<p>We just came home from dinner at our favorite family-style Japanese place. Cooking Asian food is not a matter of just throwing soy sauce on things. I had yakitori, shrimp tempura, sashimi, and sake. TheMom had tuna tataki. Now if anyone things it’s worth saving the money to cook up the sauce for the yakitori, find & buy the skewers, find the shrimp suitable for tempura (along with getting the appropriate vegetables), learning how to make the tempura batter correctly and then cooking the tempura correctly, knowing what fish to buy for sashimi and then having the proper knives, cooking the mizo soup and preparing the sunomono salad that comes with the dinner, and then cleaning up after the incumbent mess I’d make in the kitchen preparing so many dishes, they’re nuts.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t think that REL realizes that time/money, like mass/energy, are convertible back and forth and that if one is returning home 10, 11, 12, or 13 hours since one departed in the morning, spending a little money so that you can unwind with your spouse while someone else prepares the food and then cleans up afterwards is a good trade.</p>
<p>Cleaning…OMG…we have someone come in and clean every two weeks. That’s clearly a waste of money. Well, it’s cheaper than marriage counseling or divorce.</p>
<p>TheDad, don’t forget that if you made that Japenese dinner at home, you likely couldn’t do the whole Japanese cook routine in some restaurants that is part of the “entertainment” such as tossing a morsel in the air for you to catch in your mouth. I suppose you could attempt to concoct such enterainment at home but you might chop off something you didn’t wanna and you might be tossing food all over the place.</p>
<p>TheDad, we’re on the same wavelength. I was reading the part about working 11-13 hour days and wanting some time to unwind with your spouse and thought… “Yeah, eating out is a helluva lot cheaper than divorce.” </p>
<p>I don’t think that RE Lee is a gourmand. For the food snobs among us, there is nothing better than eating a wonderful meal. When you’re eating more than chicken patties, the cost of cooking at home goes up - pretty astronomically. Depending on how many people you are cooking for, you get the issue of having “leftover” ingredients - half an eggplant that will go bad, 1/2 cup of heavy cream, a half can of coconut milk… so you either eat Thai, Thai, and more Thai until you’re out of bean sprouts, or things go to waste, or you pay the local guy $8 to make your coconut vegetable skewers. </p>
<p>Personally, I consider McDonald’s to be a waste of money; chain restaurants, like Applebees, are just as bad. The food isn’t any good and I really could prepare those things more cheaply for myself for almost no effort. But a good meal - whatever the cost - is always worth the money. </p>
<p>I’ve also learned to be a better cook by eating out. Someday, someone will figure out that I have zero creativity in the kitchen but am excellent at stealing ideas from everywhere.</p>
<p>Susan, I suppose I could try to do a John Belushi-style “Samurai Teppan Cook!” I’d worry about inadvertantly circumcising someone within a certain radius but I guess life is never without risks.</p>
<p>Aries, wasn’t it Nixon who said, “I am not a cook!”</p>
<p>for the record, I can’t fit a “suite of luxury cookware” in either my dorm room or my 760 sq ft apartment. Nor would it do me any good in my dorm room, since I don’t have a stove. So, I guess I’m going to have to eat out. </p>
<p>Speaking of, tonight I’m off to a local restaurant where the pasta is $16 a plate and I plan to enjoy myself immensely. I’ll take in a nice sunset from the patio and stuff myself silly with foccacia- and I think it will be worth every penny.</p>
<p>^Well, congratulations to you. You’re going to be paying $16 a plate. BRAVO!</p>
<p>Everyone here has mentioned solely Chinese food or Thai. Well, what about the other meals? What about steak dinner, Italian, American, are most of these dishes cheaper at a restaurant than at home? Is a nine dollar burger at a restaurant cheaper than at home? What about steak dinner? Seeing the price of of some steakhouses lead me to believe otherwise.</p>
<pre><code> I must admit, I know little about Chinese food, nor care for it. I personally do not care for fried squid, Han We La La, or Wan Ju Li Li. I know not the different, nor care because I am an American and would much prefer a fat, juicy steak grilled at home. Accompany this with some Jiffy corn bread, red potatoes, and some cherry cobbler for desert. THAT is real cookin’, not some Thai dish like Sha La La Ga Ga
</code></pre>
<p>Which is your OPINION. I happen to love Thai chicken.</p>
<p>I’ll compare some other meals for you… I can go to Taco Bell and get 10 tacos for 6 dollars, or I can buy a pack of ground beef for 3 dollars, a pack of shells for 1 dollar, Salsa for 2 dollars, Cheese for 2 dollars… and wind up with 10 Tacos for 8 dollars, plus I had to go to the store and spend all of the time cooking my tacos and putting them together. </p>
<p>I can go out to a restaurant and order a huge pizza for 8 dollars or I can go to walmart and buy a frozen pizza which is literally half the size for 4 dollars. Times it by 2, and now I have $8 worth of pizza that more than likely tastes like rubber as most frozen food does rather than a fresh, made from scratch pizza that is right out of a pizza oven. I’m going to go with the restaurant. Plus, when I do go out with friends we all meet there after work at 7:30 at a restaurant between all of us. We’re not going to drive further to meet at someones house, make that person slave in the kitchen for an hour to cook two pizzas, then sit there and eat it and drive even further back to our houses afterwords. No, we’re going to meet at a centralized place, pay the exact same thing, and then go on our way home… having saved a lot of gas and time in the process.</p>
<p>As for the 9 dollar burger at a restaurant, I believe the 9 dollar burgers are usually twice as big as a normal burger and don’t they normally come with fries or something of that nature? I don’t eat burgers or steaks so I have NO clue what they are valued at home or at restaurants. </p>
<p>REL, if you really wanted to save money you would stop wasting it on things like Steaks and start eating cup ramen. I’m very serious with this.</p>
<p>It’s still cheaper than eating out. Please, fendergirl, do your cost analysis again for steak dinner. Please don’t tell me that the average steak at a restaurant costs $5.00, please.</p>
<p>How should I know what a Steak costs at a resteraunt? I don’t eat Steak, I don’t price them on the menu, I would assume it’s a giant waste of money to eat a steak at a restaurant or at a house when you can simply eat Cup Ramen in it’s place.</p>
<p>And Did you just tell me that it’s cheaper to cook a pizza at home than it is to eat out when I just proved you otherwise? Same thing for the tacos? I think you may need to have your head analyzed.</p>
<p>Yes, fendergirl, your incredible price analysis canonizes all prices of food. You are right, it is a world cheaper to eat out, regardless of a $60.00 bill.
