Restaurant food (split from Heat Regulation - Obesity)

[Michael McMahon]

Restaurant food is cooked by a professional and might always taste nicer than home food. As such ordering healthy food in restaurants would make it easier to eat healthier at home. There's no harm in the odd indulgence in fast food at restaurants. Yet ordering too many burgers at restaurants would then make fast food more tempting for home dishes. The dilemma is that restaurants can be seen as a form of recreation if someone eats out seldomly. Yet there might be more reward to choose heathy dishes from the menu for those who eat out rarely. I've tried to desensitise myself to porridge through jams and fruit by ordering it frequently for breakfast at a restaurant:

[Luke11098]

Your dish looks really nice. You have a talent for such things.

[exchemist]

4 hours ago, Michael McMahon said:

Restaurant food is cooked by a professional and might always taste nicer than home food. As such ordering healthy food in restaurants would make it easier to eat healthier at home. There's no harm in the odd indulgence in fast food at restaurants. Yet ordering too many burgers at restaurants would then make fast food more tempting for home dishes. The dilemma is that restaurants can be seen as a form of recreation if someone eats out seldomly. Yet there might be more reward to choose heathy dishes from the menu for those who eat out rarely. I've tried to desensitise myself to porridge through jams and fruit by ordering it frequently for breakfast at a restaurant:

It seems to me it's actually quite hard to simulate fast food crap in home cooking. Things like burgers generate massive amounts of smoke, while fried stuff requires a deep fryer and huge amount of oil, which is a nuisance to dispose of. Pizzas are really hard to make, at least if you want a proper pizza base to them, rather than a fake pre-made thing.

Cooking proper, simple things at home is quite likely to result in you eating healthily. It is ordering stuff in, because you can't face cooking for yourself, where the problems often seem to start.  

[Genady]

5 hours ago, Michael McMahon said:

Restaurant food is cooked by a professional and might always taste nicer than home food.

Not always.

 

34 minutes ago, exchemist said:

It is ordering stuff in, because you can't face cooking for yourself, where the problems often seem to start.  

It depends where they order from, of course.

[TheVat]

On 12/30/2022 at 2:04 PM, Michael McMahon said:

Sometimes dieting and exercise fail to produce significant weight-loss in obese patients.

Because weight loss requires high amounts of exercise, and eating fewer calories (in a higher fiber lower glycemic form).  It's unpleasant and difficult, especially if food is a major entertainment for you.  Long-term calorie reduction and long-term daily exercise regimes are prone to failure in a mechanized society whose forces of corporate marketing are constantly pushing unhealthy fattening foods as a primary entertainment.  And labor saving machines as essential.

And some people have their appetite turbocharged past maintenance settings by an imbalance of gut microflora.  Caesarian babies are especially prone to this.  Also those who've been over-prescribed antibiotics.  Gut flora restoration is an area of current research in treating obesity and digestive ailments.

Kill your car.  Eat rolled oats.  Don't use sugar, sweeten lightly with fruits. Etc.

[zapatos]

6 hours ago, Michael McMahon said:

Restaurant food is cooked by a professional and might always taste nicer than home food.

I have the exact opposite view. My wife likes to cook and is very good at it. I just told her the other night that 'if you can cook well, there is no reason to go to a restaurant for good food.' Other than at high end restaurants, my wife normally out-cooks restaurant 'chefs'.

Not everyone likes to cook and is good at it (like me), so if I had to cook for myself all the time the quality of my meals would go down quite a bit and I'd be looking more fondly at restaurants.

Interestingly I now find that restaurant food has lost almost all appeal to me.

[CharonY]

8 hours ago, exchemist said:

It is ordering stuff in, because you can't face cooking for yourself, where the problems often seem to start.  

It really depends on the ecosystem of restaurants, though. Restaurant chains are increasingly replacing family restaurants. While the quality can vary in the latter, the former (especially large chains) use a lot of pre-processed food which tend to be higher in sugar and other rather unhealthy components. However, certain restaurants, especially those that traditional include a lot of vegetable in their dishes are likely to be fairly healthy. At least as long as they are not replaced by fast-food style variants.

7 hours ago, zapatos said:

I have the exact opposite view. My wife likes to cook and is very good at it. I just told her the other night that 'if you can cook well, there is no reason to go to a restaurant for good food.' Other than at high end restaurants, my wife normally out-cooks restaurant 'chefs'.

