Candy Palmater said she was craving a bologna sandwich. That tumbled me back decades. It’s something I used to love and haven’t had in years. But my habit of no longer eating processed food would likely be the main culprit in my not having had a bologna sandwich in ages. This is how my mom made them: buttered white bread, thick bologna, mayonnaise, scattering of green onion, salt. Oh man.
We can be quite nostalgic for certain food items, especially if it’s food that reminds us of strong, positive memories from our youth. I was online a short while ago and the title of a food article caught my attention: “How to Make the Creamiest, Dreamiest Pudding” with a sub-title after my own cooking-heart, “Plus, how to infuse it with any flavour of your choosing.”
Growing up, pudding was always a favourite dessert. I don’t mean custard (though that’s delicious too). Smooth as silk, creamy, and it felt like a cloud on my tongue. A perfect comfort food.
I swear it was my lemon pudding that induced a marriage proposal by my now-husband. It’s still one of his favourite desserts. And each time I make chocolate pudding and take those first rich spoonfuls, I ride the magic carpet all the way back to my childhood.
“We all have our food memories, some good and some bad. The taste, smell, and texture of food can be extraordinarily evocative, bringing back memories not just of eating food itself but also of place and setting. Food is an effective trigger of deeper memories of feelings and emotions, internal states of the mind and body.” from John S. Allen’s The Omnivorous Mind
In fact, just thinking about pudding, my mind pulls up a vision of a kitchen lit by a single incandescent bulb, a chrome-legged table, and a spoon with a deeper bowl than the modern versions. It’s winter and the pudding is chocolate. It’s still warm — because I could never wait for it to cool. And my heart lifts at the vision of my mom smiling down at me.
Soundtrack: Memories by Elvis Presley
this looks so yummy, as do all of the dishes you prepare and photograph. in recent months i’ve been making custard from the recipe of Jacques Pepin. very similar to what you do with your pudding by choosing different fruits to top it. so flat yummy.
I LOVE this. Pudding is my favourite. I have made pudding from scratch a few times and loved it, but don’t tell anybody—Jello pudding from a box is also not half-bad…
Bologna sandwiches…what memories! Except the mayonnaise should be mustard. 😉
And in our house pudding meant a box of Jello mix. But the kind that needs to be cooked, not instant. We had our standards. I still keep a box or two on the shelf. Maybe I should go make some right now.
Pudding in England means a sponge pudding. It is rather stodgy and sweet which makes it an excellent comfort food. Treacle pudding, (similar to sticky toffee) is the one I crave most. Some years ago, the morning I was leaving for the airport, to fly back to Canada, my sister got up at 5am to make me a pudding for breakfast. She couldn’t let me leave without having one. It certainly saw me through the hours driving to London, battling through crowded Heathrow and possibly the entire flight.