Homemade Dishes vs. Restaurant Meals

 As the final Action Project for this term, and ending the school year, I've just got a few things left. To start off, let me talk about the unit, unit 3. This final unit (that I'll be covering anyways) is revolved around the idea of birth. We've studied about the green revolution and slightly discussed some  matters with GMOs, but that focus is for my other class, which I will make a separate post about. This Action Project was for us to create a food review, but not any review, one of a restaurant dish and a homemade one. More information about this will be shown below in a more in depth review. I hope you enjoy reading and try not to get too hungry.

Pannenkoeken restaurant omelette VG, 2014
*note, the home cooked omelette photo was lost but also was identical in
appearance (tomatoes mimicking the red bacon pieces and so on) *

This is a written food review about a homecooked meal, versus a dish prepared at a restaurant. The specific place I ate out is a breakfast joint called Pannenkoeken (Pan•co•ee•ken). It was on May 18th when I went to the restaurant, but since it was packed I ordered my omelette to go. On the same day later on, with the assistance of my older brother, I made another omelette at home but it didn’t feature the same ingredients.

In the comfort of my own home I began to dine on the folded, golden yellow, omelette from Pannenkoeken. There was bacon which gave out a vivid and distinct red, with a side of lightly colored hashbrowns (which, evidently, were brown). Since it was a “to go” dish, it wasn’t exactly served “hot n’ ready”. As for smell, however, you could detect a hint of melted cheese but the bacon really took over. The compact omelette will sound mushy and feel soft in your mouth as the potent bacon will dominate your -now slightly salted- taste buds, leaving the eggs to go unnoticed, but the cheese adds a small bit of sweetness. This bright omelette seems to be from fresh produce due to its similar taste when I compare it to the homemade omelette. For about $8.50 and a 30 minute wait, I received a great omelette that filled me up for a few hours.

A few hours after my restaurant meal, I started to create my next breakfast… at four o'clock in the afternoon. Using 3 eggs, to make a larger omelette to share my brother, I first whisked them. Coconut oil was added to the frying pan for some flavor and some pan-sticking resistance. As the oil settled the eggs were poured in, then during the frying some herbs were added, since we had no other ingredients. Cherry tomatoes, oregano, and paprika were the additional ingredients. As it was cooking you could hear the sizzling in the air and the omelette was steaming up. After about 25 minutes (on low heat) of cooking, it was ready to eat. I ate the light brown and vivid yellow omelette with vibrant tomato bits on top. For some odd reason, the dish smelled like chicken… perhaps it was because I was eating one of their -failed to develop- unborn children. The omelette also seemed to be smooth, yet bumpy, and while I ate it, it sounded like, well… an omelette being eaten. As for the taste, the tomatoes complimented the egg and coconut oil, making a rather sweet and possibly bitter taste. I know that all the ingredients used are already organic and healthy because that’s the only type of food my mother would ever purchase.

Out of the two delicious omelettes, I think I’d have to say I enjoyed the one from the Pannenkoeken diner more. This is probably because of the bacon and also the fact that there was just more to eat, with the hashbrowns and a side of toast. The homemade omelette was great, especially considering the lack of ingredients available, however if you pin anything up against my favorite food, bacon, then I’ll probably favor that one. As they’re both omelettes, both had the same base ingredients; well whisked eggs. I think I might recommend the homemade one, with its variety of herbs, it can be healthier. However if you’re a fan of meat on your omelette, (including bacon) then you probably already know what you want.

All things reviewed aside, in this unit (unit 3), we read an excerpt from Pollan’s “In Defense of Food” which mentions 5 food transformations in our modern diet. These 5 include: Whole Food to Refined Food, Complex to Simple Diets, Quantity over Quality, Grains and Seed over Leaves, Never Straight from Nature (or Food Culture to Food Science). These were the changes that happened, but I don’t expect you to know them by heart, so I shall explain them to you. We went from eating whole grains to refined grains, which have less nutrition, even if they are easier to digest. Then there’s the complex diet that we used to have, to a simple one today that consists of less than 10% of what we used to eat. After that, the modern diet will have quantity over quality, where we eat more food now just to gain the nutritional quality of one “side-dish” back then. And nowadays, humans will consume more grains and seeds than leafs, which actually isn’t too great of a change, they’re just easier to harvest. Finally, nothing comes straight from nature, from a food culture, to a food science, a majority of things we eat have already been modified by scientists today. Coming from this angle of thinking, I actually (surprisingly) haven’t found a connection between any of these. My mother is a good researcher and a naturalist, so when it comes to healthy food, she will dig down deep to find the buried treasure. Even the eggs were as healthy as can be, with pasture-raised, which means that each chicken had free open space (while still being contained) and actually got to see the sun. These chickens were also humanely harvested, so their death was quick and unnoticed, so they didn’t have to suffer any pain. All this is accomplished while being organic, no growth hormones, natural food, and not genetically modified at all. Granted I may not have all the information about the Pannenkoeken omelette, but seeing as how it tasted similar to my homemade one, I can come to a safe conclusion that it’s not processed, or artificial. That same organic taste and essence is near impossible to replicate, unless you actually have that natural or organic ingredient. So overall, both are great organic omelettes that I’ve enjoyed.