When it comes to comfort food, we're just as likely to crave ethnic dishes like chewy noodles with spicy black bean sauce as all-American classics like mac and cheese. In some cases it's the memory of a dish our Grandmother used to make, and in other instances we have been introduced to new flavors by our friends and their families. What are your favorite ethnic comfort foods?
(Shown above the jump, from left to right)
• 1 Congee - This soothing Asian porridge is made by boiling rice in water and adding various seasonings and condiments. I grew up eating the Vietnamese version, called cháo, and still long for my parents to be around to make it for me whenever I'm sick!
Recipe: Congee, Comfort Food for Frugal Times (The Kitchn)
• 2 Pierogi - Whether stuffed with cheese, vegetables, or meat and boiled, baked, or fried, these Eastern and Central European dumplings never fail to satisfy.
Recipe: Polish Pierogies (Epicurious)
• 3 Ful medammes - A hearty Egyptian and Arabic dish made from fava beans, olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice, and often served with fried or boiled eggs and a pita bread.
Recipe: Ful Medames (Egyptian Brown Fava Beans) (Claudia Roden)
• 4 Phở - This aromatic Vietnamese soup is the perfect balance of savory stock, slippery rice noodles, and fresh garnishes.
Recipe: Beef Pho Noodle Soup Recipe (Pho Bo) (Viet World Kitchen)
Vegetarian version: Vegetarian Pho (Vietnamese Noodle Soup) (The Kitchn)
• 5 Jjajangmyun - Chewy, hand-pulled wheat noodles, salty black soybean paste, and diced meat and vegetables make this a favorite Korean comfort food.
Recipe: Jjajangmyun (blackbean noodles) (Maangchi)
What are your favorite ethnic comfort foods?
Related: What Kind of Cuisine Did You Grow Up With?
(Image: Flickr member Sebastian Mary licensed under Creative Commons; Flickr member ginnerobot licensed under Creative Commons; Flickr member avlxyz licensed under Creative Commons; Flickr member Ron Diggity licensed under Creative Commons; Flickr member takaokun licensed under Creative Commons)
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Steamed salted fish and pork over fluffy white rice!!
Vegan teriyaki, Latkes, Pho etc. :)
Lubiya bi lahem wa rooz (Green bean and lamb stew)
Galumpkis! Or more commonly, stuffed cabbage. When my mom makes this Polish delight, I can eat platefuls and platefuls of it.
I always loved a hearty beef goulasch before my veg/vegan days...does anyone have any vegan variations?
Bagna Cauda- with napa cabbage crunchy veggies and crusty bread to dip.
Chicken Paprikash with Galushka. Always feels great, and the leftovers are just as good. Think I'll make that this weekend!
kheer, which is like congee except the rice boiled in milk with cardamom. So delicious and very comforting.
Hungarian stuffed peppers and chicken paprikash.
hot and sour soup!
Bacalao cooked in olive oil and garlic with yuca
From the many asian families on the block when I was growing up: steaming hot rice with spicy kimchee & other panchan, tom kha gai, pancit bihon, gyoza, chow fun...
All things Asian!
Two of my favs are:
Goi Cuon (Vietnamese spring rolls) with lots of nuoc cham (fish sauce) and nuoc leo (peanut sauce),
and
Vaca frita (Cuban fried steak) with fresh lime juice, black beans and rice.
The somewhat bland but always satisfying scandinavian food made by my grandparents: potato sausage, lefse, flatbread...even the herring means Christmas but I don't eat it.
Biscuits and bacon gravy.
Filipino adobo with white rice!
Grits. Grits casserole; grits, ham, & eggs; shrimp & grits; garlic-cheese grits; fried leftover grits. You want ethnic? Then call it polenta!
@phoxx - your comment just made me LOL. I love it!
Ma Po Dofu, Pot Stickers and Shrimp Curry.
Oh... how I'm jonesin'.
my hungarian grandma always made me cottage cheese and noodles -- egg noodles with butter and cottage cheese! simple and comforting!
