Day 17: Eat at Home or Eat Out?

Photo by Hong Borrowed from the Cafe 99 Review on Urban Spoon

We are going out to dinner tonight with Bill and Vicci at Cafe 99, a new local Chinese restaurant that was pretty tasty the first time we tried it.  We have been going out to eat a lot this month.  We seem to do this in clumps - eat at home almost all of the time and then we will have a month of eating out several times a week.  I think our current burst of restaurant visiting is a reaction to the cold weather we've been having.  We need to get out of the house but a nice walk in the neighborhood is just plain cold!

Our increase in eating out is not following national trends, however.  A new report by USDA's Economic Research Service says that Americans are eating out less, eating fewer total calories and eating better at home -  and by eating more at home, people are having more family dinners.  That's got to be a good thing for health and family ties. (Summary article from NBC News)  It's hard to believe though.  One of our recent restaurant visits was to Crave downtown Minneapolis on the last Holidazzle Parade weekend.  It was expensive and it was packed!  Downtown was packed.  I had trouble getting a 5PM dinner reservation anywhere. So even if people are eating out less, they must still be eating out a lot.

What's this got to do with global warming?  I'm not totally sure, but I do see some good signs:

• The trend to eating out less included less eating at fast food restaurants so that may mean less cups, wrappers and plastic containers to throw away (though at regular restaurants serving sizes are so big there is always the temptation to take home leftovers in those ubiquitous styrofoam  containers). 
• People who are eating at home more are not necessarily doing it to save money.  Rather they are more concerned about eating healthily.  Perhaps that means more organic products are being purchased which is good for the earth.  
• And, of course, eating at home instead of a restaurant means the car stays in the garage saving us some carbon costs.  (We will carpool tonight and we are not going far, so our outing is somewhat climate friendly.)

Though we have been eating out a lot this month, we have studiously avoided fast food and take out.  That is our little contribution towards reducing waste. You might then ask, how do we handle those big plates at restaurants.  Do we take home leftovers in styrofoam cartons?  No.  We just eat it all.