When I Get Old ...

[iris lilies]

Our easiest access white tablecloth Italian restaurant in Hermann re-tooled recently. Now it is a hideous concept restaurant: seafood and alcoholic slushees. They cater to the tourista crowd. These owners are professional chefs and I respect their food, but blechhhh to slushees. And sure their casual fish dishes are fine but I miss their perfectly lovely Italian/American menu.

Hermann also has a specialized European place, by reservation only, price fixe menu. It is too difficult to figure out how to reach them so we have not been, but they are high end foodies who cook.

[razz]

Love that Vermont video!!!
Always surprised to see how a thread evolves and how interesting the posts are.

[iris lilies]

What I missed traveling some places in the U.S. was a lack of any even moderately healthy cuisine. Gah I guess that's why they call it California cuisine!!! Truthfully not just California, like noone has any doubt you can eat well in Seattle etc., but some places are truly a wasteland, and I kept eating at the most unhealthy restaurant ever when trying places and when I tried ethnic food it was the worst imitation of it ever. I was very tired of the food.

But I don't care about restaurants all that much when I live somewhere as I cook and cook well. But then I care about what groceries I can buy, better have a good selection there, I mean darn well better. The one ethnic food I'd most want is a good Jewish deli. Well we have those. After that I like middle eastern. And yep I like California cuisine.

on the road in the Midwest, you will suffer mightily from the fare.

[iris lilies]

Love that Vermont video!!!
Always surprised to see how a thread evolves and how interesting the posts are.

I like that video too, watched it again all the way through!

[rosarugosa]

Awesome video Catherine! If you shared it before, I missed it.

[razz]

I am surprised at the enthusiasm for eating out. When did that become so important? DH and I tried dining out and were so constantly disappointed that we gave up. People would rave about a restaurant and we would try it and swear never again. There were some really good meals but no consistency in subsequent visits. Price had little to do with the quality of the food. We ended 'dining out' on Lake Erie perch, fries, coleslaw, and salad bar for $1/4 of a restaurant meal and it was consistently good.

I feel that if I dine out for $$$$ it has to be something that I would not make myself with my usual fresh ingredients. Yes, I do get tired of cooking bytimes but then a takeout pizza will do quite well.

A friend took me out for lunch at this really fancy location and the portion that was brought to the table was a very small child portion with some sauce drizzled over the large white areas of the plate with a herb sprig for contrast. She was shocked but glad that she had used a retirement gift certificate. Apparently that practice of restaurant portion control is not unusual. On my tour of Newfoundland, the local guide mentioned some of the fancy dining spots in St John's but cautioned that one needs to eat first and then go out to dine for the taste. We laughed but decided we needed more food than taste.

Do others find this as well?

[iris lilies]

Razz, I am not a very good cook and do not take the time to do it, but I love to eat! I dont like bland food much, so I love ethnic menus and foods. They use veggies in imaginative ways.

After I retired I set out to learn to make biryani, a northern Indian dish. It is quite involved. I made it twice and gave up because it never tasted much like the dish I got in restaurants.

I have taken several Indian cooking classes but did not keep up that dkill.

[catherine]

I am surprised at the enthusiasm for eating out. When did that become so important? DH and I tried dining out and were so constantly disappointed that we gave up. People would rave about a restaurant and we would try it and swear never again. There were some really good meals but no consistency in subsequent visits. Price had little to do with the quality of the food. We ended 'dining out' on Lake Erie perch, fries, coleslaw, and salad bar for $1/4 of a restaurant meal and it was consistently good.

I feel that if I dine out for $$$$ it has to be something that I would not make myself with my usual fresh ingredients. Yes, I do get tired of cooking bytimes but then a takeout pizza will do quite well.

A friend took me out for lunch at this really fancy location and the portion that was brought to the table was a very small child portion with some sauce drizzled over the large white areas of the plate with a herb sprig for contrast. She was shocked but glad that she had used a retirement gift certificate. Apparently that practice of restaurant portion control is not unusual. On my tour of Newfoundland, the local guide mentioned some of the fancy dining spots in St John's but cautioned that one needs to eat first and then go out to dine for the taste. We laughed but decided we needed more food than taste.

Do others find this as well?

Your story reminds me of that restaurant scene in L.A. Story when Steve Martin is presented with a smidgen of food with a few garnishes and and smears of aoli and he says "I'm finished and I don't remember eating."

I do enjoy eating out, and I don't like large portions. I really enjoy tapas/small plates. But I don't have a need to eat out constantly. I have family members that post every week from a restaurant, and that's even during COVID! I haven't been to a real restaurant... hmmm, can't remember. Probably a restaurant in Asbury Park in early March 2020 was the last time I went out to a decent restaurant.

I look forward to going out to eat eventually. I do love Indian restaurants and I LOVE Japanese restaurants (there's that Japanese thing again, razz!).

[iris lilies]

Funny that I don’t like Japanese food much and will never go to a Japanese restaurant. Granted, I do buy sushi at a nearby grocery store, but that’s as far as I go. I buy the spicy kind. I think Japanese food is mostly bland.

And we don’t go out to eat all that often. In Covid times, until recently, I was trying to buy takeout once a week from the restaurant around the corner and spending a lot on that because I want to give her the business. But recently DH yelled at me about spending too much money so I’ve cut down.

In non-Covid times we might go out to eat on average once a week Which is often, I grant you, but low end cheap places because we’re driving out on errands.

[Teacher Terry]

I love to eat out and normally do it once or twice a week. The only ethnic food I like is Italian and polish. I have one meal that I will eat at a Mexican or Chinese restaurant if I am forced to go to one).