I picked up The Art of Eating In on a whim. I'm always looking for good food related books especially about home cooks. Overall, I enjoyed The Art of Eating Out even though I didn't relate to the author.
One day, Cathy reminisces about a media diet she did in college. The diet gave her a greater appreciation of what she had to choose from. Dining out seemed like a given for Cathy especially since she lives in New York. Cathy decided to not dine out. She didn't put a limit on how long but she wanted to give herself a challenge to eat at home. I appreciated the spirit of the challenge. Sometimes grabbing takeout or stopping for dinner isn't what I want to do. I'm pressed for time and this is easier. Usually it's not something I'm craving and probably something I could make at home if I had more time. I'd like to save dining out for when I'm craving something or when it would be difficult for me to recreate at home. Sure, I could learn to make sushi at home but I prefer paying someone to do it and eat what I truly want.
Cathy does use this opportunity to learn to cook foods from other cultures, enter cook offs, and learn to forage for food. I envied the time she had to spend learning to cook new foods and the amount of time she had for trial and error. For part of the challenge she was in a relationship but he didn't seem very supportive of her not dining out. Later on they breakup and she attempts to date without going out to eat. I found that interesting but living in New York there are no shortage of other things to do.
I've added Cathy's blog, Not Eating Out In New York, in my feed reader. It's good to hear different perspectives. Others who shared their thoughts on The Art of Eating In: Joy's Book Blog and Earthbound Chronicles.
This is my second read for the Foodies Read Challenge.
Too funny, in my small town, most people eat in instead of out -- but that's probably because we don't have very many choices. I"m going to check out her blog.
ReplyDeleteWe tend to eat out at lunchtime. I really do like cooking and eating at home for dinner.
ReplyDeleteSounds interesting! More of a memoir, then, rather than a cookbook, right?
ReplyDeleteWe only eat out about once a week these days, and for a long time we rarely ate out. It's a nice treat when we can afford it, but I do enjoy eating fresh foods at home most of the time. Thanks for the review!
Sue
Book By Book
I like to cook, so eating in is not a problem, and it's also where the food is usually better :) as well as being organic, non-hormone, antibiotic, etc. pumped up meat. So eating out is more of a challenge.
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