It’s interesting. I grew up going out for Chinese food every Sunday night. By the time I was in my teens, we probably had one dinner out at a restaurant and one or 2 take-out dinners each week.
In my 20s, I usually bought lunch out each day when I was working and when I was at school. I didn’t start cooking dinner most nights until I was 35.
When I was 30, I started posting on Chowhound. I started taking part in Chowmeets in 2006. For around 10 years, I met up with foodies once or twice a week to try restaurants , sometimes more.
It was when I threw myself back into more skiing, that I met a bunch of people my age who do not really eat at restaurants. Some of them would pack their breakfast and lunch for ski trips. About half the group (100-150 people, 50 people per bus) would buy a lunch at the cafeteria and half would bring their own.
I have met a few people who see eating out as massive waste of money. One part of my family brings almost all their food and cooks economical meals when they go on their weeklong beach vacation to the shore. For me, not cooking every night is part of the vacation. Eating pot roast in the OuterBanks is not my idea of seizing the day.
I do pick up fresh fruit and vegetables when I travel, and if I have a kitchenette, I will do breakfasts and light meals on vacation. I cooked a few meals in Tuscany, with vegetables from the garden and market. I have cooked at ski condos in Colorado when I haven’t been close enough to walk to restaurants. My cousins cooked a few meals when we stayed at villas in Maui for a few days. I can see cooking at home if I was to stay in a place like Maui or Kauai for more than a few days.
We live on outermost Cape Cod, BTW. It is a tourist destination and fresh local seafood is a big attraction. People don’t come here to eat steak or Thai food. That said, we’d prefer a broader range of choices for our year 'round life here and after 4 or 5 days of seafood heavy menus we really crave something that doesn’t come out of salt water. Restuaurants usually have one or two things to satisfy landlubbers but they’re usually second rate afterthoughts.
What does your husband think of the situation?
Will he consume any of the leftovers?
(When we have leftovers and are not going to be able to eat them, we give them away as early as we can to someone who will — depending on where we are, that could be building staff, homeless, or other. Such a waste for good - and expensive - food to be thrown.)
Sorry to hear. Again, I like @midlife’s gentle wording on letting them know about your eating constraints / preferences.
Your approach sounds very similar to that of my husband and I. We almost exclusively stay in apartments so that we can prepare meals at “home.” Typically, we will eat something light at home for breakfast (toast/egg or yogurt) and then eat lunch OR dinner out. I always seek out good bread whenever I travel, so I very much look forward to morning toast. A jar of local jam makes it seem extra vacation-worthy! We will also usually do some kind of “extra” - gelato, a pastry, coffee etc. Much more than that and I start to feel kind of crummy.
Like you, one of the biggest joys of travel for us is checking out what markets and grocery stores in other parts of the country/world have to offer. I love putting together a good meal with my findings and challenging myself to be creative with the (relatively) minimal Air BNB supplies.
We are heading to London/Inverness in a few weeks and I am already looking forward to meals made at “home” with local cheeses, etc.!
He’s reheating a spicy seafood stew from Saturday in Provincetown. He likes going out with them and watching them enjoy themselves. So it’s good for him to see his sister and enjoy their company. One night, I ordered a la carte from the side menu - I got shrimp cocktail and a bowl of rice and black beans. I couldn’t face anything more complicated.
Do you travel with spices? We do, so as not to be deprived with minimal kitchen supplies at a rental. I also take a roll of aluminum foil - I pull out the cardboard core and flatten it to save space and we always bring a good chef’s knife in our checked luggage along with an instant read thermometer, some paper plates, ziplock baggies and some old kitchen towels!!
When we travel internationally, I don’t bring a ton with me. I think when we went to Rome in February, the only spice I brought with me was a small amount of cinnamon. When we travel domestically by car, I bring lots of things - my knife, spices, a tray I like to use for “cocktail hour”, homemade granola, etc. I do usually bring some reusable storage bags. I use them in the kitchen during the week and then usually to protect souvenirs (olive oil, jam, etc) on the way home.
I began travel to Europe accompanying my husband on business and our accommodations were always in hotels. It killed me to visit fresh markets and stores that sold amazing food that we couldn’t buy in the States. We were on per diem so nothing I would buy was ever covered and we had no cooking facilities. We actually moved to the Netherlands for his job and lived there for 2 years - easy access to France - it was a wonderful gig.
A little OT but please check out the Borough Market in London when you visit, we had lovely cheese, marmalade, fruit and bread from there for breakfast. Very nice.
I love British cheese and marmalade! My brother in law is British and turned me onto a lot of different jams and cheeses. Haven’t been to London in years. I want to start traveling again - Covid put the kibosh on a lot of things I miss.
We will absolutely hit up Borough Market! We’ve actually been before and I have been thinking about the cheese at Neal’s Yard Dairy ever since!
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
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Neals Yard Dairy was a godsend during the first Covid lockdown. We were ultra cautious due to our medical conditions but they were one of a few food websites we found which had online ordering. We kept ordering from them until fairly recently when a new cheesemonger opened up near home carrying much the same stock (my guess is he uses Neals as a wholesaler). They are one of the best for British & Irish cheeses - although they don’t carry as wide a range as the Cheese Shop in Chester (but there’s probably not too many North American tourists find their way to Chester).
The town we lived in when we were in the Netherlands had a lot of American and British expats. There was a cheese shop that sold British cheese along with their Dutch cheese. I fell in love with Shropshire Blue and was sometimes able to buy it potted with whisky. It came at a dear price, that, and was a special treat. I still keep a small lidded pottery jar as a souvenir on my kitchen counter and store small steel wool scouring pads in it. Have never seen that cheese sold in the US.
I love going to restaurants, and I assemble elaborate lists of places I want to visit every time I travel, so I absolutely understand your guests’ behavior. And I also understand how wearing it must’ve been for you. I’d have probably sent them off without me much of the time. I like to cook, but I also don’t have unlimited funds and enjoy lying around the house like a lump, so we usually eat out once a week or so when at home.
I’ve not had that impression! Maybe because I watch a lot of Britbox. Where would that come from? Or perhaps you are being sarcastic.
Anyway, I eat out two meals a day when traveling for up to two weeks, but love to get a place with a refrigerator so I can shop to bring things home to eat.
When I’m visiting family, or am visited by family, we always include eating out maybe 1/3 meals, and it feels like a break for the host, at least when I’m hosting.
Ordering out is a perfect compromise, but we have to drive a bit to get something most of our visitors couldn’t get better where their from.
At home with just husband, we get take out dinners once or twice a week, and go out for dinner once or twice a month, but could definitely “tolerate” twice or three times that.
I tell people we live in the land of fish and chips, and we do. All of our local restaurants have menus that are heavy on seafood. I get tired of it and even though we have a boat, catch fish and dig for clams it’s not what we put on the table at home for our regular meals. We eat a lot of vegetables, stir fries, noodles, poultry and love Asian flavors - we never cook fried food at home. We use our oven and roast a lot. So this visit eating out with our houseguests really threw my gut out of whack and I just don’t feel well.
I am reading a series about a police constable “Hamish Macbeth”, in Scotland, and he describes many of the menus as having __________ and chips; lasagna and chips, fish pie and chips, sandwich and chips …And “his lot” seem to drink at least as much coffee as tea.
