Agree. Prices have risen, yet quality has not kept pace. <BR> <BR>Guess that's why I go to Italy once (sometimes twice) a year for an AWESOME plate of pasta. YUM-yum --- I can still remember that wonderfully flavorful pasta with cinghale sauce (wild boar) at this charming trattoria in Mazzolla (‘Trattoria Albana’). <BR> <BR>Sorry, I’ll get myself back to the Europe forum . . . . <BR>

I don't understand - who is forcing you people into these restaurants and forcing you to order $20 pasta off a menu filled with other entrees?

Gary: You just don't get it, do you? We're talking V-A-L-U-E, is that concept to difficult for you to understand? Do you think that a restaurant that charges $20 for pasta is going to have deals on the seafood and meat dishes? Go back under your rock! <BR> <BR>Or as Leone would say.....Ciao

Fed Up, you're eating in the wrong places. If you don't want to pay $20 for pasta, don't eat there. It's not rocket science, you know.

This has been a most interesting thread ... certainly makes me feel better when I opt to stay home and cook. I'm in DC too, and frankly, $100 for pasta is a bit over the top. Perhaps it's preferable to do that type of thing at home (there are literally dozens and dozens of decent pasta cookbooks, especially a neat vegetarian vesrion by a Jack Bishop, I believe). Is it possible we could now redirect this thread into pasta lovers among us offering a favorite recipe? I'd certainly give them all a try, except those obviously desigend to do me in for my rather rash observations. Ciao

Hey Fedup - you have some serious anger issues. Instead of spending so much money on restaurants, you should save up your money and go see a good shrink.

Dearest Fed Up, <BR> <BR>I'm not in the restaurant industry. In fact, I rarely eat out in nice restaurants because I don't think you get sufficient value for the money compared with what I can do at home or what I can get at the local humble restaurant. <BR> <BR>So what's the difference between us? Well, one of us gets taken for $100 for pasta, does it again and again, and then whines about it on the Internet. <BR> <BR>Curious: everyone has had a restaurant meal that wasn't worth the money. Everyone has also had a haircut/hotel/watermelon/apartment/etc that wasn't worth the money. Yes, you should alert people if you found a trendy place that wasn't good. <BR> <BR>But FedUp wasn't saying the pasta wasn't yummy. He/she just wants to complain as he/she saunters into yet another highpriced restaurant. Well, go ahead, but don't expect sympathy from me. <BR> <BR>Bye. Gotta go soak some beans for a Mexican feast tonight.

Buy a pound of good quality ground sirloin, an onion, a green pepper, a can of crushed tomatoes (the one with oregano & garlic is good), a 'knorr' beef boullion, some good quality olive oil and some cinnamon. <BR> <BR>Cut up the onion and green pepper. Brown the meat with the onion, green pepper and beef boullion, making sure the meat is completely broken up. After the meat's browned, stir in the can of tomatoes. Cover and simmer for about 25 minutes. Stir occasionally and break up any large pieces of meat you may have missed. After 25 minutes, add about 1/4 cup olive oil and about a teaspoon of cinnamon to the sauce and stir it in. Simmer sauce another 5 minutes. Serve over spaghetti with some grated locatelli romano. VOILA - a delicious variation of Greek Spaghetti.

To There No More <BR> <BR>I LOVE cornbread crumbled into buttermilk--learned it at my Alabama-born father's knee. I live in CA where people flee when I even mention it.

Fedup - Look at Gary's email address - Indiana, and who knows where x or some of the others who keep telling everyone not to eat $ 20 pasta are from. They obviously live in areas where it is possible to find a restaurant that actually serves pasta for less than $ 20 a plate and therefore can't possibly relate to the situation of those of us who would love to find such places. Believe me, if I could find good, less expensive places I would go! I think Fedup's point (you can tell me if I'm wrong here) is that it's getting harder and harder to justify the prices for dining out considering the mediocre meals that are served. Yes, there are a very few good restaurants, but by and large it is not the isolated incident where the diner feels "ripped off". I bet if I were in Indiana I'd be able to find some great food at reasonable prices - it just isn't possible everywhere.

