What Exactly is 'Comfort Food'?

Comfort Food is a currently popular designation for restaurants and menu items. The suggestion is that the food (or place) so designated will make you feel better - more comfortable, as it were - because the food you order will bring you back to the good feelings you had eating it growing up. The problem is, of course, that we all grew up eating different things so food that might be comforting to one person might be entirely repugnant to another.

This thought first occurred to me when my wife and I visited a restaurant in San Rafael, CA called "Teresa and Johnny's Comfort Food." In looking over the menu, we realized that there were important things missing from the menu! Items that would be seminal comfort foods to one or the other of us were not on it - others were there. The otherwise pleasing menu did not include, for examples, chicken soup, hot turkey or grilled cheese sandwiches. There was no macaroni and cheese! How could a place actually name itself "Comfort Food" without having these basic requirements available?

Silly question. Each person has his/her own experiences and ideas about what is comforting to themselves and it is simply not possible to have everyone's idea of comfort food in any one establishment. That people would seek out food that is soothing to them is no surprise - Most people want to do things that make them feel somehow better and more comfortable. The surprise, for me, is that some places and people seem to infer that what they find comforting will be so to others.

Getting, perhaps, a tad carried away with the idea, I did a random survey of 10 people I know asking each, "What would be your personal best idea of "Comfort Food." The answers were as diverse and individual as are people themselves. In my sampling, there was not a single duplication. The answers included: 1) Peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread; 2) Fried green tomatoes; 3) Grilled cheese sandwich; 4) A hot dog in a bun with ketchup on it; 5) MacDonald's hamburgers; 6) White Castle hamburgers ("Belly Bombers"); 7) A baked potato; 8) Mayonnaise sandwich; 9) Macaroni and cheese; and 10) Fried clams (with the bellies.)