Not every meal needs to be delicious, amirite?

Cheap ingredients like cabbage aren't hard to make taste good.

by Maziethompson 1 week ago

Dash of cumin and freshly ground black pepper 😋

by daishadavis 1 week ago

I'm not saying it's impossible to make them taste good, but it's never gonna be AS good as something from a restaurant and that's normal

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Except it definitely could be if you know how to cook well enough

by Anonymous 1 week ago

But that has a tendency to be more time consuming, more money (for more ingredients) and also less healthy. (please note: I said tendency, not "this is always the case 100% of the time")

by Anonymous 1 week ago

more money? where do you live? in italy i could replicate any non-michelin star restaurant meal for one fifth of the price

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Sorry, I was unclear; I didn't mean more money than a restaurant, I just meant more money than cooking simpler dishes

by Anonymous 1 week ago

The amount of oil, butter and salt used in most restaurant kitchens would shock people who've never been in one.

by LonelyTalk 1 week ago

Yup. Every single time you think restaurant food tastes a million times better, it's simply butter and salt. Tons of butter and salt.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

It's not the only reason. That's real dismissive to career cooks.

by Organic_Garden_6852 1 week ago

It's not the only reason, but it is a big reason why home cooking tends to taste less flavorful than professionally cooked food, I'd also add acid to the mix as well though. There's definitely more that a career chef brings to the table (culinary school exists for a reason), and also a lot more that an at-home cook can do to improve themselves, but one of the easiest things an at-home cook can do to make their food taste better is understand how much fats, salt, and acids can impact how their dishes come out.

by Lost-Toe-2150 1 week ago

Also MSG.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

This is partially true, but it also is because restaurant chefs have more skill, put in more time, and their ingredients are fresher due to higher turnover. Spices that are fresher and ground for a recipe will be better than pre-ground spices that are sitting in a pantry for years. Also seasoning to taste, such as adding salt or acid when a flavor is not quite right, and knowing how to identify the problem and quantity.

by Fwill 6 days ago

Which we can buy lol. What is the point of food that doesnt taste good?

by quitzonalphonso 6 days ago

It most certainly can be as good as something from a restaurant.

by Leonora52 6 days ago

Just takes some time to improve your cooking skill before you're gonna be consistently making food that's tastier than a restaurant..don't expect to be better than a restaurant for your first time cooking something

by Far-Advisor 6 days ago

I mean I guess that's why my opinion is unpopular. I dont need all my meals to be restaurant quality to be satisfied.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Most people in most of the world don't either. If I eat out once in 3 weeks that's a lot, and the majority of meals that I eat with my family are pretty simple This really isn't that uncommon

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Bro restaurants dont have magic line cooks that bless food, cooking is literally just following instructions

by sebastian40 6 days ago

Tell me you don't know how to cook without telling me you don't know how to cook. If you can't get your food to taste better than an Applebee's, you need more time in the kitchen.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

I mean we don't have Applebee's here. Maybe I'm learning that restaurants in the US just really really really suck

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Could be. But honestly any meal I could Uber for $25 is going to be way less tasty than what I could make myself. The only times I've been like wow this is way better than the food at home is when I've been at high end restaurants. Like a place you'd go and expect the bill to he several hundred USD.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Skill issue.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

I know how to cook and restaurant food that's not from a 5 star place cannot compete with my home cooking.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

All restaurant meals were cooked at home first.

by RegularCollection269 6 days ago

I've yet to find a restaurant that makes cabbage taste as good as my great-grandmother did

by Main-Illustrator 6 days ago

Maybe a decade ago but most restaurant food had declined in quality since covid.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Tell me you're bad at cooking without telling me you're bad at cooking lol

by OkPermission 6 days ago

When cooked correctly, a cheap meal can actually taste really good. Pasta with mushrooms and Tamato sauce, that's a delicious meal right there. Cheap doesn't always imply that it will taste bad

by Anonymous 6 days ago

I disgree. I love food and I prefer my meals to be delicious.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Me too it's one my great pleasures. That said I know about spices, so healthy affordable food is delicious for me.

