Comfort Foods

Comfort foods are an odd thing. I'm always facinated by what people eat to make themselves feel better (and why!). Boyfriend dumped you? That's a pint of ice cream and a cry on the sofa with the girls. Sad in winter? Hot cocoa. Foot gnawed off by green mice? well... I don't think that one has ever come up.

I always think I don't have comfort foods. I'm not really a comfort eating person. But then every so often I get a craving for my Special Sammich. It's only usually once or twice a year, but when I get it I *have* to make it. Nom!

Quick background - all through high school I ate packed lunches. Nan made me 4 ham sammiches every day, and I ate them every day. The once or twice she wasn't in a sammich making capacity, I had to make my own... and I made the Special Sammich. It's a fearsome beast, designed to keep lesser mortals (and most other things) at bay, and I *loves* it.

Prepare as follows (in the style of the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster recipe from HHGTG).

Take two slices of brown, wholemeal bread. Relish those seeds, those tasty little morsels, as you relish the stars in the night sky. Each one is a hope and a dream.

Add some thickly sliced cheddar cheese. Delicious cheese, made of old pressed milk. No need for butter or spread to make the ingredients stick to the bread, the cheese sticks firmly out of love for the seeds and fear of the next ingredient...

Slice an onion. More usually half an onion. This adds the essential vegetable component that all sammiches need, and the bite represents the fear that people feel at the very mention of this delectable delicacy. Opinions vary about the best onions, I'm partial to white onions to offset the dark orange of the cheese against the brown bread.

Finally, sprinkle with a little salt, in memory of those who will neger get the chance to sample this fine delicacy. People from long ago. Salt miners. Aliens. Salt mining aliens from long ago. You get the idea.

Add another two slices of bread to cover, press down *firmly* and cut into halves. Eat, relishing the delicious crunch and the wonderful smoothness. Mock the looks of disgust on your schoolmate/flatmate/significant other's faces. They can't withstand the awesome that is the Special Sammich... few can. To beat it is to experience it completely and grok it in fullness.

It's a magical experience, and it's my comfort food :)