Food of Love

Living away from your family means that you either have to cook for yourself or go out to eat. For me, cooking is a good way to wind down the hectic day, or take a break from my studies. I also like to use the ingredients that I like and know exactly what went into my food and how it was prepared. But I admit that many times, I miss home-cooked food. Or as my roommate calls it, food in which you can taste the love.
 
Food that tastes like love is simply food that is prepared for you by someone who really cares about what you will be eating. Personally, I am talking about my mom’s cooking, but the food of love can be made by anyone, whether it’s your friend or your party host. Even if the meal has the exact same ingredients and was prepared in the same way as the meal that you cooked, it somehow tastes better when you know that it was made specifically for you. Just imagine your mother, grandmother, or your friend, cutting, sautéing, boiling, and roasting away in the kitchen in order for you to enjoy that one savory moment at the dinner table. They didn’t just slap on some pre-cooked mystery meat onto a plate. They actually care about the food’s taste, its nutrition level, and the amount of personal satisfaction it will give you. There is true love inside that dish.
 
The fundamental desire for food that is prepared by someone else might stem from this sentiment of love. I have heard my mom say that sometimes, mothers want to eat food that is prepared for them, instead of something that they prepared for their family. Maybe this is why cooking breakfast for your mothers is such a popular present for Mother’s Day. In addition to the surprise factor, cooking a meal for our mothers is a way to demonstrate our love. This close connection between food and love might be why eating together is a wonderful way for bonding with other people. After you eat with someone, you feel so much more comfortable with that person even if you don’t know any more about him or her than you did yesterday.
 
Other than the need for basic survival or a desire to taste something delicious, eating comes down to the possibility and the need to feel love. When you are desperately yearning for home-cooked food, but there is no way to fly home at your whim, then eating out with your friends might be the next best choice. Sure, the food is not the same, and the chef probably doesn’t care about the feelings or the palette of every customer. But, at least you will be creating the sentiments of love and affection while you eat and laugh with your friends. And, at least, you will know that there is someone out there who will cook for you when you ask them. That someone might be in the kitchen next to your table, or hundreds of miles away in the house where you grew up, waiting with a big pot of yummy goodness, just for you.