sharke
I used to eat out all the time in Manhattan but over the last few months the girlfriend and I have perfected our signature salad as well as a few choice dishes, and now when I think about going out all I can think about is, will this be as good as the spreads we make at home for ourselves? This signature salad...it's a meal in itself. Close to 20 ingredients. And we make large curries, chillies and soups that get divided into portions and frozen. God knows how much money we're saving. It is nice to dine in different surroundings every once in a while though.
I totally get that. For us, living in NY was a totally different paradigm - we'd stop by at the grocery practically every night and decide what we wanted to eat on the spot. We walked and didn't have a car - or need one - so we never bought much except what we needed immediately. We rarely went for anything too fancy. But we ordered food or went to the restaurant a few times a week.
Here it's completely different - we do the grocery once a week. Meals are planned. There's no real possibility of me just walking to the grocery, and then shop around - we need a car to go everywhere. Coupled w/ the 10 shows a week, we usually don't go out much. But once every few months we do go to the restaurant. Especially when we feel like eating a good steak.
I don't have the talent to cook that stuff as nicely as the folks at Echo & Rig, I always feel like I'm spoiling $50 worth of meat - and I hate having to live with the smell for an entire evening afterwards. I'd rather go out and enjoy a nice dinner w/ my wife - no TV, no laptop, a glass of wine and a nice meal.