Chef Paul: Going Out
April 14 2011
As I mentioned in an earlier post, this week is all about the birthdays at our house. I’ve just finished the “heart shaped chocolate cake with pink icing” and am looking forward to presenting it to my daughter tomorrow.
Tonight, however is about my wife. Her birthday is a mere 4 days before our child’s so to celebrate in an “adult” way, we’ll be going out for dinner. We were hoping to do the whole “date thing” and see a movie as well but the timing just doesn’t work out…so a nice dinner it is.
We love dining out but we rarely do. Once you factor in babysitting (luckily my mother is in town this week to celebrate birthday fest…her’s was 6 days ago!), the cost of a good meal out can run into the $200 to $250 range depending on your bottle of wine. So, being frugal people we tend to only eat out at “fancy” restaurants a couple times a year. Why dine out when you can make a nice meal at home? Dining out is definitely a treat and as such we enjoy our meals at restaurants quite a bit.
We did the math not long ago and found that eating at a restaurant costs about 400 to 600% more than making the equivalent meal at home. Now I know what you’re saying: “not everyone can cook like a fancy restaurant chef”. But it’s not just fine dining meals we’re talking about here. Take the humble lasagna for example. At your “family style” restaurant you would pay somewhere between $9 and $15 depending on side dishes etc. You can easily make the same meal at home for under $2 per portion!
So for us, going out for dinner is and shall remain a once-in-a-while treat. I think it makes it all that much more special.
