A Box of __________ Shipped to Your House Each Month

mmmm wasabi sea bass

been curious about this but don't live/work in fidi:
http://ny.eater.com/2015/4/28/8506595/maple-food-delivery-nyc-david-chang

Basically it's gourmet seamless with no middleman, or I guess really just a fancy but reasonably priced all-delivery restaurant. I had an idea sort of like this once, thinking that you could probably do really good delivery at reasonable prices if you could keep costs down by only having a kitchen and not a storefront (you would probably get a big break on real estate by not needing a visible storefront property or space for tables). I figured internet makes that possible in a way it wasn't before. But I am not David Chang or a person with money to invest in a restaurant.

grim irony that a just-in-time service like that only works in an area that's also dense enough that it could provide a take-out meal of similar quality within a short walk

Maybe. Not sure you could get something quite that (presumably) good for $12/lunch or $15/dinner in a lot of places in Manhattan (most of which, granted, don't yet have Maple either). There is a place by my midtown office that does sort of an upscale version of deli/steam table, good organic ingredients, etc., and you can get a pretty good dinner there for around $12-15.

Probably will succeed because of David Chang's name attached.

god help me i signed up for home chef

― qualx, Sunday, January 10, 2016 8:57 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a high school friend founded this company. I get Blue Apron, though, because home chef does not deliver to the west coast. it's a great way to force yourself to cook new things. The recipes are also generally solid from these services because so many people are forced to follow them.

looks expensive but tasty, please report back

― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, January 15, 2016 11:06 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not as cheap as actual groceries but cheaper than eating out/delivery, which we're trying to stop doing constantly. and it's healthier, you actually feel guilted into picking the healthier options when you're planning individual meals out a week ahead.

looked into all of them (plated/blue apron/hello fresh etc) and home chef seemed like the best. it's the cheapest and you actually get to choose from a bunch of recipes. it seems like blue apron doesn't even let you pick, they just send you food based on some vague preferences? not spending $12/meal if i can't even pick out food i might like.

hello fresh was the same price as home chef but half as many choices and the food didn't look that good. plated looked great but expensive.

Blue Apron has 3 meat and 3 vegetarian meals to choose from each week. You can choose 3 out of the 6 but some permutations aren't allowed.

ah, the faq says "Once you have set your dietary preferences we will send you three recipes that match your preferences." still. their recipes do look good though

You have to actually cook all these right? Too much work.

You have to cook, but that's good if you haven't cooked a variety of things at this point and enjoy cooking. It is convenient to not plan a meal and shop for groceries, as well.

xp yeah, they automatically choose 3 meals based on your preferences. But they let you change the menu afterward. We didn't realize this until a few weeks into using it. We skip about half of the weeks because the limited meal selection doesn't always appeal to us.

we're in a future where cooking is considered "fun" in the face of office work

Something something labor something something Marxist

food pro tips

and sprout hacks

I want a box of personal chefs delivered to me.

http://getvinebox.com/

3 10-CL test tubes of wine for $35/month, plus shipping.

what am i supposed to do with exactly three glasses of wine?

Have some "Incredible times with friends and family" obviously.

it's so amazingly not shareable, like the person it was made for is literally the lonely guy from sideways

100 ml is a pretty small pour too.

wow it is, less than 4 oz. and not even close to a gov't-defined glass of wine

JUST BUY A GODDAMN BOTTLE OF WINE

sorry. but really now...

thing is that winery memberships, where they'll send you whole bottles, already exist

Gonna be real mad when you have your half glass of boutique European wine and find out it's your favorite ever and can't get more.

I was looking up natural/organic/biodynamic wines and found this sub box - https://dryfarmwines.com/
$157/mo for six bottles of red wine that I'm willing to bet retail for $12-15

stuff you can't get easily i can see. but wine or beer or whatever? silly.

like, european cookie club! i could be down for that. stuff i'm not gonna find on my own.

https://candygerman.com/

yeah, now you're talking.

As a guy who lives over there and eats too much candy, I say these boxes are well curated.

