When I was growing up, going out to eat was a rare treat, something reserved for special occasions or a well-deserved break from the kitchen. Fast forward to today, and it seems like the tables have turned. Now, a homemade meal is considered a nice change. Eating out there is no grocery shopping, no cooking, no dishes to wash – just delicious food served to you with a side of convenience. It can also be a social experience, a chance to explore different cuisines, and an excuse to dress up and savor a night out. Which do you prefer? Let’s talk about it…
Mark Lambert: “Home Dining is more relaxing and better quality!!!”
Ralph Tello: “Home cooked meals are made with love. They are the better choice for me but anytime with family and friends is a blessing.”
Joann Laque: “I would rather eat at home than any restaurants or fast food places.”
Kenneth Raymond: “Home cooked meals.”
Sally Schopp Patino: “I remember we only went out to eat after Saturday church. Sonic or 7/11 slushes. Every once in a while, Arby’s. Now my family is lucky if I cook. I just don’t have much time. But if we are free Saturday or Sunday I make an amazing meal.”
Laura Cardenas: “Hands down forsure it’s always home cooking for me..But by Sunday we’re eating out,kitchen closed lol!”
Ramon Chapa Jr.: “I always eat out. But I have a top of the line air fryer, pots and pans. But I don’t know how to cook! I wish I had someone that could come to my house and cook homemade meals for me! Caldo, enchiladas, homemade tortillas, meat loaf, pot roast!”
Oscar Garza: “San Antonio’s cuisine has changed in the last decade because of population growth. There is more of a diverse selection of restaurants, Thai, Sushi, Korean, Indian, and authentic Mexican. I’m sure smaller cities and towns eat more at home.”
Ralph Valdez: “Restaurant food gets boring.”
Jayanti Jaya: “It is better to eat home cooked food and to avoid alcohol. Through exercising we only burn the excess fat present in our body, but we often forget that food not only affects us physically but also psychologically. So a disciplined life is good to lead a healthy life.”
Sayan Sarkar : “You are better off eating fresh, home cooked meals for long-term health. The 80/20 principle applies to nutrition and health just as much as it does in other fields. For weight loss, or just overall health/body composition and vitals, 80% of success (or lack thereof) comes from diet and nutrition, while 10-15% comes from exercise, and the remainder comes from supplements and external factors such as smoking and other lifestyle habits. So a healthy diet, moderate exercise (primarily resistance training to maintain and/or build muscle), good supplements, and avoidance of smoking, drinking, etc will move mountains in your quest for long-term health. And in direct relation to your question, if you eat junk all the time but work out habitually, you still have 80% of the determining factor in your health (i.e. food) coming from a really nutritionally deficient place. That 10-15% benefit from lots of exercise just won’t add up.”
Phil DiNuzzo: “You can develop deficiencies if you don’t consume enough variety of food. Fundamentally, diet is more important than exercise assuming you have at least a minimal amount of daily activity. Strength exercise in particular will be pointless if you’re not consuming enough protein, though even a fast food diet would provide far more than enough. I imagine it comes down to how badly you’re eating. A “normal” bad diet is sustainable with exercise, an atrociously bad diet can have serious repercussions that no amount of exercise can overcome. Further, you can’t become obese by consuming the amount of calories that you burn off during normal daily activity, even with no purposeful exercise. But you could exercise all day long and still become obese or otherwise unhealthy if your diet is atrociously poor.”
Marlene Dempster: “Empty calories will not sustain organ function, skin elasticity, digestion, etc. You really are what you eat. One may get away with a junk food diet in their teens but after that proper nutrition is key. I don’t understand the either/or dilemma of the questioner as both are critical really to a long and healthy life. An example in an excellent book titled The Jungle Effect is of the Copper Canyon Indians in Mexico who still eat an indigenous, plant based diet with some meat, diet and exercise daily.”
Gerhard Walter: “In my experience, food cooked at home could be prepared to your level of satisfaction and health standard but restaurant cooked meals tastes a whole lot better. Now consider a meal cooked by a skilled culinarian in a health conscious restaurant, I’d go for that anytime. But really it depends on what you’re after; quantity in home cooked meals or the savory contentment in restaurant cooked meals.”
Sarah Clinton: “I prefer home cooked meals provided that I’m not the one who has to cook them. After 50 years of holding the title “Chief Cook and Bottle Washer” I am sick and tired of it. Homemade meals are more likely to please the palate, have less salt and sugar in them and fresher ingredients. They also have more dishes to wash, pots and pans to scrub and leftovers to deal with.Restaurant meals are often more extravagant, loaded with salt, sugar and fat, but require no labor in the kitchen before or after. A single serving reduces the chance of leftovers to store in the fridge until they become alien life forms.”
Venkateswara Swamy Swarna: “My diet restrictions, my age, my lack of transportation and my dislike of the food delivery apps (since there is really no way to get your food personalized through them unlike sitting in a restaurant), make me a poor customer for eating out or getting food from outside. So, I prefer making something simple that is within my skill level (I am not a cook and really don’t know much about cooking from scratch). I am managing quite well.”
Clarisse M. : “Well… it depends on whether it is a vegetable dish or not; Home-cooked vegetables all the way. Whether the dish would be worth the effort? Fish & Chips: love it… wouldn’t dream of bothering with all the cleaning afterwards. So all the way to my favorite.
Whether I have necessary ingredients and/or skills and/or equipment and/or time and/or patience and/or desire to learn a new technique or dish. I don’t have a pizza oven, so a pizzeria is where I go for pizza. I must confess, during Covid-19 lockdowns I made an attempt to make pizza at home. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t pizza. So my options are either making a not-a-pizza pizza at home or buying a pizza oven preferably a wood burning one or going to one of my favorite pizzerias. No-brainer here! Whether I’m in the mood to cook for myself and my loved ones, or enjoy a day out.”
Daryl Stahler: “ I’d say this is as different as apples & oranges. Being that one has the skill set to cook at home, we go to restaurants for service, and food is secondary. I enjoy cooking, but there are a few things that are difficult to prepare at home, such as fresh sushi!”
