I’ve tried writing about having COVID in Thailand a million times and I recently came back to it only to discover that my most recent updates didn’t save so I’m frustrated but feel as if I should write because I haven’t written in a long time. One thing I have been thinking of lately is the cost of food which, I know, we already covered here, but, we can revisit it. Also, this is more specific to dining out and takeaway, which, as it turns out, is expensive.
There are certain places where the food is good and cheap and for the most part those are at the Hawker Centres. But going to a restaurant, even those you would assume are fairly inexpensive, are expensive. Case in point: Pizza night.
Friday nights have traditionally been a pizza and movie night with the family. After months of meticulous research, we found the pizza we like to be from Little Caesars. The same Little Caesars that offers “$5.00 Hot-n-Ready” in the United States. In Singapore, for a family of four (one of whom will only eat cheese and the other will only eat green pepper and we’ve discovered that Singapore isn’t big on custom orders so we’ve learned to overcome by ordering one cheese and one green pepper pizza and Marcus and I don’t get a choice, but I digress). The point is, a family of four, Little Caesars, two pizzas, plus cheesy bread which I now regret introducing to the girls, plus delivery costs, a tip, and I’ve spent no less than $64.00 SGD which equals $45.90 in the US and which should, in theory, get me 9 pizzas.
Another place where I spent an exorbitant amount of money, and I can only imagine the look on Marcus’s face as he reads this, was at Five Guys. The girls and I ordered from there on Mother’s Day because A. Whatever, B. I wasn’t cooking, C. Marcus had left on travel, and D. I wasn’t cooking. We got two burgers, a hotdog, two fries (should have only gotten one in retrospect not that it would have saved me much money but we didn’t come close to finishing them), and two shakes (also shouldn’t have gotten those because the girls had au pain de chocolat at breakfast but they like to take advantage of my short-term memory and I didn’t remember that until well after the fact). After all was said and done I had spent $105.29 SGD. $105.29 SGD! Now, to be honest, I haven’t eaten at a Five Guys in the U.S. in years so I don’t know what the cost is these days. And maybe, in the U.S., $75.51 USD is a reasonable price to pay though I have my doubts.
Obviously, the problem is, we’re ordering out from Western restaurants. Establishments such as Indian or Thai are comparable to what we spend in the U.S. Looking at my most recent orders from either an Indian or Thai restaurant both were about $80 SGD which is relatively comparable to the $57 USD. That said, I have yet to find an Indian or Thai restaurant that I want to order from continuously so if anyone has a lead on that I’d appreciate you letting me know!
I’m slowly learning my lessons and have recently picked back up the homemade pizza tradition we had from years ago because, in the end, I would rather spend $64 SGD at another restaurant, not Little Caesars. Also, if you noticed, my math includes a tip which some would argue that I don’t need to tip because a 10% service charge is automatically added to a restaurant bill in Singapore. However, I don’t know how that works for delivery services such as Food Panda (my favorite for obvious reasons, it’s a panda) or Grab. Anyway, it’s a habit I can’t break and I like to think maybe my food gets here just a little bit faster?
So, long, slightly rambling story, short: Some food is more expensive than others. Just be aware of that.
The Traveling Tepaskes 