One recent Saturday night, Freddie and I…
…came home after hanging out with friends and decided to watch an episode of The Baldwins. (Are you watching it? I’m gripped.) We were both hungry, so Freddie pulled out a box of Corn Flakes, I grabbed the milk, and we sat at the counter and ate two bowls each while watching Hilaria and Alec figure out the car seating arrangements for their seven kids. This might not sound romantic, but, reader, I swooned. Maybe because it felt so relationship-y? Now I can’t look at a cereal box without my heart skipping a beat.
When I asked my group text what foods feel romantic, my friend Jessie Randall wrote back right away: “We had Chipwiches at our wedding reception. Sometimes Brian will bring me one from the deli, which is such a nice gesture.”
Food writer Adam Roberts’s answer leans more savory: “Roast chicken with root vegetables, a nice bottle of wine, and warm chocolate chip cookies for dessert — that’s my husband Craig’s ‘welcome home’ meal after he’s been away from home for a long time, and it feels so cozy and comforting.”
Drinks can be sweet, too, of course. “In the evening, my fiancé and I like to split an Olipop, as if it’s some kind of treat,” says cookbook author Eric Kim. “We pour it into vintage wine glasses we found together in Philly, and it adds a little sparkle to our evening. It’s a small thing but constant.”
What about foods that are decidedly not romantic? “The disgusting pastrami sandwich my husband got from the hospital and ate at my bedside while I was in labor,” laughed my friend Liz Libré. “The butcher paper grazed my arm. No more pastrami ever!!!”
What foods feel romantic to you? Maybe you had spaghetti the night you met? Or your partner always picks up your favorite candy at the bodega? Please share below…
P.S. The best parts of weddings, and a restaurant surprise we’re still thinking of two decades later.
(Photo from the movie Always Be My Maybe.)
