I don’t know when it happened, but eating out doesn’t seem all that exciting any more. Although I don’t like standing in front of a stove these days, I also dislike spending on restaurant meals. Portions are usually too big and too high calorie for the way we eat now, and prices often seem too high for what we get. And, besides the cost and calories, we’re not all that crazy about having to wait in long lines these days for a table.
Brett and I talked the other day whether there were any places we want to eat at again before leaving Kaua’i next year and ended up with a very short list: breakfast at the Tip Top, brunch at the Kountry Kitchen in Kapaa (their eggs Benedict are fantastic), and a burger at Street Burger in Wailua (where we have to share a burger because they’re so big). Those three restaurants are seriously the only ones we could come up with. We’re thinking we may visit all three for our anniversary Day of No Cooking next March!
Our evening meals were simple this past week, and didn’t involve a lot of time in the kitchen, but I did finally make the peanut stew on Sunday and it was delicious. The recipe made enough that we were able to freeze a container for a later meal and still have leftovers to enjoy last week. Nothing else we had required much prep work or time spent in the kitchen. I realized that not only do I feel too tired to cook after our walks, but I also do not particularly like working in our tiny kitchen. It’s efficient and has everything we need, but there’s just not a lot of room to do things without creating a huge mess.
Sunday: Vegan peanut stew; steamed rice
Monday: CookDo chili shrimp; steamed rice; namasu
Tuesday: Mini pizzas with pesto, feta cheese, and onion (we love this combination!)
Wednesday: Better Than Beef cheeseburgers; coleslaw
Thursday: Zaru soba; hiyayakko; cucumber spears
Friday: Cheese board (Manchego, feta, Irish cheddar, & Boursin with garlic & herbs)
Saturday: Broccoli & tofu stir fry with spicy peanut sauce; steamed rice
We’re continuing to use up what we have on hand, but we did pick up a bag of frozen onion rings (Alexia brand) the other day – we’re looking forward to enjoying a few of them with some chick’n tenders we already have. We’re also looking forward to having the Japanese tofu patties again – easy to fix and good! Sadly, there was no more of the roasted vegetable ravioli at Costco, as expected, but we saw they had both butternut squash and portobello mushroom ravioli so those are what will eventually be appearing on the menu.
- Roasted vegetable ravioli with pesto
- Chick’n tenders with onion rings
- Panzanella with beans and feta cheese
- Cheesy white bean bake
- Mini pizzas
- Cheese board
- Tofu patties
We each enjoyed a microwave s’more for dessert last Sunday evening, then had Pepperidge Farm coconut cake for four days, and we’re now having some mochi ice cream again that we picked up at Costco. The ice cream flavors aren’t as exciting as Bubbie’s, but the mochi is much better. We also picked up a pumpkin pie, and will begin that next week. It’s time.
Last week was another of off and on walking, although mostly on thank goodness. We took our regular day off on Sunday, then walked on Monday but got caught in some rain toward the end. It rained hard enough on Tuesday that we stayed home, but we had a nice, full perimeter walk on Wednesday. It was a beautiful day, but sure enough, about halfway through our walk what should appear but a dark cloud preceded by a rainbow, a sure sign of rain approaching. Grrrrr! Thankfully the cloud moved off to the side and missed us. Thursday was our shopping day so we did our walking in Costco and Walmart, around two hours of it in total. We had lovely walks on Friday and Saturday, and got to talk with many friends we hadn’t seen for a while.
The weather was mostly beautiful at the golf course on Wednesday, although there was that dark cloud that wanted to spoil things. I sat outside on the course while Brett headed into the gully for a few minutes to hunt for balls – he found 7 that day!
The golf course is currently reconditioning several of the greens, and have temporary ones set up in the interim. This means some of our usual spots for locating lost balls are not in play for the time being, and we’re having to figure out new places where balls might end up. In spite of this and there being fewer golfers on the course, we still found a respectable 72 lost balls this past week. We also continue to pick up trash several days a week – there’s a lot less than there was earlier, but we still find stuff almost daily that people were just too lazy to dispose of properly.