by Alarming-Animator584 6 days ago

Yea, you don't have to spend tons of money.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

This is something I realized recently and has been the key to my losing weight and keeping it off. Now I try to eat very healthy for breakfast and lunch and then I eat a bigger and more satisfying dinner. Even if I lose control and eat a giant 1500 calorie dinner, I only had 2100 calories if I only ate 600 calories before that

by Anonymous 6 days ago

One of my favourite things to eat is buckwheat kasha. Slow boil buckwheat in water, add maybe whatever herbs you got on hand, serve with whatever vegetables was cheapest/in season in the store. Is it amazing? No. But it's cheap for the amount made, fills you up like crazy, and it's pretty healthy.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Batch cooking is great too - make a big batch of bean salad that'll last you all week and it reduces the number of times you need to cook AND is much cheaper. Honestly, a can of black beans, can of corn, can of chick peas and a can of green beans, some diced bell pepper and onion, and some greek yogurt dressing with some lemon juice and herbs and spices costs maybe $10 in total and will give you five big, healthy lunches.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

I love this idea I'm stealing it

by Anonymous 6 days ago

You can easily mix it up, too, just based on what you make the dressing out of. I made a spicy mexican inspired one a few weeks ago that was great, it tasted like 7 layer bean dip. I even typed up the recipe lol: About 1 cup of Skyr 1 tbsp cumin 1 tbsp paprika juice of 1 lime 1 tbsp dried parsley 1 tbsp chives 3 tbsp liquid from pickled jalapenos

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Learn to season your food. You can have tons of flavor without obscene amounts of fats or salt

by Anonymous 6 days ago

I think this is where most people get it wrong with cooking at home. Everything tastes bland because they don't know how to season properly. The second thing a lot of people miss is not knowing certain fundamentals of cooking (i.e. preheating a pan) so the food often comes out dry or burnt. Then they throw their hands up and say it's too hard and order doordash.

by Repulsive_Disk 6 days ago

My ancestors didn't pillage the spice trade for me to be stingy

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Man, I just wanna enjoy my life and what I eat. That doesn't mean it needs to be gross and unhealthy. There's plenty of food that tastes good and isn't a cheeseburger.

by Hot_Share 6 days ago

Im begging you to drop the recipe

by Whomenick 6 days ago

Maybe I disagree. I'm not coming at this from a weight loss perspective. I'd rather eat a simple vegetable soup than a giant bowl of cheese fatty salty processed fries but I mean you do you

by Anonymous 6 days ago

I never said food needs to be nasty or not good. It just needs to be okay. Like, if you fry up onions, garlic, chicken, veg and paprika, that's a meal. Is it something you'd pay for in a restaurant? No. But it's perfectly fine as a meal.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Im pretty sure there are places you can order this

by Anonymous 6 days ago

You know theres other foods that are delicious right?

by Anonymous 6 days ago

My entire point is that not EVERY meal needs to be some kind of culinary experience. In general overall I think we're too obsessed with food as a whole but eh

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Why wouldn't you want your food to taste good? This makes no sense at all. Sure you can just eat boiled chicken everyday but why? What is your problem with making food taste good?

by Anonymous 6 days ago

You know a potato is very nutritionally complete? You can make fries at home in a convection oven or air fryer to get a good result. Nothing processed

by Albin68 6 days ago

Because a vegetable soup tastes better to you.

by kenny39 6 days ago

We don't have whole foods where I am lol

by Anonymous 6 days ago

You can eat home cooked healthy food and have it be delicious. They aren't mutually exclusive. I'm disappointed 90% of the time when I eat out. I usually feel like I spent a bunch of money on something that doesn't taste nearly as good as home. Just some roasted vegetables with a little butter, salt, pepper, and garlic is delicious and have more flavor than bland stuff at many restaurants. Most restaurants use cheap bulk ingredients, that might not be as fresh, and are making stuff as fast as possible.