But curious, it seems that you live in a high cost area. So do I. So what? Housing prices here have gone through the roof, and lots of other things seem to cost a lot (have you seen the prices for popcorn at the movies?) Why should restaurants in a high cost area be the only thing that is low cost?

My name is not indicative of my location. I live in New York and I don't know of many places where the cost of living is higher, but I would never pay $20 for pasta. There are plety of excellent pasta restaurants in New York that don't charge that much. Among my favorites are Grano Trattoria, I Coppi, and Piccolo Angulo. Where the hell do you live curious that you cant find a reasonably priced restaurant?

I didn't say they should be low cost. I don't expect them to be low cost. I do expect that when I pay over $ 100 for a meal that it should taste delicious and my husband should not have to come home and make a sandwich (He is thin in case your thinking he's a glutton). Apparently there are some who don't agree with me. Sorry, it's just what I expect. Some people don't expect much so I guess it doesn't bother them.

Gary, just read your reply and am writing down the names of the restaurants that are great and inexpensive. We are going to the city on Saturday (my husband commutes in everyday). Yes, he can find good inexpensive restaurants in the city too, he loves Republic in Union Square(we'll go there for lunch Sat - can't wait) Lupa, and Pizza Fresca all in that area. As he says there are a lot more choices in the city than at home - which is in Fairfield county. I keep asking for suggestions but so far no one has come up with any for me. I do admit to knowing one good reasonable place - Pasta Vera on Greenwich Avenue. But that is absolutely the only one I know of. Anyone else?

Next Time: The $20 plate of pasta is a Metaphor for all of the rip-offs. The $400 hotel room that is the size of a closet, the $2000 studio apartment in a walk-up tenament that was built at the turn of the last century and was last renovated when FDR was president, get the picture. It's not about the plate of pasta per se it is all of the egregious rip-offs we encounter every day from the $3.50 cup of coffee to the $8.00 sandwich that leaves you hungry. <BR> <BR>Curious, Ess and others seem to get it! <BR> <BR>Gary: Why would someone who lives in Manhattan use Gary Indiana as a his name. Lofty aspirations?

Well, there you have it. FedUp has finally realized that this whole "$20 for pasta argument" doesn't hold water. Even curious is making a totally different (and more valid) point -- it's tough to get a good, reasonably priced meal in her high-priced neighborhood. So now he's whining about everything else in the world that is more than he wants to pay. Yawn. <BR> <BR>Oh, FedUp, you left off the cost of diamonds. How could anyone charge $20,000 for a small stone? LOL!

OH, pasta is a METAPHOR!! NOW I get it!!! So the game has changed and now we're talking about how Fedup is fed up with ALL ripoffs. <BR> <BR>C'mon Fedup, give us a break. If you think something is a ripoff you know what to do. Don't give them your business.

X: <BR> <BR>Gee, who'd have thought of that - don't give them the business. How original.

Next Time and x: <BR> <BR>You 2 are unbelievably dense! It's perfectly clear to anyone with a working brain that FedUp's first post that $20 pasta was just meant as an example. Doesn't anyone know how to read anymore? It's no wonder so many people let themselves get ripped off.

I agree with you, Fedup. My husband and I recently went on vacation with our three kids. We were appalled and how much we were shelling out every meal for food. At least at home there are places that we can pay $4 or $5 a person and get a decent meal. But there weren't any of THOSE places. We were paying $12 to $20 a person for meals. That's a lot easier to handle when you have two people than when there's five. We ended up just buying cereal and sandwich stuff at breakfast and lunch and only eating out one meal a day to cut down expenses. Other people had their kids and were shelling out the money. I guess they have more of it than I do! <BR> <BR>And like Fedup, many times I felt TOTALLY ripped off. Like one night we paid $113 for dinner and the service was lousy and the food was lousy. Left feeling like I'd been screwed - cause I had.