Fendergirl the omniscient</p>
<p>I really enjoy that you keep trotting out this $60 figure like it’s the absolute nail in the coffin for everyone who doesn’t think the way you do.</p>
<p>She’s right. A diet of macaroni and cheese (store brand, of course), cup ramen, and those cup o’ soup things will save you thousands!</p>
<p>MMM I love a good juicy steak with some pie as dessert but I also love Chicken Marsala or Iskander. Why limit your choices when it comes to good eating?</p>
<p>I just want to say that the whole point of this thread is hilarious. If people have the money and want to spend it, who gives a damn. The bitterness I see because some people choose to spend “X” amount on a meal from others is amusing. If money is such a pinch for you, don’t go out to eat.</p>
<p>Robert, you keep doing a cost analysis of a restaurant meal vs. a meal cooked at home. Well, a restaurant meal may cost more, true. But people eat out for more reasons than just to get food. Some people consider this part of their “entertainment” budget. Now, entertainment may not be a necessity but do you believe people should no longer go for an social evening out be it to restaurants, concerts, shows, movies, sporting events, vacations/trips, etc.? None of these things are necessities. There are cheaper ways to do all of them. You can listen to a CD rather than see a live concert. You can eat home rather than eat out. You can watch a game on TV, rather than attend it. You can watch the travel channel rather than go on a trip. So? Do what YOU want. If you opt to save money on food a certain way, but spend it on something else (I don’t know your spending habits except you do have AC and not all do), so be it. You can go to community college which is cheaper than most other colleges too. Life is about making choices. I don’t get why YOU care what others choose to spend their money on. I see others who spend money on some things that I never would but I don’t care if they do. It’s their money. I mean if someone has a designer pocketbook that costs $500, and a pocketbook can be bought for $15, who cares? I can’t afford, nor would ever opt to buy a big designer bag. For me, it is not worth it but I totally understand why it may be to someone else. You don’t think eating out is worth it because food can be had cheaper. Go for it! I’m still going to enjoy an evening out with my husband and when my kids are around, I am going to enjoy an evening out with them as well (and I won’t have to do the cooking or dishes and we can have some dishes that I don’t know how to make) and enjoy our “entertainment” for the night. To each his own.</p>
<p>Robert, somehow I’m getting this mental image of you leaning back in your computer chair, chuckling and thinking “I wonder how long I can keep this discussion going?” Have a happy day no matter what you decide to spend your money on :).</p>
<p>Mkm, I was thinking the same thing! Such a pointless topic but yet look how long his thread is! And there is a secondary related thread! And we ain’t even talking college admissions! Though, he could change the title to “College: A Costly and Unnecessary Habit” and the discussion wouldn’t be all that different!</p>
<p>This thread has been rather interesting. Like REL, I despise eating out. It drains your pockets, and costs way too much. I would much prefer to give to the needy rather than eating a $30.00 filet mingon.</p>
<p>I don’t have steak when I go out.
Steak is easy to cook- I can pick out the size of the steak and be assured of the quality- I would rather have a 1/4 lb grass fed steak than a 1lb of something that has been fed sawdust/hormones/antibiotics to fatten it up .
BUt it isn’t really something that appeals to me, I am not a big meat eater.</p>
<p>I also have charities I give to, but I thinking of " giving handouts" to panhandlers, as giving to the needy. ( apologize if that isn’t what you meant)
That I * dont* do. I don’t have * spare* change, I do try and budget for donations, but I don’t carry money to give to people who say all they need is a taxi back to their house, ( when I offer them bus tickets) and swear at me, when I suggest they hitchhike. ;)</p>