One of the few good things about spending 2 hours every day on a train is that I get a lot of time to read. Today I finished The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove by Cathy Erway, author of the blog Not Eating Out in NY. I’ve mentioned before that I love reading work by non-vegans and non-vegetarians when I can learn something from it that will help me better myself, and Cathy’s is one such book.
In the summer of 2006 Cathy decided to not eat in (or order out from) New York City restaurants for 2 years, and created a blog to chronicle her adventures during this time. When you first hear this goal you might think that Cathy would have missed out on a lot during those 2 years, but the opposite happened. Did you know that middle-class New Yorkers forage for edible plants in our city parks, and go dumpster-diving to score perfectly good free food when it is discarded at the end of the business day? I didn’t, but Cathy decided to learn about this approach to ecological sustainability, and much more, as part of her journey. On the other end of the scale, she became involved in a number of exclusive food groups like supper clubs and took part in cooking competitions where her ever-increasing culinary skills were duly awarded.
Aside from saving money and the environment, one of the most appealing reasons for not eating out in my eyes is the myriad of health benefits of cooking for oneself. When I switched to vegan and started cooking at home more, I noticed that my own cooking was far more bland than anything I had tried in a restaurant. A few months prior to this, news of Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed salt ban in NY restaurants caused widespread controversy. Much like the similarly controversial soda tax and the now commonplace smoking ban in many public places across the world, I happen to support this movement. Even though many of my home-cooked dishes don’t taste as good as their restaurant counterparts, chances are that they’re a lot better for me (in case you don’t know why, read this article).
The Art of Eating In also made me stop and think about the amount of waste we play a part in creating every time we order take-out or purchase food to take home from shops and grocery stores. I carry my reusable grocery bag with me everywhere I go, but I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve ordered avocado sushi for lunch and then thrown a bag stuffed with napkins, packaging, an untouched menu, chopsticks, sauce containers, a styrofoam miso soup cup, a plastic spoon and various other bits and pieces into the bin. I knew I was being wasteful, and this weighed on top of the guilt I was already feeling for spending over $10 on sushi + tax + tip. Until I read Cathy’s book, I had never really considered not ordering out at lunch to be an option, but now I make sure to pack myself a meal for work even when I think I have nothing to take. I keep a jar of peanut butter at my desk for emergencies, buy a 33c banana on my way to work, and put them both between 2 plain slices of bread from home and voila! a meal that costs well under $1, and the only waste is the cling wrap I packed my bread in. Come to think of it, I should start carrying my bread in a brown paper bag or reusable container.
Cathy’s hiatus from eating out ended in September 2008 and since then she has eaten in restaurants (especially during ‘opposite week’- read about that in the book!) and while she continues to eat out on a semi-regular basis, she prefers her own home-cooked food. Based on her recipes, I’m sure most people would agree! The Art of Eating In inspired me to eat, as she puts it, ‘seasonally, locally, sustainably, cost-efficiently and healthily’, regularly.