The main difference I found between mid-range restaurant chefs (i.e. where food is still more relevant than the whole dining experience) and really good homecooks is often just organization, sourcing of ingredients, speed and consistency.

[Peterkin]

16 hours ago, Michael McMahon said:

I've tried to desensitise myself to porridge through jams and fruit by ordering it frequently for breakfast at a restaurant:

Seriously? You pay $6 for a bowl of oatmeal with fruit on top? Nice berries, but it's still oatmeal! If you don't like oatmeal, just eat some fruit. Buy whole grain bread and put jam on your toast. Nobody has to eat oatmeal (though I suddenly feel like making some, with brown sugar and allspice); there are other wholesome grains, and other ways to incorporate oats into your diet.    

No, restaurant food doesn't tell you anything about healthy food. The point of going to a restaurant is to step out of routine, indulge yourself and let somebody else do the work. (Unless you fall for the meal-kit scam, where you overpay for the ingredients and still do the work.) 

If you want to eat well, buy wholesome groceries, get recipes off the internet, like this https://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/ and just do it. You might even try piling different fruits and nuts on your oatmeal. 

10 hours ago, zapatos said:

I just told her the other night that 'if you can cook well, there is no reason to go to a restaurant for good food.'

I think you'd better take her out pretty soon.

[sethoflagos]

11 hours ago, zapatos said:

I have the exact opposite view. My wife likes to cook and is very good at it. I just told her the other night that 'if you can cook well, there is no reason to go to a restaurant for good food.' Other than at high end restaurants, my wife normally out-cooks restaurant 'chefs'.

Not everyone likes to cook and is good at it (like me), so if I had to cook for myself all the time the quality of my meals would go down quite a bit and I'd be looking more fondly at restaurants.

Interestingly I now find that restaurant food has lost almost all appeal to me.

I beg to differ somewhat (though I do understand where you're coming from)

One thing a good restaurant does offer is the opportunity to try something new and be educated in a relatively safe environment.

Yes, they can be a bit of an expense, but one expensive treat a year isn't going to break the bank. I try to make a habit of giving myself at least one treat a year, just to make what I do seem somehow worthwhile.

Anyway, my treat for 2006 (I think) was to take my mother and children for week's holiday in Montparnasse. The deal was they could go wherever they wanted during the day, but the evening meal was a proper sit down job somewhere decent (ie my choice!).

The highlight came at La Coupole (I think). I just remember the expression on my mother's face looking first at her 'adventurous' choice of tartare de dourade and then at my plate of la grande choucroute. Fortunately for her, I quite like raw fish and was happy to share. It was a magical bonding moment, and not lost on my then teenage son and daughter. 

So while I'm quite happy with regular vegetable soup and bacon omelette sandwiches on a day-to-day basis, it's good to know that there are many, many options out there.

[CharonY]

28 minutes ago, sethoflagos said:

I beg to differ somewhat (though I do understand where you're coming from)

One thing a good restaurant does offer is the opportunity to try something new and be educated in a relatively safe environment.

Yes, they can be a bit of an expense, but one expensive treat a year isn't going to break the bank. I try to make a habit of giving myself at least one treat a year, just to make what I do seem somehow worthwhile.

Anyway, my treat for 2006 (I think) was to take my mother and children for week's holiday in Montparnasse. The deal was they could go wherever they wanted during the day, but the evening meal was a proper sit down job somewhere decent (ie my choice!).

The highlight came at La Coupole (I think). I just remember the expression on my mother's face looking first at her 'adventurous' choice of tartare de dourade and then at my plate of la grande choucroute. Fortunately for her, I quite like raw fish and was happy to share. It was a magical bonding moment, and not lost on my then teenage son and daughter. 

So while I'm quite happy with regular vegetable soup and bacon omelette sandwiches on a day-to-day basis, it's good to know that there are many, many options out there.

That is a fantastic point and one of the many reasons big chains make me sad. Small restaurants often represent an important aspect of culture. Especially authentic "ethnic" food can be an incredible ambassador.

Homogenized it us to me,  a severe loss. That being said, it also seems economically almost inevitable, considering rising labour cost.

[Sensei]

1 minute ago, CharonY said:

That is a fantastic point and one of the many reasons big chains make me sad. Small restaurants often represent an important aspect of culture. Homogenized it us to me,  a severe loss. That being said, it also seems economically almost inevitable, considering rising labour cost.

