What We're Reading: Cozy Comforts
Welcome to the “What We’re Reading” ongoing series where you’ll find PCVs sharing their thoughts, reflections, and reviews on books of any genre. Sticky Rice Editor in Chief Gretchen Evans also interviews fellow Volunteers and they discuss the books they’ve been reading at site. Don’t forget to leave us a comment below if you’ve also read any of these books!
Sam Vansomphone, 137 TESS
Every few years, I reread some of my favorite stories. There is a certain comfort in returning to a book you love—longing to experience it again for the first time, yet finding satisfaction in discovering minor details that you did not originally notice. It is always a bittersweet moment as you realize how much about yourself has changed in the years between readings, and yet how much remains the same.
I try to rotate between a few stories. Sometimes it’s Frankenstein, my favorite classic novel. Occasionally it’s the Summoner Trilogy, my favorite series growing up. I have a lot of nostalgia for these books and always enjoy revisiting them. However, neither of them is my most reread story. That honor belongs to my favorite web comic, Gourmet Hound, which I first started reading in 2017 and have reread every year since it ended in 2020.
For those unfamiliar, Gourmet Hound follows Lucy, a woman on a mission to rediscover the “perfect taste” after realizing that her favorite restaurant, Dimanche, has changed kitchen staff. Along her journey, Lucy meets many former Dimanche chefs, learns about the scars that divided the staff, and builds heartfelt relationships with each of them. Now, I have always enjoyed media about cooking. Part of it is that the food looks stunning and never fails to make me hungry. More importantly, food is a perfect symbol for comfort, home, family, and human connection. There are plenty of stories that perfectly carry these themes, but none do it better than Gourmet Hound.
I don’t want to spoil too much of the story in case I may persuade some of you to pick it up, but I do have to talk about the final arc. At the end of her long search, Lucy finds the former head chef of Dimanche, Stephen Bartlett. With the truth of his disappearance revealed, Lucy decides to have dinner with him, not as the founder of her favorite restaurant or as the former boss of many of her friends, but as an old friend of her grandmother. The two find time not to grieve their mutual loss, but rather reflect on their lives and find comfort together. Ultimately, Gourmet Hound is a story about how food connects us to other people. People often leave our lives suddenly—they are there one moment and gone the next, leaving behind a hole that we can’t quite fill. However, people also join our lives suddenly. Throughout Gourmet Hound, Lucy meets many wonderful people. They will never replace the family she has lost, but they are also irreplaceable to her.
I hope you can understand why I love this story and why I make an effort to revisit it throughout the years. I believe that people never stop growing. As time passes, you change to fit the world around you. With a new perspective, you can always learn to find different conclusions when you reread a story. At the same time, it is comforting to return to something familiar. I am a fundamentally different person now than when I first read Gourmet Hound. Yet, it still brings warmth to my life. So, if there are any stories that you look back on fondly, I think you should read them again. It might ruin the nostalgia, or you might find plot holes you didn’t notice before, but that’s a risk worth taking to experience something you love again.
