Tell HN: Food is too expensive now

Groceries are expensive but eating out has now become very expensive, I find myself almost not getting any take outs or eating at restaurants. Maybe once every quarter. And When I do eat out I'm always annoyed how not only prices are almost 2x, but actually it's less and taste crap compared to just 2 years ago. Imagine your favorite food spot of 10+ years suddenly trash and expensive.

This has objectively lowered quality of my life, I don't really buy any electronics, my phone is 6+ years old, and computer is 5 years old. I like to buy to simplest clothes in bulk 10 for $X. Because happiness from stuff just isn't there for me, I'd rather get quiet time at beach and watch sunset with a friend, or engage in intellectual debate. So food was only thing I enjoyed getting. Now it cost $170+ for family portion, and $25+ at cheapest place for 1.

Sure It's affordable for me at my tech salary, but I'm not going to be spending more on food than rent. Is there hope on the horizon? why wont' govt do something to bring prices down, bring deflation.

The answers to your question would either lead to being downvoted into oblivion or shadowbanned here, lol

Learn to cook.

Seriously though. With only a bit of practice you can cook restaurant-quality food at home. And you can buy high-quality ingredients, but they are actually cheap because you’re buying them unprepared and in bulk.

There are many high quality recipes and tutorials online. Look up Ethan Chlebowski, Adam Ragusea, and Joshua Weissman. These are videos for basic recipes with grocery-store ingredients, not fancy expensive stuff.

Ik it takes more effort than eating at restaurants or ordering takeout, but it really is so much better to learn how to cook good food yourself.

> Imagine your favorite food spot of 10+ years suddenly trash and expensive

Did you try to talk about it with the food joint's owner/server/cook? I'm interested in their take. Maybe, they've a new chef who's not that good.

Oil is expensive, which has cascading effects. Also, the increase in minimum wage has to come from somewhere, hint - customer. I understand: it may not be applicable here directly, but there are so many vendors involved in the restaurant supply chain.

I'll throw in Sam The Cooking Guy as well. I learned how to make a sheet-pan pizza and a simple burger from him. Both were good enough that my kids prefer them over restaurant equivalents, which got us into a good routine that allowed me to add a few more reliable recipes into the rotation, and now we rarely go out to eat. Maybe once a month.

Kenji Lopez-Alt should be on the list, too. His kitchen videos will prove you can cook great food with borderline equipment.