Eating Out vs Eating In
(Melbourne Notes - Written in 2009)
CBD & suburbs are filthy with excellent eateries scattered around most tauntingly. I mean it, Melbourne is a superb place if you’re into walking and eating (& wine!). Is it good news? Yes, but not always to me.
Being a Muslim in a predominantly Christian country is a challenge. True, halal butchers are not so hard to find and there are halal eateries in the city, but sometimes (just sometimes!) hovers the temptation to taste that dish so famous in that renowned restaurant everyone’s been showering with praises… but you can’t since it’s not halal-meat. Sure you can go anyway and order some seafood or veggie stuffs if you insist. Then you see the aforesaid dish come floating about to the next table and it smells so good you literally drool. You look at your own dish and you ponder. Temptation is in the air!
So you know that you can’t always eat out, because even if they are cheap, the choice is limited. And they’re not exactly cheap, mind you. Regular lunch in a tiny eatery will cost you around AUD 8, drinks excluded. Dinner set is around AUD 15/pax by a struggling student’s standard. Desk-jockeys like me are expected to go to better restaurants/bars; there goes *extra* AUD 20/pax, desserts excluded. Ridiculous when you try to convert everything to Rupiah.
And when you know you can’t always eat out, you find yourself face to face with the cooker.
Yes, cook your own food. I never dreamt of having to do that. In Jogja (God bless this peaceful place!) food was dirt-cheap and there were food stalls galore just around every corner; cooking was simply deemed unnecessary (and more costly if you’re cooking for one). In Jakarta it wasn’t so cheap, but I lived on a street renowned as a culinary haven; it was downright stupid to try and cook on my own when so much better food was at my disposal. And now Melbourne: an apartment with lovely, modern, convenient kitchen that beckons me to challenge my culinary quotient. So I cook. Yes.
It is not that hard, really. Especially after a raid to Laguna (an oriental grocery shop) and be amazed by those tall shelves of INSTANT condiments. I know I will survive Melbourne, and will definitely survive my kitchen challenge! Even a culinary idiot CANNOT lose when the logistics is just colossal. So I cook. Yes.
posted by eloque @ 4:26 AM
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