What Is Referred To As "Comfort Food?"

Within the western context, "comfort food" usually refers to the hearty, staple meals of countries and societies with an Anglo-Saxon heritage. In North America, restaurants that advertise their meals as "comfort food" usually mean that what they serve resembles traditional home-cooked meals--something familiar, and offering no exotic surprises.

Comfort food served at restaurants usually includes meals like meat loaf, roast beef, stuffed turkey dinner, fried chicken, New England clam chowder and many other foods. These types of meals are not only supposed to be tasty and familiar, but they serve to 'sooth' and 'calm' the person consuming them. The reason for this is actually quite simple: many people in the United States and Canada have fond memories of the meals cooked for them by their mother, or grandmother, and as adults, they sometimes yearn for the security and worry-free days of their childhood.

The term "comfort food" might mean something a little different in the UK, where some people link it more explicitly to food given to young children and babies.