When Did Takeaways Get So Bad?
This evening, after discovering mice in the kitchen and I refused to go in and cook dinner, we ordered dinner to be delivered. Despite not fancying it anyway, the local Chinese deliveries haven’t been too impressive recently. I’m beginning to find that most lack a decent taste. They’re either bland, very spicy or very sweet. There’s nothing inbetween. We did have a great delivery place but it’s closed down and doesn’t seem to be opening again 
Anyhow, I decided on Pizza for dinner. We had a new takeaway menu for an Italian Pizzeria in town which we hadn’t tried before. They also had Haagen Dazs on the menu which is always a good thing! So I ordered Pizza for both of us, garlic bread, plus asked for Belgian Chocolate Haagen Dazs and a Ben and Jerrys Cherry Garcia for Dave. The guy told me he had both of them and said it would be 25 minutes.
Half an hour later he phoned back asking what icecream we’d wanted and Dave told him the same information again. Then reply was that they had no Haagen Dazs (yet he had specifically gone to look for it before when I made the original order), and they had just 2 flavours of Ben and Jerrys, neither of which I fancied. So I opted for their chocolate fudge cake (I needed to get over the shock of dealing with mice!).
After a further 15 minutes it finally arrived (so 50 minutes, not 25!). Garlic bread, not bad, base was nice and thin, but not much garlic. Pizza, pretty naff to be honest. The base was thick, I had 4 cheese and none of the cheese had much taste at all, plus I think they had put chicken in BBQ sauce in it! Quattro Formaggi is 4 cheeses only! Dave had asked for extra Jalapenos and never got them. Then onto desserts. Dave’s icecream was fine, if a little strange combination (Raspberry with chocolate brownie pieces), my chocolate cake – frozen. Yes you read that right, it was FROZEN!!!
So now I’m sitting here with a semi defrosted ‘Boston Mudcake’ next to me, hoping it’ll be soft enough to eat before I go to sleep! When did takeaways get so bad? Where we live we don’t have any decent Pizza delivery service. The only decent Pizzas you can get in this country are from Pizza Express or Zizzi’s. Of course I’m only going by where I’ve lived, there could be a good delivery elsewhere in the country 
And Chinese is just as bad. I used to have a great Chinese by me in Cardiff, their Kung Po Chicken was gorgeous. Can’t get anything similar up here though.
Perhaps my tastes have just improved and so substandard food doesn’t taste as good anymore, I crave better food.
- September 25th '07
Am I gross because I have mice and don’t let that keep me from cooking? The reason is because of scary stories like yours.In our neighborhood we have “dogfood” chinese,thai,pizza and a couple of other places you cannot order from because the food will come 16 hours later,ice cold. Explaining dogfood chinese: All chinese restaurants that have pictures of chinese food plastered all over their walls are going to taste like dogfood. It is a fact.
So I cook.A lot.With the mice.
Gross? No. Brave? Yes
We found the mouse running over the worktops last night so knowing that everything out needed to be washed we opted for dinner out. Luckily Dave used to work in a place up the road and he still knows people there so you can get good food there if you get the right cook.
The dogfood chinese doesn’t sound appetising at all
Well it’s good to know that bad take-out isn’t just made in America and that mice are a common problem on both sides of the pond!
We used to regularly order from one or the other of two Chinese restaurants here. (Actually we have four in a town of less than 30,000!). Shrimp chowmein used to mean that the shrimp were nearly falling off the plate, but the last few times it only meant that sauce was running over the edge. Somehow… that’s just not as nice.
No Linda, you’re not alone over there! It’s certainly a shame when a good meal is altered and not for the better. I would imagine it’s all about cutting costs, however considering the cost for one of these meals, we pay around $8-$10 for say a meat dish and rice, I can’t see how costs need to be cut as I’d imagine there is round 100% profit on these meals.
On the mouse update, we’ve caught and killed one, however I think there’s a second under a cupboard as we heard noises from there yesterday once the other was caught. So it’s still unbearable to go in the kitchen but I did finally manage to cook the dinner planned for Tuesday last night! I’m glad I’m away for the weekend as these mice are driving me insane!
I could tell you some stories about mice in kitchens, but I don’t know how strong your stomach is so I think I’ll leave them for another day.
On the topic of takeaways – at least you can get them! We live too far away from anywhere to even be considered for delivery.
I’ve been in that situation before Jem. Even at University, despite the call for a good delivery most places only did takeaway. Only one place did delivery and after 7pm you could expect a 2 hour wait! Still they were good (at the time, not sure now as my tastes have changed!).
Where my parents are there are no deliveries. It seems that if one place doesn’t deliver then none do to cut costs. If one or two places deliver then most follow suit.
I have to agree, I think takeaways are getting worse! I tend not to go for pizza as it’s a GF nightmare but lately the chinese takeaways I’ve had have frankly been insipid and lacking in traditional ingredients. Nowadays, it’s much easier to buy chinese vegetables; pak choi, shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots amongst many others; yet our takeaways are all carrots and peas, not even a mange-tout in sight!! The time factor annoys me too – by time we’ve waited for the takeaway to arrive, I could easliy have russled-up a yummy stirfry and eaten it! So, I think I’ll just have to stick to making my own
I agree that cooking it yourself is usually the best way, mind you I’ve still yet to cook a really good Pizza! It’s annoying that the best Pizza restaurants (Pizza Express, Zizzi) don’t deliver! Even the Pizza Express from the supermarkets isn’t as good as the restaurant ones.
We usually hit the takeaway when I fancy a night off cooking ie. Dave suggests takeaway instead of cooking