Eating out
The other day I was thinking how common it is in China to go out to eat, even for families with children. When I was a child in Spain, we basically never went to restaurants unless we were somewhere on holidays, so eating out felt like a very special treat. My first memories of going to a restaurant in my hometown are actually in a Chinese restaurant when I was maybe 10 or 12. It might have been a newly opened restaurant and we went a few times on weekends so my mum didn’t have to cook (in our house it was always my mum cooking, never my dad).
In China, people love eating out and it is one of the main social activities, whereas in Spain that would be drinking coffee or having some drinks in the evening. I’ve sometimes heard that Spain is the country in the world with the most bars per inhabitant; I’m not sure if China has more restaurants per capita than other countries, but it does feel like that! And even though there are a lot of restaurants, most of them are always crowded on the weekends. In the malls, the most popular ones have chairs or stools outside so people can sit while they wait for a table. There is a hot pot restaurant that is always super busy and they have dozens of small tables outside where you can sit to wait. They even serve you drinks and snacks for free!
When I arrived in Beijing as a I student, I was surprised at how cheap it was to eat out. During my first week there we had dinner once in a rooftop terrace near Houhai and we split the bill. It was something like 10 RMB per person! If you consider the amount of money and time you have to spend buying groceries, cutting and preparing them, cooking, and then washing the dishes, it made much more sense to eat out every day. And that’s what I did during my student years, every day, for lunch and dinner. There were a lot of restaurants available around campus and the university canteen was also an option where you could get a full meal with rice and meat or veggies for something like 4 RMB.
Some examples of cheap and tasty Chinese food:
Noodles…
Guotie…
Fried rice…
Shrimp dumplings…
Every time I remember the prices I used to pay for food in Beijing I can’t help but thinking how expensive China has become in the last 10 years! Or maybe it’s me, I got fed up of the cheap hole-in-the-wall restaurants and when I go out I choose a nicer (and more expensive) place.
Sashimi boat.
Rolls and salad in a vegan restaurant.
When I was eating out every day, after a while I thought it was exhausting to have to decide where to go. Now I cook at home and only eat out sometimes on the weekends, but having to think every day what to cook is also quite tiring! Now I understand why my mum was always asking “What do you want to eat tomorrow?” when I still lived at home…
Do you often eat out or do you prefer cooking at home?
Having lived in Asia for many years like you, I’ve grown accustomed to eating out WAY more often than I would have in the States. But I do remember eating out when I was growing up. Perhaps things were more affordable then? Or maybe it had to do with my mom being Thai? I don’t know, but I felt like we had a good balance of eating out and eating in.
These days I’ve gone very “Asian” and I’m living without a kitchen. So we eat out a lot – and it’s cheap, easy, and delicious! But since I do love to cook and control what I eat, I’ve set up a makeshift kitchen with a microwave, rice cooker, slow cooker, etc. The slow cooker allows me to cook “Western” food so that we have a nice balance of both.
Wow, living without a kitchen! Glad you could arrange a makeshift one hehe. When I eat outside too often I get FAT because I eat more than what I would at home (don’t want to waste anything) and also because restaurant food usually has more additives and includes more carbs that what I cook at home…
Food in China is super cheap indeed – but I personally don’t think the quality of the food is all that great. I guess you get what you pay for, though! And I can completely see why Chinese people eat out more than in. It’s often cheaper and much easier to eat outside, especially after long work hours. Me, though, I prefer cooking my own meals because I’m very health conscious. I want to know that what I consume is healthy! 🙂
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Definitely, if you go to a super cheap place the quality is not too good, and the food is based on cheap carbs like noodles and rice, a handful of veggies (which are also cheap) and tiny pieces of meat (more expensive). I don’t get how Chinese people do it, if I eat rice or noodles every day for every meal I get fat…
I also prefer cooking at home, except when I feel like going out on the weekends (after all, during the week I only go out to walk the dog!).
I am with Lani. When I lived in Asia, I ate out all the time, maybe 4-5 times a week for dinner and lunch was eating out anyway. It is just so much cheaper compared to Western countries, and as you said, it is much cheaper than cooking at home sometimes. Ans you don’t have to wash up. Here in Australia these days I prefer cooking because it really is expensive to eat out. Even at the food court can costs $15-20 with a drink. After work I also don’t want to go out and get food, preferring to go home straight away and relax at home than line up with others and wait for food XD
Wow, that’s super expensive for a food court! Nowadays I prefer cooking at home that walking to the restaurant, hahaha. But because I work from home it’s easier.
Totally related to this!
In belgium we seldom eat outside because food in restaurant can be 5-6 times more expensive comparing to home cooked ones.
Most of chinese children don’t cook, but when they started living abroad, they all become good chef.
