h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And Six, allow me to thank you once again for that link. What a gorgeous painting. I might need to hunt down another art print.

So, if Herman's walking straight now after his honey weed, this proves it wasn't a neurological disorder at all, merely that he has been cruelly deprived of his non prescription drugs. tsk, tsk.

I blame the parents......

zdt

Restaurants must be a lot cheaper in the US. Over here when broke, restaurants are a no-no, its always cheaper to buy ingredients and make your own. We went to the chinese supermarket and spent a tenner on enough veggies and noodles for at least 3 meals. Over here even a cheap restaurant will never come in under a tenner and thats without alcohol.

Even chinese take-away is 2 or 3 more expensive than buying the ingredients fresh, then again thats with lots of extra additives, maybe they cost a lot more!

I was just amazed that even when broke you guys go out for dinner a lot, lucky you! I had heard a few times that eating out is cheaper over there and I guess that must still be true.

As for art, I still love http://www.deborah-holman.co.uk and the ones I mention on my ps the great biblical ones by John Martin

Dinner at the restaurant was $40. No alcohol. Not exactly cheap. But we've gotta eat, and I can't cook dinner in the house when it's so warm out that it's still 90 degrees out at 8:00 PM. And I don't get home till 6:30, and getting up at 5:00 AM means going to bed before 10:00 most nights, so we can't have dinner much past 7:00 or I won't be able to sleep.

It's not all that much cheaper to cook at home, though. Went to the grocery store, got four avocadoes, six roma tomatoes, a gallon of milk, a small tub of sour cream, a quart of orange juice, three bags with frozen side dishes, a brownie for K, a frozen key lime cheesecake, and the two cheap bottles of wine (in case we have a couple of friends by this weekend, they like the stuff), and the scratchy box thing for Herman. It came to about $72.

I guess it's a good thing we're not broke! Between the two of us, we bring home a little over $900 a week. Of course, one week's pay each goes to rent, and a big chucnk for bills, but we're usually good for a couple dinners out and ordering in at least once a week. Thank goodness!

I had also remembered watching something on tv which said that the US prices for eating out were cheaper than ours. I guess not in Chicago. I am not going on at you for eating out, I just wondered whether the price thing was still true. Maybe there are cultural differences as well. I read that some appartments in New York have no kitchens, as some people never cook, I found that quite tragic!

Its still 90 degrees I go right off cooking in those temperatures as well. Its a shame you have less time together as well.

Cause we are broke we are discovering tins at the back of the cupboard and making cheap meals from them, also we hadn't been to the chinese supermarket for a while and that is a good place to get loads of stuff cheaply. So we are doing okay, discovering new foods and making huge meals, with very little money. Also these meals help me to lose weight, I tried fresh bamboo shoots and lost that extra kilo which has been difficult to shake off. A lot of the veggies there though, I know nothing about, so some research to do there!

I also find that restaurant eating isn't all that good over here, so often I realise I could cook the same at home for less and it would be better and with better service. My fav is take away japanese at Piccadilly Circus. We go maybe once a month, get takeaway at less than a tenner and a few japanese cakes and eat it in the park. Its worth saving a bit for, and its gorgeous food, and eating in the park is my fav.

What sort of restaurants do you have over there? Look at me, all this rabbiting about food - one of my fav subjects!

I didn't think you were having a go at me for not being too broke. I'm curious what the differences are between here and there as well.

I once lived in an apartment, when I was in my early twenties, which didn't have a kitchen, either. It had a hot plate and a mini-fridge, not conducive at all to cooking properly. Most apartments have very small kitchens. Mine is huge, because the previous owner knocked the pantry and the third bedroom out and extended the kitchen to cover the entire back part of the flat.

I'm sure eating out is cheaper in a lot of places. Here in Chicago, the prices vary from neighborhood to neighborhood, and also depending on where you go. We can have Asian or Mexican food near the house for about $15- $25 for the two of us. If we get Chinese, that can possibly include an appetizer depending on what kind of entree we have. Chinese food is usually about $5- $12 an entree depending on what's in it.

