TV dinners vs home cooking vs restaurants vs fast food

[Terry]

When I'm home, breakfast Mon to Sat is quite spartan - some cereal or yoghurt and a cup of tea.

Sunday is my protest against the hypertension and cholestrol barrier and I indulge in Mrs.T's full on English Breakfast - Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Baked Beans, Fried Bread, Toast, Marmalade, Orange Juice and Tea - Disgusting but once a week when I'm home - it's a treat.

Lunch most days usually small Thai dish, noodles (Moo Daeng) or similar.

Dinners tend to be family affairs and a fair mixture of Western & Thai depending on what I can get our cook to rustle up.

When we can, Mrs.T and I will cook together, but bearing in mind she spends a lot of her time in the background of our restaurant at the Lodge, she likes to eat out - and I dont blame her.

If we go out then it's usually MK Suki or the duck (Sometimes both), Apple restaurant on the beach near Blue Wave at Takieb, Sakura Sushi or once in a blue moon the Sunday Brunch at the Dusit.

Junk food - hardly ever - except maybe a pizza or five with my two boys

[AussieBill]

I intend to retire to Los and never cook again in this life. I hope.

[Korkenzieher]

Pushing 50 now, and have been cooking for myself since I was about 10. It is one thing I have always both enjoyed and been good at. I prefer it when there are others around - making a lot of effort just for me seems a little excessive sometimes. Like all, I will grab a Mac on rare occasions. I never microwave or buy TV dinners. I hear the kind of 'oh, I couldn't be bothered', or 'why, when street food is so cheap?' often enough but it misses the point. I do it because I enjoy it. Healthier eating, cost etc are very much secondary concerns. I like eating out quite a bit, but tend to favour cuisines which for whatever reason, I haven't got to grips with myself. It is irrational, I know, but I always feel that there is no point paying someone to do something I could do better myself.

[Homer]

Not having a kitchen limits my options. Breakfast is usually some combination of muesli, yogurt and fruit or rye crackers and vegemite. Biggest meal of the day at a restaurant, then usually something from a cart for the other meal, usually supplemented with blanched veggies.

I like eating out quite a bit, but tend to favour cuisines which for whatever reason, I haven't got to grips with myself. It is irrational, I know, but I always feel that there is no point paying someone to do something I could do better myself.

Not irrational, IMHO. Restaurants often take shortcuts because the patrons don't know how a dish is supposed to be prepared, or wouldn't know a great <fill in the blank> if it was in front of them. The mid '80s Cajun boom in America was a joke because real Cajun food (my mama was from New Orleans) takes a lot of time. Restaurants shortened the prep time so the customers wouldn't go nuts while waiting but in doing so lost much of the complexity of the flavors.

[Spitfire]

When I'm home, breakfast Mon to Sat is quite spartan - some cereal or yoghurt and a cup of tea.

With you there man, same here.

Sunday is my protest against the hypertension and cholestrol barrier and I indulge in Mrs.T's full on English Breakfast - Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Baked Beans, Fried Bread, Toast, Marmalade, Orange Juice and Tea - Disgusting but once a week when I'm home - it's a treat.

Nothing like a proper homemade 'greasy spoon' man, mushrooms an all etc.

MrP would at us, , just some fun MrP.

[Khundon1975]

Hi Mags

"KD is very lucky to be able to eat out 4 times a week in the UK!"

We don't always pay Mags. Sometimes we eat Thai or Vietnamese food at friends houses or eat with friends who have Thai or Chinese restaurant's and who cook "real Thai/Chinese dishes" that are not on the normal menu.

So, on average, we would eat out at other restaurants (European) about twice a week.

Problem is, once the wife and little one get back in a month or two loaded down with weird and wonderful comestibles, our house will become busier than Clapham Junction, as her Thai friends and their children descend on us for cookouts.

