If I think about eating out I expect to have a great meal with delicious and good quality food. But of course I am not quite so naive and I know that that to fulfil my expectations would require to pay a pretty high bill. Anyway every time I am eating out I would like to see a nicely served dish that I saw in the picture, and most of the time disappointment comes instead. Actually less with deserts, because usually they actually do look at least a bit like the picture.
Yes, I know these are very ‘first world problems’, but anyway I thought I could share my thoughts on it.
When I say to people that I love and that I even prefer homemade food quite often they look at me like I am losing a treasure, even John would love to eat out more often, maybe that’ just because he cooks much more at home. That is not because he cook much better than I do, as most of people think, it’s just because I don’t like to spent a lot of time next to pots. But why do I like homemade food?
When you have read all of this article maybe you will judge me, because some people struggle every day just to have a bite. I believe John and I have contributed and will contribute more in the future to helping those less fortunate in their struggles as much as we can. We do have the possibility to eat, to choose and enjoy the food, and I don’t feel guilty about it.
Coming back to the the topic… It is not because I only like some kind of traditional foods. We make different cuisines and our own interpretations of them. We know how to make Indian and other Asian, Spanish, Italian, French, Lithuanian, English, Greek, or what ever other foods we feel like. I love the fact that we can choose the products by ourselves, we know each ingredient we put in and the quality that we choose.
We can adapt each of our recipes according to our tastes and make sure that both of us (or our friends and family) will enjoy it. If we need to make one, two, even three extra dishes or variations, that’s fine. Both of us don’t eat certain, different, foods and knowing that we just don’t put them in, or prepare separate variations. We don’t need to ask anyone else to change the recipe and then get upset if the restaurant forgets to do it.
Usually we don’t go to restaurants without checking the menu first, because sometimes we would need to leave the place because we simply could not find the dishes that both of us would eat. You might think that we are such spoiled people, but would probably agree that to pay money and not to eat the food is not a great thing. We are not so rich to be able to waste money and not so careless to waste food. Plus, that whole process itself is very unpleasant.
Not all of us have perfect digestion and some people don’t have the possibility to eat everything so we need to be careful what we put into our mouths. At home you are sure that the food will be good for you or at least it won’t have any ingredients you can not tolerate. In the restaurants I mostly choose the dishes I know will be good, maybe that sounds boring, but I don’t want to take a risk.
What I like about our homemade food a lot is that we can make it look beautiful, colourful and inviting. It will be served in the nicest way we can and we don’t need special occasions for it. A meal is the time when we have peace in the house, talk and discover flavours. Most of the time it is freshly cooked, and don’t say there is no time for cooking, because there are so many great recipes or just ways to improvise with great results possible in less than 30 minutes. You can also use simple leftovers with a few fresh herbs or some salads served on a nice plate.
From childhood I have a thing that food needs to look neat. Maybe I am still a bit like a child and need to see, know and recognise the ingredients. I don’t eat meat and I can’t eat vegan sausages, because they simply look like meat sausages and I had problems with eating them as a child. I won’t eat a candy if I don’t like the wrapper. And damn that sauce, gloopy brown sauce that erases the beauty of the food! Why can’t it be in a separate bowl, as most of the sauces should we separated in my opinion.
Even when you invite people for dinner I believe the best thing would be to ask before abut their eating habits. It is not so cool to serve a dish that a person doesn’t like or has an allergy. What should your guest do? Eat it and say how good it was and then feel sick after? Or should the guest say “Oh well I know you invited me for dinner, but I already ate or maybe I have some belly problems tonight but still I will enjoy the wine”. We all have our weird sides and why we should feel bad about it? Believe me I already felt bad about it for a long time. but not anymore.
Food is fuel to grow, build and restore our energy, but it’s more than that. Sometimes it is the only one pleasure in our lives. So we just need to make sure that we eat what we like as well as what is healthy and good for each of our bodies and souls.
Oh, and if there is a picture of a dish in the menu then please serve the same thing when I order it!
Hmm, probably all these thoughts came after a couple of terrible experiences with salads. Can you believe there is a possibility to fuck up a salad….
Enjoy your dinner!