Interesting thread for me as I haven't been back to the US in over 10 years, but it sounds like prices have really changed a lot since then.
Here in Taiwan a standard home cooked meal would consist of:
Rice or noddles
3-5 dishes of stir fried veggies (two of them with a little meat mixed in)
1 tofu dish
1 fish dish
1 soup such as miso
A few orange slices for desert
Basically 50% rice, 35% veggies and 15% protein.
I'm not sure exactly how much that costs but it would probably be around 25% more expensive if one were to eat the same thing at a serve yourself street-side buffet/cafeteria---- about 2.25 US for one such rice box. It would jump to 2.75 if you threw on a sizable piece of meat such as a pork chop or chicken leg with thigh.
In comparison, A Bigmac, fries and coke is 3.50. A Fillet'ofish, fries and a coke is 3.20.
A hamburger, fries and a coke at somewhere like Outback is around 10-15 dollars.
A Costco hot dog with a coke is 1.60 with as much saurkraut you can pile on the plate
Fried rice or fried noodles w/soup-- 1.50~2.00
A Korean style all you can eat barbeque/hotpot--12 dollars.
A 4 star hotel lunch buffet--20 dollars.
Condiments are very expensive here. A bottle of salad dressing is at least 6 dollars and even mayonnaise is comparable to that. Jam is around 5 dollars. A small tub of Philadelphia creamed cheese around 3.25
A bottle of soy sauce for a month is about 2 dollars.
They think I'm a crazy foreigner but I always ask for some maple syrup with my French fries at McDonald's and then use it at home whenever we have pancakes.
My mother in law, to my great surprise one day, makes the greatest sweet and sour pork using McDonald's ketchup as one of the ingredients. I couldn't stop laughing when I discovered the empty packets in the garbage one day
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