You just want ‘comfort’ food…
Just a burger and fries, home made, nothing fancy… Comfort…
Everybody has different ideas of what is ‘comfort’ food for themselves, and that is fine as we all grew up in different places eating different things.
But I do find there are only ‘certain’ places I will spend the $$ to get a burger and fries, and those are usually the greasy spoons. Why, you ask?
Because they remind me of the places I grew up where we didn’t have McDonalds, or the other fast food places. A&W was about it, back when they were a drive in, and Dairy Queen (where you ONLY got the ice cream). Otherwise, it was a mom and pop restaurant, or a greasy spoon… Yes, we were cheep! Hell, we didn’t have much money as kids, or even in the early years in the Navy.
I can afford better today, even the occasional steak dinner, but I still like and default to a plain old burger and fries…
What was/is your favorite comfort food? Mexican, Italian, British, Fish/shrimp???
For me, its mainly burgers and tacos. I’m a fan of Denny’s classic burger – fries for example. Jucier and better tasting than fast food joints. Only fly in ointment is it generally takes about 45 minutes from hitting door to burger hitting the table when its busy.
Tacos – the famous DDT (drug deal tacos) sold from individuals from their car trunks are very good. Sometimes a bit pricey but if not done every day, satisfactory. Breakfast so you have a chance to burn it off before hitting the sheets at night. My taco of choice – refried bean w/ bacon from El Pato restaurants. Not strips of bacon – CHUNKS of bacon so a bite you taste heavenly bacon. This taco will not run down your shirt like egg will so with care, you can eat everywhere. And for short rides, does not require refrigeration so handy.
tacos – though some would consider that cultural appropriation.
Hey Old NFO,
Yeah a good burger and fries….can’t beat it, although for me, meatloaf,mashed taters and peas….for some reason that is my real comfort food. I only eat it rarely…
Since a kid(many decades back!)till now me favorite is what a friend called ‘Tuna Bupkiss”.I boil pasta,add a lot of quality butter and salt/a can of tuna(white meat)/mix…….,and enjoy!
I do enjoy a good burger,just do not add plastic(cheese)!
Potted shrimps. Plaice. Smoked salmon. But then I grew up in a fishing town.
Fond of roast lamb, duck, and Cumberland sausages. But not in the same meal.
For breakfast: eggs, bacon, fried bread, black pudding. And a big field mushroom if available.
A burger and fries is perfect! A close second would be pizza how you like it.
Chicken fried steak made with “cube steak”, mashed potatoes, and cooked-to-death green beans.
Second to that is a foot long chile dog with fries. Forty years ago after coming back from a month on vacation in Europe, my ex and I stopped at a Dairy Queen on the west side of Fort Worth on our way back to Dyess AFB/Abilene and that was what made me feel home again.
Pork Lo Mein and an egg roll
Grilled cheese, or a quesadilla (made at home, so flour tortilla and lots of shredded cheddar cheese).
Baked beans on toast with bacon and cheese (bread, Van Camp’s beans, cheese, bacon, heat under broiler).
Tapioca pudding (made at home). In other words, all the stuff I grew up eating because we didn’t have much money, but I never realized it.
Store bought? A patty melt from Whataburger.
As a kid, we’d go to The Prince of Hamburgers on Lemmon Ave. in Dallas between Inwood and what is now the North Toll Road, a classic drive in with the trays on the car door. Their burgers and fries were classic Texas burger, which is why I still like Whataburger’s offerings since they are very similar. Gotta say, though, the WB’s are not as consistently good as they used to be. We’ll see how the new ones coming to NC are going to be. I’m not impressed with the one in Greensboro so far…
I also agree with Bill – nothing quite like a good chicken-fried steak. Or good BBQ… Or good Tex-Mex…
I lived less than a mile from there in the mid 50’s, can remember going with my aunt & uncle for burgers. BIG deal since money was tight back then. I was a sixth grader at Maplelawn and lived at the corner of Inwood and Maple.
I also remember the vet’s office on Inwood that had the sign with all the humorous sayings. I would collect old newspapers from around the neighborhood and sell them to him for a penny a pound.
