WHAT? How could this possibly be!? I used to love eating out! I am so tired of it now!

I realize that we all have an extremely wide variety of choices but the whole ritual has become boring. The food is all too often sub-standard, mass-produced and overpriced. The lines are long, the settings are generally loud, and fast paced and the food is usually served without much finesse. Eating out has turned from a fun activity with unique experiences to a commonplace chore – rarely is it something special. So what changed my mind? It was really several disconnected epiphanies that occurred.

The first one I noticed was that where I chose to go to lunch each day had an eerie correlation to the ads I had seen just prior to going to bed the night before. I was aggravated that I had succumbed to such marketing tactics. I felt used and tricked and vowed to overcome the habit.

The second I noticed when I was sitting in a restaurant that is quite famous along the interstates in the eastern USA. Now I’m considered a pretty good cook but here I was, having stood in line, in a crowded store, waiting forever, finally being seated in a large room with a hundred people I didn’t know (all talking at once) and eating basic fare that had a fairly unappetizing presentation and for which I was paying almost $40.00 for just three meals …I was not really enjoying myself, we had made the choice because I was too lazy to cook at home. The camaraderie of my dinner companions was missing (or being overshadowed by the surroundings) and we were just going through the motions.

My third revelation came when I was sitting in one of my favorite haunts. I term it favorite because a friend’s nephew works there who is a special light in both of our lives - he makes it fun to visit. This restaurant used to have a special charm but modernization has made it much like every other restaurant along the strip unless you choose to join the upstairs bar crowd for loud music and drunken jokes. I realized I couldn’t make my choice for dinner because nothing was “different” or “special”. Oh sure, they had “specials” but I could have ordered the same food in half the restaurants around town.

Everyone bought their food from the same group of purveyors and as soon as one restaurant did something a little different, every other restaurant picked up the trend. If they weren’t selling out to the chains, the local restaurants were copying the menus and trends with only slight twists. Honestly, how many “beer battered” onion rings or plates of baby back ribs does one really want to ingest. How much indifferently prepared cream sauces and how much overcooked asparagus do you really want to eat?

Obviously, I have become burnt out on going out. Eating out used to be unique; it used to mean trying new foods and enjoying the company of friends. Now it meant rushing then standing in frustrating lines, complaining about the restaurant being too loud, too hot, too cold, listening to over-tired children cry, trying to hear your companions over all the other noise and then paying for the experience. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a penny-pincher, I’m quite prepared to pay for an excellent meal but not if it doesn’t accomplish what the original intent was supposed to be. If it isn’t a well-designed and relaxing atmosphere where you could have some fun, talk with companions, enjoy both the food and the time spent then it isn’t worth the price you pay in both cash as well as emotions. Obviously for me, too much of a good thing had turned sour. Maybe I'm feeling my age.

I reviewed my past. I noted where I had enjoyed myself versus what had become just a lazy alternative. I realized unique experiences that included quality food with excellent preparation and lively or intimate atmospheres always won hands down – so why was I settling for sub par? I realized I had fallen for all the media hype that we are hit with each day – Easy! Convenient! Fun! There’s always a party! Well, you know what? Easy – maybe but not always. Convenient – depends on the circumstances, usually a well-prepared microwave dish beats the convenience every time. Fun – rarely any more and the part about there always being a party…well, I don’t want to experience someone else’s party, I’d rather enjoy my own.

So what’s a person to do? Plan, plan, and plan. Keep a list handy of the places you REALLY enjoy. My current "in town" list actually only has about 6 restaurants on it, learn to cook the items you like from the restaurants you’d rather not patronize for other reasons and then keep a few special ingredients and some “fast food” choices (unusual store bought meals) in the freezer. Finally re-train your thought processes; when the mood strikes to go out, make sure WHY you are giving in and make sure you are making a wise choice and not just a choice of convenience that could be better served another way. By doing this I found I had taken back “the power of choice”. I now choose where and what to eat rather than the media deciding. My choices still include my favorite pizza delivery once in awhile or a great sports bar but it has become a choice rather than the commonplace rut I was in. Now I pick my meals out based on surroundings and the quality of the food. Not on pure hype. It actually means I can eat in my favorite restaurants more often or try new places more often since I don’t spend so much on the other sub-par fare. Currently my list includes a special, intimate wine restaurant, a wonderful Japanese restaurant, a great seafood restaurant, the country club, a local Mexican restaurant and a hidden away Italian restaurant. You may notice that steaks and barbeque are missing. The steak restaurants in my area have all succumbed to “sameness” and are loud/fast paced restaurants so I buy Omaha Steaks to prepare at home and hit the wine restaurant once in awhile. The barbeque restaurants also fall into the “sameness” category as well as the “indifference” category, the food is great but the atmosphere and the presentation is wearing. I prefer pick up now when nothing will satisfy my taste but barbeque.

Unfortunately in my area, chains have taken over many of the best local restaurants. It used to be well known for it’s unique locally owned bistros and eateries but one by one the good choices have fallen into the trap of “sameness” and many of them eventually succumb to selling out to big chains that promote “sameness”. Most of the rest do not have the quality to attract the buyers in the first place.

By eating in more often, an interesting phenomenon occurred. When circumstances require that I use the services of a fast food restaurant, I find that almost all of what used to be my favorite fast foods are offensive. I can taste it when the oils used are scorched or rancid, the meat is over processed and the freshness or lack thereof is overtaking the meal. When using the services of chain restaurants, I noticed the “sameness” of each one - think adjectives like loud; bright; rushed; crowded and noisy, they all apply.

So when did eating substandard food become accepted as the norm? How did I get hooked into the marketing ploys? Like everyone else; TV, Billboards, time spent at work, all played a part but it always comes down to the fact that I made the choice. And now it’s my choice to change. I love cooking and am willing to try new recipes to make “Mom’s Diner” the wonderful dinner choice that it was always meant to be.