by Expensive_Basil_7206 6 days ago

Not every meal needs to slap sometimes "mid" food is what keeps you alive, healthy and out of debt.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Like the issue isnt still the profit hoarding of supermarkets and other companies, the lowering nutritional values of foods due to worsening soil conditions globally and the rapid decline of the environment in general But no sure the issue is that people want their food to taste good 🙄 Idunno especially lately iv run outof patience for this kinda..... i dont wanna call it blame deflection but cant think of the right term, anywho it just seems so besides the point to me

by Chance_Campaign_6345 6 days ago

I never said those aren't issues. But like you gotta admit there's a lot of people who would very happily eat takeout every single day

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Ofcourse, because were so mentally drained from working ungodly hours each week that wed rather completely zone out than thrive I think it all leads back to the same issue, and critiquing eachothers last resort choices is even more demotivating and most of all, completely useless in resolving anything Its just a wordier version of the whole avocado toast debate nomatter what what way you twist it

by Chance_Campaign_6345 6 days ago

Sorry just to add, Idunno who youv been interacting with but plenty of people still live mostly off of lentil soup and other budget friendly povo meals, we just learn how to cook well

by Chance_Campaign_6345 6 days ago

Meals are usually a compromise and mix of these factors: Nutrition, flavor, experience, and cost. Based on where you're at in life you may need to prioritize one over the other more frequently but I personally would argue that nutrition should be the most frequently prioritized factor (as that really is the point of food).

by Alive_Substance 6 days ago

I tell my kids they'll have about 100,000 meals in their lifetime, they don't all have to be good.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

If it doesn't taste good to me, then I just won't eat it. I know my struggle is probably different from the average person's, but I will straight up just not eat if I try to force myself to eat stuff that doesn't taste good. I've been underweight for large sections of my life due to this. I've mostly overcome this and maintain a healthy weight these days, but damn I really need to figure out how to eat more vegetables.

by LankyConcentrate4023 6 days ago

You do understand that there isn't only 0 and 100, that our option isn't only boiled cabbage or whatever the hell a "hyper palatable food" is. People hate vegetables because they were fed boiled unseasoned vegetables by their parents who were raised to think vegetables can't taste good or healthy food can't taste good so why even try. Food tasting good isn't the problem and eating like a Victorian era peasant isn't the solution, people eat out more now because in many places it's cheaper and they don't wanna starve. The solution is making cooking a more accessible and wide-spread skill, and reigning in corporate greed so people can actually afford to get the ingredients to do said cooking.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Call me crazy but I've had cabbage soup that wasn't disgusting Victorian mush. If you add some herbs and spices soup can be very good. I'm not advocating for eating disgusting food. I'm just saying hey, maybe not every meal we eat needs to be a culinary adventure. Like it or not we are dopamine starved.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

You seem really into cabbage

by Anonymous 6 days ago

What you consider "not delicious", I consider "so terrible I'd rather starve than eat it". Don't assume everyone can make themselves eat bad foods if they want to.

by Rodriguezelliot 6 days ago

You'd rather starve than eat rice and beans?

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Yes. And I've gone hungry before when that type of food was the only thing available.

by Rodriguezelliot 6 days ago

I agree with your hot take.

