Buenos Aires and Comfort Food

In the States I snacked on humus, crackers and ginger snaps. In Buenos Aires I snack on bacon and oranges fresh from our tree. Hm..

Adjusting to new comfort food when traveling or after a big move is an adventurous and comical affair.
The trick is to enjoy the local foods without gaining a hundred pounds or too much suffering. This includes a grieving process for what is no longer available.

Leaving Chicago.... left me craving lots of foods I didn't even know I liked before living there. Mexican and Middle Eastern food in general, two-dollar delicious non-fast food burgers, cheap organic pizza, fried mac and cheese, mini corn dogs, pulled pork sandwiches in a challah bread roll, micro-brewery beer on tap for only two dollars, cafes that sell organic juices, wine, liquor, coffee, and vegan cafe food all at the same time. I never ate a gyro sandwich before Chi. Fortunately they didn't become a habit.

New York... I miss your worldly collection of deliciousness available at any time of night. And bagels. Deliciousness.

New Hampshire and Maine: I miss your lobster and seafood in general. Your easy access to super markets fully stocked with all my favorite goods at a not so expensive price. Especially ginger snaps.

Maggie Smith did an excellent job playing her part in "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel." For anyone who hasn't seen the film and has a heart, an interest in traveling, aging, and/or.... (for lack of a better description) feel-good dry humor, go see this film. Maggie Smith's character begrudgingly adapts to moving from England to India. She gets used to almost everything but mourns her English biscuits. In her defense, English biscuits, otherwise known as digestives, are delicious. I mourn them too. Judi Dench's character, in the same movie, describes dunking a biscuit in tea with such perfection that I'm ready to book the next flight to London.

Speaking of London, the incredible access to Indian, Turkish and Persian food, not to mention fish and chips... Ok. Deep breath.

Buenos Aires is a place to feast on many things, especially meat. There are delicious thin toasted sandwiches called tostados available everywhere and I miss them when I'm away from Argentina. I have access to fruit fresh from our trees, family cooking, empanadas, milanesas and dulce de leche. Pastry shops are everywhere. There's a lot to be loved, but the problem with loving food and growing enamored and accustomed to foreign and local cuisine and living in all different kinds of places... is comfort food. That routine that you know leaves you feeling just right. That cookie. That beer. That glass of wine. That take-out restaurant. That home cooked meal. That favorite anything changes because it's not always available.

Traveling not only introduces new experiences, it also requires new habits and flexibility. And maybe some craftiness in the kitchen to try to recreate some of those far away comforting favorites, or many trips to many stores and cafes until they're recreated somewhere else, or enough time that they're forgotten and replaced.  

Food, unlike friends and family cannot be talked to on the phone. A photograph doesn't do a favorite dish justice. Tastes. Smells. Perhaps it's time to take my cooking ability to the next level and avoid this food/ home nostalgia. I bet I could create my own urban nomad cookbook. Any takers?