Talking with people on Hive and especially with some of my Nigerian friends I can say that I'm blessed to live in Canada. While many people around the world spend a huge amount of their monthly budget on food here it is barely an afterthought.
Now I will admit that with the current rate of inflation people are thinking more and more about their food budget here in Canada also. I mean look at this piece of beef.
At over $100 it is an expensive piece of meat. However, considering that is more than some people's monthly paycheque that I've met online I still don't really see too much room to complain.
I mean 18kg bag of rice for $30 is one quarter the price of the beef and will probably feed someone for considerably longer. There are pretty much always options here in Canada.
Sometimes you have to look harder. Sometimes the kids are too fussy to eat what is out there. Sometimes there is no skill in cooking or no time to make food after a hard day work.
But the fact remains that there are almost always options here in Canada.
Expensive or Inexpensive Food?
Now I've had both expensive and cheap food.
For my son's 18th birthday we went out to an expensive Steak and Seafood restaurant. Fancy tables. Expensive price tag. Very tasty food.
Every Saturday I eat dinner at my local church where we eat in a gymnasium, the food is cooked and served by volunteers, and the meal is a lot less exquisite.
But when I was in the Philippines on vacation things were very very different. Often my meals were very simple. Some fruit, some bread, and something to drink.
(fruit stand)
(bakery)
(drinks)
From the bakery which sold me a small meat pastry for less than 0.20HBD to the seafood platter which was well over $100HBD I can say that I've tried food from cheap to expensive and everything in between.
Want to know a secret
More expensive food doesn't always mean better tasting food!
A tale of two meals
Recently I went on a date night with my wife and we had two dinners in one night. One was an expensive butter chicken and the other was a much less expensive Pho Noodle dish. In addition to that I had an even less expensive sandwich at Subway earlier in the day.
Here are the three dishes:
Expensive Food
Cheaper Food
Even cheaper food.
Which food tasted the best?
The Sandwich. It looks terrible but was very tasty.
Which meal was the most memorable?
The Soup. It was a memorable dinner with my wife on a date.
Which meal was the least enjoyable?
The butter chicken. It was not bad at all but it was more fancy than filling. Plus we kept thinking how expensive it was! Why spend so much on so little??
The BEST Food
The best food of course is the food that is shared with those you love.
I can guarantee that it is the time spent with friends and family that make a meal memorable. I mean sure there are food dishes that look pretty like this platter the hotel gave my wife for her birthday.
or this fancy fruit and cheese platter from the next morning.
But its the people you share the food with that make good food truly memorable.
But not everyone has enough
However, there is the term I brought up originally called "Food Insecurity". Which is just fancy rich people way of saying "People are starving!" I guess it makes people uncomfortable to say people are going hungry and not having enough so they come up with a vague term "Food insecurity" to let them sleep better at night.
And not getting enough to eat is certainly a problem for people all over the world!
However, if I think back to my trip to the Philippines there are a lot of people are are heavy because they are overfed, however, at the same time they are malnourished! Weird isn't it. Poorly nourished while overfed! But how does that happen?
Packaged food and cheap carbs!
While in the Philippines there are relatively inexpensive fruits but really cheap bakery goods (see the image above), cheap softdrinks, and cheap candies. In short it is easy to get 2000 calories with not very much money. However, those 2000 calories won't make you full, won't properly nourish you and will likely lead you to want to eat more than you should.
Meat is very expensive. I could eat for a week on bakery goods versus one day with meat for the very same amount of money. Which is why one thing in the Philippines made me very unhappy.
I COULD NOT find beans anywhere in the city I was in.
I mean beans are awesome. They are an excellent source of protein. They are inexpensive. They don't require refrigeration. They are cheap and if cooked properly they are very tasty. However, I spend an entire day with my family looking for them and they just were not available.
That annoyed me no end. If I am every going to retire in the Philippines I want to make sure I have an adequate supply of high quality food for myself and my family. Soy Beans so I can make soya milk. Kidney beans so I can make chilli. Green peas so I can make soup. Chickpeas so I can make hummus. In short, I want to have my favorite and nutritious food available.
Eventually I did find all those items but I had to order them from Lazada (an online shopping site). They were delivered to where I was staying for very little money. I got a months worth of beans for the same price as only a few days worth of meats.
(Yes, if you look closely you will notice that I also got some nuts and seeds as well...which are also high protein, good taste and relatively inexpensive).
My solution to high food prices
I really do enjoy some quality meats every now and then. I really do enjoy going to some all you can eat buffet on occassion.
but for the majority of time I have learned to cook with very inexpensive staple foods. Flour. Sugar. Beans. Nuts. Peas. I've also learned to dry spices, herbs, fruits and vegetables so I can purchase them when they are in season and have them through the entire year. In addition to that I've learned to pickle and can both vegetables and fruits. Salt cabbage and vegetables make KimChi. Sugar fruit, water, and time make canned fruits.
Why do I bother trying to be frugal and save money on food?
Not because I have to. I easily have enough money to feed myself. However, that may not always be the case so it is better to be prepared. Of more importance though is that I can share what I have with those around me. It is a good feeling to share with those around and not think about the price.
As I said...the difference between a good meal and average one isn't the price but the people it is shared with. I'd much rather have cheaper and more basic food to be shared with friends (or even just those in the neighborhood who are hungry) than have an exquisite meal all by myself.
I can that with absolute certainty as two years ago I was in a beautiful place called Iloilo (Philippines) all by myself. The hotel had some truly wonderful food....but eating it by myself was incredibly lonely and certainly not a happy or memorable event.
So much better to just share a humble loaf of bread with friends.
And as a side note:
If you ever look at the word "Company" it comes from the latin roots "com" together and "panis" bread. Literally having company is having someone to share bread with.
Just my thoughts for today.
Thanks for reading
....and as always I love getting comments.