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Chapter 1: What does comfort maxing mean in the context of the internet?
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Emery, how comfortable are you? Are you comfortable?
I'm cozy. Yeah. I got a sweatshirt. I got my nice thick socks. I got my house shoes, which should never be seen by anyone outside of my actual house. They're the clunkiest, most comfortable things I've ever owned. How about you?
Yeah, I'm comfortable. I got my squishy. I got my my old man sneakers on with the big squishy soles in them. Good. You know, good. All right, we're talking comfort food today, and I got a little dish for you. But I want to start with guesses at what Amory's favorite comfort foods might be. So I'm thinking like a good steak. No. Oatmeal with lots of fixings is a guess that I have.
Yeah, I'd say like soup in every form. Oatmeal is like breakfast soup. Yeah, that's right. You're a soup lover. Yeah. And then you got your dinner soup.
How would you define comfort food if you could define comfort food? What does that mean to you?
It's the food that makes you go, oh, yes, this is the life I want to be living. Yeah.
Food that makes you go, ooh.
Yeah. Food that makes you go, ooh. Food that makes you go, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee.
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Chapter 2: How do childhood foods contribute to our sense of comfort?
Well, I know people will be skeptical just saying like vegan mozzarella balls, but I'm like, trust me, they're real balls. And I make a caprese toast with them. So you like spread the mozzarella and then thinly sliced salt and peppered tomatoes and fresh basil and some balsamic olive oil drizzle on top. Love it. That's my summery comfort.
Okay. I love to make a, I make a caprese sandwich in the summer as well. That's very similar. So I feel you on that.
Man, we could just talk about this all day.
Yeah, we could just keep going. You know, there is a I would say there's a kind of a genre of posts on Reddit every couple of months, every couple of years. If you search Reddit, you will find posts, you know, you will discover food subreddits that you never knew existed. And so this genre of posts that I really love is a genre of post about comfort foods from around the world.
There was a post recently in the Dadette subreddit that said, calling all dads, what's your easy go-to dinners? Can you guess what the top answer to this is?
It's got to be like nuggets. Right? Your kids went through a nugget phase.
You're close.
Are they still in a nugget phase?
They're always kind of in a nugget phase.
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Chapter 3: What defines comfort food and how is it connected to our upbringing?
A friend of mine was just talking about how when she goes out of town, her boyfriend just makes quesadillas. He just buys tortillas and cheese. I don't think he's even putting anything else in them. It's just quesadillas all day, every day.
That is incredible. Um, this, this particular post that I'm looking at, I do kind of love because again, it's full of these, like it's, it's full of some, of course, heavy dad conversation. So like the top post is just quesadillas period. And then somebody said quesadilla tip, put a layer of shredded cheese in the pan first. Then you do your quesadilla as normal.
It's like a delicious, crispy, cheesy hug. And then someone says, Dan, dude, I'm going to try this. Is it like a crunch wrap where you got the different textures going on? 110%, my guy. Use it under tacos or sunny side up eggs. Your taste buds are in for an adventure. And then somebody just says, let's go.
I do love this sort of like comfort food, dad energy flowing through this particular post that I'm looking at. But it does really frequently because of, you know, the sort of, you know, that thing on the Internet where you can reach people from all over the world. It does very quickly go international. People are talking about red beans.
People are talking about different noodles to make for their kids. People talk about anything crock pot, chicken parm. Somebody says chicken parm. You can do it with chicken nuggets and spaghetti with sauce and a baking dish topped with cheese and broiled in the oven to melt the cheese. That's not a bad move. Spam fried rice. That sounds pretty good.
So it really does turn into this like lovely conversation, I think, amongst at least the people in the data subreddit here.
Can I share? Can I share one with you that I had growing up?
Yeah, definitely.
I'm just remembering, like, as we're talking about family and things that we would do, my mom would make something called hot dog roundups. And she'd take, I can't remember if I've even talked about this on this show before, but she'd buy, you know, like the croissant dough, the just like in a tube dough.
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Chapter 4: What are some popular comfort foods from different cultures?
Yeah. Another person says, I imagine that I'm an elf wandering through a peaceful forest and I arrive at my cabin, light a fire in the hearth, relax in a soft chair with a cat curled up in my lap, and I'm out like a light. Someone else says, I'm sitting on the moon looking towards the earth. It's quiet, peaceful, and all the drama on earth is so tiny and far away. I really like that one.
But my favorite, Ben, is someone saying, I act like I'm a stick of butter melting. And someone says, really excited to bring this up to my therapist as a strategy and see what she says.
That is good. I like that.
I know. So again, I saw this on Instagram originally. So when I searched for the actual post in r slash sleep on Reddit, I found something interesting, which is there are several posts that read kind of like this. The original one or the one that I saw first again is my weird but effective sleep trick. Pretend I'm a medieval peasant.
Then, a few months after that, there's a post titled, My Dumb Sleep Hack That Actually Works. I Roleplay a Medieval Merchant. Then, even more recently, from about a month ago at the time that we're recording this, My Weird But Effective Sleep Trick. So it starts the same way as the original post. Pretend I'm a Victorian child who just had a very long day in the factory. Huh. So...
These are all similar. They're all the same vibe. And I was like, oh no, is this another AI thing that someone has just found a formula of post that works well, gets engagement, appeals to Redditor's sense of humor in particular? And so then I click on these other posts and start reading the body of them. And they all have some similar components. One is they all have this list of no's.
So the peasant one, the original one, says no emails, no bills, no doom scrolling, just a tired cabbage farmer lying on a straw bed, nothing to do but sleep. The medieval merchant one says, no inbox, no bills, just a wooden bed, boots off, candle guttering, nothing to do but sleep.
The Victorian child post says, no sleep tracking, no optimizing, no 478 breathing, just a small Victorian child who has earned his rest. Another component, they all have this, like, pick your ex part of the post. So in the peasant post, it says, pick your own vibe. Bard, Viking, 1800s librarian. Just keep it low tech and low stress.
The Merchant Post, pick a sleepy world and keep it dumb and analog. Lighthouse Keeper, Caravan Guard, 1800s Librarian, Low Tech, Low Stakes, Sleepy.
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