[Closed] Food: who cares?

Na, ex work colleague of mine was even worse, just ate cold beans, and only really are because he had to. He saw it as a waste of time.

Yes, that's me...

I've had amazing meals in wonderful restaurants but I get the same pleasure from a fried egg sandwich with tomato ketchup. I had some chips from our canteen two nights ago; the first chips since the war started and they were great, but I'd be happy with some toast.

Beer is a different matter; I'm getting a bit fussy about it.

I used to work a girl who had absolutely no interest in food, saw it purely as a necessity to stay alive. To the extent of having cold water on her cornflakes!

I go through phases. I remember being on a course in London, on expenses and just wasn’t bothered, ended up in Pizza Express. Other times I do enjoy stuff, but nothing really that flash.
One thing I can’t stand is watching people on telly take a mouthful of food and good Mmmmm ooh thats lovely. I mean, it might be but I can’t bloody taste it can I.

Beer is a different matter; I’m getting a bit fussy about it.

I agree with you there. I am moderately discerning when it comes to beer. Not wine though. I couldn't care less about it. I know that some wines taste disgusting, but by and large, I drink it if I'm served. Beer though? That's the one area in which I will actively enjoy one over another.

I like eating nice food, but simply cannot be arsed to make it. Will survive on cornflakes, toast & pizza if I’m left to my own devices.

While I’m an indifferent cook, stet that, I’m a useless cook, I do really appreciate good, well-prepared food. I can knock up a pretty decent omelette, left to my own devices, I’ll live off cheese on toast, soup with crusty bread, pizza and curry/Chinese meals from Iceland, and the occasional burger or kebab from the local takeaway.
Fortunately, I live with someone who was born over a pub on the King’s Road, Chelsea, and who grew up in a series of pubs and hotels where her mum took care of the restaurants attached, so she knows how to put together a decent meal, and look at a recipe and wing it when she hasn’t got all the suggested ingredients.
She’s bloody good, I haven’t eaten so well in my life!
My mum, bless her, grew up in the 30’s/40’s, when British cooking left a lot to be desired, and I grew up in the 60’s, when British cooking and food left a lot to be desired; I have come to really appreciate what good, well-prepared and tasty food can be like. Going out some years back with a half-Chinese girl whose mum knew her way around a wok, and whose dad was a Brummie who could knock up an excellent curry helped broaden my culinary taste pallet a fair bit too.

I am very much the other way on this. I am very fussy about food and really appreciate high quality food although I will eat almost anything for fuel when needed

Yes I can really enjoy a cheese sandwich but I would like it to be good non chorlywood baking process bread ( very hard to find locally) Good butter not marge and a proper bit of cheese.

I will spend a fair amount of time cooking food from scratch and love eating out. One of the highlights was the Michelin starred meal - very expansive but it did not feel like a ripoff and utterly delicious like nothing else I have ever tasted. Fresh well cooked seafood is my real like. My holidays are punctuated by memorable meals - " remember such and such a place where we had the ........"

I am fussy about my beer as well but oddly not about coffee particularly and wine is lost on me

Saxon is an ET and I claim my £5

But yh thru tough times! I have discovered recently the best Indian takeaway which helps me just chill in front of Netflix

I really like cooking if I am allowed to ;d

I eat varied meals and can binge eat veg like no tomoz as long as on plate with fish/turkey/steak/duck and lamb in no particular order

Fruit I like though need more intake of

No to pork ta!

As for baking - gtfo!
😜 aint nobody got time for that 💩

Oh & strange fact!

I never consume alcohol with food

As like to savour it on it's own preferably straight no ice 😉
🔥🥃😇

Can go either way. I like to cook so prepare most things myself. I like nice food, it needn't be expensive. Particularly I like the experience of trying new food. I'll order things because I don't know what they are or I've never eaten them before. But I cant be doing with foodies. I can get enjoyment out of a tasting menu at an expensive restaurant as I can out of a well timed steak bake from Greggs. Also sometimes food is just fuel - need to eat and get on with something else - accentuated by the endurance racing I used to do where everything I ate was just part of a big calorie balance sheet to keep me moving.

Whenever I am abroad ad I see something on the menu that I do not know I will order it. Had some odd and memorable meals that way.

"man does not live by bread alone"

Nah. I cook all the time. I'm no foodie but enjoy a decent meal and like to keep it varied, notwithstanding the family's needs including one vegetarian and one gluten free. So given all that, I might as well make the meals half decent to the best of my limited skills.

And it's still asparagus season...
This has reminded me to order in some more black pudding too.

