Eat Out Much?

Growing up I can remember going out for dinner to a restaurant maybe a half dozen times....this doesn't include when we were vacationing but rather in place of eating at home on an otherwise normal day. So when I recently read an industry article citing various stats on household spending, restaurant menu trends, and the changing mealtime in Canada, I was genuinely surprised. I can say with certainty, my childhood household didn't spend 25% of its food dollars on restaurant food.

My mom was a proficient cook and we ate well balanced meals every day. Admittedly there was a lot of rice and chicken, but with our Mexican heritage, what more would one expect? Anyway, growing up I really didn't miss restaurant eating because I simply didn't know it to be an option. Today things are different. At what point did Canada's children acquire the skill of menu ordering? It's rather disconcerting to hear a 5 year old ask the server to hold the ketchup on her restaurant style chicken burger.

With so many great restaurant choices today it's no wonder we don't regularly delve into making our own authentic Indian or Thai food at home. Having said that, I still enjoy coming as close to the real thing as possible...I'm very proud to say I've mastered Julie Van Rosendaal's Curried Coconut Mango Chicken.

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by governmental stats. We all live very busy lives and seek out solutions that alleviate domestic pressures whereever we can find them. I just know that with a little bit of planning, it's not too hard to develop one's culinary skills and avoid spending those hard earned dollars at the local family restaurant.