When you think aphrodisiacs, you probably think oysters and dark chocolate, but according to the New York Post, chicken parm is the sexiest thing on the menu this season.
Apparently the homey Italian dish is popular among Hinge users, where it enjoys frequent shoutouts in the profiles of the kinds of men 25-year-old Carly Spiewak has dubbed “chicken parm guys.”
“Chicken parm guys find me. You don’t realize how many there are,” Spiewak told the Post.
The bready comfort food originally gained popularity among Italian Americans as a meaty riff of the eggplant alla parmigiana that originated in southern Italy in the 18th century. An Italian comfort food staple, the heavy, seemingly unromantic dish is apparently enjoying a renaissance as a popular date food among New York City twenty-somethings.
So-called “parm superfan” Jonny Adler goes as far as to say the dish is “totally an aphrodisiac.” The 25-year-old Jersey City resident even told the Post that we are in fact approaching the height of “chicken parm season,” a magical time of year that begins around October and reportedly “tapers around May.”
Based on this timeline, parm season roughly aligns with cuffing season, i.e. the mass coupling that takes place each year during the winter months when everyone and their mother seemingly settles into a relationship, ideally in time for the holidays.
For one noted “chicken parm bro,” AKA Esquire editor Brady Langmann, a chicken parm date is something of an early relationship milestone. “It’s the perfect make-for-a-date dish,” the 26-year-old Astorian told the Post, adding that he considers it more of a third or fourth date dinner.
Is liking chicken parm actually a particularly interesting character trait worth highlighting in a dating profile? Not at all. But like it or not, the humble comfort food has somehow made a frankly stunning leap from Italian grandmother staple to official dish of cuffing season — a glo-up we have no choice but to stan.
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