I have observed something something about myself, that I cannot explain or reason…
I have a slight aversion to home-cooked meals.
WTF??? I don’t get it. I have no idea why. Maybe I am just spoiled on dining out, but I haven’t preferred home-cooked meals, for a long time. That’s not to say I won’t eat them. I do. However, I rarely have them or make any effort to have them. I like home-cooked food, but for some inexplicable reason, I prefer restaurant food. Regardless of how delicious something homemade might be, my hackles go up when I hear “made from scratch” or “homecooked.”
This makes absolutely no sense!!! I try to reason why I SHOULD prefer home-made over other food, such as: I know where it’s been, I know who made it, I know how fresh it is, I can trust who made it, etc. but it doesn’t help.
I must be insane. Perhaps, Chef Troy or some other of our culinary expert Dopers may be able to kill this stupid aversion of mine.
I like my mom’s cooking. If someone makes a good home-made meal, I will eat it, I will like it. The thing that confuses me is the fact that it is home-made.
In other words, I guess you could say what I really dislike is the terminology “home-made” or “made-from-scratch” and what it implies. It’s not the cooking or the food that bothers me.
I make no sense! This is so stupid!!! I am laughing aloud my myself right now because this is just so damn ridiculous.
-pats your shoulder comfortingly- And that, my friend, is what MPSIMS is for. For you to ramble and then have the rest of us smile blankly at you and pat your head.
Nah, whenever I hear “made from scratch” I think of Bojangle’s biscuits. Yum.
Actually none of the reasons you cite would be real reasons to prefer home cooking. You might feel more secure eating at home for these reasons, but that won’t make the food more to your taste.
Besides, unless you eat in some really bad dives, they probably shouldn’t be valid anyway. Restaurants have certain standards of cleanliness that they have to adhere to, which are going to be more rigid than practices you find in home cooking. Also, because they have a good idea of how much food they sell and have a high turnover in most of their food, they will be able to get food that probably fresher than what you would normally eat at home.
Chain restaurants tend to aim their cooking at what sells best and is easiest to prepare. This means that the food tends to be high in fat: people like fat, and frying is easy. And the food tends to not be very adventerous; why put brussel sprouts on the menu if few people will eat it.
You may also find that cooking for yourself is not worth the effort. A good meal usually involves an hour or two of prep and cleanup in addition to eating time. You expect more of a meal when you put that much effort into it.
It may also be that you don’t like the “home-cooked” dishes as much as what you find in restaurants; i.e. you prefer mexican food to meatloaf, or canneloni to catfish.
What is your goal in learning to like home-cooked food, anyway?
