Once upon a time before I was interested in cooking I went to a ramen restaurant, paid $20 for it, and felt like it was far too much money for what is ostensibly a bowl of noodle soup. The chef was a friend and I told him as much. He smiled and said "do you have any idea how much work went into that noodle soup?"
I kind of figured he was just being a typically defensive chef and left it at that. Years later I decided to try making tonkotsu ramen.
It was easily the most laborious and time consuming thing I've ever tried to do in a kitchen. I spent $50 in ingredients and maybe 3-4 days of fairly consistent work to try and get that bowl of fucking noodle soup together.
So yeah I have a profound respect for ramen places now, and if anyone ever says "cooking is easier and cheaper than eating out" I will say "Not always, have you tried making proper ramen before?"
What makes it so arduous and time-consuming? ---
"Bond, you can't just blame everything bad in the world on the government" -wiiking96 "why cant I?" -Bond_543