I know you don't know where your food is coming from when you eat at restaurants, but there is also economics and time and convenience that factor into dinner decisions.
I have decided that there are a couple of things that just aren't worth making at home for me.
1. Sushi - because I don't live next to a fish market with sushi grade fish and can't always make it right away so it's just not worth making the rice and going way out of the way to get good fish and then having to be careful about preparing it.
2. Indian Food unless you are just having something easy like butter chicken with the sauce that comes out of a jar. Cooking indian food requires a whole lot of spices and a whole lot of time to prepare a lot of the dishes. Most of the tasty sauces require layering flavours slowly and allowing them to simmer to develop the intense flavours. Then your house smells like indian spices for days afterward. It's a nice smell when you are eating the food but I don't think you want to smell it when you are eating pizza the next day. The other thing I love about Indian food is the Naan bread but it's not going to have the same taste at home without the tandoor oven and it's not likely that any apartments in the city are ever going to have them any time soon.
3. Korean food is the next thing that I probably won't make too much of at home. I can buy the kimchi in any store now but it's the other Korean foods that just aren't worth hunting down special ingredients or trying to figure out how to make them. Then there is the way they prepare and cook it.
The other reason it's just not worth it for me to cook Korean food at home is because I can walk across the street and take my pick of at least 2 Korean restaurants to eat in.
I just had this Bim Bim Bap at a Restaurant a quick walk across the street from where I live. Total time walking there was less than 10 min. from my door. There was no ttc, gas or parking involved. Just the old fashioned walking to get your food. For under $20 including tip I had the BimbimBap and kimchi, and other assorted Korean small dishes and of course the tea.
The best part was that it was delicious. I didn't have to go to a specialty Korean grocery store or find a supermarket that carries the ingredients, which means that I didn't have to spend an hour or possibly more going to the store, parking, trying to find the ingredients, bringing them home and putting them away or preparing them, then cooking the meal and then cleaning up afterwards. I would say about 3 hours in total of time spent to make a meal like this. And I am sure I would have spent a whole lot more than $20 on the various ingredients needed to make all of these things. The reason you pay more to eat at restaurants is because they save you all the time it takes to have these meals.
Then there is my least favourite part after making something at home.....DOING THE DISHES. I am much happier spending the $15-$20 to have someone else do the dishes...thank you very much.
Anyway... I figure the total time spent having dinner tonight was a half an hour, giving me the time to now write this blog.
Some times you just have to leave certain cooking to the experts that do it for a living everyday and spend your time doing other things that they aren't doing.
So thank you to the nice Korean restaurant for making me a satisfying meal and giving me some more free time and keeping my apartment clean and my wallet with a little more green in it.
What foods do you prefer to let someone else cook for you?
I've made vegetarian sushi with cucumber/avocado before and it was good but I could never get the rice to be perfect. I also make Indian food all the time but I use jarred curry paste so that cuts down on the prep time. As for Korean food, can't say I'm a big fan but I would prefer to have someone else make it. I have been thinking of trying to make a Korean seafood pancake one day. It doesn't appear to be that difficult.
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