Candy German is for candy lovers - like us and like you! As native Germans, we don’t take our homeland’s candy for granted. Germany turns out some of the finest confections in the world, but unfortunately, they can be quite hard to find outside of German borders.

Now you’ve got a friend on the inside. Let us bring you the authentic candies once reserved for Germans only. Your sweet tooth will thank you.

"native" "borders" "germans only" "homeland"

uh oh...

WOLLT IHR DAS TOTALE SÜßIGKEITSABO??????

http://i.imgur.com/eRUgCsG.png

wow 30 euros a month is expensive. i was doing bocandy for a while and it cost half of that for what looks like bigger boxes. but that's based in america.

also wtf germany

http://www.hitschler.de/sites/default/files/796-hitschies-kaubonbon-165g.png

They will conquer your taste buds, then march down your throat and occupy your stomach!

http://i.imgur.com/RKuB4MZ.png

i carve my own frontier straws thank you very much.

outdoor knots!

3 10-CL test tubes of wine for $35/month, plus shipping.

― mutually aquatinted (doo dah), Friday, February 5, 2016 9:54 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is basically the cost of actually going to the bar of a nice restaurant and ordering some good wines by the glass, minus the atmosphere, service and remote chance of getting laid.

I was looking up natural/organic/biodynamic wines and found this sub box - https://dryfarmwines.com/
$157/mo for six bottles of red wine that I'm willing to bet retail for $12-15

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Saturday, February 6, 2016 1:58 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If the wines in their instagram feed are representative, my googling suggests you are correct!

So tell me more about bocandy

man, german candy really sucks

it was fun just prohibitively expensive (says the fuckhead paying $60 a week for homechef) and i think i signed up during a bit of a sugar high

it's not all candy, he usually throws in a savory snack or a packaged pastry-type thing (not as big as a hostess). it's actually a pretty diverse selection and not all just kit kats from japan (though japan, western europe and scandinavia still dominate the boxes). lots of uh 'eclectic flavors, i still have a couple boxes worth of stuff lying around because they look kinda gross and i'm squeamish but i'll get to them someday. he includes a printout with a paragraph about every item in every box. a random one i just picked up lists:

Daim double (sweden), a toffee bar
Balkan Kakao Cake Bar (Bulgaria) which is this, and apparently it only exists on the internet in reviews of this particular bocandy box
Cheesecake Kit Kat (Japan) lol whoops
Cactus Lakerol ("make in Slovakia but imported from Sweden"), cactus licorice
Orion Mini Cola (Japan) he did this one several times because they're delicious, little coke-flavored sugar candy pellets
TOMY El Clasico (Mexico) annoying little caramels
and he filled the rest with little leftovers from other months

it's always a pretty packed box. also i had trouble cancelling my subscription because the website wouldn't recognize my account but he (blake) took care of it ASAP and was very nice in email.

i was just looking at that site! man it seems weird that someone is making a living opening up bags of milkita and parcelling them out at four per subsciber

xp to myself speaking of being a fuckhead i'm going to do this: if you're interested in trying homechef you can use my referral link https://www.homechef.com/invite/zMmNxsX5M6aE and get half off the first week! you can also find coupon codes for half off the first week everywhere, but if you want to be awesome to me you can use that link too. tho imo the menus for the weeks of the 22nd and 29th look preferable to next week's.

we're liking it so far, some very good food and easy cooking. only problem is each recipe instructing us to rinse the fish and chicken. delegitimizes the whole thing a bit.

xp to thomp uh sure i guess but i don't really feel like buying a bag of milkita just to try it out, and he gets plenty of candies that take more effort than an amazon order. it's a good assortment and a very good amount of product for cheaper than most everything itt. doesn't really belong next to the big box o' knives and frontier straws

no i mean sure, good on him

there are so many millions of cheap weird are-you-wholesale-or-are-you-retail candy stores around here that it's kinda surplus but if those things are less available or more marked up then, well, sure

otoh i think the frontier straw may be a legit product, though admittedly not one i need shipped as a surprise. i suspect if ever i need a frontier straw it's going to be on a trip involving some quite protracted planning.