Does home cooking spoil you for restaurants?

Do you find that home cooking has spoiled you for restaurant dining? Lately my wife and I have been finding that while eating out is enjoyable because we don't have to cook or clean up afterwards, we often end up feeling that we could have eaten better at home. A case in point - on a recent trip to Phildelphia, we went to Parc restaurant and had the roast chicken with mashed potatoes that was featured on the Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate. It was pleasant, but we felt that I have made at least two roast chicken recipes that were better than that: Julia Child's, from The Art of French Cooking, and the Forty Clove Chicken recipe I just posted. (To be fair, the steak tartare appetizer at Parc was out of this world.)

We find that the restaurant meals we enjoy most are from cuisines that I don't really do myself, like Chinese, Thai or Indian. Now, the restaurants we tend to patronize are not the super-expensive, top-of-the-line restaurants, but the moderately expensive ones (say $50-100 per person without wine). That's a lot to pay for a meal that leaves me wishing I'd eaten at home.

Is it just us or do others find this, too?

Like you, I seldom order anything in a restaurant that I make at home. A beer-batter fish fry, or chicken wings for example. I seldom deep-fry at anything at home. On the other hand, I almost never order a baked potato in a restaurant.

I'd say rather that, when dining out, I tend to order dishes that we wouldn't do at home. So, for me, no chicken, no steak, no simple pasta. OTOH, unless you've got a very good oven at home, pizza from a brick-fired oven can be something hard to match at home. Like you, I find that certain ethnic foods (Thai, Peruvian, Indian) are much easier to get at a restaurant than to do at home. There are also certain dishes like souffle that I am happy to order at restaurants since I understand what a PITA they are to do. YMMV, of course.

Mark Lipton

I suppose I agree with everyone so far.

We often choose to eat ethnic food (Szechuan-Sichuan is a big favorite recently, along with Malaysian Hawker Food) just because it is something we don't do at home. Ditto with other Chinese regional cuisines and some Korean dishes. (We have started cooking things like Bibimbap and Bulgogi)

Buying "ordinary" dishes really leads to "odious" comparisons.

I have a lady friend who is now 91 and she used to take me out to lunch at Charlie Brown's. I don't even know if that is a national chain. But I would order the steak, which was almost perfectly tasteless, although it had a reasonable texture. You got a little cup of what they called "au jus" and I learned you had to dip each bite of steak in the juice before putting it into your mouth. Doing that simulated the flavor of actual steak.

Yes, it does. I like to go because it gives me a break and gets us out with Friends we love. We usually prefer to entertain at home because it is more relaxing and we can visit longer. But there are those times when everyone wants a night out. We are not as fortunate as most of you to have a lot of great restaruants...too many cowboys, red meat eaters who want meat and potatoes. But it is getting better....with the Asian, in particular and four locals are opening restaurants in our
small, but artsy, very local, renovated downtown area. When we travel, we try going where the locals go, or to a very well known and expensive restaurant. There have been few memorable meals, many great meals. Marche in Eugene, OR has been great for a stop over night on our way up north. A restaurant in the Inter-Continental Hotel in Oahu was very outstanding...years ago. A hamburger at a good friends backyard BBQ was extraordinary, and a young Italian couple who lived in our apartments cooked a fabulous spaghetti meal for us. She cooked a large roast in a red sauce all day. Her apartment smelled so fabulous I was salivating. These are just simple things that grabbed me and stuck.

We go out every Friday night for seafood. Why? Because sometimes we get it deep fried, something we rarely do at home like Howie. The biggest reason is that restaurants, at least those around here, can get it fresher that we can around here. Scallops for example. We are lucky if we can find them in a store, even a seafood store, that are less than five days to a week old. Restaurants can get anywhere from a couple of hours to no more than a day or two old.

No. But it has definitely done a trip on my husband. He does not like to go out to restaurants for dinner, and especially he doesn't like to go to other people's homes for dinner. He will do both, but reluctantly. And, there are some friends homes that he will not go to for dinner, no matter how much I tease and shame him into accepting a reciprocal invitation.

