ok, that is a subtle difference!

[kareina]

Today in Italian class the lesson was focused on food-words and menus in Restaurants. They also touched on the cost of eating in a restaurant. The teacher commented that a restaurant which charges 200 Euros for a meal is quite expensive, but one which charges 30 is a fairly typical moderately priced restaurant. This number sounded a bit steep to me, who prefers to eat at home. so I opened up Quicken and subtracted the total amount I've spent on groceries since moving to Milan (651.33) by the number of days which have elapsed since moving here (112), and discovered that I'm spending less than 6 Euros a day on food (keep in mind that my pantry is well stocked, so I could live quite a number of days on what is in the house now). Then I thought about it, realized that I've been feeding Crian, too. So I counted up the total number of days he's been here (83, on three different occasions thus far) and determined that per person we are spending only 3.34 Euors a day on food, or about 1/10 of what my Italian teacher considers a reasonable price in a Restaurant. Granted, that price includes the Antipasto, Primo, Secondo, Contorno, and Desert; in other words, more food in one sitting than I typically eat all day long. Yet another reason to prefer my own cooking! Not only do I get what I want, when I want it, with total control over all ingredients, it costs a fraction of the price of restaurant food. Add to that my quirks like not eating anything containing wine or vinegar, my disinclination to eat meat (given my digestive tract's reaction to it), not caring for standard vegetarian staples like mushrooms, capsicum, or chocolate, preferring real butter to any form of vegetable fat, etc., not liking to eat in the evenings, but being hungry every 1-2 hours during the morning and afternoon, and it is ever so much easier to just feed myself.

Today after Italian class Crian and I met up with some new friends of ours. He's a couchsurfer who saw my ad for Medieval/Renaissance dance practice and thought it would be fun. He attended last week, and enjoyed it. Since it couldn't happen this week due to the hosts being scheduled to receive the rest of their boxes from the US today, we decided to meet for a meal instead. We met up in a park near my class, thinking we'd do a picnic. But it was kind of cold out (especially to his girlfriend, who is from the south of Italy), and getting darkish, so instead we walked to a supermarket and back to our house, where I cooked up a quick spinach/ricotta/garlic sauce and made homemade eggs noodles and Crian baked a Shepard's pie using the last of the left over cheesy mashed potatoes. They were both impressed that I know how to make my own noodles, and were floored at how quickly they cook compared to the kind one buys in boxes or bags in the supermarket. After eating I mixed up a quick batch of cookies, combining some butter, sugar, egg, and yoghurt with coconut flakes, flour, oat flour, and chocolate chips (I nibbled my share before adding the chips) and they all pronounced the cookies a success. It was a delightfully fun evening. They plan on attending dance again next week, adn we are going to so a small Alpine adventure on the weekend.

One additional clue that they are our kind of people: Crian has picked up a couple of books since arriving in Europe. One of them was on the shelf and our guest asked "is that the second book in the Eragon series?" It is--Crian had borrowed the first from a friend in Tassie before leaving, but didn't get a chance to read the next before he left, so he bought this one. Our friend was delighted to see it, since he'd read the first and was wanting to read the next, but until he finds a local job is hesitant to be book-shopping. So, of course, he's taken it home with him for the next couple of days. I guess we will have to check out the American Bookstore I saw by the Castle to see if they've got the first, since I haven't read those yet, having been way too busy finishing up my thesis when Crian borrowed it in Tassie.

Comments

[merlyn-gabriel.livejournal.com]

we found eating out in Switzerland unbelievably expensive so we just rarely did it. Occasionally we'd head over to Como and there was a nice place there to eat ( Le pepe verde)which was reasonable at lunch time. What I discovered during my time in that region was that I dislike the italian way to eat, I loath the cold, uncooked meat stuff and I don't like antipasto, I am not a big friend of pasta and I don't like wild meat which you see a lot of in Ticine restaurants and Grotti.

We ended up cooking at home a lot so much so that Marcus ( the better half) has discovered that he is an excellent cook. Due to the lack of ethnic places to eat ( thai, chinese , indian etc...) we learned to cook our own and in the end saved A LOT of money.

