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In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

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Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#101

Post by GoToThePubMate »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #73
SilverBirch wrote: post #9

>Although this was a gourmet meal, in many ways it was just as great as the store-bought hot dogs and macaroni salad we had eaten together hundreds of times before; the quality of a meal is really a reflection of the company you share it with as well as the long process and coordination it takes to get everything on the table. This is such a strange phrase to me. I'm in the UK and it is always the case that processed…

>I'm in the UK and it is always the case that processed, mass manufactured food is looked down upon. This from the country that brought us beans on toast? Maybe this is more of a middle class phenomenon, but the UK isn't exactly known for its food. Hotdogs and pasta salad sounds like something a desperate college student would cobble together. Not something the average american would consider eating. Given how well w…

No post body was provided.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#102

Post by dabbledash »

granshaw wrote: post #55
ghaff wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your sole metric is price, there is some very cheap takeout out there. And, yes, it may well be as cheap or cheaper than meals in the supermarket freezer section. But while some planning and a little work is needed, stick to cheaper proteins (chicken/pork), vegetables, and things like rice/beans and home cooking, even for one, can be pretty inexpensive and doesn't need to mean eating the same leftover stew for a w…

> I do think a lot of "cooking at home is too expensive" is actually "I don't want to cook at home and would rather just get takeout." Well, yeah, it shouldn’t be a surprise that many don’t like the actual acts of planning, prepping, and cooking, and would rather eat takeout everyday if it was nutritious and affordable enough, or have their meals cooked for them EDIT: I struggle with this too and am trying to change…

Yeah, i think it's a real problem that a lot of cooking writing and education out there is pitched toward hobbyists. You certainly can enjoy cooking (i do!), but it's also fine for it to be a chore that you want to get done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#103

Post by pfranz »

katbyte wrote: post #69
shagie wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost for cooking for one becomes evident when buying meat and produce (things that aren't shelf stable) in units small enough to do meal planing without significant waste. There are things like the difference in the cost of a single, reasonable, serving of chicken. Buying a chicken breast is more expensive in price per pound than the family pack of chicken breasts or an entire chicken. Similar things with carrots…

trick is to get higher quality produce, make multiple services, and lean how to store things. Cheap produce goes back quicker. I live alone yet go to Costco every 2-3 weeks and I expect everything I get to last. Meat is split up, vacpacked and frozen. produce is put in the fridge in containers that best store them: some lined with paper town, some not, some with lids, some not. I have 2 week old tomatoes peppers cucu…

Do you have any resources? When I've tried repacking and vacu-sealing bulk meats it seemed like a huge waste in time, plastic, and counter space.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#104

Post by GoToThePubMate »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #19
SilverBirch wrote: post #9

>Although this was a gourmet meal, in many ways it was just as great as the store-bought hot dogs and macaroni salad we had eaten together hundreds of times before; the quality of a meal is really a reflection of the company you share it with as well as the long process and coordination it takes to get everything on the table. This is such a strange phrase to me. I'm in the UK and it is always the case that processed…

> I'm in the UK and it is always the case that processed, mass manufactured food is looked down upon. UK food (with the exception of dishes imported from India) is some of the blandest cuisine I have ever tasted. I would probably prefer store-bought hotdogs, and boxed macaroni and cheese.

No post body was provided.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#106

Post by schnevets »

belugacat wrote: post #13
SilverBirch wrote: post #9

>Although this was a gourmet meal, in many ways it was just as great as the store-bought hot dogs and macaroni salad we had eaten together hundreds of times before; the quality of a meal is really a reflection of the company you share it with as well as the long process and coordination it takes to get everything on the table. This is such a strange phrase to me. I'm in the UK and it is always the case that processed…

There is nuance to all of this obviously, as with anything cultural, but in short - yes. Large swaths of the US population have been deprived of food culture for several generations now. There are many exceptions of course - Latino family bbqs in Southern California, or Cajun crawfish boils, are examples of food culture that’s well and alive that I’ve experienced personally. But you also have many Americans for whom…

It just seems like the end result of a culture that believes it has conquered food scarcity. Gourmet develops in response to different environmental restrictions; coastal nations eat more seafood, temperate climates have "hearty" meals for winter, dispersed communities recreate treasured recipes with local ingredients.

