5 ms·

Kitchens. Away on business for a few days, would you prefer to cook healthy meals in your own kitchen and relax, or do you want yet another calorific restauran

Kitchens. Away on business for a few days, would you prefer to cook healthy meals in your own kitchen and relax, or do you want yet another calorific restaurant meal?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Kiro 5y ago
For me, cooking is the opposite of relaxing. Being away is the perfect excuse for not having to cook at all.
- mrgill 5y ago
  Always ordering take away can get very expensive, very fast. And very unhealthy unless, again, you're willing to spend good money. Cooking yourself is way cheaper. Sure, if money is not a problem, have someone else cook so you spend more time on improving the product/relaxing.
  - maccard 5y ago
    For a 3 day trip, a company can afford a take out for the participants. spoken as someone who enjoys cooking tremendously
  - void_mint 5y ago
    But...we're explicitly talking about a company sponsored trip. The company is obviously paying for meals.
cblconfederate 5y ago
i ll take the latter in small quantities thanks
fooker 5y ago
Definitely yet another delicious meal from a local restaurant, hopefully a cuisine I have never tried or at least cooked.
- corty 5y ago
  It really depends on where you end up and what the local culture is around food, cooking and restaurants. I've been to places where restaurants are stellar, but I've also been where you would only get dogfood. Where, when asking locals about eating out, you get an answer like "only tourists are that stupid".
  - Cederfjard 5y ago
    Out of curiosity, mind sharing where you were told the latter? I know what you’re talking about, but I’ve never been anywhere where it’s quite like that.
    - corty 5y ago
      Polish coast, near Gdansk.
      - fooker 5y ago
        There seems to be plenty of restaurants there, from what it looks like after a quick search.
dagw 5y ago
Restaurant meals! No question. I cook 90+% of our dinners at home as it is. Getting a chance to go to a restaurant is easily the best part of business trips.
Dyac 5y ago
I was shocked when I went to the US that motels don't tend to have kitchens. In Australia and NZ, motels have at least a small kitchen area, if not a whole kitchen-diner room, and are like a small apartment really.
- dagw 5y ago
  In Australia and NZ, motels have at least a small kitchen area I drove from Adelaide to Sydney via the Great Ocean Road a couple of years ago and basically none of the motels/hotels we stayed at had kitchen areas.
pfranz 5y ago
There are a lot of hotels that offer kitchenettes. Generally, they're long term rentals, but you can get them for a few nights, as well. I'm guessing the large common spaces and more laid back environment are a big draws as well. I just did an AirBnb with a group of families for just under a week. We almost exclusively at in and the logistics around food was a lot of work. It was probably exacerbated because it was about 20 people with a huge range of ages (many with particular preferences), but not many dietary restrictions. We were concerned upfront about extra food or waste at the end of the trip. Every lunch was "leftovers or sandwiches," the last few meals were also leftovers, and we still threw out an embarrassing amount of food (and had at least 2-3 trips to the grocery store to restock). Want ketchup, salad dressing, or need paprika? Odds are you'll buy a bottle and toss the rest. Decide you want to eat out? You probably have a meals worth of food at home you won't need. We also spent time upfront figuring out if the kitchen had what we needed; like a toaster or a grill. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of cooking at these places. Their knives often suck, the layout isn't usually great, and they'll have cheap cutting boards or the dishwasher won't work. If it works for people, great. I imagine what works in practice is a few small things to cook at the AirBnB (like eggs or sandwiches) and mix that with takeout. And be ok with the waste and cost (traveling is usually pretty wasteful, anyway).
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
pj_mukh 5y ago
Also living/gathering room. Some hotels with home suite style rooms have this I guess.
weird-eye-issue 5y ago
Last thing I'm going to be doing is cooking while I'm on a business trip. I don't have the time or desire to do that. But kudos to people who find the time and energy to cook their own healthy meals
fudged71 5y ago
Yeah I completely agree with this, as long as one or two people in your group are good cooks. It's low stress, great conversation starter, gets the crowd together, and in some cases an opportunity for teamwork.