Downtown, near my work, is another story. Yesterday I was running late and had to grab some fruit for breakfast on the way to the office from the train station. A small styrofoam box, with a slice of peach, a slice of pear, three slices of kiwi, and a spoonful each of berries and grapes, with a small bottle of iced tea, was $8. And eating lunch downtown, if I were to simply grab a veggie sandwich, a small bag of pretzels, and a can of soda, will be around $6 or $7 as well. So I usually bring leftovers from dinner for lunch.

As for what kinds of restaurants we have, it varies depending on the neighborhood as well. Within two miles of my home in any direction we have at least two dozen Chinese restaurants, probably twice as many Mexican, half a dozen or so Thai places, various Latin American places, several pizza and/or Italian joints, three vegan restaurants, several diners, and any number of bars with various "pub grub" fare. And that's just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. If we drive about 15 or 20 minutes north, there's an entire Indo-Paki area with a solid mile or two of restaurants and grocery shops. About halfway in between here and there is a strip of Middle Eastern restaurants. And a very decadent, extremely expensive, Thai place called Arun's is about a half mile walk from here: they only serve family style and it's about $80, serves at least four. Not including booze.

All this talking about food is making me hungry!

Ooh middle eastern food!!

We don't have much of that, there is a lebanese chain I have been hearing good things about, apparently they are good as well. So maybe in a month or two! We can save for a cheap meal out once a month, but its good its encouraging me to cook more nad investigate that chinese supermarket more.

We used to have so many chinese restaurants, but we are seeing more noodle bars and thai places springing up now.

You mention Mexican, we have a couple of Tes-mex places which are very samey. I don't think they are authentic at all. Just fahitas with meat or veg, and rice with beans. They have taken off the menu all the more edgy stuff I liked. What do you have when you go mexican?

I know what you mean about being ripped off, small 50cl bottles of water or juice are more than 4 times the price in a cafe or kiosk as a full litre from a supermarket. We buy small bottles from supermarkets now, I am actually anjoying being frugal, its a good discipline for me!

Are you knowledgeable about oriental veggies? I tried pak choi in our soup noodles and realised I had been having them for yonks in restaurants without ever realising. They also have that loofah vegetable which looks like a cucumber, they are big though!

I will have to google some of the names and make something really different. Its adventurous for us anyway! I have met people who think we are adventurous for eating courgettes and fresh ginger! The British can be very unadventurous at times!

Oh dear...

"We don't have much of that, there is a lebanese chain I have been hearing good things about, apparently they are good as well."

That second 'good' should have been cheap. In my defence I am bunged up and very wobbly and cannot hear or see very well at present. I am steaming 3 times a day to decongest, I hope it starts working soon.

Hiya both!

Yes, the eating out/getting takeaways thing occurred to me as well & i imagined (as with Kaz) that it must be loads cheaper over there. It's a real pain here 'cos it's a tourist place, & every day i have to walk past loads of lovely terraces full of people eating wonderful French food, but no way on earth can i indulge in that unless someone treats me...unlikely since most of my mates are also on benefits!

When i lived in Pakistan, it was wonderful food wise, mind you, i did have two restaurants of my own!!!

Middle east was good too, brilliant cheap huge flat bread & hummus, tabbouleh, baba ghanoush etc.

Back in Birmingham i lived right in the "balti belt" ie all the great Indian/Pakistani curry houses, wonderful meal for about a quid.

They have a couple of Indian restos here, i ate in one of them once, never again, NO WAY am i paying about 8$ for a tiny flavourless samosa; i can make brilliant onion bhajias myself, enough to feed 6 people, for about 2$!

zdt

I never knew you lived in Pakistan Terri, did you have two restaurants yourself, or where they ones you frequented a lot?

I lived in Pakistan for two years. Initially i set up a delicatessen & health food department in the newly built largest department store there. (PACE, i can probably find a link somewhere) then later branched out & started a restaurant of my own selling healthy type food in a gym. then got asked to set up another one in a hospital.

Very hard work, but it was going well, but then...the government changed overnight & the first thing the new lot did was say "OUT with all foreigners!" so we had to leave with 24hrs notice, not allowed to take our money out; we had 10$ & a one way ticket to Athens, had to abandon everything, includings , clothes, thousands of Cd's, the lot. All we could take was a guitar & suitcase. We ended up busking on a Greek island & literally some days we starved; i remember one day we worked out we had just enough for a roll of bread *but* the calories expended in going & getting it would negate the energy got from eating it!

