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by thi2 22 days ago
Germans tend to differentiate between getting takeout (something like kebab/pizza/asia box to go or delivered home) or eating out (going to a restaurant and eating there).

But I'd argue for most people getting into the car to get takeout is not very common.

2 comments

Yeah and honestly, it shouldn't be. It was really strange going back to the U.S and having family members suggest we drive to get ice cream. It's incredibly wasteful.

That being said, I've noticed that these takeout meals tend to be pretty low quality and unhealthy and I miss this middle ground that I could lean on once or twice a week.

> Yeah and honestly, it shouldn't be. It was really strange going back to the U.S and having family members suggest we drive to get ice cream. It's incredibly wasteful.

Side remark: In Germany "drive" (in this case: to get ice cream) can often also mean "go by bike" (in Germany, the word "fahren" is both used for cars (Auto fahren) and bicycles (Rad/Fahrrad fahren), leaving it open which vehicle is meant, because both choices are plausible, even though I would claim that for getting ice cream, a bicycle is the more natural choice.

Thinking about my Swiss village, the only takeout worth thinking about is the delicious kebab downhill which doesn't do delivery. Otherwise it would be all eat.ch and similar. Why should I drive when I can get it delivered for no extra cost? I guess it's just a cultural difference, not a drawback (in either direction)
Maybe you need to live somewhere with more options to compare?

As one example, Tokyo has 160,000 restaurants. NYC has 21k. Divided by population that's 5x more in Tokyo.

Other example would be most major Asian cities. Taipei for example has 20-30 night markets each with 50 to 500 stalls. Kuala Lumpur has mamak food stand areas all over, often open till 4am.

Cool numbers, so are you making an argument for eating out, for getting take out, or for ordering delivery? Or for moving to Asia? Sorry I don't know what to do with all that information.
The point is you don’t have the experience of large numbers of options to know that you’re giving up.

You’re comparing few choices outside to few choices at home. others are comparing many choices outside to few choices at home.

I buy takeout instead of delivery just to get out of the house.