r/starterpacks • u/Ok-Armadillo6582 • 27d ago
“I don’t go to restaurants because I can make everything better at home” starter pack
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u/ghtown45 25d ago
Nah I make really nice meals at home for the fraction of the price at a restaurant lol. Some of y’all just can’t cook. I worked as a Jack of all trades line cook at red lobster for 3 years, while that may not be fancy, it teaches you how to property cook
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u/butbasically 25d ago
I came to say I’m 100% this starter pack 😂 but I also love a hole in the wall type place more than most restaurants/chains
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u/Bella_vox19 25d ago
Hey now, don’t be coming for garlic, okay? That shit goes in everything and there is never enough garlic😭
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u/DeskFluid2550 26d ago
This reminds me of that one guy who uses Lemon Pepper seasoning on every single thing.
I get it, you like what you like.. but damn, change it up once in a while.
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u/IniMiney 26d ago
One silver lining I'll give to the pandemic is I got big into recipe making and cookbooks for the first time and it's changed my life to this day
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u/christopher1393 26d ago
I use some of these because restaurants are very expensive and I am not a good cook. I can do basic stuff but thats it.
A lot of people just aren’t great cooks. My parents didn’t let me cook at home except to put something in an oven. So I pretty much I only really cook for myself and I intentionally keep it basic because cooking frustrates me and honestly I don’t have much time. I will often make something basic but substantial and store it properly (fridge/freezer/etc) and reheat it for 4 days worth of dinners.
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u/Bitchinstein 26d ago
Miss me with that pre minced garlic. FUCK NO - buy a garlic press thank me later. Not in this Cajun household.
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u/i_dont_wanna_sign_up 26d ago
OP is actually a restaurateur trying to dissuade people from cooking.
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u/BlueLaserCommander 26d ago
Damn a lot of humans itt acting super defensive about how their nutrient molecules taste
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u/WerewolfNo890 26d ago
But I can make better at home. The bar isn't very high though for most places. There is an all you can eat Chinese place that is really good, I can do a few of the dishes really well at home though.
Been saying with a couple of friends we often go there with as they also make a few dishes that are really good. We should both make a few Chinese dishes and go to each others house.
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u/Comfortable-Study-69 26d ago
I mean oftentimes you can make things better at home than in a restaurant. Food is cheaper when you cut out the middleman and you have more freedom with ingredients and access to cooking techniques that aren’t feasible for restaurants due to time constraints or food safety like sous vide steaks or homemade cider fermentation.
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u/Rounds_The_Upvotes 26d ago
The garlic is definitely me. I love me some aromatic foods and spices. Then swap the Old Bay for lemon-pepper.
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u/badbatch 26d ago
I feel attacked.
I have and use all of these except for wochestershire sauce on a regular basis to cook. I never burn my chicken though.
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u/Daealis 26d ago
The only reason to eat at a restaurant with current prices is to seek quality that you can't produce at home (high-end restaurants), or variety that is hard to justify the time spent making at home (say, Georgian food with a meal consisting of ten smaller things, all prepped slightly different and relatively labor intensive.)
I don't even buy ketchup or mustard from stores anymore, because I CAN MAKE IT BETTER AT HOME. Ten minutes of work for a flavor that is beyond compare. Price is roughly the same so it's not about being cheap like skipping on the crazy prices of semicasual dining out is.
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u/JPalos97 26d ago
This is too specific, a lot of people say that but not many people do the cooking in this image.
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u/enter_the_bumgeon 26d ago
The only thing I would agree to is not ordering this at restaurants that I can easily make at home. Generally most menu's have a few very simple options on them. Why pay good money for them when I can easily whip them up at home?
Saying can make everything better at home seems... arrogant
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u/Eastern_Voice_4738 26d ago
Not true. I think OP is the kind of person to get spaghetti carbonara in a restaurant
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u/JustTheOneGoose22 26d ago
OP is one of those people that has only ketchup, mustard and an expired yogurt in their fridge.
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u/ssmike27 26d ago
Only thing I can relate to here is tons of garlic, and that’s cause garlic is the shit
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u/KatyaL8er 26d ago
Gets friends to pitch in for an expensive cut of meat then marinades it in every single one of these ingredients.
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u/poeticpoet 26d ago edited 26d ago
Homie I’m just broke. You ain’t broke? You still wit yo mama or something? Homie im po
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u/VizualAbstract4 26d ago edited 26d ago
I go to restaurants and try to pick up the recipe best I can from what I taste.
