Give me Dels, or give me SteinMart!

Del's frozen lemonade

After 4 weeks in Rhode Island, I’m finding myself unconsciously gravitating back to the comfort brands I grew up with:

• Dunkin Donuts
• CVS
• Del’s Lemonade
• Newport Creamery

I realized I don’t have food loyalty in Scottsdale, where I’ve lived for 21 years.   I’m not really drawn to any single food brand there – I don’t find “comfort food” in any shape or form, unless you consider coffee and Golden Grahams to be comfort food. 

I haven’t eaten Dunkin Donuts in years, and in the last 4 weeks, I’ve consumed an embarrassing amount.   Chocolate iced glazed donuts are now second nature to me.  When I need to shop for clothes, household items, or accessories here, however, I draw a blank.   Rhode Island Mall and Warwick Mall are lonely concrete ghosts of the supermalls they were in their heydey of the late 60s and early 70s.   I crave SteinMart and Ross, and maybe a Dillards, but so far haven’t found any.

Is this just endemic of the weather in each place?   Cold states like Rhode Island specialize in comfort foods.    Warm, ego-based states like Arizona focus on clothing.    It reflects the split personality I feel I always have – drawn to each place but never fully at home in either.