My boyfriend's mom makes Tom Kha Gai that is out of this world. It's ridiculously delicious, and I have dreams about it. In the winter, it's the best thing to eat.
Which reminds me, I have some galangal in my freezer...
What do you mean "ethnic"? Why such a colonialist attitude in this lovely web site? I mean isn't American food also ethnic too? Do you assume that all readers of AT are white and worth "othering" non whites?
where's the menudo? the white kind with lots of hominy, cilantro, chitipin, and lemon...mmmm. would love to see AT write something up on that.
Congee, ma puo tofu, Chinese chicken noodle soup with baby bokchoy, shitake mushrooms
My favorite ethnic comfort foods are my Mexican nana's simple bean and cheese burritos or my Filipina grandma's hamburger soup or her sinigang, a sour soup made with fish, pork or chicken.
Chinese chicken and sweetcorn soup
@garmonbozia - I think Emily is talking about what ethnic food is to each individual.... there is no guideline stating what type of ethnicity! I was born and raised in New York.. and although I listed some Cuban & Vietnamese dishes as my favorite, shrimp & grits seems somewhat ethnic to me!
Sometimes people overkill with the PCness.
Love 2-4 any times and second Jennipher's Hot & Sour vote - nothing like it when I'm sick, tired, or down...
Acaraje; bean paste fritter, fried in palm oil, shrimp, salsa, okra, also sort of yummy Brasilian stuff. yum.
to garmonbozia:
Pierogis are Eastern European, aka "white". Nobody is trying to "other" non-whites.
My favorite comfort food is New Mexico Red Chile sauce. On anything, especially eggs.
My dad grew up in North Africa and my mom learned to make a lot of the traditional dishes he grew up with. One is called T'fina, and is basically a beef stew with turnips, chick peas, cabbage, stew meat on the bone, hard boiled eggs, and spiced with coriander and allspice. So delicious!!
Khichdi kadhi--it's an Indian comfort food meant for cold, rainy days. Basically, it's rice and dal cooked together until it's really soft and topped with kadhi, a sweet or yogurt soup of sorts.
Yum, Pho is definitely near the top of my list!!
tteok-guk (Korean rice cake soup, usually eaten on Lunar new years)
I never thought of pierogies as comfort food before, but those are high on the list of favorites too!
I could go for a huge hot pile of bbq steam buns from my local dim sum place...drool. And I'm as white as they come.
Chana masala or dal makhani. :-D
Green chile for sure, but also a big pan of potato, carrot, and green pea Indian curry!
Gotta back up garmonbozia. I'm pretty sure "ethnic" is assuming a caucasian readership. The term is useless to me-- if it really includes all groups of people, why use it at all?-- and possibly offensive to others.
All the food sounds DELICIOUS. Definitely a lot of things I now want to try.
pastitsio! and french fries and eggs. and trahana. those are the family-introduced comfort foods. i also love a volcanically hot bubbling cauldron of beef and soybean paste soon tofu. mmmmmmm
I'm Trinidadian so my comfort foods are
Breakfast: saltfish and fry bake
Dinner: Dal puri and curry chicken with a Carib beer and sugar cake for desert
Japanese Golden Curry (Black Box) with carrots, potatoes, onions, and diced up beef over Steamed Short Grain Rice.
+1 for a fried pork cutlet (katsu)
+2 for a fried potato croquette
+3 for a medium boiled soy sauce egg
I'm going with a stereotype- Lox Bagels and Schmear, gefilte fish, borscht, and Kraft mac n cheese!!
Stuffed cabbage also! Very good on a cold, rainy day. Put it over some mashed potatoes.....mmmmmm
Standard Jewish Grandmother chicken noodle soup with Manichewitz egg noodles!
@garmonbozia and others,
I certainly didn't mean to "otherize" or offend by my wording. As someone who is half-Asian and half-European (with *many* countries and ethnicities within each of those halves!), I simply meant to celebrate the diversity of foods that each of us may find comforting.