by Glittering-Brief5184 6 days ago

I agree that there are way too many people who don't know how to cook and eat out way too much. I'm someone who makes 90% of my meals at home, mostly from raw ingredients. I started teaching myself how to cook at 18 because it was fun and useful. I've had phases of learning fancy and labor intensive techniques, and I've also had phases of embracing simple, easy meals. I don't expect most expect most people to put as much time into learning how to cook as I did, but I have learned some valuable lessons about everyday cooking. I will also say that this is probably a more American problem than anything. People from other countries generally seem to me to have more basic cooking skills and more culture of easy to make meals. Not saying this is totally true, but just from my perception. I will say that simple and easy to make doesn't mean not tasty or palatable though. Yes, poor peasants for hundreds of years might've been used to eating unseasoned veggies cooked without much fat. We live in a time where relative quality of life is off the charts compared to just a hundred or two years ago though. Things like cheap salt, fat, and other spices are very available across the board. Some can afford to eat a bit differently than people of the past. It's important to note that a lot of what we consider to be fancy cuisine today is actually peasant food from other societies. The lesson here being that we actually can make really tasty food with our available ingredients in a short amount of time with just a little bit of cooking knowledge.

by Thick_Natural5976 6 days ago

I live on humble pie and have never felt healthier. I make batches of soups to freeze and grow a lot of greens for the nutribullet. I buy veggies in bulk, marked down to nearly nothing, and get creative with them. The only meat I have is ham hock for the soups. The prohibitive COL has made me improve my diet. I can't afford to be a foodie. My degustation menu includes grazing on nuts and seeds throughout the evening.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Honestly girl same

by Anonymous 6 days ago

I eat plain steak every day with just salt. Air fried for 12 minutes from frozen and you're good to go. Eggs cooked over easy in the morning can be done in ten minutes too. Sometimes I'll just eat some spoonfuls of tallow- that's instant calorie dense food that gets me the energy I need immediately. Sometimes I'll get more complex, like crushing pork rinds and mixing it into hamburger, then smoking those meatballs with hickory, but that's as complicated as I get anymore.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

You're right, but it doesn't take a lot of time to actually make food taste good. Do y'all not have seasonings in your house?

by Fair-Newspaper8200 6 days ago

This is bad advice imo, the takeaway should be that you can make tasty food that is palatable and also healthy. Ofc also keep in mind it won't be like deep fried food but that doesn't mean it has to taste bad.

by MoodNo 6 days ago

Thankfully, I prefer my cooking over takeout or even restaurants. But if I don't enjoy food, I'm not going to eat it.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

True. Gruel and other versions of it were quite common at one point in time or another.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

I have IBS. Everything I eat comes with a penalty later in the bathroom. I'd rather just not eat than eat something I don't want. In fairness to your point, however, what I really want to eat is often broccoli or rice. The real issue is people eating unhealthy things they also don't like. Finishing off some gross cookies for dinner because you don't want to cook, eating a bag of stale chips because it's next to your desk, etc. I hear about people getting McDonald's and then thinking how gross it is. Just get a gas station salad at that point, it's cheaper and contains veggies with the same convenience.

by Honest-Pause-7181 6 days ago

I physically cannot eat food this isn't on a list of weekly random choices my body chooses for me. Ik it's not a common problem but ARFID is a bitch when you're just trying not to starve.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

If people can afford it, either in terms of money or time, and want to, nothing wrong with maximizing deliciousness of food, it's weird not to have delicious food just because. If they can't or don't want to, they'll (have to) find something else to eat. It's literally as simple as that

by Life_Birthday 6 days ago

Yes you should eat healthy, but you can also make healthy food taste good if you know what you're doing

by Ralph33 6 days ago

so you discovered yet another aspect of human evolution. people generally want to enjoy their meals not endure them.

by Weekly-Standard 6 days ago

The potato might genuinely be the most versatile food in existence lol

by Anonymous 6 days ago

One thing I had some trouble coming to terms with when trying to be healthier and lose weight was that some meals were just going to suck and that's how it had to be.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

What is hyper palatable?

