The Philosophy of Food

My brother and I have a deal going: we are not going to any restaurants until maybe August. Two reasons for this: first, because prices are outrageous, and second, because the food has been generally terrible.

We started avoiding the big ‘chains’ (e.g., Olive Garden, Red Lobster, etc.) a while back, especially during the Pandemic. When the places around here opened for service again, we would, with an abundance of caution, having been ‘vaxxed’ and fully armored up, go during non-peak times. The first thing we noticed immediately was that all pretext at standards had been abandoned.

(Side note: I personally never saw the point of ‘masks;’ so many people wore them incorrectly anyway, so as to render their use moot to begin with, but beyond that, unless we were all donning masks like the kind that were meant to keep out poisonous gasses or something, then the minute anyone took off their mask in a semi-enclosed space, to drink something or eat, the ‘germs’ would not know to stay on their own side. Anyway….)

So between 2020 and 2024, service went down, food quality went down, and the whole experience of eating out had lost its luster. Four years in, and we assumed that everyone had gotten past the fear and the excuses, but apparently the food industry is determined to make the most of whatever social disaster might be occurring at any given time. 

Take for instance, a visit to one of our local Mexican places. They set up a tent in the parking lot just outside the main building, sealed it in with plastic side panels and filled it with loud fans. It was impossible to keep anything on the tables that didn’t weigh at least a couple of pounds. Then they changed their menu and hiked up their prices. For example, a plate of street tacos, consisting of four mini corn tortillas each with one tablespoon of protein (e.g., ground beef), along with a ton of shredded lettuce and salsa, was now $35. Thirty-five dollars! (Taco Bell tacos seemed indulgent by comparison.)

Once the pandemic was over, we assumed (wrongly) that they would lower their prices, but since people have gotten ‘used to’ the higher prices, nothing has changed.  Since they no longer have the Pandemic to blame price increases on, they are now using ‘tariffs’ as their main reason. (Last time I checked, tortillas were not being imported from Austria so I’m not sure how they are justifying this.)

So we have used this period of time to hone our own cooking skills. And with all the techniques we have tried and recipes he has developed on his own, we have considered the possibility of not eating out ever again, as the food we make at home is much tastier, less salty, and far more carefully prepared than anything we can get anywhere else. That’s one of the points we find important: the food you go out to eat should be better than what you yourself can make at home.

I highly recommend that everyone learn to cook something from scratch. It doesn’t matter what it is, so long as it tastes good and has enough depth, breadth, and substance to actually be a meal. It doesn’t have to be complicated at all, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. You don’t even really need a formal ‘recipe,’ just some ideas of what you like to eat. If you don’t already cook, you will be amazed at what you can do. Create a ‘signature dish,’ one that you learn to do well and that people will associate with you, and when you become good at that, learn another one!   

My brother does most of the cooking for us, and he has a more balanced hand with seasoning. I tend to season my cooking more lightly, which sometimes comes across as less savory and more bland. But the other day, I put together something he did not think he would like, and he genuinely enjoyed it, and it was not hard to do at all.

I made some plain steamed rice and blanched a head of chopped broccoli. Then I diced and sautéed some chicken and stirred in a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup. Using little baking dishes, I layered the rice, then the chicken mix, then the broccoli, and I topped it all with shredded cheddar cheese. Into the oven for twenty minutes and the whole things was bubbly and savory – and not hard to make at all. It was one of the first things I learned to make when I was in elementary school; a friend’s mother showed me how to do it.

Since elementary school, I've made multiple variations, adding in white wine or sherry, different kinds of cream soups, leaving out the chicken, adding in mushrooms, using different varieties of cheese. Almost every variation has worked, and from that I got over my fear of cooking.

See, from the simplest of ideas, one can learn, and grow, and reach into areas previously unknow, but ultimately very savory. All it takes is a gentle nudge, a handful of rice, and a bit of imagination.