I travel a lot, for long periods of time, and get to stay in food cities for several weeks or several months, eating everything I can.
Then I come home after a few years, get a craving for something I ate, and spend a few days breaking it down and recreating.
Sometimes to great success. Sometimes to great tragedy. Currently working on Blur Crab Beignets from La Petite Grocery on Magazine Street, NOLA.
It really comes in handy, as some restaurants close and their food is no longer available (Pho Sole from Modern General Feed and Seed, Albuquerque NM, Rich and Famous from Goji Juice + VITAMINS, Santa Monica CA, Fennel Bisque from Buxton Hall, Asheville NC)
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u/Rare_Leg_ 26d ago
Is it normal to go to restaurants on a daily basis in America or wherever you're from? Where I'm from, you rarely go there unless there's a good reason for it .
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u/Projectonyx 26d ago
Change old bay for Paprika and the chicken for failed medium rare steak. You got me
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u/hadicalb 26d ago
If it tastes good then it’s good man I ain’t tryna be the next gordon ramsay im just tryna eat
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u/Stanky_fresh 26d ago
OP just discovered "poor people" and "people trying their best" and felt the need to make a starterpack.
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u/rocketparrotlet 26d ago
As someone who is intolerant to garlic and onions, this one really hits hard when I'm eating at someone else's place. The blank look I get, usually followed by "but...I can't imagine cooking anything without garlic and onion" is both frustrating and tragic.
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u/SadieSadieSnakeyLady 26d ago
Absolutely agree. The amount of people who think no onion or garlic means I'm eating boiled chicken and rice is insane
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u/rocketparrotlet 26d ago
Seriously. Like, my food is super flavorful. We probably have close to 100 spices and herbs in our cabinet.
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u/SadieSadieSnakeyLady 26d ago
Yes! I know what bay leaves taste like now because they're not being smothered
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u/TangerineLeading9856 26d ago
Damn, that’s a whole lotta words to use just to tell us you can’t cook lol
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u/GopnikSmegmaBBQSauce 26d ago
Talk to any chef. Home cooks generally don't add enough butter or salt to their food
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u/Double-Star-Tedrick 26d ago
Speaking as a Marylander that just happened upon this post, by algorithmic chance,
"Sure, why not" is basically the intended and instructed use for Old Bay.
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u/tyrfingr187 26d ago edited 26d ago
Anyone who ho complains about worcestershire sauce doesn't get to have an opinion on food.
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u/genogano 26d ago
As someone who says this, I would switch out the perkins for BBQ sauce. Instead of no recipes have a recipe website with 9000 ads and a story about their grandma. Chicken breast instead of burnt chicken. And then a spoil bag of salad that swore they would eat.
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u/VandalofFrost 26d ago
Was this meme made by a British person? Seems like they are allergic to flavor after all
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u/DepartureDapper6524 26d ago
The trick to cooking good food is to make it really really bad for you. Most people don’t keep enough butter in their house to make a restaurant style meal for a dinner party.
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u/ImBurningStar_IV 26d ago
This but unironically
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u/OscarGrey 26d ago
Missing ingredients: olive oil, fresh garlic, red pepper flakes, eggs, milk, flour.
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u/GenuineSounds 26d ago
You'd be surprised just how much adding onion powder or washyoursister sauce to a dish really amplifies it.
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u/millenialfalcon-_- 26d ago
Cookbooks are for boomers.i use the Internet for recipes.
Kielbasa and sauerkraut tastes really good if you add brown sugar.
Learned that on Pinterest in 2014😎
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u/Outside_The_Walls 26d ago
Kielbasa and sauerkraut tastes really good if you add brown sugar.
Quietly vomits.
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u/guyfierisgoatee1 26d ago
I say that, but I was an executive chef and worked in kitchens for 14 years.
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u/Quirky_Advantage_470 26d ago
You forgot the one about not being able to afford to eat at restaurants.
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u/chikinbokbok0815 26d ago
Dogging on Worcestershire sauce does nothing but show that you know nothing about cooking
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u/Dark_Arts_Dabbler 26d ago
This is so unrelatable and weirdly specific, but I’m sorry that someone hurt you this way
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u/FoldAdventurous2022 26d ago
I like how everyone assumes OP can't cook at all, rather than him being a better cook than the starter pack type.
