredients and spices.

Where are you located (general area is fine) and what are your comfort foods, common ingredients, and spices?

I'm from the Gulf Coast of Texas and comfort foods here are chicken and flat dumplings, fried chicken, chicken fried steak with cream gravy, pinto or red beans and cornbread, gumbo, mac and cheese, often with Velveeta, black eyed peas, greens (mostly mustard, turnip, and collard), and just about anything Tex-Mex such as enchiladas and tacos.

As a whole, we use lots of garlic, chili powder, hot peppers, onions, red and green peppers, red onion, tomato products, okra, tortillas and tortilla chips, avocados (gotta have guacamole!), powdered chiles, sage, basil, rosemary, Tabasco, cilantro, bay leaves, lime juice, and red pepper.

Lamb is low on the meat scale here, with chicken on top, then beef and pork. Tripe sells pretty well in some areas, as do trotters and whole pig heads. We have to have brisket and both beef and pork ribs for spicy bbq.

Now it's your turn to showcase your area.

 

[Winchester]

Central PA here. Mac and cheese, chicken corn soup (must have rivels though), pretty much any kind of creamy casserole (tuna and noodles, for example, but NOT with cream of anything soup!). Fried chicken, but now I do it in the air fryer. Beef pot pie, which is probably like your flat dumplings that you make with chicken, I'm thinking. (We should compare recipes on those dumplings.) I love BBQ chicken, too. And pizza. A really good beef stew or pot roast screams comfort for me, especially when the snow is flying outside. For desserts, I'll take hot milk sponge cake, a white coconut cake, a good bread pudding with a custardy bottom, shoo-fly cake, lemon anything, and chocolate pretty much anything.

Seasonings include peppers and hot peppers, cinnamon, chili powder, onions and red onions, tomatoes, basil and oregano (pizza just rocks), pretty much anything. Not particularly fond of cilantro; I can take it or leave it. I love, love, love paprika. Penzey has Hungarian, smoked Spanish, and sharp and I love all three of them and find ways to use them. Yum. We have a lot of Amish and Mennonites here and they have greatly influenced our cooking.

Beef (more so for Rick and we don't have it that often anymore), lots of chicken, pork, salmon and haddock with some tilapia and catfish thrown in for good measure. I dearly love wild salmon, but it's expensive here.

There's other stuff, too, I'm sure.

 

[neely]

I'm from the Chicago area. The two most popular dishes that come to mind are deep dish pizza and Vienna hot dogs. Chicagoans love their hot dogs which, btw, you can only order with mustard. If you put ketchup on a hot dog here you'll get some pretty nasty looks. Also popular are cheeseburgers, just ask the Cub fans about Billy Goat Tavern. And, last but not least, steak and prime rib are on many menus. Of course, that doesn't help me since I'm vegetarian.

As for seasonings, Chicago is a very diverse ethnic city with many different cultures. I love spices and seasonings so cannot narrow it down to just a few. My personal favorites are ceylon cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg, ginger, cumin, turmeric and basil.

 

[artiemom]

Boston area... Pasta! Pizza! and mashed potatoes, steak tips,
and homemade chicken soup, tomato soup, beet soup, and a ton of Polish foods: kielbasa, pierogies, potato pancakes with sour cream, and golumpkies... toll house cookies!

 

[Mother Dragon]

I'm from the Chicago area. The two most popular dishes that come to mind are deep dish pizza and Vienna hot dogs. Chicagoans love their hot dogs which, btw, you can only order with mustard. If you put ketchup on a hot dog here you'll get some pretty nasty looks. Also popular are cheeseburgers, just ask the Cub fans about Billy Goat Tavern. And, last but not least, steak and prime rib are on many menus. Of course, that doesn't help me since I'm vegetarian.

As for seasonings, Chicago is a very diverse ethnic city with many different cultures. I love spices and seasonings so cannot narrow it down to just a few. My personal favorites are ceylon cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg, ginger, cumin, turmeric and basil.

If you know about ceylon cinnamon I'd bet you're a Penzey's customer. I love ceylon, China, and Vietnamese cinnamons, each for a different property.

Ketchup seems to be common on dogs here, but not for me. I like chili cheese dogs with onions. The other half likes his with sauerkraut. Eating steak out is on the pricey side here, but at some restaurants, it's utterly absurd. At Killen's, an iceberg lettuce wedge is $10. An ordinary 20 oz. wet aged ribeye is $52, an 18 oz. dry aged one is $62, a 16 oz. domestic wagyu is $90, and an actual Japanese wagyu 4 oz.filet mignon is $100, with each additional 2 oz. costing $45. Needless to say, I've not tasted any of them.

I've got to have garlic, basil, marjoram, thyme, bay leaves (fresh from my tree), cinnamon, chili powder, and an Italian mix. Oh, and whole tellicherry peppercorns.

We have quite a few vegetarian restaurants and there are a lot of Indian places that serve a great deal of vegetarian items. As for me, I'm a 100% carnivorous beef-eating Texan.

 

[muffy]

I'm from Maryland and the only thing I can think of is Blue Crabs. I've been a vegetarian ever since I was 8 years old and I don't remember if I ever had one. I remember my grandmother was crazy about them. Every Saturday she would have her Blue Crabs and beer.

Muffy

 

[Mother Dragon]

I'm from Maryland and the only thing I can think of is Blue Crabs. I've been a vegetarian ever since I was 8 years old and I don't remember if I ever had one. I remember my grandmother was crazy about them. Every Saturday she would have her Blue Crabs and beer.

Muffy

Too bad there's not a decent vegetarian imitation crab. Maryland has some incredible crab cakes. I don't think they'd be the same without the crab, though.