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Exactly this! This is a big key to losing weight and eating healthy, food does not need to be delicious every meal. Just nutritious is fine, you could make it yaste better no doubt but of you don't, you eat less of it and gradually become less food focused. Also when you do have something good it's a real treat.

by candelariokupha 6 days ago

Simple foods can still be delicious. Eating healthy doesn't have to mean eating bland food.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

it's very easy to make ‘healthy' or ‘boring' foods taste good whilst still being cheap

by Anonymous 6 days ago

It's just food - food is fuel. If it contains the right amount of calories and nutrients (and you can eat it), does it matter?

by casper39 6 days ago

So you just don't season anything then? Good tasting food is not a privilege. That makes no sense. Salt and pepper are not a luxury. They are very common.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

no i like to enjoy my food

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Good food is one of my favorite pleasures lol. I'm not overweight nor have I ever been. I prefer to eat one delicious meal a day than 3 "mid" meals just to fill me up. I live in a camper and we hate to use the oven because it makes it unbearably hot. Plus it's tiny. So we either make something we enjoy on the campfire for dinner or we go out depending on our mood and the weather. We keep snacks for the rest of the day…often fruit, raw vegetables and dip, chips and dip, sandwich meat and bread, lunchables, whatever. I'm not going to waste my time cooking something if I'm not going to truly enjoy it.

by Hallerempel 6 days ago

...Have you heard of seasoning? You know the this point in history cheap as hit thing which is responsible for 80% of flavour in a good which outside of some fancy ones you can buy for less less 5 dollar enough of the important ones to be set up for months?

by Normal_Call 6 days ago

This is only unpopular to people who are obsessed with food YouTube. Most people's average meals are average.

by Playful_Reading 6 days ago

You can make healthy food delicious. Kinda sounds like you suck at cooking lol

by Anonymous 6 days ago

I'm not advocating for eating unhealthy, but what's the crime in food tasting delicious?

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Healthy food can be made delicious AND stay healthy with a tiny bit of effort and knowledge about cooking.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Admittedly most of what I make at home is good, and a couple of things are pretty good. I may get a craving for something really, really good maybe once every month or two. For me "really, really good" is a double double or this awesome burrito place or real Chinese takeout. YMMV.

by Morissettedeven 6 days ago

Maybe not delicious but it should taste good. A little seasoning goes a long way. I eat a ton of potatoes, rice, beans, broccoli, and carrots and find ways to make them taste quite yummy.

by Big_Race 6 days ago

I'm a decent plain cook. Meat, steamed veggies, and rice or potatoes of some sort. One time I made butter chicken and my daughter said to me "This is a really good dinner mama. You know those dinners that aren't very yummy but you eat anyway? I've had a LOT of those' 😳😆 I'm like "Hey dude, at least you get dinner every night, I'm not starving ya" 😜

by Anonymous 6 days ago

Funny enough, I never ate healthier than when I was a graduate student who had to stretch my food budget as far as it would take me. That meant almost strictly some of the cheapest stuff available - leafy greens, bananas, oats, eggs, boneless skinless chicken breasts, canned fish. And I was probably never unhealthier than when I was a kid in the South and we had huge portions of food that was seasoned and sauced to the hilt. In my 30s now with two sons it has lead me to while now purchasing high quality meats and produce from local farms, delis and butchers, and understanding that if you buy good quality it can be pretty enjoyable with just some butter, lemon and herbs.

by Jules94 6 days ago

You're right, people should sometimes just eat to satisfy their hunger. However, if you have the skills and experience, you can definitely make a delicious meal out of any ingredient. The problem is that people are so overworked, overwhelmed, under constant stress that they don't have the time or make the effort to learn how to cook. We are obsessed with speed so much so that even when we eat expensive dishes, we don't enjoy them, we simply shove it down our throats.

by Anonymous 6 days ago

What health crisis is in full swing?

by Otherwise_Cable 6 days ago

I never get hungry, and the point is, if the meal is not delicious, i have no motivation to take them on time.

by Least-Cherry5669 6 days ago

Brilliant.

by Demetrishetting 6 days ago

And you don't need to have all the knowledge in history in your hand 24/7, but it's nice bruv

by Delicious-Lake-8659 6 days ago

This is true, when we eat to make our tastebuds happy we feed the obesity epidemic

by Anonymous 6 days ago