Keep cake away from the office

danlightbulb said:
But, takeaways are nice. They taste nicer than food I cook myself unless its expensive food like a nice steak. Example, an indian takeaway or dominoes pizza is nicer than a home cooked curry or home cooked oven pizza. Not that there is anything bad about the home cooked food, its just that the takeaway food is nicer.
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You need to get better at making these things then or accept that occasionally they are a nice treat but they are just that, occasional. I love curry, chinese takeaway, thai food and part of that is getting 4 different currys, sides etc but I can cook a decent version of various dishes at home. I guess I am just a miser who thinks its madness to spend £15 on a takeaway instead of spending £3 making it myself and having 2 nights worth of meals from it.

The other choice is simply not to make those items. There are millions of things you can make that are delicious. Fajitas, burritos, carbonara, stews, various pasta sauces, thai currys.

danlightbulb said:
When I was single I often found myself with no food in the house so takeaway it is. In a way I suppose it was laziness, but I also felt time poor so going shopping was lower on the list, knowing deep down I suppose that I could always pop to the chippie. Ps, chippie cooked fish and chips is nicer than oven cooked fish and chips.
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I mean, thats 100% laziness. You can do tesco orders now so you don't even have to leave your house to get food. My partner is fantastically lazy when it comes to food and she regularly says "we don't have any food do we?" and the answer is always yes, yes we do. We have a freezer full of food, we have a fridge with various things, we have a pantry with loads of things. You just have to put some vague effort in to combine them into a meal.

Personally I find that cooking at the end of the day is a chance for me to take a break from work. I like nice food and if I relied on my partner we would eat what she likes to term "fridge meze". I do 95%+ of the cooking.
 
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Zatoichi.uK said:
Largely true but it's also true that people are mostly a product of their upbringing. Almost everyone I know who is overweight had a terrible diet growing up and the same with healthy people staying healthy with few exceptions.
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Right, so what you are essentially saying is that if we normalise eating crap and being overweight that parents will keep feeding their kids crap and it will never get better. Sounds like we need to try and sort that out.
 
fez said:
I mean, thats 100% laziness. You can do tesco orders now so you don't even have to leave your house to get food. My partner is fantastically lazy when it comes to food and she regularly says "we don't have any food do we?"
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Absolutely, but irrelevant when you've been busy all day and its 8pm and you're hungry with no easy food in the house. There's only one option then.

fez said:
You need to get better at making these things then
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I dont think it is possible to make something as good as a takeaway does. I don't know why, is it that they load it with fat or sugar, or is it that they have the right cooking machinery to get the best out of it.

Loads of examples of this but I'll pick a couple just to get the point across:
1. Dominos pizza dough - can't get the same fluffy feeling from an oven pizza.
2. Chicken tikka - can buy the spice mix but its never the same.
3. Naan breads - the prepackaged ones are nowhere near the same as fresh ones.


Ps for context as this may be relevant to my issues, but I was a terrible eater as a child, very selective, didn't like many textures and tastes. I was very underweight as well. As I got older and could buy food myself, I latched onto the 'nice' food you get from takeaways and its stuck as an adult.
 
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fez said:
Right, so what you are essentially saying is that if we normalise eating crap and being overweight that parents will keep feeding their kids crap and it will never get better. Sounds like we need to try and sort that out.
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I'm not saying it should be normalised no far from it. I'm healthy myself and always have been but its largely because that's how I was raised. Its hard for me to be too critical as some of my closest friends never stood a chance. They were fed crap for years.

That's not to say we shouldn't do something about it or people can't escape their fate. It is harder though.
 
Scam said:
Yet plenty of people like me enjoy the odd cake or treat a few times a week - whether it be because Brenda has brought something in to cheer everyone up, or because I fancy a pastry with my mid-morning coffee. The government shouldn't be concentrating on nannying people, they should be putting proper healthy cooking in the school curriculum, so that 18 year olds leaving for University know not-only how to cook simple meals, but know that by doing so they would actually save money over unhealthy takeaways etc.
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It's one person's opinion, there is no government legislation stopping people from baking cakes.


