My Comfort Food

Every Friday afternoon, as soon as the bus dropped my sister and I at our bus stop, in our neighborhood, just a few doors down from where we live, we would run home. We knew that coming home from elementary school, when we would walk into our house, it would be filled with the overwhelming scent of freshly baked challah. When we were at school our mom would spend her afternoon preparing, braiding and baking challah. Once the challah dough is made, it rises, then gets braided, and bakes. After it cools it is then covered with a challah cover. In our family my mom always used a challah cover that my sister or I had made in preschool.

Challah is the most delicious bread/food in the whole wide world (yes, better than Olga bread! We eat challah as a part of our every Friday night Shabbat dinner.   

Shabbat, Sabbath, is the Jewish day of rest, beginning at sundown on Friday till sundown on Saturday. Every Friday night dinner is Shabbat dinner. Our family (and often friends) will all get together for an enjoyable dinner, including the delicious challah. Challah is, braided bread that is sweet and painted with egg yolk. When Shabbat starts, one of the prayers that we say is over the loaf of challah.

To me, challah is a comfort food. Since I am away at school, I don’t get to walk into the door and get a strong whiff of challah being made. Despite this, every time I am home my parents will always send me back to school with a loaf of challah in hand, from my favorite Jewish bakery. My roommate looks forward to when I arrive back at school with a challah, only the best food in the world! Every though it isn’t the same as being home, it is a big comfort food to me.