Did you watch "The Founder" (the rise of McDonald's) ?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4276820/

 

[zapatos]

25 minutes ago, sethoflagos said:

One thing a good restaurant does offer is the opportunity to try something new and be educated in a relatively safe environment.

...

So while I'm quite happy with regular vegetable soup and bacon omelette sandwiches on a day-to-day basis, it's good to know that there are many, many options out there.

I really am spoiled when it comes to meal time. My wife searches out and tries new and different recipes on a weekly basis, and is comfortable making up recipes herself. She also insists on 'getting it right'. A year or two ago she decided her caramel-pecan sticky rolls could be improved. She made them probably twice a week for about two months till she got the dough/caramel/etc. just right. Of course I spent the two months after that getting my pants to again fit just right... 😁 

[sethoflagos]

17 minutes ago, zapatos said:

I really am spoiled when it comes to meal time. My wife searches out and tries new and different recipes on a weekly basis, and is comfortable making up recipes herself. She also insists on 'getting it right'. A year or two ago she decided her caramel-pecan sticky rolls could be improved. She made them probably twice a week for about two months till she got the dough/caramel/etc. just right. Of course I spent the two months after that getting my pants to again fit just right... 😁 

Hey, I'm not knocking your domestic arrangements.

But we are all born into cultures that have a relatively restricted diet. Here in Nigeria I have been able to expand that diet to include such delicacies as Ethiopian nightshade, pumpkin leaf and pan-fried locust. I'm not particularly recommending these to anyone else out there, but I do think it's important to understand for instance that insects can be a viable (and surprisingly tasty) food supplement. I'm not particularly keen on the various preparations of cassava, but yam is a perfect starchy component of stews. I'm just saying that we all have a certain tunnel-vision regarding food that is culturally ingrained. We can all benefit by expanding our cultural horizons to make us less dependent on the specific diets we grew up with and along the way maybe find some unexpected delights. 

[Genady]

5 hours ago, sethoflagos said:

I'm just saying that we all have a certain tunnel-vision regarding food that is culturally ingrained.

Not all. Some people are very reluctant to eat unfamiliar stuff, e.g., my mother. Some, OTOH, want to try a new thing when they see it, e.g., I. And everything in between.

Fortunately, I grew up in the Northern West Asia, and then lived in the Middle East, NYC, and now in Caribbean, so my interest in food diversity has been satisfied.

But I met people - visitors - who being in such places were happy to find McDonald's  BTW, there is no McDonald's in Bonaire  

[zapatos]

8 hours ago, sethoflagos said:

I'm just saying that we all have a certain tunnel-vision regarding food that is culturally ingrained. We can all benefit by expanding our cultural horizons to make us less dependent on the specific diets we grew up with and along the way maybe find some unexpected delights. 

And I'm just saying you don't have to go to a restaurant to do so. Restaurants don't have exclusive rights to the ingredients and recipes that go into their cultural foods.

Try cooking something new at home once in a while. It's not magic.

[CharonY]

11 minutes ago, zapatos said:

And I'm just saying you don't have to go to a restaurant to do so. Restaurants don't have exclusive rights to the ingredients and recipes that go into their cultural foods.

It depends on where you are, I think. Some restaurants have to have their ingredients delivered by specialized importers. While things are a bit easier specific seafood and certain vegetables can be  rather tricky to get in high quality. Then there are of course specialized items soy sauces from specific brewers which you might not find in regular grocery stores and so on. There is also the topic of authenticity which often boils down to local family traditions (hence the cultural aspects) which sometimes is not well captured based on recipes you find. Also, certain dishes take a really long time to prepare and/or require specialized equipment. Not a knock on your wife, but contrary to what I stated earlier, when we go away from general cooking and are talking about specialties, there is often a skill gap due to preparing and optimizing dishes over years. 

[TheVat]

I'm the cook in the family, and prefer my own Italian cooking to the restaurants around here, but not due to much skill, more that the Italian dishes we like aren't that difficult if you have olive oil and tomato and cheeses and herbs of good quality.  

I loved my chemistry lab classes in college  and cooking seemed like an extension of that.  And there's an inventiveness I enjoy, whereas in a restaurant you just sit and wait and get what you get.  And it's really hard to find restaurants that respect what al dente means.  