Actually Mags, I would prefer to be in Thailand, as taking a baby/child to eateries for lunch or dinner, is much more acceptable than some of the good (European) restaurants here in the UK.

[steve w]

I intend to retire to Los and never cook again in this life. I hope.

good style,like it

[caller]

Anyone prepared to show their culinary skills via a few photo's?

And how exactly do you define a TV dinner?

Fast food we know about - is there a difference?

Lets see the evidence guy's - Both TV 'dinners' and the home produced stuff!

[Siani]

I never eat ever in front of the TV Breakfast Monday to Saturday is Muesli with one Weetabix, semi skimmed milk. Lunch in winter is soup or 3 Ryvita with Marmite & an Apple. Boring?? Yes a little, but trying to lose weight! Evening meal is Thai, English, Mexican, Indian..or if good a Chicken salad. Then later about 2 hours a yoghurt & coffee. Weekends (Sunday only) I have cooked breakfast, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms (the big black field ones if I can get them) toast with Marmite. I will not eat then until the evening when I have normally roast meat or go out for a Thai or Indian meal. I intend to eat out more when we come to Thailand.

[Khundon1975]

Here Caller, have some of the wifes blueberry cheesecake.

Don't eat it all at once.

[Khundon1975]

TV dinner, as served in the Bangkok Hilton.

prison-metal-tray.jpg (36.01 KiB) Viewed 643 times

[margaretcarnes]

TV dinner, as served in the Bangkok Hilton.

prison-metal-tray.jpg

WTF is that! Give me the blueberry cheesecake any day...
But you're right KD about UK (and no doubt other) restaurants cutting corners. Dumbing down as well. Our Indian restaurant meals tend to be just pre-prepared curry sauces ready to sling in whatever meat is ordered. Khorma is only mild - Vindaloo is only hot. The scary thing is how many people think it's great.

Siani - don't worry too much about the diet. A few months in LOS and a couple of litres of water a day and any excess weight should go without any effort!

[Khundon1975]

TV dinner, as served in the Bangkok Hilton.

prison-metal-tray.jpg

WTF is that! Give me the blueberry cheesecake any day...
But you're right KD about UK (and no doubt other) restaurants cutting corners. Dumbing down as well. Our Indian restaurant meals tend to be just pre-prepared curry sauces ready to sling in whatever meat is ordered. Khorma is only mild - Vindaloo is only hot. The scary thing is how many people think it's great.

Siani - don't worry too much about the diet. A few months in LOS and a couple of litres of water a day and any excess weight should go without any effort!

Especially if he eats an iffy meal.

Mags, we rarely eat at Indian restaurants because of the reasons you mention. But it needn't be so, fresh ingredients are available, if they could be bothered to find them.

At least the Thai friends we know here insist on authentic ingredients and make their curry sauces etc fresh on the day. Pounding away with the old mortar and pestle.

My wife is in constant contact with a Chinese chap who imports fresh herbs, chilies etc. from Thailand. When some are being flown in, I am dispatched on a 100 mile round trip, list in hand, to fetch them for her friends.

The wife made that cheesecake back in 2002, so it may be a bit stale by now.

[hhfarang]

The missus cooks some and I cook some. We go out for lunch once or twice a week and order delivery in a couple of times a month. When we don't feel like cooking, going out or delivery in, we do eat TV dinners from 7/11. They have a freezer in most stores that contains about 3 brands of frozen Thai meals; around 20 different dishes. They are small and too much rice for the meat, but they are quick, convenient, only 30 to 35 baht each, and some are pretty good. The missus also runs down the street to get som tam or noodle soup for her a lot and I just eat whatever is in the house at those times... and yes, I almost always eat in front of the TV... I put a convertible coffee table in the home theater where the top raises on steel articulating arms and glides towards you to facilitate that...

[Nereus]

quote" and I just eat whatever is in the house at those times... "

I guess the Ting Tongs keep well out of sight then, hhf?

(ps: what about those snakes?)