Writing Question:
Many people in Hong Kong are dining out instead of cooking their own meals at home. Write an article for your school magazine examining the main reasons for this phenomenon. You should also discuss the impact of this on people who stay out for meals more often than dine at home.
Because of the convenience, most people would like to dine out. But still, there are many benefits to cooking meals at home. Do we eat out for better or for worse? It is high time for everyone to give it a deeper thought before accepting it as an inevitable habit.
Unquestionably, one of the biggest benefits of dining out is that you can save time. A lot of people who are short on time during lunch and at night cannot cook at home by themselves since it is a waste of their time. Contrary to popular belief, dining out at a restaurant is not always a pricey alternative. Sometimes dining out at a restaurant could be a small price to pay since there is more than the cost of ingredients behind a meal. When the cost of time, gas, electricity and the risk of a wrecked meal are all added up, dining out can be a great deal. Besides, even for a talented housewife, some entrees only taste better at a restaurant. For example, how many people in Hong Kong would have an oven big enough to bake a 12” pizza or even a 12-pound turkey to feed a big family? True, when blessed with a super mummy or a mighty granny, they could prepare a meal for 24 people with their bare hands. But, where are we going to get enough space to accommodate this kind of reunion dinner? And, who’s going to volunteer for the washing afterward? When money is not much of a concern, opting to dine out seems a no-brainer.
So obvious a choice it might seem, there are costs that customers have to pay which would never be shown on the menu. Unlike most of the food purchased from supermarkets, there is rarely, if any, nutritional information attached to the dishes being served in restaurants. Customers have absolutely no control over the amount of calories, fat, oil, salt or sugar they are taking in, let alone MSG. Despite the trend that restaurants are offering more nutritious food options these days, the choices are still extremely limited. To sprinkle ample flavours for the contentment of eating, health concerns are unavoidably low on most chefs’ priority list. Especially when it comes to a tight budget for a meal, who would dare question the nutritional values of less fresh ingredients and frozen meat? However, if you could spare the time and combat the troubles, with the same amount of money, you can have fresher ingredients with a healthier cooking process, not to mention a worry-free hygiene condition.
All in all, the lack of time and tempting convenience of dining out have surrendered the use of many home kitchens. But when one realizes that dining is more than an instant pleasure, a better balance between walking into a restaurant with a wallet or stepping back home with bags of fresh ingredients would be struck.
4A (2) Suni Chung