Is it time to start eating in?

Lately, I have had several meals that were just okay, no fireworks, nothing vile, just unremarkable food. Between time traveling to and from these restaurants, plus the wait time to be seated, throw-in the wait from time the order is placed until the time the food has landed in front of me, I find myself wondering, should I just have cooked at home.

When I was a young adult, I was known in my circles for simple dinner parties and good drink. The nice thing was, despite the featured drink of the night ( and decent bar choices), the food was always of far greater interest to my guests. Even in college, when I needed to get out of a shift at Cafe Express everyone knew that I would throw in a home-cooked meal to take my shift.

Today's NY Times' piece, albeit about pizza, really makes me wonder about eating out in general. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/magazine/19food-t-000.html?scp=1&sq=pizza%20jeffrey%20steingarten&st=cse. Oh yeah, speaking of pizza, but again it applies to food out everywhere, that Domino's Pizza gross out video by the employees doesn't help.

What say you?

I'd like to hope that our current situation will trigger a return to the hand crafted, DIY, Mom & Pop, as the corporate, excessive and mass produced fall by the wayside. I guess that falls in line with home cooking that equals or surpasses paying someone else to do it for you.

no,

a good mix of cooking at home, and eating out work for me, and keep me balanced.

I have not run into a bad, or even mediocre meal dining out since late last summer. However I tend to stick to the GNR list(which has a 99% success rate for me), other recs on LTH, and local fried chicken, and pork tenderloin places out where I live. These have a high rate of success, and keep my cooking at home creativity going strong as well.

phredbull wrote:I'd like to hope that our current situation will trigger a return to the hand crafted, DIY, Mom & Pop, as the corporate, excessive and mass produced fall by the wayside. I guess that falls in line with home cooking that equals or surpasses paying someone else to do it for you.

A corporate chain is going to have lower costs, more marketing and the ability to spread its capital around farther, meaning that a new operation can have time to get to its feet -- all advantages over mom-n-pop shops.

An interesting note is that around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, the less well-to-do in England could find it less expensive to eat out than to make their own food. McD's dollar menu approaches that level.

Eating in is great-- it's too bad when people (some of my co-workers for example) don't have the skills to prepare a decent meal at home. We favor a balance of mostly eating in, supplemented with trips to a few outstanding high-value restaurants that make food I don't make at home. These are punctuated by occasional trips to new restaurants just to stave off boredom. By eating (and more importantly, drinking) at home, we save money and have high-quality, healthy food. Moreover, since we have a child, eating in cultivates a healthy dinnertime atmosphere. By becoming regulars at a few specific restaurants (Spring World and Sol de Mexico), we enjoy a respite from my usual cooking. Plus the little imp learns her "best restaurant manners" and gets to try new things. I believe that The Fat Guy on egullet has written a bit about the advantages of becoming a regular at a set of restaurants.

Happy eating in!

Cheers, Jen

We tend to eat out items which we can't or won't make at home, but even so we've begun to master many items we used to order dining out. Additionally, we can afford better ingredients more often when dining at home than if we were to eat out - in particular high-priced and less common seafood items. I agree re: the alcohol thing as well - when the in-laws visit from Japan either to the mainland or Hawaii, their preference is to have dinner at home so they can drink to their heart's content and dine on an endless supply of high-end seafood.

Eat in, I say.

I have been craving waffles for about 2 weeks. It is funny when you discover how many places, that serve breakfast, do not serve waffles. I did go to the Cornerstone Cafe last Sunday and I had a waffle. However, it was pretty crowded, despite the rain, and although the folks there were not as hip as other breakfast joints, I would have had a wait had I not been alone.

The waffle at Cornerstone was good, but my bill was just under $10 for a waffle and small juice. The waffle was not all that and a bag of chips.

This morning, I decided to act like the little red hen and do it myself. The waffle was delicious, just not enough, as my savory loving husband wanted more and more of them.

Additionally I had organic strawberries, Trader Joe's organic Maple syrup, organic egg, plugra butter, Fox & Obel's fresh OJ ( the smell was so fantastic when we were in the store yesterday that we had to buy a bottle),and hot spiced apple sauce. It did not take any more time than it would have to wait at a cook breakfast joint before being seated to order.

I think I am inspired by this thread as well as the New York Times' piece on Maureen Evans and Twitter. http://tinyurl.com/chk6a2

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