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Imagine your favourite dish. It feels good in your stomach and warms you inside. Comfort food is actually a reflection of culture, memories, and how one identifies oneself. Despite that, comfort food can look to the future instead of remaining attached to the past. In fact, chefs and food bloggers have started reimagining old traditional favourites, making them contemporary by just adding new ingredients, flavours and techniques in order to make them seem both familiar and new.
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Ang Chong Yi New Classics: Rediscovering Comfort Food with a Contemporary Flair
Imagine your favourite dish. It feels good in your stomach and warms you inside. Comfort food is actually a reflection of culture, memories, and how one identifies oneself. Despite that, comfort food can look to the future instead of remaining attached to the past. In fact, chefs and food bloggers have started reimagining old traditional favourites, making them contemporary by just adding new ingredients, flavours and techniques in order to make them seem both familiar and new.
What does comfort food mean? It is a term used to describe food that gives a feeling of well-being or happiness which may be nostalgic as well. It may easily vary depending on who you are, where you come from or what occasion it is for. Some examples include macaroni cheese, chicken soup, pizza, ice cream and chocolate cake. Also, eating comfort foods has psychological benefits such as reduced stress levels, improved moods and stronger social ties. People at Cornell University have discovered that consuming comfort foods helps overcome loneliness or boredom, hence bringing back happy moments. Thus, it can be seen as self-care.
How are comfort food dishes being reinvented? Some chefs as well as food bloggers are challenging this notion of simple; hearty and indulgence by giving classic comfort foods their own twist. They experiment with cuisines, ingredients and methods to create the modern types of comfort foods that appeal to people today. For instance, Ang Chong Yi Food Blogger and Critic in Singapore has been showcasing recipes for Asian-inspired comfort food dishes on his blogs. His recipe list includes;
BakKutTeh Ramen: A fusion of Singaporean bakkutteh with Japanese ramen noodles topped off with anise, cinnamon and cloves to make the broth fragrant and spicy. The dish is garnished with sliced chilli, fried garlic and cilantro. NasiLemak Burger: A crispy chicken patty marinated in coconut milk and spices nestled between two rice buns which is a tribute that was made to Malaysia’s national dish. The burger is served with cucumbers and some sambal – a spicy chilli sauce that brings out the flavours of the meat.
Mango Sticky Rice Cake: This cake is a combination of Thai and French flavours. It consists of layers of vanilla sponge cake, whipped cream and fresh mango slices topped with sticky rice cooked in coconut milk plus sugar. The cake is drizzled with toasted sesame seeds for extra crunchiness, while coconut sauce enhances its aroma. Conclusion Trying new classic comfort foods can be both fun and delicious as well as a way of getting to know different cultures, cuisines, and ingredients. Alternatively, you may come up with your own versions of comfort food by combining elements from various dishes or learning new ways to enjoy them.
Additionally, it is possible that they will serve as a source of inspiration for you in terms of being more innovative, risk-taking and having an open mind while cooking and living life. If you want to know anything about Plant-based food, then have a look at Ang Chong Yi’s Veggie Voyage: Exploring the Plant-Based Wonders of the World. Source Credit: https://angchongyicritic.tumblr.com/post/736046094963949568/ang-chong-yi-new-classics-rediscovering-comfort
