Eating Out

For the greater part of my life home cooked food was lowest on my list of priorities. 

I love eating out, that to me is one of life’s greatest pleasures.

Since the last 3 months I have gone healthy with a vengeance. All my meals during the day are home cooked.  

I have been following this pattern, with an exception when i watch movies. The thought of eating those greasy samosas and ordinary popcorn is still something that makes my mouth water.

 Last Saturday we had gone out for dinner to a friend’s place. The couple being warm, Indian and gracious decided to feed us till we dropped. From the time we got there food and beer just followed. Initially it was all fun, great conversation was happening.

Thus my mind switched off to the reality of what i was eating

The food was ordered from a Moghlai restaurant which at one time was considered the best in the business. The story is very different now. The food was spicy, artificially coloured and cooked in probably the worst quality oil available in the market.Quality doesn’t exist in their menu

The night we returned from the dinner, I felt like Al Pacino in Insomnia. I woke up with the worst stomach cramps. I felt like i was being punched in the stomach at sporadic intervals.

Making matters worse I felt depressed. The whole day was spent regretting why I ate such unhealthy food.

Eating out is something we have grown accustomed to in today’s fast paced world. It’s a social phenomenon now. We want to be seen at restaurants to satisfy some deep rooted desire of acceptance. Restaurateurs understand that and hence spend more money on advertising and public relations.

Earlier the food was what made a restaurant a success. That still holds true, but celebrities dining there, the cool quotient, the write-ups it gets... These factors are given more preference.

Also the understanding of good food has hit its lowest point now .People between the ages of 20-40 don’t have that kind of discerning taste, that say their parents had 

Earlier eating out was a pleasure, now it’s a habit.

Eating out would be celebration, now its social acceptance.

Restaurants earlier were homely and warm; now they are aloof and distant.

Restaurant chefs would be hungry for compliments then, now they more interested in where to move next.

Eating Out-I wish you return to your glorious heights once again, we this generation experience the joys and pleasures that previous generations wrote poems about.

Healthy versions of famous dishes easily available for the hungry customers.

You become a friend to a man’s stomach, not the reason for his illness.

Do all of the above and, I will start eating out again.