Restaurants = No Dishes
I found out about a love-letter-to-restaurants project online, and I nodded over the opening statement: “Restaurants make us feel happy, satiated, soothed, carefree, inspired, restored, embraced, blown away, taken care of, connected, complete.”
Taken care of. That is the feeling I am missing the most in all of this. It isn’t the food itself because I’ve been able to recreate so many dishes at home. It’s someone asking me what I want and bringing it to me. That doesn’t happen in many facets of my life. It’s someone else doing all the work and letting me sit back and relax. It’s someone else cleaning the dishes after we’re done. (Okay, Josh does 90% of the dishes, so I guess I am cared for on that front.)
I’ve felt those other things before—satiated after being hungry, carefree after hanging out at the table during a long meal, inspired to cook new things, blown away by tasting something amazing.
But it’s the taken care of that I miss the most.
4 comments
I relate to this. My job is mostly consulting, with lots of client service involved. Plus like everyone else, I am cooking and cleaning a lot more for others in the household. I miss the feeling of someone else taking care of me, even for an hour or two.
It’s like this, lately. I can either decide what to eat, or I can make the food. I no longer have the imagination to do both. What I love about restaurants is that I don’t really have to do either – I can look at a list of options and pick one and someone will bring it to me. No brain energy is expended at all. I can’t wait to be comfortable enough to resume that.
Yes to all that you, Jjiraffe and a say. I miss the treat of being taken care of, of a meal meaning only something I eat, not plan for, make, serve, and clean up after (granted, I have help with some of that).
I find these comments very interesting. Lockdown lasted only long enough here for me to enjoy it, to feel excited at looking at different options for cooking, to still find it a novelty to make my own pizza, etc. If I was STILL in your position, I think it would be driving me crazy. I am a bit embarrassed to say say that now we once again have safe takeaway or eating out options (we had a lovely brunch today at a favourite seaside cafe), my cooking at home is much less inventive. I need to get back to that feeling of adventure, without the feeling of compulsion.