Anything with red sauce, though these days Italian doesn't count so much as ethnic does it? Also the best comfort foods are also the best hangover cures, and Carribbean Hispanic and Mexican dishes are always the best- empanadas, rice and beans, cheesy gooey fried anything really.
Garmonbozia's comment echos my thoughts.
Don't understand why the need to use the word "ethnic" to describe international cuisines that fall out of the "continental" menu.
There was a similar situation at Apartment Therapy last week when a house tour offered a glimpse at a collection of ethnic textiles and art works.
My two favs are... Cheese enchiladas. And wonton soup. Not together, of course.
@elizabeth marley - Tom Kha Gai is very high on my comfort food list. I just made some last week but its hard to match the sensational version at my favorite local Thai restaurant.
Other faves for me include Albondigas Soup. I was raised on it and love it! My kids have even become accustomed to it being our wintery food of choice and have planned to make it in Norway when we go to visit my Mr's family this Christmas.
And speaking of the Mr - his Scandinavian blood has made swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes with gravy a regular comfort dish around our place. I love making them and I love eating them too!! YUM!
I have a lot of comfort food favourite. Most are dishes my mom made growing up.
The list is:
Chicken Paprikash
Goulash soup with Butter Dumplings
Cooked Saurkraut with Caraway seeds
Spaghetti Carbonara
Hot and Sour Soup
Tuna Casserole (complete with Kraft Dinner and a can of mushroom soup. Don't forget the frozen peas!)
Perogies - boiled and served with butter and sour cream. NO frying for me
Tomato, Mayo and Butter sandwich on soft white bread. This one is the best in the summer!
man I love comfort food!
Tortiere, a French-Canadian pork pie traditionally made on Christmas Eve. There are as many variations as there are French-Canadian cooks. I use one much like my grandfather's.
Pad Thai!
White rice, takuwan (Japanese pickled radish) and fried spam!
Many great French Canadian comfort food but #1 for me isPoutine - chip wagon french fries, fresh cheese curds and rich, dark gravy - heaven!
What's wrong with the word ethnic? I really don't see a problem. The post is about describing your favorite comfort foods. Ethnicity can be used to describe the origin of the food, right?
Anyways, I would have to say my favorite comfort food that my mother always makes when I go home to visit is Hungarian bab leves (bean soup). It's amazing!
Ramen
potato pancakes (latkes but sometimes I just make them with potatoes and green onions)
Dutch stampot (mashed potatoes with all kinds of meat and veggies mixed in)
Dutch peasoup
Viennese potato soup
Schnitzl (never had a good one outside of Austria though)
a good Austrian style beef/onion roast with dumplings
lox bagel
palatschinken (pancakes that are a bit thicker than crepes) with Nutella
Mohnnudeln (an Austrian dish made with gnocchi like noodles, butter, sugar and poppy seed)
Chili (though that hardly counts as ethnic food now)
homemade, dry Aloo Palak
Oh I wanted to add the following:
Hot and Sour Soup
Tom Kha
Pho
Cheesy Grits!
Totally unhealthy, utterly delicious gribenes and onions.
Menudo Please! Best for Hangovers and Hangarounds.
Spicy, buttery and rib-sticking haleem or my mother's sloppy joe macaroni which I now make with tomato sauce, Sriracha and cider vinegar for something a little more high brow. Of course serve me anything with rice and I'm a happy camper.
Lefse, rommegrot, and sweet, cold, creamy Swedish rice pudding with raspberries on top. Yum! Oh, and Scandinavian almond cake. So good. And Swedish pea soup cooked to mush with big chunks of real, bone-in ham (not the preformed, "teardrop" kind), carrots, potatoes, and onions.
I also like most non-seafood Southern food - the ultimate comfort food! Biscuits, cornbread, beans, greens, macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, ham... all sooooo good.
As a native North Dakotan who grew up with great-uncle-grown red potatoes, smashed potatoes with cream cheese are another great "ethnic" food I love.
Lutefisk, though? Not so much.... Even Janssen's Temptation (basically creamy scalloped potatoes with anchovies) is pushing it. Lol...