I like eating nice food, but simply cannot be arsed to make it. Will survive on cornflakes, toast & pizza if I’m left to my own devices.

This. Happy to eat (and pay for) multiple Michelin star food and wine, will seek out brilliant and new restaurants and will try anything. At home I will quite happily enjoy instant noodles. I love eating, hate cooking.
Beer, and wine on its own, meh.

My dad is oddly fussy. Loves a Toby carvery/harvester/2 for £10 pub meals, but sent back 2 of 4 courses at a 2 michelin starred restaurant because ‘I don’t eat prawns abroad (Majorca)’ and this steak isn’t cooked properly/enough’. It was medium/well.

Like Yak I cook all the time even though its only me these days 🙁
My wife used to say I was a far more inventive cook than she was.
I was taught the basics by my mother(it was more than that TBH) and she said it was fascinating watching her son cook as she felt very proud.
My wife then passed on a bit more knowledge that I have just expanded.
I still take pride in cooking a really nice meal but its not the same since she died.

SaxonRider
If I mention my lack of care for food to anyone, they tend to look at me funny, or think I am just trying to be provocative.

I'm much the same. I appreciate the effort behind a good meal lovingly prepared, but it's just fuel to me.

Can live quite happily on basic staples, and the same thing every day. It irritates my wife no end because she reckons I don't appreciate her cooking. First thing I do if I'm left on my own for a week or two is chuck out everything in the fridge because I don't use anything from it.

When I was at university my hall mates, who were Chinese and Indian would start creating their meals at noon and I’d go off and play rugby. 6 hours later I’d come back and make my Irish stew and boiled cabbage in half an hour, whilst my hall mates were still making their fancy dishes. It seemed to be their hobby and social activity.

The only thing that gets me through the day is knowing I can run home, have a shower and then spend time in the kitchen cooking.
I love it, it’s how I unwind at the end of a day. It doesn't have to be fancy, but it does have to be done from scratch with love and attention! Days off I’ll usually scour the web for something new to try and then pop it in Evernote until the perfect situation arises for that dish.

I can’t wait until I can cook for my friends again.

Whilst I'm having to live out of our home and am only feeding me on a daily basis, I have crunchy nut cornflakes for breakfast, dinner is a pretty grim free prepackaged sandwich, bag of crisps and fruit and tea is beans on toast and more fruit. Snacking is primarily cheese. Drinks are water or booze.

Other than some socially distanced take outs and pizza in the garden with my littlest, I could happily maintain the above diet forever I think, although I occasionally spoil myself with a fried egg on the beans on toast.

I like eating nice food, but simply cannot be arsed to make it. Will survive on cornflakes, toast & pizza if I’m left to my own devices.

If it wasn’t for Mrs Funk I’d just eat porridge, toast, biscuits, crisps and cheap meat straight from the packet whilst leaning on the fridge. I like nice food, no interest in cooking though and mainly see eating as a necessity.

If it wasn't for Mrs Sirromj I'd just eat opinions on toast and pickled termites. I'm lucky.

Love good food and cooking too, most stuff is surprisingly easy to cook once you’re use to techniques. Some of the best food is simple food but cooked well. Good quality ingredients makes a big difference though. However, nothing wrong with a good slice of bread and butter oh an fried egg sandwich with tomato sauce marvellous too one of the first things I learnt to cook.

Yep, I care. Mrs Scape has never been a drinker, but does appreciate good food. Going out for us involves finding a restaurant and enjoying quality food.

Food at home is important. We always insisted the kids sat down with us for an evening meal, and that has persisted, especially now they're back home locked down with us.

Life is too short to eat shite. We aren't wallowing in cash, but I shop carefully for quality, ethically sourced food and plan meals in advance, ensuring meals at home are varied, but above all cooked with care and respect to the ingredients. I can't remember the last time we had processed or convenience food. It helps that I'm retired, obviously, but I'll happily spend half a day in the kitchen making a decent meal.

Best quality raw ingredients, cooked simply = perfection, at home.
Dining out is different; should always start with best quality raw ingredients but then (can) get into complicated cooking techniques, sauces, napery, quality of service, visual appearance, teasing the taste buds, pairing food with wine (if that's your thing) and ambience.
Having said that, no frills can be fantastic; https://rileysfishshack.com/#menu-section

All of these influence perception of how food tastes.
I've got as far as 2 michelin stars in UK and it's difficult to separate food from experience/setting; they co-exist.
Couple of things that will probably be off the menu for the foreseeable will be chef's spit to check heat of pan/sauce and chef's smear on the plate.
Interesting that those food service companies who serviced the restaurant trade and are now selling to the public are offering nothing you can't get in your local farm shop/butcher/supermarket/deli.
I left out fishmongers because they're becoming few and far between.
At it's most basic level, food is fuel.
For some that's enough but for others, me included, food can be an experience to be immersed in and thoroughly enjoyed.
As for wine, not at breakfast but definitely with dinner (or tea, respecting my background); only at lunch (or dinner, respecting my heritage) when en vacances.

