Prep times on recipes are almost always a lie

And an update to what a $5 Thai lunch would cost today

I don’t think I’m an especially slow cook. I’m not a professional by any means, and I don’t have the knife skills to chop so fast that the knife is a blur, but I don’t think I’m particularly slow. 

And yet it feels like I’m being deceived every time I look at a recipe and see the recommended prep time. Because that prep time is almost always incorrect. A few days ago, I tried a new recipe, looked at the prep time, and thought, ‘Not a chance in hell that this is accurate’. So I tested it. I started a stopwatch and began baking.

The recipe was for Hong Kong bakery-style paper wrapped cakes, an absolute favourite of mine when I was a kid. The cakes were amazingly light and fluffy, with a subtle sweetness. These formed the basis of what I believed cake should be. I haven’t managed to find them to buy in San Diego, and ever since I made bolo bao (pineapple buns), I’ve had this teeny tiny thought that maybe I can try making anything. 

There are a number of recipes out there for paper wrapped cakes, with varying levels of complexity. I picked this recipe because it seemed easy and possible enough for me to do. I looked at the ingredients, and read the instructions. All the steps were things I had done before and nothing was new except for the recipe itself. I’ve sifted, I’ve whisked, I’ve folded, I’ve got egg whites to stiff peaks. None of the components, in and of themselves, were new. 

Twenty minutes. That’s how long the recipe said it would take for prep. I was fairly sure that it would take more than that, but I wasn’t sure by how much. I started the stopwatch the second I started getting ingredients out of the cupboard, and stopped the stopwatch the minute I shut the oven door after putting the pan in the oven. 

Fifty-five minutes. That’s how long it actually took. Almost triple the time the recipe said! Again, I don’t think I’m especially slow at doing things. I have plenty of space in the kitchen, and enough equipment, so I’m not working in a cramped environment where I have to keep moving things around or washing things so I can keep using them. The workflow in the kitchen is pretty good. So how did I almost triple the prep time?

One suspicion I have is that recipe writers don’t include the mise-en-place. They don’t include the time it takes to get all the ingredients out of the pantry and fridge, and measure or weigh things out.

One other question I have is if I’m beating the egg whites correctly — it felt like it took twenty minutes alone just to get the egg whites to stiff peaks. I used the low-medium setting (because I’ve also read that you’re not meant to do this on high) and it took an age. 

I also wonder if recipe writers round down the time or just make something up that sounds reasonable and wouldn’t be off-putting to anyone thinking of trying it. In a world where everyone wants things that are quick and easy, will anyone make cakes with prep time of an hour? Maybe not.

The cakes were delicious, though. Would make again.

That $5 Thai lunch

In my last post, I wrote about a recent family dinner at a Thai restaurant that cost US$106. I mentioned the A$5 Thai lunch specials from my undergrad uni days, but also that I couldn’t do a proper economic analysis of the difference in terms of inflation and exchange rates because, well, I’m not an economist. Well, one of my good friends is an economist, and he wrote this in reply: 

‘By my calculation, your Thai meal should have cost US$5.69.

This is A$5 in 2006 increased for inflation (which makes it A$8.12 today), and then converted into US dollars using the latest available estimates of purchasing power parity exchange rates (1.43 AUD per USD), which is a fancy way of saying exchange rates which reflect differences in what you can actually buy for a dollar in each country (as opposed to short-term market rates which are volatile).’

He did also question my memory, though: was a full meal back in the day really only $5? He thought it was closer to $10–12. So I asked more friends for their memories of the Thai lunch specials around Sydney Uni in the mid-2000s. One friend thought $7.50 without the drink. Another thought $6.50 without the drink. And the answer I’m most inclined to believe was the friend who gave the most specific details: the first Thai restaurant closest to uni was $6.50*, but if you walked farther down King Street, Thai La-Ong had a lunch special for $6. If you went to the other side of campus, there was a place just off Glebe Point Road that did $5 specials.  

If I use $6.50 as the price of the lunch special and apply my economist friend’s calculations, then a main at a Thai restaurant today should be US$7.40. The menu price for my main at the restaurant the other night was $15.44. The sales tax in restaurants in San Diego is about 7.75%, so about another $1.19. The normal non-stingy tip rate is 18%, so another $2.78. The meal listed as $15.44 on the menu is therefore actually $19.41 after tax and tip. So almost triple the cost of a Thai lunch, back in the day, even after you take into account inflation, currency exchange rates, and purchasing power parity. (If I’ve done the sums wrong, I’m happy to be corrected). 

I should also point out that the restaurant we went to wasn’t a super posh or fancy restaurant. It had excellent food, but it’s also pretty similar in terms of decor, service, and positioning to other Thai restaurants in the area (and to the Thai restaurants I went to as an undergrad in Sydney).

Oh, and by the way: a lunch special at a Thai restaurant in Newtown today costs A$13.50 (according to a friend who was there recently). Only double what it used to be, and not triple!

*I bet the restaurant closest to uni was Newtown Thai, the restaurant that then spawned a Newtown Thai II. Was there also a Newtown Thai III? I can’t remember but it wouldn’t surprise me.