Are people losing the ability to think for themselves?
 
danlightbulb said:
I don't know why, is it that they load it with fat or sugar, or is it that they have the right cooking machinery to get the best out of it.
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It’s a mix. For something like pizza it’s 100% the equipment. I can make a pretty good pizza in my home oven (at 300C), or a pretty amazing Sicilian style one. But for a decent traditional pizza you need a pizza oven that will get above that. I have one, but can’t be bothered to use it much in Winter as it’s outside. It still takes a long time to make good pizza though. A minimum of 5-6 hours, but ideally 3 days for the dough to develop flavour.

With something like a curry it’s definitely partly down to how much oil you use, as well as the freshness of the ingredients. Buying a spice mix never quite does it, as you say. Or with burgers I like to grind my own meat so I can get a blend that tastes just right. But not everyone has a meat grinder (or an attachment for a stand mixer!)

So yeah, you can definitely make takeaway quality food at home, but it’s never more convenient than just ordering one online. It’s a whole process and you have to love cooking to get really great results.
 
I think with takeaways etc you usually get a bit of a taste of some of the other things that would have been cooked in the fryer/oven etc...like not that you can actually taste sausage on your fish etc...but just adds a bit more flavour!

places like McDonalds/Burger King...you're not going to make better than those at home if you actually like a Big Mac/Whopper etc
 
builder22 said:
I think with takeaways etc you usually get a bit of a taste of some of the other things that would have been cooked in the fryer/oven etc...like not that you can actually taste sausage on your fish etc...but just adds a bit more flavour!

places like McDonalds/Burger King...you're not going to make better than those at home if you actually like a Big Mac/Whopper etc
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I love big mac but can make better.

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danlightbulb said:
Absolutely, but irrelevant when you've been busy all day and its 8pm and you're hungry with no easy food in the house. There's only one option then.
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The option then is not to get into these situations. Make sure your freezer has some frozen food that you can quickly defrost and eat. I can almost guarantee you that will be just as quick as going to the takeaway.

Like all these things, its about how much you care. You know how people say "I don't have time". What they mean is "I don't care enough to make time".

There are people out there who work more hours than you do, spend as much time with their kids, exercise more than you do and still cook food for themselves. I'm not saying that everyone should have amazing motivation skills but there are pretty simple solutions to everything.

Whenever I make a thai penang curry I will usually make a huge batch. Takes about 10 minutes longer than it would to make it for 2 but I can then freeze that into another 3-4 meals to go in the freezer. I do the same whenever I make a curry etc.

As I say, its all about changing behaviour to make your life easier and avoid lying to yourself that takeaways are "easy" and the logical choice at any point.
 
montymint said:
If it's the taste rather than size it's because you need the correct blend of msg and salt
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Yeah I think its the thinness of the burger I quite like. Its like a nice snack rather than a full burger. When I cook a nice quarter pounder burger, its nice but the amount of fat that comes off is huge. A McDonalds hamburger patty is quite dry in comparison, and has a certain flavour in combination with a tiny bit of relish (which I think is a combo of tomato sauce and mustard), plus the bun which is slightly more cakey than bready.
 
fez said:
Like all these things, its about how much you care. You know how people say "I don't have time". What they mean is "I don't care enough to make time".

There are people out there who work more hours than you do, spend as much time with their kids, exercise more than you do and still cook food for themselves. I'm not saying that everyone should have amazing motivation skills but there are pretty simple solutions to everything.
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Oh you're spot on. Its about priorities.

When I was heavy into weightlifting training I still really struggled to eat properly - I'd gulp down lots of milk to get the calories in.

When I was heavy into mountain biking I would treat myself to a takeaway after a ride because I didn't want to cook, and I'd earned it.

Now I still have lots of hobbies, so its not motivation per se that's the issue. Its just food is not my thing.

I think I will always be willing to pay for takeaway food unless I can no longer afford it. My latest thing near me is Rio's piri piri. I have a pitta bread with a hot piri piri chicken and salad (no mayo), with their piri piri fries. Ive tried making it myself, the bread doesn't seem to be the same, the chicken is not quite the same, and no chance I can make the fries.
 
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