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Comment by apexalpha | Hacker News Reader

In the US*. In Europe, cooking is still by far how most people eat. It's one of those things where our cultures drifted apart over the years.

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I think "eating out is the default" was hyperbole? If it's meant literally, it seems simply untrue in the US as well. I can believe that we eat out more, but most people I know eat breakfast and dinner at home and take leftovers to work for lunch. Are there statistics about this?

Remember that HN readers are demographically unrepresentative. Incomes are higher, urbanization is higher, professions are wildly skewed towards software, age is, I think, lower.

In my experience, most people eat most of their meals at home, and lunch is the most likely meal to be eaten out. But some people eat out all the time. For most of my 20s I went out for lunch every day. Now I do so once a month or so on average.

There are very few fast food chains that originate in India - people either cook at home or eat home cooked food out of roadside stalls if they don't have the time to cook. There are a very few indigenous restaurants, even fewer chains. It's simply not part of the culture, in the way that McDonalds is in the US. Only the rich and upwardly mobile go into a restaurant / fast food joint on a regular basis.

To put this in perspective, a meal at McDonalds is affordable to most, if not all Americans. But the cheapest meal at a fast food joint (outside of a roadside stall) is affordable only to a minority.

...eat home cooked food out of roadside stalls if they don't have the time to cook.

I have loved this option, when I've visited places that have it. Much better than "McDonalds", every time. Life in USA is poorer because we don't have this.

Yeah but you are rolling the dice every time you eat from those roadside stalls. Most would never even have heard of food safety inspectors

Food safety inspection is a relatively recent innovation. Somehow our ancestors survived. Diarrhea isn't fun, but one can generally avoid it by avoiding liquids that haven't been boiled. Most foodstuffs don't require near as much refrigeration as an American might imagine.

"Somehow our ancestors survived"

Well, most of them did. This is the most literal example of 'survivor bias' imaginable. Look up 'sausage disease', to just name one.

EDIT: this line of thinking is similar to people saying 'let children roam free, most abductions are done by people the victims know anyway!' or the anti-vaxxer 'why vaccinate when measles is so uncommon!'. Well yes, all of those things are the way they are exactly because of the thing those people are railing against.

I think your point only holds for abductions if you can demonstrate that there were more prior to the cultural change in attitude towards roaming. Is that demonstrable? I don't think it is. On the other hand, diseases like the measles were definitely a widespread problem before vaccinations were developed.

Sure, my ancestors survived, and so did I, every time I've eaten at such establishments. Why should I care about some hypothetical person? She can take care of herself.

Your EDIT undercuts your argument completely, because it makes clear your utter innumeracy. Abduction is not a thing that USA parents should worry about. Automobile accidents? Childhood obesity? Absolutely they should worry about those, but you don't care because automobiles and lack of physical activity are integral to your comfortable suburban lifestyle.

Yes and no, those stalls survive on repeat customers. There's a very strong incentive not to poison them.

Much of this is regulation, though some higher average wages, I suppose.

Exactly, dhaba are the definition of fast food! They aren't chain restaurants, but it seems like everyone loves them (or has an opinion) and goes to them ...

A huge percentage of Houstonians would eat out for lunch and maybe after work as well, even with a family. In a city of countless inexpensive restaurants, eating out might be the default for a lot more people here.

Perhaps it's not everywhere. I have lived in UK, California, and Netherlands and my experience comes from there.

My point still hold though. Indians still have a value oriented view to buying. Something is not bought just because you fancy it.But I think this is changing slowly. New generation is much more willing to spend for fun.

You’ve lived in the Netherlands, and you experienced people eating out there as a default?

That is entirely opposite to my experience. I’m genuinely struggling to understand how you’ve drawn that conclusion.

To be fair, going 'out' for lunch (i.e., going for a sandwich) is commom and I'd say standard in the Netherlands (in some professions). Going out for dinner not at all.

Netherlands has been all home cooked meals for me as well

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