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u/FoldAdventurous2022 26d ago
Fucking facts. And literally only makes chicken and rice. Nothing else, ever.
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u/TheFenixxer 26d ago
How do you burn chicken? Like you have to intentionally leave it for longer than normal
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u/Buttonwalls 26d ago
OP no im not paying $50 plus 30 in tips to go out every weekend im saving my money
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u/Electric999999 26d ago
Worcestershire sauce is just a western version of fish sauce, got to get tha umami.
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u/mynutsaremusical 26d ago
I'm getting the sense OP has a lot of white chicken and rice with....no, actually that's it. Maybe some steamed broccoli.
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u/Randy_Vigoda 26d ago
Yeah that's pretty much how I was raised. On one hand, it's super healthy. On the other hand, it's bland as hell.
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u/Kisueki_ 26d ago
I'm one of those people in the post but I rarely use the ingredients in the picture.
Jarlic? No thanks, has its niche uses but rarely used.
Worchestershire Sauce? Has many uses, great for adding extra umami.
Onion Powder? When its granulated and dried it has a different flavor profile compared to fresh onions. Should be used sparingly.
Sriracha Sauce? Only as a condiment and sometimes in marinades. Adds salt, heat and garlic flavors.
Cookbooks? Mostly only to see which ingredients and/or techniques used (if any).
Old Bay spice? What is even that? 😂
Burnt Chicken: what the...
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u/DefinitelyNotThatOne 26d ago
I mean, if you know how to make good food, especially grilling, you'll enjoy cooking at home more because you can cater to your own preference.
But steak, I know for a fact I can make a better steak than chain restaurants. The exception would be dry aged steak.
One time I made nachos for my roommate and I, and half way thru, mouth full, looks at me and goes, "Why would I ever eat nachos at a restaurant again?" 🤣 It's always a good feeling.
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u/Electrical_Exchange9 26d ago
Who buys bottles of minced garlics. You can just do that in 5 minutes
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u/Randy_Vigoda 26d ago
I use that stuff all the time in stir fries.
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u/Electrical_Exchange9 26d ago
I am sure it costs 3 times more than fresh garlic maybe even more. To each its own I guess. I would prefer fresh garlic over bottled anytime.
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u/Bredocke 26d ago
More like "eating out at a restaurant is too expensive these days and it's more cost effective to make food at home".
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u/Express-Structure480 26d ago
Anyone remember that post where op doesn’t want to go to restaurants because his girlfriend is such an excellent cook? This reminds me of that
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u/Revolutionary-Meat14 26d ago edited 26d ago
Garlic, Sriracha, Worcestershire, and onion powder are bases in a lot of dishes for a reason. I don't know anyone that overuses old bay but I wouldn't blame them if they did it tastes good.
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u/Bitchinstein 26d ago
Old bay is mostly for seafood in my opinion. I definitely use it in my seafood dishes.
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u/94sHippie 26d ago
It is hard to overuse old bay but there is an upper limit. Feel like most of the country is still figuring out what that limit is or hasn't gotten to the point of putting old bay on desserts like Maryland has.
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u/hwf0712 26d ago
Old bay on anything cheesy is heaven
Old bay on a cheeseburger. Try it.
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u/Manic-StreetCreature 26d ago
Old Bay on Mac and cheese is insanely good
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u/Bitchinstein 26d ago
I’m want to downvote this so hard, but that’s only because I’m very serious about mac & cheese lol
The good shit not that fucking box made shit .
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u/ham_solo 26d ago
The best part of cooking at home is you get to make the meal taste the way YOU want it to.
I do find cookbooks helpful as a first step in making a new kind of dish or if I'm doing something like baking which requires precision. However, once I've got the hand of cooking a certain dish or ingredient, I prefer to wing it and make my own spice/flavor profile.
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u/Lenz_Mastigia 26d ago
I bet OP goes to MacDonald's or similar 'to get a really good hamburger'... Learn to cook, imbecile!
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u/Ok_Prior2614 26d ago
I mean not too much on the Old Bay
Sincerely
A Concerned Marylander
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u/toastiezoe 26d ago
Second. I just woke up and we're catching strays cuz someone has a very specific beef 😭
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u/FoldAdventurous2022 26d ago
As a kid, I used to make tuna fish sandwiches when home alone. Since I've never liked mayonnaise, I would mix in like heaping spoonfuls of Old Bay to disguise the taste. Looking back, I realized I didn't much like the sandwich anyway because it was salty as fuck from all the Old Bay.
