Éclair called me to go for lunch with him a few weeks ago, at work, again and on the way he said he wanted to have Egg. We went to a local restaurant and he ordered a couple of Eggs, Toast and Hash Brown. I ordered the similar dish. Nothing more. Not even a beverage. Since he had paid all the time we had lunch together, I decided to pay this time, despite the fact that he had told me that he would have put it on the company's tab.
You would not imagine to have a big bill for a couple of Toasts, two couples of Eggs, a handful of scorched(!) Potato cubes and some garnish. Would you? You should! It cost me exactly $51.89!! It is very easy to calculate how much such meal cost the restaurant and then add the other cost:
1) Two Eggs. I think you can buy a dozens of Eggs for as low as $4.5 these days and I'm sure that restaurants have access to bulk food and wholesale. So, the cost of the eggs would not be more than $1, at the most!
2) Toast. Cheap sliced Bread of different kind is available in the country which is amongst the 10 biggest producers of Wheat. I do not buy anything baked, at all, because of all the disgusting shit that the bakeries of the major supermarket add to the ingredients to increase the shelf-life, not to mention the fact that most of the bread out there is made of White Flour and is bad for the digestion system and generally, health. So I don't know how much a bag of sliced bread is these days but I think they can buy a cheap one as low as $3. Considering a bag of sliced bread could contain as many as 10 sliced, the cost of this part of the dish would not be more than $1, maximum, again.
3) Hash Brown. I think restaurants buy frozen bulk Hash Brown and dip fry them in 1-week old oil or something like that. No one in any restaurant sits to peel and cut potatoes! Everything is done by machines. It is not easy to calculate the cost of this item but looking at the pile of Potatoes in the above picture, I'd say it's a large potato, probably a quarter pound and shall cost something around ¢50 and now because it was partially ready, before it entered the restaurant, I would give the same value to it and will say the Hash Brown cost $1, as well!
4) There's nothing more in that plate rather than some garnish. The whole meal must not have taken more than 15 minutes to make, including plating. Do you want me to calculate the remaining of the cost, now?!
I know no one thinks about these details but I know that eating out has become difficult for people, particularly Canadians because they barely cook at home. Perhaps this has changed now after two years that inflation has been killing everyone! I wonder what the reaction of the restaurant would be, If I send this to them! Charging $25 for a $5 meal! I will never, ever go to that place and similar ones!
(Photo: My expensive meal at a local Alberta restaurant which cost me $25!)
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