Ordering takeout

[wildrice]

I feel like I read somewhere that the virus is not being transmitted via food. Has anyone else read this and have more information? I know it can live on surfaces but I feel like that's easier to avoid if you're careful about transfer and handwashing.

What are your plans for this? We can definitely live without restaurant food and usually only eat it 1-2 times a week anyway. But while we're sitting at home getting full paychecks, I feel like it would be nice to support some local businesses. Honestly it would also be a nice treat to look forward to. 

Also I broke our stove yesterday (just the glass cooktop) and I'm not sure how soon we can fix it. Hopefully I'll know that later this morning. But I might get tired of only eating things that can be made in the oven or instant pot. I had planned on a lot of pasta in the next few weeks but can't boil water currently. So...takeout sounds nice.

[breezy8407]

I can't speak for this one, but as an emetophobe, I have a risk/reward relationship with going out to eat/takeout due to my fear of norovrius. That is what happened to Chipotle a few years back when they had all the closures due to food poisoning.

In the case of most bacteria and viruses, they can't withstand heat at a certain point. But, if someone is contagious and handles the packaging or food after its cooked, I have to imagine its the same as any high touch area that we are avoiding like door handles. My brain runs through some impossible scenarios, but that's the OCD/anxiety I have over my fear which has been going on for years.

Admittedly, I am on the extreme end of the spectrum on this!

[tiki]

We are ordering takeout more frequently than before. It lets us save our small supply of non-perishable food, and helps provide income to local restaurants (which are used to operating under stricter health codes than a home kitchen and have been closed by law here except for delivery or takeout).

[bears]

Mar 17, 2020 7:17:33 GMT -5 wildrice said:

I had planned on a lot of pasta in the next few weeks but can't boil water currently. So...takeout sounds nice.

Couldn't you make pasta in the instant pot using the saute function?

[tamarindy]

The virus is not transmitted through food. It would seem to me that I have more risk associated with a grocery store visit than with ordering takeout while protecting myself with hygiene measures. Restaurants need us to survive at all at this point. The major grocers will make it, chains will survive, but I feel like it is my duty to order and overtip in these times.

[mrssandro]

We will order take out more frequently. I am not really concerned with the germ part as long as before we sit down to eat we wash our hands. I like to think that most restaurants are trying not to lose local business and they too are taken precautions. Could I be wrong maybe. But I am going to be optimistic when it comes to this.

[wildrice]

Mar 17, 2020 7:49:29 GMT -5 bears said:

Mar 17, 2020 7:17:33 GMT -5 wildrice said:

I had planned on a lot of pasta in the next few weeks but can't boil water currently. So...takeout sounds nice.

Couldn't you make pasta in the instant pot using the saute function?

I don't know - have you done this? Does the water actually come to a boil? I was afraid it wouldn't, but I could be wrong.

[RitzyHeifer]

Mar 17, 2020 7:56:58 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Mar 17, 2020 7:49:29 GMT -5 bears said:

Couldn't you make pasta in the instant pot using the saute function?

I don't know - have you done this? Does the water actually come to a boil? I was afraid it wouldn't, but I could be wrong.

I’ve done pasta in the instant pot, not with the sauté function but recipes that do sauce and pasta together. Comes out just fine!

[bears]

Mar 17, 2020 7:56:58 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Mar 17, 2020 7:49:29 GMT -5 bears said:

Couldn't you make pasta in the instant pot using the saute function?

I don't know - have you done this? Does the water actually come to a boil? I was afraid it wouldn't, but I could be wrong.

I've never made pasta, but it definitely boils. I see no reason why you couldn't make pasta.

tidbits-marci.com/perfect-pressure-cooker-pasta/

[eddy]

We plan to order from a couple places this weekend that we trust. I want to make sure I am still giving money to our beloved businesses. They have created protocols that I am comfortable with at this time.

[ohgillian]

No. We're not eating food out at all, including takeout.

[wambam]

Mar 17, 2020 7:40:29 GMT -5 breezy8407 said:

I can't speak for this one, but as an emetophobe, I have a risk/reward relationship with going out to eat/takeout due to my fear of norovrius. That is what happened to Chipotle a few years back when they had all the closures due to food poisoning.

In the case of most bacteria and viruses, they can't withstand heat at a certain point. But, if someone is contagious and handles the packaging or food after its cooked, I have to imagine its the same as any high touch area that we are avoiding like door handles. My brain runs through some impossible scenarios, but that's the OCD/anxiety I have over my fear which has been going on for years.

Admittedly, I am on the extreme end of the spectrum on this!

All of this. I also have emetophobia and I feel like I’m very knowledgeable about this stuff because of it. I preach the good news of “Lysol doesn’t kill noro” all winter long.

[Pom]

High risk people in my household so no. As for groceries, we are only doing on-line ordering, pick up now. Rubber gloves on, distance from delivery person, unload items from car into boxes, wipe down outsides of containers, store items. Boxes back to garage. Anything that comes via shipping stays in the garage 3 days.

If my family wasn't so high risk, we may feel differently.

[moreace01]

A number of restaurants in our area are switching their model and offering take and bake foods - which is awesome. I'm also going to try and order takeout more than usual (ok, I order takeout a LOT anyway but now will make more of an effort to do so).

