An unfair fight
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The few times I’ve eaten at the restaurant since the beginning of the Fall has left me disappointed. Quality has gone down noticeably. It’s not a recent phenomenon for the food industry to cut down on quality to increase profits, but the changes are much more detrimental than before.
The pandemic has been hard on restaurant owners who were already in an extremely difficult line of business. Having studied professional cooking after highschool, I know that most restaurants that open don’t make it passed two year, and rarely will a restaurant stay open for more than a decade. Those who make it are few and far between, and even then, they are never protected from a sudden change of fortune.
Already plagued with unforgiving circumstances, our favourite joints are fighting harder than ever to stay at flow. I totally understand the tough choices restaurant owners need to make, though what I’m saddened by is that they are left with almost no other choice but to serve harmful foods to their clients. The harm I’m talking about is not about food poisoning risk, but rather the heavily processed nature of the ingredients, and the complete disaperance of vegetables except flaccid pale lettuce.
What I get in my plate doesn’t taste, doesn’t feel, and doesn’t sit in my metabolism like actual food. It’s always been hard to find restaurants that serve veggies, and the situation was improving before the pandemic, but unfortunately the regression is even worst than before. That’s one of the issues having me back away from dinning out, the other things is how meat isn’t meat anymore. What ever lands on my tongue is filled with preserving salts, and tanderrizing enzymes. Even frozen French fries have been switched to the lowest garde possible which gives me the feeling of chewing on soggy cardboard sticks.
This situation motivates me to continue cooking my own meals, but I fear for the well-being of those who don’t understand nutrition as well as I do. Before our economy got hit by COVID, positive changes were taking place in the restaurant world. More places started offering decent vegetables side dishes, concerns to serve meat from animals that were decently fed, and treated was growing, and balancing the plates to reduce the overload of starchy foods was becoming mainstream. My optimism kept rising, and I could foresee a future where eat at home or going out to eat could be equally healthy. Sadly, the pandemic had other plans.
I know this is only one problem among many other pressing problems. It shows me that the inflation from our economical misfortunes of the passed two years is gaining ground. The emergency aid for business owners has run out. The more vulnerable establishments may not survive this coming Winter now that new variants are on the rise. Ultimately, the consumer will pay the price; figuratively, ans literally.
I’m expecting my grocery cost to increase in the months to come. Well, it always does though it might be a bit more abrupt. Becoming a full time student, I expected not to eat out very often — now it might equate to not at all. This realization isn’t threatening an essential need when it comes to dinning at the restaurant, but it points towards overall financial restrictions. Not only for me, but for everyone. Staying connected to help one another will be necessary.