There is a good sentence:出国就像去新东方一样，英语没学到，学了个厨师！
Let me know if you get the joke 😀😀
I understand all the words but I don’t get the joke, haha. Can you study to be a cook in 新东方? (I know it’s an English language school chain).
To be honest, when I lived with my parents I never cooked either. When I moved to another city to attend university I had to start cooking or I would have starved hahaha!
I have an Italian mother and we ALWAYS ate at home. She liked cooking International dishes, so was always taking cooking classes for Chinese, Indian, etc., so we ate a variety of things. Cooking at home is cheaper, but also healthier. Also, we had four kids in our family, so we would eat out once a month, so it felt like a REAL treat!
REGARDING what to eat if you cook at home. My mother worked as an au pair in England when she was learning English. She said the lady created a one week menu and had the same meals on the same day. For example, Monday would be spaghetti, Tuesday would be roast beef, Wednesday would be egg frittata… you get the idea. At first my Mom thought this was boring, but she said that after a week of different dinners she would look forward to the NEXT week KNOWING what she would be eating. AND for the woman she lived with, life was super easy having a menu. :)
I’ve heard about the weekly menu and it sounds indeed like it makes your life easier, but I’m still a bit reluctant hahaha. I normally just go to the grocery store downstairs and check which veggies they have, then think what I can cook, hahaha.
Growing up in England we NEVER ate out; but here in the States it’s very, very common. Takeout is also a big pastime here — picking up food from a local restaurant and bringing it home.
Here takeout is also huge, but you don’t even have to go to the restaurant, there are several food delivery apps where you can order your food from basically any restaurant in town and then a guy delivers it to your door for something like 0.5 USD…
Yeah, I am not a fan of cooking, but my husband is such a good cook I don’t mind eating at home. The dishes, I mind. Mostly when we go out now, it’s for a specialty like sushi.
We often have sushi when we go out too! Well, not these days, C. doesn’t let me eat sushi because he doesn’t trust the fish has been frozen properly xD
I hate cooking. And planning cooking. And touching meat. And chopping vegetables. And my tiny kitchen. And trying to think of new and interesting things to cook so I’m not bored of my same go-to meals. And then cleaning up. It’s such a chore. But it is cheaper… so I try to do it as often as possible.
But with food delivery apps that make it sooo easy to just order a meal, I find it hard sometimes to muster the energy to plan a meal and go to the store and buy what I need and chop and cook and blarg. (If I had a real kitchen and space, I could plan ahead more and wouldn’t have to do all the steps, each time. But that’s my tiny kitchen situation right now.) Instead, I can just spend slightly more and order food and it will arrive within the hour all ready and delicious and zero fuss. Food apps are going to kill cooking for everyone now, no doubt.
Delivery apps are also all the rage in China! But I rarely order food because it comes with MOUNTAINS of plastic containers and bags and it’s a huge environmental problem, I heard they were going to implement paper or carton recipients, that would be better… Also, another problem is that restaurant food here tends to be quite oily!
In China we go out eating pretty much for every meal. Only on seldom occasions MIL makes some food…
Here in Germany it is the exact opposite. We go out eating only for birthdays and sometimes on a weekend. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are always prepared at home. I am a mess in the kitchen so my wife has to manage somehow or/ mostly we eat at my parents :p
I prefer cooking myself than eating my MIL’s food (well, or most of it). It’s not that it’s bad, but she definitely puts more salt and oil than I would… and she is obsessed with making soups. I’m this close to go on soup strike, hahaha.
My MIL is so focused on porridge…all kind of different porridge so we told her years ago already that I’m allergic to it 😅
In the UK growing up people didn’t eat out much. Now I think it’s the norm. I cook at home. I don’t enjoy cooking, but I as I’m vegan it’s easier. Plus way cheaper even if more time consuming. It’s a treat if I do eat out!
I don’t know how to say this as your English is a 1000 times better than my Spanish without sounding condescending: eating outside is like eating outside under the sky like a picnic. Eating at restaurants and cafe’s eating out. There, said it now!
Hahaha, not condescending at all! Thanks a lot! I will change it :)
Phew!
Americans love to eat out, so I actually thought chinese didn’t eat out that much! Americans go out at least once a week,and fast food and fast casual (like chipotle) are super popular.
I noticed my chinese friends and in laws abhor eating out…. Because they think they can cook better food at home? I can relate now that I’m older and cook at home–food at home uses less oil and salt and you actually know what’s in it! It tastes “cleaner.”
I remember those beijing prices too… Last time I went to shanghai I honestly thought that US and China prices were almost the same for nice restaurant food! Still, the xiao chi and lanzhoumian Re cheap staples I really miss!
What? Do Americans ever eat at home then? Because I think Chinese, specially younger ones, eat out or order delivery a lot! xD
Cooking yourself really makes a difference, yes. Also not having an office full of snacks. I got SO fat the year I was working in Shanghai…