When I go out to eat - think nice meal here, not something you just grab and go - there are certain items I won’t even consider. It’s not that I think I’m a great cook, but I don’t see the sense in ordering something I can make as well, or even better, than a restaurant.
For example - meatloaf. It’s a pretty basic item, and I can’t imagine a spectacular meatloaf. Also mac-n-cheese. Yeah, you can put lobster in it, but that seems a waste of perfectly good lobster.
Even spaghetti - it’s pasta with sauce. Nothing wrong with it, but it’s so basic as not to be special enough to warrant ordering it at a restaurant.
Oddly enough, I’m OK ordering most breakfast foods, with the exception of cold cereal and milk - that doesn’t belong in a restaurant. Seriously!
Am I alone in this? Are there things you would never consider paying someone else to prepare for you?
I feel the same way about some of the things you’ve mentioned. Potato salad is pretty common where I live, and most of it is good, but mine’s better. Damn near perfect! Other things like iceberg lettuce in salads and long-grain rice in certain dishes don’t fly with me.
If I order pasta in a restaurant it had better come with a duck ragu or a wild boar sauce that’d be too much of a pain in the ass to make at home.
Schnitzel is easy to make, but who wants to clean up the mess on the stovetop?
OTOH, I think a diner or coffee shop breakfast is one of the last inexpensive luxuries remaining to us. Omelette, hash browns, sausages, buttered rye toast, please.
I second the meatloaf. We ate at a Cheesecake Factory for the first time a week ago and I saw their “Famous Meatloaf” on the menu. I love meatloaf and had to try it. Bahh. Nothing special at all. It’s all meat, no nice bread crumbs or minced onion, celery, etc. Just a giant hamburg.
I had to make my own a few days later.
There are some very nice mac-n-cheeses out there although I never make it from scratch at home.
Just because I make something better doesn’t mean I won’t ever order it. Say due to effort or size (I’m not going to make two servings of lasagna.) Or because it needs some inconvenient ingredient.
Can’t say never. But unless it’s special occasion out with someone else, I probably won’t order prime rib again since I once made an amazing one that far surpassed anything I’ve ever had before.
Other than that, I like trying restaurant food since it sometimes gives me good ideas/flavors to add to my home cooking.
how are all you people making steaks at home that taste better than restaurant steaks?
Closest thing I can think of is spaghetti. I make my spaghetti by melting velveeta cubes in the sauce, using olive oil on the noodles and then dicing up garlic as a topping. Tastes better than any restaurant spaghetti. thats about it, I’m not much of a cook.
I also avoid pasta at restaurants - it’s so easy and convenient to make at home that I probably eat it too often. I’ve probably passed on some great dishes. Lasagne is different however. A great lasagne is hard to find but I’m forever hunting for it.
Meanwhile, lasagna is something I prefer to make at home, as very few places around here really does it the way I like it (bolognese style with spinach sheets and a bechamel white layer; no ricotta).
That said, there’s not really anything I won’t ever order in a restaurant. There’s certain things I won’t specifically go out for, but if a place is known for its meatloaf or steak or Hungarian goulash or whatnot, I’ll give it a try, even though I make versions of all those at home I’m more than happy with.
Basic red sauce I can do WAY better than any restaurant but I’ll make the exception if it’s something that takes effort like veal parm or stuffed shells that I CAN do but I’m just to lazy to.
Roasted chicken. REALLY? $25 to throw a $3 bird in the oven and not be stupid enough to fuck up a dead simple dish?!
Fired chicken however I only eat out. Yes it’s not really difficult but it makes a mess I just don’t want to deal with - again, lazy.