Another thing that can be better at home, if you take a little time to learn the technique, is baking bread.  There's something about turning a pile of flour and some water into a fragrant loaf. 

[zapatos]

@CharonYI didn't mean to suggest I can put together every dish made by every restaurant in town. What I am saying is that with curiosity, a little effort, and a bit of talent you can make authentic tasting dishes from a multitude of cultures at home. Our tamale making was taught to us by a Mexican girlfriend of a nephew, and our pot sticker making was taught to us by a Chinese friend who had a party where everyone was encouraged to sit around a table and make them themselves. I think people are often limited by fear of the unknown, whether it is fixing a fan, building a coffee table, or cooking Thai. But doing a little research and finding a Youtube video or two can go a long way.

Edited March 3, 2023 by zapatos

[Peterkin]

Bread was the first thing my brother mastered after leaving home. Then soup. He already had pork chops and apple pie down cold before he left home. That's as far as he ever got: when invited to dinner at his place, you knew exactly what to expect. Like many restaurants. 

I used to like going out, maybe once a month for dinner, and more often in summer to someplace with a patio for lunch, a nice way to celebrate special occasions, a nice way to spend leisure time, people-watching. We had some favourite places and favourite dishes. During the pandemic, we tried ordering takeout from two of them and didn't enjoy it at all. It was never about the food....  

I do sometimes watch cooking shows for ideas. I leave out about about half the ingredients: they tend to overcomplicate. My best friend is a slow cooker, but there is a bread machine on the way, which I intend to place right next to her, so they can make each other jealous while cooking bread and soup, just like my brother used to make.  

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by Peterkin

[CharonY]

4 minutes ago, zapatos said:

@CharonYI didn't mean to suggest I can put together every dish made by every restaurant in town. What I am saying is that with curiosity, a little effort, and a bit of talent you can make authentic tasting dishes from a multitude of cultures at home. Our tamale making was taught to us by a Mexican girlfriend of a nephew, and our pot sticker making was taught to us by a Chinese friend who had a party where everyone was encouraged to sit around a table and make them themselves. I think people are often limited by fear of the unknown, whether it is fixing a fan, building a coffee table, or cooking Thai. But doing a little research and finding a Youtube video or two can go a long way.

Yes of course, but though I think getting certain things right with local nuances requires a lot of effort (but then it depends on how deep you want to go the authentic route). But I think that is a separate discussion to (happily) geek out on.

[sethoflagos]

1 hour ago, zapatos said:

And I'm just saying you don't have to go to a restaurant to do so. Restaurants don't have exclusive rights to the ingredients and recipes that go into their cultural foods.

Try cooking something new at home once in a while. It's not magic.

Actually, I enjoy cooking for myself very much and aren't too bad at it. Here's one I did earlier:

I'd caught the yellowfin that morning. The sauerkraut, lime pickle and pickled onions are all homemade from local produce, other than the spices. And the darjeeling of course.

The big plus of preparing your own food is that you can make whatever you want regardless of anyone else's styles and tastes. This one's a real mish-mash of different traditions so you'd be hard pressed to find anything like it on a regular menu.

But you do need to dip into other styles and traditions sometimes whether to extend your repertoire, or just for the simple enjoyment of it.

[John Cuthber]

12 minutes ago, sethoflagos said:

The big plus of preparing your own food is that you can make whatever you want regardless of anyone else's styles and tastes.

And you picked "beige" from all of them.

[sethoflagos]

17 minutes ago, John Cuthber said:

And you picked "beige" from all of them.

Sometimes I just can't hide my natural flair for colour coordination 😋

[studiot]

On 3/2/2023 at 10:43 AM, Michael McMahon said:

Restaurant food is cooked by a professional and might always taste nicer than home food.

I only wish that were so.

Because I find it really galling to be served something at 5 to 10 times the price of my home cooked and think "I could do much better"..
Most folks who sit at my table agree.

And  I have never poisoned anyone, unlike some self styled high class establishments.

 

When I was first at uni, one of my flatmates came from South Shields.

He had a copy of the local rag sporting the headline

"Chinese Restaurant Steeps Peas in Toilet."

 

Go figure

 

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by studiot

[Genady]

I make better green salads with homemade dressing, better vegetable biryani, better hummus than restaurants make. They make better sushi, better veggie burgers, better seafood soup. None of us make real New York bagels