In general, people in most American metro areas these days, and maybe since the 1990s, can buy raw or base ingredients that exceed the quality of those served by the average restaurant. I’ve rarely seen this particular development noted, but I think it’s a big deal.
Now cooking restaurant-style meals at home is tough. It takes a lot of time, for one. Much of it is technique—or, in some cases, tricks (butter, sugar, salt, MSG; I use all of them). But a lot of it is ingredients. When all you had were the inexpensive or plain versions of things, the restaurant offered more of a value proposition. But once you can spend less money for better ingredients, it’s harder to make it feel worthwhile.
It’s hard to pay close to $30 for what might very well be a frozen fish fillet stuffed with canned crab, when that’s the price per pound of sashimi-grade fresh fish. It’s hard to pay $20, or $25, or easily more for a steak when we can buy and share a very fine Prime steak for about that price. Or pay for upcharged, fairly generic bottles of wine when you can buy lots of very, very good French or California bottles for under $20.
In other words, consumers have seen an incredible increase in the variety and quality of what they can buy in the supermarket—even in fairly “regular” supermarkets. Old-school restaurants with Italian-ish American menus and Sysco deliveries don’t fill the same niche they used to.
Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
