What's a food you love, that isn't worth making from scratch?

ericbomb@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 165 points –

For me, crepes ain't worth the stress to make fresh. Just buy a little pack from store and focus on filling is my go to.

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Chinese food. The common fast food type here in the US. Yeah, I can spend a bunch of time, work, and money to make orange chicken, boneless spare ribs, crab rangoon, teriyaki, coconut shrimp, and pork fried rice. Or, I can go 5 minutes up the street, and pay my favorite restaurant $20 for a big plate with all of that, with absolutely no work on my part, and it all tastes way better.

Ugh yes.

Also some of that stuff is more expensive to make at home.

First time, can be. After that not so much. I'm cheating making my own five spice and having about a decade and a half experience in Chinese kitchens, so I know their recipes.

I agree with everything on your list except the fried rice. True, If you're trying to recreate the take away recipe exactly from scratch you're going to have a bad time. But, with a big pan (if you don't have a wok) that you can get real hot it's just a leftovers dish. Leftover rice, leftover protein, frozen veggies, egg, vegetable oil, and soy sauce. It's not usually worth my time unless I already have the leftovers. The hardest part is not over loading your pan with ingredients or oil. You've also got to have everything ready when you start because it all comes together very fast if the pan is hot enough. Sure, I probably still can't beat the economy of scale of the restaurant, but the point is that I'm using up my own leftovers instead of throwing them out.

I really tried but I just can't cook it right. Those youtube chefs videos make it look so easy and make a lot less to clean up than I do.