Fried rice and char sui bao (muana pua for those of us from da islands).
vegitarian mussaman curry from my local Thai place. mmmm....
raw egg on rice with hot dog and furikake
fried chicken and tater tots with dijon
turkey congee with iceberg lettuce
chili, cheddar cheese, rice
ooh, I see so many of my favourites including palacinke (like crepes), schnitzel, kidney bean and smoked rib stew, barley soup, sauerkraut, cabbage rolls made with sauerkraut and chopped meat with paprika gravy, kiflice (like rugelach), knedle (plum dumplings)... the list can go on and on really.
Dal (red lentils, a pinch of turmeric, water, topped with a tarka with cumin, whole chilies, and browned garlic) with homemade chapatis.
I love Southern comfort foods like grits and biscuits, but my new favorite comfort is tom kah gai!
I have to agree with some others that as global citizens of the blogosphere, there is no call to use "ethnic" to mean "non-Western." Perhaps a more appropriate headline would be "Favorite International Comfort Foods."
rice & peas/beans - i don't even need meat
lasagna
(wor) wonton soup
Anything vegetarian Mexican or Italian. Also the good old all-American mac and cheese.
@SweetTea and others, "ethnic" as used here doesn't mean "non-western." It means essentially what the Princeton dictionary defines it to mean, "cultural: denoting or deriving from or distinctive of the ways of living built up by a group of people." Half of the foods listed in the thread are both ethnic and western.
lefse or a good chewy chowfun stirfry
Pho, laksa, udon, hot soba, or my grannie's vegetable soup (which contains lots of beef!). Apparently hot broth = comfort for me!
Pho, laksa, udon, hot soba, or my grannie's vegetable soup (which contains lots of beef!). Apparently hot broth = comfort for me!
tom kha gai and posole. also, biscochitos.
dosas with sambar and/or saag paneer with naan
yum! I love how excited people get about their comfort foods- great idea to post this around the holidays.
childhood favorites are definitely stuffed cabbage, roast beef with mashed potatoes, and dad's sweet n sour oxtail.
newer finds are pho, creamy polenta, 'grown up' mac n cheese and homemade perogis!
I love my Kurdish dad's hearty, carbo-loaded cooking:
gurgur (bulghur baked with fried onions)
chuteh (wheat berry porridge, with a potato thrown in for extra starch)
mujadera (rice with lentils--yes, some protein slipped in there)
kibbeh ("torpedos" of bulghur paste, wrapped around some sort of filling and fried)
Yum...
Anything rice is comfort food for me. Then again, it's not really considered 'ethnic' if I'm Asian.
I don't count Italian food as ethnic, 'cause it's my background, so on top of the foods listed in the post, I'll add:
(all vegetarian versions)
Hot and sour soup
Soon dubu
Ramen
Chana masala
Huevos rancheros
Hummus
Massaman curry
latkes, perogi, ghormeh sabzi (although I'm a vegetarian now, I make it without lamb, but either way, it's delicious), cheese grits.
Japanese curry! I must make it on cold winter nights!
1. Champorado (the Filipino version, which is a chocolate rice porrigde) with tuyo (dried salted fish) or alpine brand evaporated milk
2. I'm not Japanese, but I also consider okonomiyaki as my comfort food
Lots and lots of Turkish mezes, preferably hot versions but not necessarily.
South Indian food, all the way. Dosa, idli-vada with hot sambar. And pongal.
Chinese food, as well.
My sister and I always joke that the traditional British comfort food is toast. It's true, though! Many times I have come home late at night, cold and possibly drunk, to soothe my troubles with a thick slice of hot buttered toast before bed. (The "hot" part is, arguably, not very British.)
Sambar and rice:
http://abcdsofcooking.blogspot.com/2009/12/sambar-south-indian-lentil-stew.html
Potato kugel!!!!
@paulamaria -
Way to go, champorado :D My favorite memory is eating it on a rainy afternoon in my grandaunt's kitchen, surrounded by dogs, cats and maiden aunts (P.S. and we always had it with tuyo AND alpine milk!)
And if I can't get my champorado fix, then I go for laksa