With February being the month of love, many people choose to express their feelings through gifts and kind gestures. Despite differences in cultures, language and geographical areas, there is arguably one common love language: food. Whether you’re someone who passionately loves cooking and taking the time to put meals together or if you’re just someone who enjoys eating and tasting good food, you probably show love through food without even knowing it. We’ve come up with eight ways that people show love through food, although there are probably hundreds of other ways.
- Sharing your fries
We all have that one friend or family member that swears they aren’t hungry whenever you go out to eat, but the second your plate touches the table, they’re the first to grab some food from you. It takes a lot of love to share your fries or meal so for anyone who makes a sacrifice of sharing their plate, and although it’s not always easy, it definitely shows love.
- Friend and family dates
Aside from having a dinner date with a significant other, planning meal outings with your friends and family is a great way to spend quality time together. Bonding and showing love during a delicious meal is a great example of food bringing people together. Family style restaurants that encourage sharing are a perfect way to spend time with people you love while also igniting your taste buds.
- Welcoming new neighbors with food
There’s nothing more welcoming and warming to a new neighbor than a homemade casserole or dish gifted as a welcome gift. Taking the time to cook for someone, possibly someone you don’t even know, is a great way to get started on the right foot and spread some neighborly love. The hassle and stress of moving might even make a gift of food that much more appreciated to someone new in the neighborhood.
- Coming up with new recipes
Spending time in the kitchen with people you love can be such a great bonding experience, especially when you love to cook. Even if you’re not a world renown chef, coming up with your own, personal recipes that you share with people you love feels special and is a great way to share the love. Whenever you decide to cook that recipe, it’s an easy way to be reminded of the memories and time you spent creating it with special people.
- Not eating their leftovers
We know, it’s extremely hard to resist those delicious leftovers sitting in the fridge that your roommate or significant other saved. You tell yourself it’s been a day or two since the leftovers have been there to make yourself feel better about eating them, but some of us know how painful it is to come home to your leftovers being eaten after thinking about them all day. And let’s be honest: restraint is love and not eating someone’s leftovers takes a LOT of restraint and even more love.
- Food gifts
Holidays are a perfect way to give the gift of food. During Valentine’s day, a common gift is chocolates and candy. During thanksgiving, time and love is put into creating a delicious meal to serve and share with the family. Christmas is the time for cookies and kettle corns. Needless to say, food is used very frequently as a gift year-round for different holidays, and it’s almost guaranteed that a gift of food will be put to great use.
- Becoming regulars at a restaurant
In relationships, friendships, and with your family, it’s common to find one restaurant that you love and frequently visit. Maybe the staff at this restaurant knows you by name and your whole order. There’s something special about having a restaurant that holds a lot of memories for you, especially when you visit with people you care dearly about. Whenever you drive by that restaurant, you can visualize sitting there and tasting your favorite dish with your favorite people, and it’s hard not to feel the love when reliving those times.
- Hosting meals at home
It’s always a fun and memorable experience to host your own dinner at home to feed all your friends and family. A lot of love goes into the preparation, cooking, and serving of the meal, but the most fun is actually sitting down all together to eat what you’ve put together. Spending quality time at home with those you care about, especially over a home-cooked meal, is a great way we show love to others.