And possibly order gift cards to support local business. I'm really worried about them cause I haven't really seen anything about economic packages yet to help.

The bigger delivery companies (Grubhub, etc) are offering contactless delivery right now as well (meaning, the driver calls and leaves the food on your porch).

[breezy8407]

Mar 17, 2020 8:12:33 GMT -5 wambam said:

Mar 17, 2020 7:40:29 GMT -5 breezy8407 said:

I can't speak for this one, but as an emetophobe, I have a risk/reward relationship with going out to eat/takeout due to my fear of norovrius. That is what happened to Chipotle a few years back when they had all the closures due to food poisoning.

In the case of most bacteria and viruses, they can't withstand heat at a certain point. But, if someone is contagious and handles the packaging or food after its cooked, I have to imagine its the same as any high touch area that we are avoiding like door handles. My brain runs through some impossible scenarios, but that's the OCD/anxiety I have over my fear which has been going on for years.

Admittedly, I am on the extreme end of the spectrum on this!

All of this. I also have emetophobia and I feel like I’m very knowledgeable about this stuff because of it. I preach the good news of “Lysol doesn’t kill noro” all winter long.

Ha. I am like the Debbie Downer of cleaning supplies, too. *virtual fist bump*

[TR]

Mar 17, 2020 8:08:08 GMT -5 ohgillian said:

No. We're not eating food out at all, including takeout.

lol I read this as "we're not eating food at all" and I was like, "Well, that's a little extreme" 

[notsopicky]

Mar 17, 2020 8:48:23 GMT -5 TR said:

Mar 17, 2020 8:08:08 GMT -5 ohgillian said:

No. We're not eating food out at all, including takeout.

lol I read this as "we're not eating food at all" and I was like, "Well, that's a little extreme" 

Saaaaame. Virtual elbow-bump, TR. 

[ohgillian]

Mar 17, 2020 8:48:23 GMT -5 TR said:

Mar 17, 2020 8:08:08 GMT -5 ohgillian said:

No. We're not eating food out at all, including takeout.

lol I read this as "we're not eating food at all" and I was like, "Well, that's a little extreme" 

LOL! In retrospect, maybe I did word it a little weirdly. 

[Velar Fricative]

We haven't yet but plan to order food from restaurants occasionally; several local places have confirmed they're prepared for orders and are taking their own precautionary measures with their staff, spaces and items.

[cvillern]

A lot of our favorite restaurants are offering curbside pick up and we will utilize that a few times a week. I am going to get sick of the food we are making, but mostly I want to support our local restaurants.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Our favorite pizza place is doing curbside pickup. We plan to do that at least once a week.

One of my friends from college is a chef and he's been begging people on Facebook to order takeout. It honestly wasn't something I considered before he started posting about it but I want my favorite places to survive this so we're definitely going to do it.

[lilac05]

H and I have gone back and forth a million times over this. We’ve gotten takeout once from our favorite burger place, and I think we will continue unless I read something that suggests it’s unsafe or not recommended. We are low risk, more or less socially isolated, and we want to do our part to continue to support our favorite places. We’ve gotten to know them by name...and my heart breaks for the struggles that they are facing. The last time we ate in the restaurant (when things were really crazy elsewhere, but no known cases in our county), they were so, so appreciative. I, not sure when I last felt so appreciated as a customer. That memory will stick with me.

[pugz]

We still are a couple of times a week but that may change when it becomes more widespread in our area (testing kits need to become more available for that to happen).

I also have a couple of friends that work in the service industry. I just venmo'd one $50 the the other day and told her to pretend I came to lunch and left a huge tip. She is single and lives with roommates that are musicians. None of them have income now.

[mbcdefg]

We’re going to wait at least a week to see how things progress before we consider takeout. We have at least one positive case here in town.

If we decide not to do takeout, we’ll try to buy gift cards to support our favorite places in the meantime.

[VillainV]

We don’t have many places in our area that offer delivery or takeout, but we will probably try to do it at least once a week as long as places remain open.

[winecat]

VillainV- They might have changed their model to do pickup/delivery. Check in with them if you haven't.

If you can avoid ordering via a 3rd party (like GrubHub, UberEats, etc.) please do so. They take a hefty commission. I'd read that they were "waiving" it but the fine print is actually just a postponement. The restaurants will have to pay it later.

[dirtyred]

I read on article that said the virus cannot be transmitted by food. Even if the food was contaminated, stomach acid and digestive enzymes would kill it.

[fuckyourcouch]

Can someone tell me if it’s bad to order takeout because I’m making people put themselves at risk, or good because I’m keeping them in business? I probably won’t anyway because I’m high risk so I’ve been self isolating, but I was arguing this with myself earlier.

[brooklyn]

We have local business owners begging us to order from their family owned restaurants so that they don’t have to close. I just ordered $60 worth of pierogi, potato pancakes and soup to store.

I plan on ordering in Irish stew tonight.

[One Girl In All The World]

We have a local place we get food from frequently that is now doing curbside pick up, as well as selling beer and wine and such. I expect we will get things from there to a) support then and b) preserve what we have on hand.