Breakfast. Bacon, hash browns, eggs over easy (smushed into hash browns) biscuit with sausage gravy.
Burger, cooked medium on request, with side of onion rings. Here–
https://www.kincaidshamburgers.com/?page_id=78
Mom’s leg of lamb, never quite figured out how to make it, but damn it was good. Mom’s homemade chili. And yes, sacrilegious as it may be to you Texans, she made it with beans, so I do as well.
Fish, preferably catfish or mullet. The fish that everyone else today turns their nose up at it seems. Those were the fish we caught and I grew up on them. Fried mullet, hush puppies, grits, swamp cabbage, and for dessert, big cat head biscuits with a hole poked in ’em with your finger and poured full of homemade cane syrup.
We still have one or two fish houses around here who can serve all that up like they did back in the day.
Back in my computer fixin’ days, my territory covered ND, SD, NE, the western half if Iowa, the eastern 2.3rds of Kansas and the western half of MO. I had a lot of windshield time. Most of my customers were rural and I had a list of Mom ‘n Pop diners scattered throughout all those states.
Few of those diners still exist…but some do…like the Amish buffet in Jamesport, MO. All their food was made from scratch, even, on most occasions, the bread and pastries.
Chicken Fried Steak with gravy over everything.
Oh, yeah!!!!!!
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (blue box) and boiled hot dogs in slices of wonder bread. That’s pretty much what the Commissary sold.
When I was a kid, we’d drive to the beach and get buckets of “steamers” – which were clams. They were cheap and delicious! Also, during Lent, we’d go to McDonald’s and get Filet O’Fish sandwiches on Fridays – which is truly my secret indulgence. Haven’t had one in years.
Hard to beat properly done Mac n Cheese as a “comfort food”.
In Old Town Spring, in Spring, Texas, there’s a burger restaurant that is the closest thing I’ve found in years to what was available just about anywhere decades ago. I miss the burger joints, and the only local one that was left closed because the owner was too old, and tired, to keep it open.
I have found comfort in many plates of food. Chicken fried steak and mashed taters with gravy might be my fave.
All- Thank you for sharing those comments! I’m glad I’m not the only one that has comfort food memories!!!
A slice of New York style pizza like I grew up with, or a Philly steak sandwich.
Army brat growing up on Okinawa at Camp Zukeran. Shredded tuna over rice. Fried bologna sandwich, or fried spam. Still have them when the mood strikes.
I love fried Spam and cheese sandwiches!!!
White Castle sliders bakers dozen and a drink for a dollar.
Meat loaf, mashed potatoes, gravy.
Lawton’s Hot Dogs, on the corner of Canal St. and South Broadway, Lawrence, MA. A narrow building cantilevered over one of the Merrimack River’s water power canals of the textile mills of Lawrence. The “Bread and Roses Riots” happened further down Canal St. and South Union.
Everybody joked about how the place looked like it could fall into the canal water anytime.
They would steam the sausages, and butter and grill the insides of the hot buns to two crispy golden yellow planes, browned at the edges. That hot dog bun would *crunch* when you bit through it.
https://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/lawtons-famous-frankfurters-1929-2010/
A really beefy and cheesy lasagna, dripping with sauce and heaped with Parmesan cheese.
Cream cheese spread on toast and tuna (drained). A little Cayenne pepper if you like a little octane. Delicious !
Paid 23 bucks for exactly that at Sea World yesterday. Well, not exactly — the fries weren’t crinkled. When captive and hungry, got to fork over the bucks.
Cottage pie. Home-made bolognese. A sausage sandwich made with toast. Childhood tastes and the good things in life.
In my younger days it was a burger and curly fries at the Burger Bar in Leesville. Now I crave breakfast most times. I do like purple hull peas, pork chop and corn bread
Deacon in Louisiana
Sigh…now I’m hungry again… But DW, ‘really’ White Castle???
Deacon- I stopped there a few times back in the day. GOOD burgers, if it’s the place I’m thinking of. I used to go up 171 to Arkansas.
Bob, paid the equivalent of $46 for two burgers, one portion of fries and 1 regular coke at Shake Shake on the Tottenham Court Road in London yesterday. Seems to me you have it easy in the theme parks 🤣