General Chat Thread II

Black Sheep · 27-08-2024 03:38PM

I suspect these days you're just better asking for the leftovers 'to go', I suspect there's a younger generation, maybe also foreign wait staff in general, who won't be familiar with the 'doggy bag' phrasing.

The Black Oil · 02-09-2024 06:55PM

Took this a few weeks ago in the Eden Project in Cornwall. Someone reached in to grab a few too.

PXL_20240815_133801425.jpg

Dave_The_Sheep · 03-09-2024 12:23PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122476465#Comment_122476465

Gave this a bash earlier. Forgot the garlic like a total bellend, but added some red pepper and onion as I had some that had to be used up. Had it in a pita with some fresh sliced cabbage, diced carrot, feta and chickpeas. Very nice, I have to say, fair play Mystery Egg!

taytobreath · 25-09-2024 06:58PM

anyone experience of buying from those companies that sell recipe kits on a subscription

Mollyb60 · 25-09-2024 07:35PM

I tried Hello Fresh during lockdown. Worked well enough, made nice meals and the instructions were nice and simple but I ultimately felt it was a massive waste of packaging. The meals came in a huge box,all individually wrapped (like a couple sprigs of parsley or a little baggy of parmesan), which was a huge pain in the arse to get rid of. Especially the fresh meat etc that were in cooler bags. It just felt even more wasteful than buying a whole head of parsley that I wouldn't use.

I got some nice recipes out of it (one for a butternut and bacon risotto that I still use) but it just wasn't worth the money for me. Nice to try out but that's it.

the beer revolu · 26-09-2024 08:07AM

I hadn't thought about all the packaging. That would put me off big time. I don't even like getting take away because of the packaging!

I'm old enough to remember old newspapers (lined with a clean sheet of paper) making up the bulk of packaging in chippers. This was replaced with sheets of plain white paper. Now it seems most takeaways want to put everything in boxes. A slice of pizza now needs a box, fish and chips now need a box.

I went right off my favourite Indian cafe, Iyer's, when they changed to only disposable.

awec · 26-09-2024 08:13AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122654172#Comment_122654172

Used Drop Chef 4 or 5 years ago for a while.

It's grand, the best thing about it is getting to try new things.

But some weeks the choices were a lot better than others and I found it more expensive than just buying groceries over the long term. I think it really only works if you're feeding 2 people, if you're tying to feed a family it's not as good.

Obviously their thing is you only get the exact amounts you need, so there is no waste. But if you're someone who'll eat re-heated leftovers for lunch the next day example this obviously doesn't work any more. Also, you might get 100g of rice or whatever for an individual meal, but if you have 5 rice dishes from them you'll pay more for the 500g of rice from them than if you just bought a bag of rice in the shop etc.

It's worth trying for a while but I doubt anyone sticks with it long term.

miamee · 26-09-2024 08:24AM

I've also tried Hello Fresh for a few weeks during a period of time where I was feeling pressure with work then making evening meals before or after evening classes I was attending. Unfortunately OH wasn;t in the best health at the time so a lot of the cooking fell to me, I thought these meals would take the pressure off me if I had all ingredients and a recipe ready to go, however when I needed a meal cooked quickly I would have been better off with a meal I knew well rather than trying to follow a new recipe every time. Some of the meals were very tasty and I kept the meal cards but didn't actually make any of them again. If you're stuck in a rut of making the same few dinners and want to try new things, I'd give them a go but as mentioned they are more wasteful with packaging and in my experience didn't save me any time with cooking, just maybe with food shopping where I had to buy less.

Gloomtastic! · 26-09-2024 11:51AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122655368#Comment_122655368

I think my family would all have heart failures if I bought one of those food delivery boxes and all the packaging would give me palpitations.

Take aways are not too bad for packaging round here. We had a chipper last weekend and everything went into the brown bin afterwards. Chinese tupperware is washed and reused. The only bad ones are the local Japanese takeaways. All the packaging is washed, dried and into the green bin but it is so wasteful only using it once.

taytobreath · 26-09-2024 06:14PM

Thank you all for your replies, I was thinking of it, but I am not so sure now. I have to do 3 commutes to Dublin every week which is a 4-5 hour round trip each time and lately I've been eating crap and wanted to start eating healthily again but when you get home from a 2 hour journey, I often lack the motivation to cook anything complicated, especially since I'm cooking for just one person.

Gloomtastic! · 26-09-2024 06:36PM

Slow cooker, batch cook.

Gloomtastic! · 26-09-2024 06:45PM

Does anyone here hang out in the coffee forum?

Looking to hook up with someone, hopefully based in Dublin, who knows lots about coffee.

Any suggestions please pm.

IMG_6010.jpeg

Mollyb60 · 27-09-2024 03:22PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122657534#Comment_122657534

Seconded. Stews, bolognese, curry, chilli. Anything like that that can be quickly heated up and put with a carb to make a meal. Batch cook on a Sunday, does you for the week(ish). I can get 4-5 meals out of a batch cook.

Gremlinertia · 27-09-2024 03:34PM

We are making hachi parmentier tomorrow after finding it suggested on one of the social media platforms. Basically a fancy cottage pie. 1.7 kilos of beef cheek purchased, I'll let ye know how it goes