Luckily, the locals were lovely & used to give us free food when we hadn't made enough to exist 'cos it was raining or whatever.

I went down to 37kg & my hip bones stuck out so much i got bruises if i turned over in bed. Never forgot what it's like to be really really hungry.

zdt

link to PACE, doesn't tell you much though. I wonder if my restos are still going? Taken over by the...;no, i am not going into all that, i will just get & there's no point.

http://www.worldcall.com.pk/?ContentId=19

zdt

Link to Lahore, the town in Pakistan i lived in, fascinating place.

http://www.answers.com/topic/lahore

zdt

PC, please believe me when i say i am not being "funny"; but just got a forwarded email from you with loads of names & attachments; i have deleted it without looking at it.

i am very paranoid about viruses & anything that may generate spam, so unless i am told in advance to expect stuff like this, i err on the side of caution. No offence, it's just me, sorry! It the pics or whatever are funny or , please let me know & we can work out a way of me seeing them safely...my beast has a fit if big picture files come in, poor baby!

zdt*off to buy cat food & cigs, having raided the shrapnel box for pennies!*

Oooh! Monkey business with the site 2day? Where's my last posting gone?

Anyway - to summarise:

1) I find US (and European) restaurant prices staggeringly inexpensive compared to the UK

2) Chimay: Are you drinking Rouge, Bleu or Blanc, PC (in ascending order of alcoholic strength. I'm always amused that these Belgian suicide beers are brewed by Trappist monks. If that's what they drink, no wonder they can't talk!

3) You do realise that catnip is a feline aphrodisiac, don't you? It gives cats a permanent horn. Imagine having amyl nitrate shoved under your nose day and night!

4) Art! Ah, I could witter on for hours...The Wilton Diptych...the ukiyo-e...Henri Fantin Latour's flower paintings...Edwin Burra...Orthodox iconography...etcetcetc. Curiously, on R4 this am, the normally risable Jack Vettriano's choice was a Francis Bacon Triptych. Who'd'a thunk it?

5) This from the FFF: http://www.400monkeys.com/God/ I must remember to repeat it in Atheist Fundamentalism!

6) Did you hear the news last night about Korean scientists cloning a dog for the first time? Presumably it tastes just the same as all the other ones...

Terri, you have never mentioned any of that before. What with similar events in Kuwait (I think it was), you have had it very rough indeed.

You certainly had an interesting life though, even if it was perhaps too interesting at times. Very very sad about the dogs though.

On a lighter note, Chimay Rouge yumm.

It's Chimay Rouge I've got. Haven't had any Chimay in ages- it's usually about $8 a pint in the bars.

I dunno how expensive most restaurants are in England and/or France. When I visited England, I found the places I went were dirt cheap, but that was in Ipswich. London was about comparable.

Paris, on the other hand, seemed a bit pricey, much like eating downtown here. I don't do that terribly often. And again, unlike you two ladies, I also work, so I can pick up the check sometimes. Like last night. Dinner was $41.09 for two entrees and two sodas, no alcohol, appetizers or dessert. Saturday evening we went out for pasta at a cheapish Italian place I like, it was $56 for two entrees, with a glass of wine for me, a cup of soup for K, and we split a tiramisu.

I forgot what else I wanted to write. I'm at work, an hour and a half left to go, and I'm dead tired. I keep blanking out and forgetting stuff.

Oh, and re: the catnip- Herman's been fixed, so no worries in that department. We wouldn't inflict His Wobbliness on any female felines. Even if he could figure out what to do with them, he'd just fall off halfway through.

He does seem pretty pleased with it, though!

And since I've been on and on about how much better the work situation is now, can I grumble about one little thing? I'm kinda bummed because K and I were hoping to go visit his sister, brother-in-law, little niece, and brand-new baby nephew (we haven't even met him yet, he was just born in January) at their new (temporary) home in Brazil, and I can't ask for time off while I'm in this contract position. I've never been to Brazil, it would have been .