As I said to Neely above, Indian restaurants do some wonderful vegetarian things. Do visit them or make any Indian food yourself?

 

[muffy]

Too bad there's not a decent vegetarian imitation crab. Maryland has some incredible crab cakes. I don't think they'd be the same without the crab, though.

As I said to Neely above, Indian restaurants do some wonderful vegetarian things. Do visit them or make any Indian food yourself?

I've been to a Indian restaurant once and the food was too spicy for me. There is a Mexican restaurant in my town that has a lot of vegetarian things and of course these is always Chinese food.

When I was a kid my mother would buy crab sticks. They were like fish sticks but made with crabs and I loved them.

Muffy

 

[neely]

If you know about ceylon cinnamon I'd bet you're a Penzey's customer.
We have quite a few vegetarian restaurants and there are a lot of Indian places that serve a great deal of vegetarian items. As for me, I'm a 100% carnivorous beef-eating Texan.

Sorry, I've never heard of Penzey's. I get my ceylon cinnamon at an independent spice/seasoning store about 40 minutes away from us.
And, yes, I love Indian food especially dishes from Southern India. I also crave Thai and Ethiopian food. All three use wonderful spices and seasonings.

 

[miagi's_mommy]

I live in Montana and the all time favorite here is pastys. It's a pastry made with beef, onion and potatoes. I like the individual ones but my mom and dad prefer the pie. She makes the best ones. Usually you put ketchup and gravy on them but I just use ketchup.
Pasty - Wikipedia

Huckleberry shakes or ice cream are also a favorite. It's our state fruit; since huckleberries are so expensive.. the next best thing is having it in ice cream form. One of our local ice cream places has the option for you to have a cone with the ice cream dipped in chocolate, cherry or butterscotch. I've had it dipped in chocolate and oh man it's amazing! There's nothing better than huckleberries and chocolate!

As for spices, garlic is commonly used.

 

[Kat0121]

Born and raised in NY so soft pretzels, NY pizza, NY bagels. Can you tell this girl is a bread monster?

As much as I love Florida I do miss New York's pizza and bagels. No one else's will do. The pizza here for the most part is terrible and the bagels are even worse.

I love garlic and onions. I also love King Arthur Flour's Vietnamese cinnamon. They also have an orange vanilla extract called Fiori di Sicilia. IT. IS. MAGNIFICENT.

You could dab a bit behind your ears and drive people insane. It's really that good. I made sugar cookies for an office thing and added a bit of that instead of regular vanilla and people inhaled them. The smell in the house when they were baking was intoxicating. Fiori di Sicilia - 1 oz.

 

[Winchester]

I love garlic and onions. I also love King Arthur Flour's Vietnamese cinnamon. They also have an orange vanilla extract called Fiori di Sicilia. IT. IS. MAGNIFICENT.

You could dab a bit behind your ears and drive people insane. It's really that good. I made sugar cookies for an office thing and added a bit of that instead of regular vanilla and people inhaled them. The smell in the house when they were baking was intoxicating. Fiori di Sicilia - 1 oz.

Kat, Kat, Kat. You know, I have a gift card to King Arthur that's been burning a hole in my mixer. I guess it's time to do an order. I think we talked about that a while back and I was going to get Fiori di Sicilia and didn't. It's time. And thanks for the reminder. (I wonder why it has to be shipped standard ground?)

You reminded me. I bought a bottle of Baker's Ammonia from King Arthur a while ago to make a cookie in their cookie book. Hint: Do NOT open the bottle and take a whiff! Honestly, it took my breath away. I went outside and took huge, gulping breaths of air. I knew that ammonia was strong and not to breathe the stuff in. But I didn't realize that Baker's Ammonia was like that. I didn't think I was ever going to be able to breathe again.

For cinnamon, I was using Penzey's Chinese cassia cinnamon. About two years ago, I switched over to their Vietnamese cinnamon. It really is stronger and more fragrant. I love anything cinnamon and this is good stuff.

For anybody who lives around the Chicago or Wisconsin areas, visit The Spice House. I believe The Spice House was started by relatives of Bill Penzey and their spices are excellent. When we were in Chicago a few years ago, a GF took me to The Spice House in the Evanston area. Wow. You won't be disappointed if you enjoy shopping for and using spices. Check out their Tomato Powder, which is something Penzey doesn't carry. I bought a bottle and fell in love. It's perfect to add to anything when you want an extra kick of tomato. (I now make my own tomato powder from the tomatoes in our garden, but if you can't garden, you might want to try it from The Spice House.)

 

[cheeser]

I'm from the Gulf Coast of Texas and comfort foods here are chicken and flat dumplings, fried chicken, chicken fried steak with cream gravy, pinto or red beans and cornbread, gumbo, mac and cheese, often with Velveeta, black eyed peas, greens (mostly mustard, turnip, and collard), and just about anything Tex-Mex such as enchiladas and tacos.

As a whole, we use lots of garlic, chili powder, hot peppers, onions, red and green peppers, red onion, tomato products, okra, tortillas and tortilla chips, avocados (gotta have guacamole!), powdered chiles, sage, basil, rosemary, Tabasco, cilantro, bay leaves, lime juice, and red pepper.

Lamb is low on the meat scale here, with chicken on top, then beef and pork. Tripe sells pretty well in some areas, as do trotters and whole pig heads. We have to have brisket and both beef and pork ribs for spicy bbq.

Now it's your turn to showcase your area.

And don't forget Blue Bell ice cream! I know it's available in lots of places these days. But when I was growing up, it was a local treat from that little creamery in Brenham, and many of us still tend to think of it that way.

 

[blueyedgirl5946]

My favorite comfort food is collars. For seasonings, rib side meat or bacon grease.