I don't think it's spoiled me too much. Since I do most of the cooking at home, there's a certain pleasure to be taken in having someone else serve me. Like most of you, though, I greatly prefer to eat things in restaurants that I don't normally get at home. Brick oven pizza was an excellent example. Another is the club sandwich at Jamie's (a local restaurant). They use house roasted turkey and house cured bacon which make for an exceptional sandwich. Sure, I can make myself a club sandwich that will be better than 90% of those out there, but there's no way I'll make one as good as Jamie's. Things I will almost never order in a restaurant include risotto, roasted chicken, and grilled salmon.

No. But it has definitely done a trip on my husband. He does not like to go out to restaurants for dinner, and especially he doesn't like to go to other people's homes for dinner. He will do both, but reluctantly. And, there are some friends homes that he will not go to for dinner, no matter how much I tease and shame him into accepting a reciprocal invitation.

But Carl likes cookouts in the park for a little girls first birthday, right?

JoAnnCarlIzzy.jpg

[Jenise]

My husband would answer that 'yes'. We'd both love to eat out more, but we've chosen to live in an area without much to offer and what is close by is generally below the standard I set at home.

My husband would answer that 'yes'. We'd both love to eat out more, but we've chosen to live in an area without much to offer and what is close by is generally below the standard I set at home.

Oh, come on, Jenise. Just fire up the yacht and sail down to Puget Sound for a nice dinner. Unless you're overly concerned with f*ckers on a boat, that is.

Mark Lipton

[Jenise]

Oh, come on, Jenise. Just fire up the yacht and sail down to Puget Sound for a nice dinner. Unless you're overly concerned with f*ckers on a boat, that is.

Mark Lipton

. But alas, no yacht, no waterfront restaurants. Just burger joints for the tourists, and bad ones at that.

My husband would answer that 'yes'. We'd both love to eat out more, but we've chosen to live in an area without much to offer and what is close by is generally below the standard I set at home.

Jenise, I realize it's not quite local but I'm curious whether you'd paid a visit to the Willows Inn yet and if so, what your take was.

[Jenise]

Mark, I've been to the Willows a number of times, but not since Blaine Wetzel arrived from the so-called best restaurant in the world--Nora, Noma or Nobu or whatever it is in Copenhagen. I love the place. Love the spot, the dining room and Riley the owner. It's actually pretty close--about a 20 minute drive to the ferry, ten minute ride over, and then about 3 minutes to the restaurant. Of course, the ferry takes all the spontaneity out of it, but still.

I've just heard all the hype lately and wondered if it was justified. Whoever's doing publicity for them must be working overtime, starting with the New York Times articles. Picked up a copy of Sunset magazine recently in the dentist's waiting room, Willows Inn. Food and Wine shows up here, Willows Inn. And so on. They seem to be everywhere - pretty remarkable for a place in a spot as remote as Lummi Island.

Yes, in many cases. When we go out it is usually because we have worked too late to think about shopping and cooking that evening and we just want something pretty quick and easy. Lately in NC we've been going the Mellow Mushroom, a chain out of Atlanta that has absolutely addictive pizza. The best crust we honestly have ever had. Sometimes I will even pick up fried chicken from Bojangles on the way home from my commute. Otherwise we find just a simple grilled protein and side of fresh veggies at home most nights is prefered to what we get "out." As well, when we have time to cook something more special, it's usually better (in our opinions) than what we get in the better establishments. We were excited recently to get a new Prime Steakhouse in our little town, especially since we don't have a Costco nearby to buy our own prime steaks. However, the steak was one of the worst we have had. Those who ordered the seafood were mighty happy though. Go figure!
We do have some decent high-end restaurants in the area, but they are so "hit and miss" that we hesitate to frequent them in case it's another night of "misses." Usually our high-end restaurant visits are group events with friends.

[Jenise]

I've just heard all the hype lately and wondered if it was justified. Whoever's doing publicity for them must be working overtime, starting with the New York Times articles. Picked up a copy of Sunset magazine recently in the dentist's waiting room, Willows Inn. Food and Wine shows up here, Willows Inn. And so on. They seem to be everywhere - pretty remarkable for a place in a spot as remote as Lummi Island.

I think it's just Riley and luck. They somehow caught someone's fancy at the NYT and the others picked up the buzz. But I'm glad to see it. They have the well-deserved humble authenticity of a place that grew out of nothing (it really WAS a nettle farm) and which has been nurtured with love and passion. No fancy resort buildings, no billionaire gloss, no pretension. You really should go sometime.