I was also able to restart upper body strength training this past week. The bruised rib or whatever that pain was in my chest made it impossible for the past few weeks, but it feels good to be at it once again.
The Occasional Nomads 
I love roast pumpkin ravioli but my supermarket has stopped stocking it.
Brendan hates queuing and waiting for restaurants. If we have to queue, we generally go elsewhere. When we were in California, we had to queue for nearly every restaurant or food place. I agree with you on the cost thing. Our American cousins ate out a lot – we were shocked at the money spent. So much cheaper to cook at home and mostly yummier.
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Pumpkin ravioli is seasonal here. I love it with a good Alfredo sauce, but Brett and I won’t eat that now, so I’m not sure what we’ll have with it. More pesto maybe? A little of that goes a long way.
Yes, so much cheaper to cook at home and mostly yummier or at least just as good. Prices and lines are crazy here now with the return of tourists so we pretty much just skip it. We’ll go out for breakfast when the girls are here, and probably pick up some take out from their favorite Mexican restaurant, but have no desire to eat out again otherwise.
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I hadn’t really considered it, but I have reached a similar conclusion re: eating out. I met friends for dinner at at two different restaurants last week (first time for both since the pandemic hit), and while I had a great time catching up, I have to say it’s not the same. The first place had really raised its pricing, and I’m convinced they changed the dressing on my salad. The service was slow because they were severely understaffed. We also went there a lot in the Before Time and we didn’t recognize anyone on the wait staff, so I think the turnover is high. The other place didn’t appear to have raised pricing and we ate outside on the lake patio on a beautiful night. They had a two hour limit sign that they didn’t have to enforce because the place was half empty when we left. On a beautiful fall Friday night with perfect weather. That tells me we aren’t the only ones not eating out much anymore.
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I too miss the social aspect of eating out but otherwise don’t miss it. From what I have read, so many restaurant workers who lost their jobs figured out they could make more money elsewhere and under better working conditions and decided not to return, hence many of the shortages. The restaurants that have increased their worker salaries have not had the staffing issues either. But, I also think that lots of people have just chosen to stay away from restaurants for the time being, and figured out that for the time being they don’t need to go out or at least go out as much as they did before, for a variety of reason, both health- and finance-related.
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Oh, Laura, your pictures of the golf course are breathtaking! There is something about the combination of the blues from sky and water, with the white clouds, and that deep, healthy green of the grass that is just to die for.
The restaurants’ situation around here is also sketchy. We haven’t ever been big going out kind of folks, but we had a handful of places where we’d enjoy a nice dinner or lunch once in a while. When the pandemic hit, many of these restaurants let their regular staff go and of course, those people didn’t appreciate it. When they reopened, the owners had to find replacements and the reality is that the new chefs don’t cook the dishes the same way the old ones did. So after a couple of disappointing attempts, we gave up on going out. The menu was skimpy, the food wasn’t great, the service was slow and the cost was through the roof. Now I’m working on honing my home cook skills and for the time being, we are enjoying our patio seating. Oh, and I tip myself instead🤣.
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The golf course was the best discovery we made this time – a perfect walking venue, always beautiful views, and now we’re earning a little from the golf balls we find!
I think your experiences are very much the new normal when it comes to dining out these days. The couple of places we’ve eat in the past few months have been OK, but they are small local places that never really closed. Local customers ordered take-out when they couldn’t dine in and kept the businesses going and the regular staff remained for the most part. I wonder though about some of the big, tourist-oriented places, if they’re as good as they were before. We’ll never know though because we refuse to pay their prices!
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Al the food makes me hungry and it is 10 pm and I have not had dinner yet.
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I’m sorry you’re hungry, but thank you for the compliment
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