I think I'm the opposite of CZ and tomhoward.

I love cooking, from the nerdy alchemy of making soup to seeing the happy reactions of people I cook for. I don't have the widest of repertoires but I'd like to think I'm half decent at what I can do. I like to experiment and honestly, I like the half hour or so of "me time" alone in the kitchen.

But beyond occasional cravings and treats, I don't enjoy eating. I'd cheerfully live off food pills aside from the odd flashes where I suddenly really want a chip butty or a fistful of Haribo or something. I'm with SaxonRider on this, only difference being I'm tremendously fussy. I appreciate tasty food but day-to-day I cannot be arsed with it. Many times I simply forget to eat, the first time I ate all day today was about 7pm.

I thought maybe a love of cooking (or not, in my case) could be something to do with your innate attention span: short attention span = can't be bothered to get interested in spending lots of precious time making 'fuel'. Or learning how to do it in the first place.

But I don't think that's it.

I'm am engineer by education and work as an R&D project manager by trade. I've always been fascinated by how things work and happily spend hours of my life thinking about the intricacies of things that probably seem dull as dishwasher to others. So, despite having a generally short attention span, when its something I'm into, I'll dive into it head first.

However, when it comes to food and cooking I simply can't get excited about it at all. I don't understand the basic 'science' behind cooking fundamentals, nor do I have any remote desire to learn. Which seems oddly at odds with my otherwise universal love of understanding things inside out.

I generally eat reasonably healthily, but by far my favourite meal is a chicken tikka madras with plenty of chapatti.

And I find it difficult to pass even the shittiest looking burger van without indulging in a boiled quarter pounder with cheese - despite knowing the 'meat' content probably consists entirely of rendered hoof, lip and a***hole.

Weird!

I like nice food but am too lazy to cook generally so mostly live off ready meals and snacks (as my waistline shows :p ). Every couple of months I get the urge to cook or bake something but that's about it. Heck I'm at the point now I avoid certain ready meals as the cellophane on top is a faff to get off (shreds rather than peels in one piece)!

I like food, nice or otherwise. I've eaten in great places with stars and rosettes, but equally I'll eat a pack of instant noodles or couscous in a mug with boiling water poured over if that's what it takes. I can't generally be bothered with the faff of complex cooking myself, although I do it sometimes and do a reasonable job; if it was just me I'd eat well but simply - grilled chicken, fish, veg, etc.

My best meals are in general the same - the best ever was at Le Gavroche, but a very close second was a tiny place on a harbour in Portugal. The only menu choices were piri piri or prawns; after that it was wait for the boat to come in and see what they caught. I agree with setting absolutely, but how do you compare the service and finesse of Michel Roux to perfectly cooked freshest possible fish served up by an old lady in an apron with a view of the cliffs and setting sun....

One other point. Wine, I like but don't get. You can get a good bottle of wine for 5 or 6 quid. You can also spend 25 or 30, how can you say one is 5x better than the other? But I'll actively seek out the £30/kg cheese, when I can get perfectly good mass produced cheddar for £6/kg..... that's the one area where I don't compromise, that doesn't mean we don't buy Cathedral City for everyday use but it would NEVER go on a cheeseboard.

You don’t have to be fussy about food or follow a fad to enjoy it whatever quality or source it is, it’s about what you enjoy and that can vary.

im a massive fan of my own poached eggs, I love the steak at Hawksmoor (the new Hawksmoor breakfast is a post C19 ambition), family fish cakes for breakfast in Barbados can’t be beaten IMO, I had a very awesome meal at Ting (Shard) last year, my “easy” pizza is Pizza express Sloppy Giuseppe, the best experience of my life was an overnight at Waterside inn but I’d smash a packet of dark chocolate hobnobs for lunch if I wasn’t more disciplined these days.

As for beer, the best accompaniment I’ve experience was a 2 equally large bowls of dried salted anchovies and dried salted chillies in a Chinese bar in KL

Just enjoy the very varied experience that we are lucky to have, there’s no need to conform.

While I don't mind cooking, I know I have a repertoire of about 10 dishes (most of them involving max 10 ingredients) and I get bored of doing them, so I end up making a salad, or stir fry, or omelette... then I get bored of that, so go back to cooking, pretend I'm going to learn new recipes, scour books, get bored, make the same old stuff....and so goes round the circle. This all plays out over a month or so.