Personally I think eating out is very nice when done as a treat but sometimes home cooking can be even better.

[thisfox.livejournal.com]

Eating out does have its advantages: one gets food with no work, and food one doesn't have to clean dishes after (unless you can't pay for it, of course). I know you always say "oh, but it's faster". Sometimes it is. The thing is that sometimes it's nice to have food made by others, if you're not as picky about what is found inside the food, are willing to try new things, and seek out variety.

Quality doesn't always suffer, either. Recently, I went to a little hole-in-the-wall fast-food shop, and for ten dollars bought two dips (baba ganoush, and a roasted garlic dip), and enough bread, to feed four. We had a lovely time ripping our bread into bits and scooping up the rich creamy dips. I know that I could make the dips myself, but it would have taken a while, and I can appreciate other peoples skills in making these foods. Plus, at two dollars fifty a head, it wasn't exactly end-of-the-world expensive as a dinner. Petrol would have cost more. And does, frequently.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it is nice to have food cooked by other. But I am rarely willing to trust others to make something I like, being so fussy. Fortunately, I also actually enjoy cleaning things--seeing things magically transform from icky to clean is a pleasure.

Your $2.50 each isn't too bad--just now that converts to 1.53 euros, or just over half what I spend a day on food.

Fortunately, I don't need to pay for petrol, not having a car. There are plenty of grocery stores within walking distance. Oodles of options for eating out available, too. But they restaurants don't open till 7pm here, and I'm usually long done with any interest in food that late in the day, so it is probably a good thing I *like* to cook my own food!

[massaria.livejournal.com]

30 euros for a meal in a restaurant in Italy seems fairly steep - though if you are having all those courses that would explain it! When I lived in Munich (only 18 months ago) I was only spending on average 15 euros a day on food and that *was* eating out in restaurants for both lunch and dinner. I was actually paid a per diem of 18 euros a day for the entire 3 months I was there and had a small amount left. Certainly when I was cooking for myself, I would have been spending only about 5 euros a day and that is with eating meat, which is more expensive. I stopped cooking for myself because the German government was paying me to be there, was going to pay for me to eat out and I figured less time cooking was more time doing the research.

I certainly have a "time is money" view on cooking. If I can buy a falafel roll in a hole in the wall in Munich for 2.35 Euro and that saves me having to go to the shop, buy the food, carry it back to my apartment on public transport, make the falafel, then clean up - that's worth it. Particularly if you factor in real cost of cooking which would have included going to the shop on the U-bahn (1.10), buying the food (~5.50 for 4), the electricity to cook etc. If I eat a home made falafel roll each day for 4 days it would have costs me about 7 euros. If I bought 4 on the way home each night it would have been 9.40. For me, paying 0.60 euro a day not to have the time lost cooking is very much worth it.

Of course this depends on the relative cost of things and what you can afford. I had to cook a lot when I lived in the Netherlands because it was so expensive to do anything there I just couldn't afford to do anything else.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

I don't tend to use public transport--only to get to dance practice (6 km) or A&S (9 km). There are two small grocery stores within 5 minute walk from my house, and two major ones within 15 minute walk, and the natural food store, which carries the staples I eat is only a 30 minute walk. I require at least 1 to 2 hours of exercise a day to be happy, so I multi-task and do my shopping while walking. I've also got that market right around the corner on Monday mornings for fresh fruit and veg. For me, who needs to eat a small amount every hour all day long, it is much more efficient to bring food to the office, so that I can grab a few bites while working, without stopping what I'm doing, than to go out and get food. And most of what I cook can be prepared in 30 minutes or less, often much less. No idea if it is expensive to do things here, the things I find entertaining (walks, reading, talking with friends, dancing) don't cost me anything (well, once my stuff arrives and I once again have books reading won't cost me anything, I still haven't read all of the books I inherited from my step-dad). Now, getting to SCA events in this Kingdom costs--I spent 40 Euros for my flight for the upcoming music/dance event in Stockholm in December...