We’re constantly inundated with all types of economic data. We read and hear a daily barrage of acronyms and abbreviations. On the inflation front we’re told about CPI, PPI, PCE, core, non-core, etc. Even when one doesn’t know the nuances of the indicators you see it at the gas pumps and we all know it’s bad. This week I calculated my own inflation indicator that hit’s close to home.
The Chinese Food Index (CFI)
My family and I are pretty regular consumers of Chinese food. Back in the day, we mostly dined in at restaurants, ordering from the family meal menu. That was always fun because we’d get to argue over which two from group A, and which group from group B. We soaked in the red velvet walls and tasseled lantern lighting. The food what then delivered to your table in these fun little metal elevated serving containers. On an unrelated note, I just realized those dishes are close to the dimensions of Rommie’s cat dish. And now I feel I’m on shaky writing ground because I’ve mentioned my cat in a piece about Chinese food, so I’m getting back on point pronto.
Lately, we’ve no longer been dining in and instead we patronize one of the Chinese restaurants that are primarily “take-out” based. While this type of place that has those great reusable plastic take out containers, I do miss the folded cardboard boxes with the red dragons on the sides. The staff would stuff everything into the smallest containers possible then bend the little metal handle to secure against a potential kung-pow explosion.
The food at our current favorite is fresh and crisp and at least on par or better than any other I’ve experienced. I’m choose to deliberately leave out the name of this particular restaurant because I don’t believe the point of this post is about any one restaurant, but them all.
I ordered a meal way on 22 May 2022 and the total was $61. It was cooked to order and I was able to pick it up in about twenty minutes, quality and flavors were excellent and there were no complaints from the four of us (except that Vicki at my extra eggroll and Ron ate too many of my boneless ribs. The meal was so good in fact that a couple months later, when we were faced with another Sunday meal decision, we thought: “hey, let’s just get the same stuff we ordered last time”.
I found the email confirmation from last time and went on to “duplicate” the order full of tasty goodness. Appetizers – check, Combo meals – check, extra eggrolls – check, crab rangoon – check, soups, shrimp chips, bbq ribs – check, check, check. Then BOOM the total rings up to $78.80. Something’s a miss, I double check all my checks and realize my Chinese Food Index (CFI) had risen by a scorching 29%!. To top it off, I noticed the restaurant has also set my default tip to 20% on food which I entered the order myself, picked up myself and delivered to my family.
Looks like I’ll be breaking my wok back out!