Used to live with  girl who loved to cook, it was her hobby, and that was great. Got fat, but great.

I care and have really enjoyed cooking in my time. But these days I'll get half way through cooking an intricate meal and think "why TF am I doing this?". I'd happily eat a simple lentil curry and brown rice for ever.

I never consume alcohol with food

FACT: Tea is better with Indian food than beer. Did I say that's a FACT.

Life is too short to eat shite spend it cooking

😉

I appreciate meals that take time to prepare, but when doing for myself, more often than not the core of my main meal of the day if fajita-type stir fry.

Last night I bunged 3 small sweet potatoes in the microwave for 6 mins, in the meantime I fried some mushrooms; pac choi; pepper; corgette. Towards the end I added some wafer thin ham; chilly flakes; yeast flakes (lovely cheesy flavour with loads of vitamin B12 iirc); pasta sauce. Cut the sweet potatoes into chunks and mixed in with rest... So simple yet so tasty, eating within 10mins of starting, having just finished my turbo session that once again over-ran my better half getting home from work and wanting to eat before I was finished (so often the TTs and races I want to take part in start somewhere in the 1730-1900 window).

You don't know what you had till you can't

Spent 2 years living in Angola with a microwave and a kettle for cooking.

Ended up building a BBQ and bbqing my food

I enjoy cooking and more so I enjoy food and flavours

Supernoodles and beans are not food they are fuel

People go on about making their own curries -all the prep and spices and all that.. I actually prefer a Loyd Grossman out of the jar 😀

actually prefer a Loyd Grossman out of the jar 😀

That'll be the salt

I just eat what my wife prepares for me, I make myself porridge for breakfast, we have lunch at 1.00ish dinner at 6ish, don't eat anything between, just fuel innit.
I feel sorry for the poor saps who can't stop eating, it's like a hobby and then there's the excuses they bore you with, I was sucked into Gregg's, gotta go to a wedding reception, birthday, friends night out... put it all back on wo is me....i'll have to run three marathons this weekend...blah blah blah.

Food is 100% a hobby

Making it anyway

I enjoy cooking for others

I also enjoy exercise won't hear me moaning about having to go for a run cause I ate a cake.

Youd hear me moaning if Gregg's had sucked me in mind

That’ll be the salt

+ the simplicity

Love salt and simplicity 🙂

Someone mentioned Beans!

Quite enjoyed watching this one

Got taken round some of the Medoc estates by a local oenologist and was permanently bowled over by the wine. I regard a £33 bottle of Medoc to be better value than, say, Veuve at the same price. Is it 5 times better than £6? It's different, once you've been exposed to good wine you don't forget it and you're keen to repeat the experience.
Wife's birthday tomorrow, yipppeeeeee!
We were having to eat out every week until March and I always looked forward to home cooking. My Mrs used to lack confidence about cooking so she follows the recipes and instructions like it's brain surgery The results are great and I rarely cook more than cheese and onion sandwiches these days.
In times like these all the trinkets are irrelevant but food and booze are major events.

People go on about making their own curries -all the prep and spices and all that.. I actually prefer a Loyd Grossman out of the jar 😀

Yeah, I get this.

I used to enjoy cooking, but it's been beaten out of me by having to cook for the family every single evening, for my efforts I either get to 'enjoy' listening to my Son be the loudest eater on earth as my toes curl or an endless stream of complaints.

I get that some people enjoy cooking, Men seem to like making Curries / and home made Pasta sauce like it's culinary witchcraft.

Every now and again when the moaning gets too loud I ask them to "get the book out" and they spend an hour choosing the most complex recipe possible just to make my life harder. It' usually requires about £30 worth of ingredients that I'll possibly use once.

Here's a dirty little secret though, if you for example follow a simple recipe for a Biryani

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-biryani

It has about a dozen ingredients, you could spend an hour pissing around with them, or you could just buy a box of pre-mixed Biryani spices. The ingredients are near enough the same, it just requires half the work and expense.

I don't like jars as much, it's a bit mushy, but I'm not against them.

it’s a bit mushy,

I'd say the Sharwoods/Pataks type ones are, but Grossman are pretty decent. Although I like em all.

I do cook as well, tbh, but there's only me, so only if I feel like it. I do a mean paella... and then again Schwarz Paella spice mix tastes just as good as faffing around with a full recipe.

I love food and shop v carefully for locally grown fruit and veg. It is a bit more expensive going to the farm shop but I love seeing what he is growing and following the seasons. Tbh it's the packaging in the supermarkets that puts me right off.