Kitchens. Away on business for a few days, would you prefer to cook healthy meals in your own kitchen and relax, or do you want yet another calorific restaurant meal?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Kiro 5y ago

For me, cooking is the opposite of relaxing. Being away is the perfect excuse for not having to cook at all.

mrgill 5y ago
Always ordering take away can get very expensive, very fast. And very unhealthy unless, again, you're willing to spend good money. Cooking yourself is way cheaper. Sure, if money is not a problem, have someone else cook so you spend more time on improving the product/relaxing.
- maccard 5y ago
  For a 3 day trip, a company can afford a take out for the participants. spoken as someone who enjoys cooking tremendously
- void_mint 5y ago
  But...we're explicitly talking about a company sponsored trip. The company is obviously paying for meals.

cblconfederate 5y ago

i ll take the latter in small quantities thanks

fooker 5y ago

Definitely yet another delicious meal from a local restaurant, hopefully a cuisine I have never tried or at least cooked.

corty 5y ago
It really depends on where you end up and what the local culture is around food, cooking and restaurants. I've been to places where restaurants are stellar, but I've also been where you would only get dogfood. Where, when asking locals about eating out, you get an answer like "only tourists are that stupid".
- Cederfjard 5y ago
  Out of curiosity, mind sharing where you were told the latter? I know what you’re talking about, but I’ve never been anywhere where it’s quite like that.
  - corty 5y ago
    Polish coast, near Gdansk.
    - fooker 5y ago
      There seems to be plenty of restaurants there, from what it looks like after a quick search.

dagw 5y ago

Restaurant meals! No question. I cook 90+% of our dinners at home as it is. Getting a chance to go to a restaurant is easily the best part of business trips.

Dyac 5y ago

I was shocked when I went to the US that motels don't tend to have kitchens. In Australia and NZ, motels have at least a small kitchen area, if not a whole kitchen-diner room, and are like a small apartment really.

dagw 5y ago
In Australia and NZ, motels have at least a small kitchen area I drove from Adelaide to Sydney via the Great Ocean Road a couple of years ago and basically none of the motels/hotels we stayed at had kitchen areas.

pfranz 5y ago

There are a lot of hotels that offer kitchenettes. Generally, they're long term rentals, but you can get them for a few nights, as well. I'm guessing the large common spaces and more laid back environment are a big draws as well. I just did an AirBnb with a group of families for just under a week. We almost exclusively at in and the logistics around food was a lot of work. It was probably exacerbated because it was about 20 people with a huge range of ages (many with particular preferences), but not many dietary restrictions. We were concerned upfront about extra food or waste at the end of the trip. Every lunch was "leftovers or sandwiches," the last few meals were also leftovers, and we still threw out an embarrassing amount of food (and had at least 2-3 trips to the grocery store to restock). Want ketchup, salad dressing, or need paprika? Odds are you'll buy a bottle and toss the rest. Decide you want to eat out? You probably have a meals worth of food at home you won't need. We also spent time upfront figuring out if the kitchen had what we needed; like a toaster or a grill. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of cooking at these places. Their knives often suck, the layout isn't usually great, and they'll have cheap cutting boards or the dishwasher won't work. If it works for people, great. I imagine what works in practice is a few small things to cook at the AirBnB (like eggs or sandwiches) and mix that with takeout. And be ok with the waste and cost (traveling is usually pretty wasteful, anyway).

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

pj_mukh 5y ago

Also living/gathering room. Some hotels with home suite style rooms have this I guess.

weird-eye-issue 5y ago

Last thing I'm going to be doing is cooking while I'm on a business trip. I don't have the time or desire to do that. But kudos to people who find the time and energy to cook their own healthy meals

fudged71 5y ago

Yeah I completely agree with this, as long as one or two people in your group are good cooks. It's low stress, great conversation starter, gets the crowd together, and in some cases an opportunity for teamwork.