The Troubles with Takeout
There are two problems, and they’re simple.
First, takeout is usually not very good. There is something about pre-prepared food other than pizza that seems to disintegrate by the time it gets home. Since I avoid fast food and most packaged foods, my choices are somewhat limited. Again and again I’ve tried prepared foods from our grocery coop, or takeout from restaurants that I normally like. Too often, it is merely mediocre. As regular readers may have divined, I’m not a big fan of mediocre. Mediocre, as far as I’m concerned, is bad. Food is either good or it’s not.
Second, takeout is usually expensive. There is a premium for convenience. This second point often accompanies and exacerbates the first–the takeout is bad AND it’s expensive. For our family of limited means, this is a cruel double whammy.
A further wrinkle is location. There may be good, reasonably priced takeout places here and there, but unless they’re close to me, they’re largely useless.
I rant because we tried a place last night for the second time. As before, the food was so-so, and the price was high. There was little prep and cleanup, which G. Grod and I were grateful for, since we both have dreadful, lingering viruses. But the cost, both in money and in middling food, is just too high. It is with dread that I contemplate tonight’s dinner.
Why is good takeout so hard to find? Why?
August 31st, 2005 at 3:00 pm
Note that last night’s dinner was not really expensive. It was the fancy cookies and chocolates that I bought for someone that made it an expensive trip.
As a matter of fact, the dinner and the sandwich I bought for my lunch together were only about half of the bill.
By the way, the sandwich was really good.
September 1st, 2005 at 12:32 pm
dude i so don’t have that problem. take out by me is both cheap and good.
September 1st, 2005 at 3:26 pm
I wonder, could it be a city/suburb thing, or is it that the bigger the city, the better the takeout?
September 2nd, 2005 at 7:10 am
could be because in the midst of my 13 year NYC life, i had take out chinese in minneapolis that was horrifyingly bad and i told my friend “that’s one huge reason i couldn’t live here.”