But agricultural and transportation revolutions in the 20th century have lead to promises of any food whenever you want. This isn't all bad (I personally love getting a December-January fruit season from Argentina), but the expectation has lead to cutting costs, revising recipes for practical purposes, and introducing one-formula-fits-all preservatives and other ingredients. To suggest otherwise - that a Dominos pizza has nothing in common with nineteenth century Italian flatbreads or that the supermarket tomatoes pale in comparison to more expensive Farmer's Market varieties - immediately makes you a snob. There are clear and dangerous consequences to this mentality, but any scientific argument is muddled and overshadowed by customer's demand for convenience over anything else.

It's clear that taste is losing to convenience in this culture war, but I have no clue what can change. But it is curious how cuisine gets blander and more predictable as food becomes more accessible.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#107

Post by valarauko »

abeppu wrote: post #67
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Exhibit A, found on this very site [0]: Cooking for one in the US with ingredients that aren’t laced with preservatives is incredibly expensive, especially if you live in a city. I found it to be the case even 6-7 years ago that it was cheaper to eat out every night than it was to cook. I was scratching my head at how so many people in the thread could possibly believe this, until I realized that they’re probabl…

When I lived in NYC, I felt this was often true, but my hypothesis was that it was a reflection of the real estate footprint of grocery stores. A restaurant can receive daily shipments from vendors based in the outer boroughs (or further). If I really wanted to, I could have taken the subway to Queens for grocery runs, but that wasn't actually going to happen. But the Whole Foods on Houston takes up a large footprint…

No need to go all the way to Queens for the groceries - just a few blocks from the Whole Foods on Houston you have the grocery stores of Chinatown, and even the produce from the street vendors is decent - and cheap.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#108

Post by ghaff »

dabbledash wrote: post #102
granshaw wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do think a lot of "cooking at home is too expensive" is actually "I don't want to cook at home and would rather just get takeout." Well, yeah, it shouldn’t be a surprise that many don’t like the actual acts of planning, prepping, and cooking, and would rather eat takeout everyday if it was nutritious and affordable enough, or have their meals cooked for them EDIT: I struggle with this too and am trying to change…

Yeah, i think it's a real problem that a lot of cooking writing and education out there is pitched toward hobbyists. You certainly can enjoy cooking (i do!), but it's also fine for it to be a chore that you want to get done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Read cooking blogs or watch cooking shows and you probably get the impression that cooking is way more time consuming and requires way more ingredients than are really required to put food on the table. But there are whole cookbooks of recipes that use just a few ingredients plus a handful of standard pantry staples.

As you cook you also learn a lot of shortcuts you can really get off with most of the time. Using lemon juice from a jar is really fine. You don't need to have that sprig of parsely. You can probably get away with using dried herbs rather than fresh for many purposes.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#109

Post by knorker »

SilverBirch wrote: post #9

>Although this was a gourmet meal, in many ways it was just as great as the store-bought hot dogs and macaroni salad we had eaten together hundreds of times before; the quality of a meal is really a reflection of the company you share it with as well as the long process and coordination it takes to get everything on the table. This is such a strange phrase to me. I'm in the UK and it is always the case that processed…

Not American, but I hear things like this often from Americans.

Like the phrase "make pancakes from scratch". Yeah… what else do you make it from? Oh, you have your own chickens and… oh… oh no don't tell me it's normally ready made batter from the store.

Even pancakes. Takes no time at all to make, even for a kitchenly challenged person such as myself.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#110

Post by dabbledash »

ghaff wrote: post #108
dabbledash wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, i think it's a real problem that a lot of cooking writing and education out there is pitched toward hobbyists. You certainly can enjoy cooking (i do!), but it's also fine for it to be a chore that you want to get done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Read cooking blogs or watch cooking shows and you probably get the impression that cooking is way more time consuming and requires way more ingredients than are really required to put food on the table. But there are whole cookbooks of recipes that use just a few ingredients plus a handful of standard pantry staples. As you cook you also learn a lot of shortcuts you can really get off with most of the time. Using lem…

Absolutely agree with all of this. I think a person trying to dip their toe into cooking could easily get the impression online that it's way more precious and difficult than it really is.
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