Eating Out
I don’t eat out as much as I used to and you probably don’t too. High rents, bills, taxes, they call it ‘the cost of living’. Meanwhile salaries remain the same, money is hard to save and going out for two bottles of wine and three courses is starting to slip from how we go out. People, like shitty restaurants critics, blame small plates and natural wine bars for changing service and how we go out. Those were never trying to be restaurants they are based on the cave a manger where you go to drink and maybe eat a few things when you feel like it. The purpose is sharing and enjoying wine not food.
Restaurants and the staff that own, run and work in them are suffering and the critics still believe their job is important. Social media and word out mouth are ten times stronger and appeal to a wider audience - the critics are dying off and relying on clickbait to keep themselves relevant. This is not a piece about critics- I’m trying to find my way to the subject I want to write about but haven’t planned, as usual, how to get there.
On my phone I have many pictures of recipes, while flicking through I noticed every so often a picture of something similar, this:
Pork tripe noodles in broth. Seeing this offered on a menu, knowing that this is there from 10 am to midnight at a few certain places is reassuring. In Paris on my day off I would often ride around looking at the menus of bistros trying to find something I wanted to eat and after a few hours would give up and go to Rue Volta or Av.Choisy where I knew satisfaction was. These restaurants are everywhere if you look (look well, study the menu and look at the clientele) and I am grateful they are. If you’re going to Dublin the best meal other than Assassination Custard will be at either Lee’s Charming Noodles or Hakkasan. Cities have always had Chinese and while traditional places or hype places get worse these places get better. The ones that don’t dumb down their menus are the best. They don’t need us. They have their friends, their community - like a good restaurant should have. They are consistent cooks - they don’t have off days. They smoke outside and eat their meals alongside customers - they play music on phones or have conversations across the room while serving you. There is disregard but not disrespect. You are there for the food, the satisfaction. 10€ for a big bowl and a beer can silence the critic in me and probably you too. They don’t get paid enough to be on top of everything. I’m writing about the places I’ve been to - I’m not generalizing that would be unfair. It’s to say that in a time where eating out isn’t as often as it used and even when it was I still often found myself slurping a pork broth with chitterlings and noodles and I’d leave them knowing I’d be back again.