Only problem eating lots of fruit and veg is it just doesn't fill you up so I can easily eat plates of it.

Snacking on seeds and nuts gets a bit tedious but my blood tests are brilliant. Just takes adapting to getting away from junk food.

I enjoy all food*

Except celery and anything with fennel in it.

* excludes anything with aspartame in it, which doesn't qualify as real food.

Love cooking and love food.
I do all the cooking in our house and I find it really relaxing and enjoyable. I don’t do as much elaborate stuff as I’d like but when I do I enjoy it.
And eating out, I love to a Michelin star meal. You don’t need to be full to have enjoyed a meal, enjoy the flavour, enjoy the atmosphere, enjoy the occasion.

And eating out, I love to a Michelin star meal. You don’t need to be full to have enjoyed a meal, enjoy the flavour, enjoy the atmosphere, enjoy the occasion.

You can always stop off for a kebab on the way home........

Given the amount of us on chub club, then I think it's safe to safe we care about food (quantity)!

That’ll be the salt

I got a Grossman pasta sauce the other week. I was astonished at how salty it was, never again.

I do cook as well, tbh, but there’s only me, so only if I feel like it.

That's what freezers are for.

When I was cooking for one, I'd make enough for four at a time. Eat one meal now, one in the fridge to take to work* the next day, and the other two in the freezer. Do that for a week and you'e got home-cooked ready meals for the rest of the month.

(* - In theory. In practice I'd forget to take it in and leave it in the fridge for a couple of days, remember to take it in and then forget I'd done so and make Pasta 'n' Sauce or go to Subway, then chuck it in the bin after it'd gone off.)

After years of weight training and cycling I just see food as nutrition to help my sports.

I went in Sainsburys earlier - they were completely out of Grossman curry sauces! So I bought one of their own brand ones: Salt per 100g - 0.7g
No wonder it doesn't taste as good as Grossman's, which has 0.84g...
One of those every few weeks, no wonder I've got a heart condition!

I sit in an office all day, well not at the moment, so I love doing something totally different in the evenings, I love cooking. Sous vide duck breast tonight. Yummmm.

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After i rode my bike today I made a pie.

This morning after our morning walk I made a batch of pizza dough. After jnrs in bed I'll fire up a batch of pizzas.

Also made an experimental fruit loaf which is nice but not enough sugar in.....

Life is too short to eat crap food. Question to those of you that can’t be arsed with food.... if someone else prepared your meals would you enjoy them more?

That’s a flan.

would you enjoy them more?

Only if they washed up.

That’s a flan.

Do please show your working for your wrong observation.

Flans are short crust and without a lid.

That was puff top and bottom with a lid.

@beaker

if someone else prepared your meals would you enjoy them more?

Good question. Sometimes, yes. But I also think that sometimes those who have graciously made meals for me have gone to too much trouble. I truly appreciate what I am given, but I also think that I would have been just as happy with simpler food and a beer and the good company.

One of the unexpected side effects of the lockdown is my wife has taken an interest/has time for cooking...spending more on food but for the first 4 weeks I got a home cooked dinner almost every night without having to lift a finger! Complete role reversal, normally I sort dinner every weekday and it's expected to be served within 10 minutes of the front door slamming, 40 minute warning for anytime between 7 and 9pm!

[I]Whenever I am abroad ad I see something on the menu that I do not know I will order it[/I]

This very much, if I go anywhere with a inventive menu I'll generally pick the most random thing I can find! There is (or was...let's hope they survive) a family run restaurant near me that we go to a couple of times a year, and there is usually something interesting on the starters. Hot peach stuffed with cream cheese, oh yes. Filo pastry with prawns, banana and curried mayo, mmmmm. Baked banana, ham, mustard, stilton, no contest!

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Do please show your working for your wrong observation.

Flans are short crust and without a lid.

That was puff top and bottom with a lid.

Ah! There was second photo my apologies.

For me mostly it's about whether the food I'm eating is good for me. Don't get me wrong I love a good burger and all the trimmings, BBQ food, curry, pasta and I could eat a whole loaf of tiger bread and half a block of butter in one go but I choose not to (most of the time)

Mostly I eat food I believe is good for me, it may not be gourmet but I know the ingredients contain what my body needs. Eggs, fish, meat, butter, leafy greens, nuts, seeds and loads of water. I love the food I eat and rarely feel hungry, I believe this is because I keep carbs and sugar to a minimum.

In my experience being hungry will make me enjoy my everyday food more. Skip eating for a day and the brain starts creating interesting menus on its own. Fancy food and not hungry < simple food and hungry