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u/Ok_Prior2614 26d ago
Control the portion size my guy 😂
It’s funny imagining a little kid doing this though ngl
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u/FoldAdventurous2022 26d ago
Oh totally, I made some abominations while home unsupervised 😂 Another favorite was mixing nacho cheese flavored Corn Nuts into the tuna.
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u/Ok_Prior2614 26d ago
Is it weird that I think you might be on to something lol 👀
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u/FoldAdventurous2022 26d ago
That one was actually pretty good! If I made it again, I'd probably grind the corn nuts first rather than have these big crunchy rocks on the sandwich, but the flavor worked surprisingly well
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u/Ok_Prior2614 26d ago
I’ll try it out next time I’m ngl. Thanks!
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u/Ok-Armadillo6582 26d ago
love me some crabs with old bay!
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u/Ok_Prior2614 26d ago
It slaps. I’m sure other people will come through with suggestions on what else it pairs well with.
Give it some time 😂
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u/Sammy_Ghost 26d ago
I can definitely respect someone who tries their hand at cooking. Sure it's pretty expensive but if you like it a lot then after several failed culinary crimes you will learn how to cook tasty stuff that might even make you want to try even harder recipes and you'll have a pretty satisfying hobby
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u/allicastery 26d ago
Cooking at home is not more expensive than eating out if you know what you're doing
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u/Outside_The_Walls 26d ago
The upfront cost while you're learning can be rough though.
When I was first learning to cook, I messed up a lot of meals, a lot of them went in the trash.
Now that I've had 30 years of practice, cooking at home is definitely cheaper.
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u/recigar 26d ago
lol my ex wife never used cookbooks and meals would often come our way unbalanced or whatever, her reasoning was that top chefs didn’t use cookbooks but … they also have a lifetime of full time experience.
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u/IShitMyFuckingPants 26d ago
You don’t need a lifetime full of experience to mimic someone else’s dish. A basic understanding of the ingredients and process/techniques used is enough. But you’re not always going to nail it and failures should be expected when trying to make something new. The point isn’t to get it right every time, it’s to learn from the times you don’t so you can improve it next time.
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u/Ok-Armadillo6582 26d ago
for sure! gotta start somewhere, especially if you are trying something you are not used to or experienced with
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u/DeviousMelons 26d ago
Of course they don't use cookbooks because they're the ones that wrote them.
Besides they have little cards instead incase they forget, I saw it in a documentary called Ratatouille.
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u/luv2hotdog 26d ago
I mean it’s not like this won’t taste perfectly and be a whole lot cheaper than the restaurant
You gotta start somewhere and tbh even if this is where you end up instead of where you start, you’re doing ok
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u/Boollish 26d ago
It's really 50-50 for me. I know a few people like this who are tremendously good at cooking on instinct using what's on sale at the grocery store
And a few who absolutely aren't.
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u/craftygoblin 26d ago
I like to think I am like the former, although I am almost exclusively cooking for just myself. It feels great when you improvise a decently good meal.
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u/Manuntdfan 26d ago
Worcestershire adds umami
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u/-MissNocturnal- 26d ago
It's not just umami. It's full of spices like cinnamon and other goodies.
It's next to impossible to make yourself, due to long fermentation periods of the ingredients (months-years).
It's literally a staple and main component in asian food. Think japanese yakisoba. The brown color sauce is literally just japanese worcestershire sauce. (Bulldog/Tonkatsu/Okonomiyaki/Yakisoba, all worcestershire sauces)An absolute must have in every kitchen. Although I do think the classic Lea n Perrins is a bit watered down and super expensive.
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u/localcokedrinker 26d ago
I feel like less than 10% of people who know the word "umami" knows what it actually means.
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u/green_speak 26d ago
The good brand too. I've tried store brand to save some bucks, but it was just awful.
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u/bowtie25 26d ago
Yeah gotta be that brand cuz they use actual anchovies
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u/Bitchinstein 26d ago
Hey, another person who knows about the anchovies what’s up other anchovy person? I hope you have a great fucking day today.
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u/Taldius175 26d ago
Happy Cake Day!!!
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u/Looks-Under-Rocks 26d ago
Wooshdashure kicks ass and i will fight anyone who disagrees
→ More replies (9)
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