An ordinary recipe can make distance briefly taste manageable.

Food carries places in a way that is hard to argue with. Cooking something the way it was made where you came from, or where someone you miss still lives, puts you in that kitchen for as long as it takes to eat. The distance has not changed by a mile, but for half an hour it stops being the only fact in the room. Homesickness responds to sensory things more readily than to reasoning about them.

If you are far from someone, cook their dish rather than only phoning. Better still, cook it while they talk you through it.