To think that there are no fake aways that come near the real thing???

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I'd love some ideas . I've lost a decent amount of weight but love my weekend food .
Any ideas or are they all just nasty substitutes for the real deal ?

We have the Wagamama noodle book and it has some amazing recipes if that's your kind of thing. Asian is the easiest to at home, also got a rice cooker with an insert tray for steaming gyoza in.

Indian is the one i think i have to get the real thing for, no comparison.

You can learn to cook Chinese food that ends up tasting just as good as the restaurant stuff, curries too. I learnt a lot of recipes from This Muslim Girls Bakes and Fatima Cooks blogs, and I second the recommendation for Chin and Choo for Chinese recipes. I also learnt loads of recipes and how to use Chinese and Korean ingredients from Tik Tok.

Anything you get fried from a takeaway (spring rolls or samosas or chips etc) is never going to taste as good at home unless you also deep fry it, can’t make it in an air fryer!

I don't tend to pick recipes that claim to be a "fake away" as such...but this recipe is delicious

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/bbq-tandoori-chicken-shawarma

Cook ready meals do some lovely curries, their naans are nice too, better than a cheap Indian takeaway

Chin and Choo are brilliant. The Smoked Chicken is nicer than our local Chinese. The chicken balls are amazing we've tried most of the recipes and haven't had a bad one yet.

The Hairy Bikers fakeaway sweet and sour chicken is as good as take away.

The Kwoklynn Wan Chinese books are fantastic.

I also love the recipe books from The Spicery. They sell 4 spice blends that are used in all the recipes in a book and somehow everything tastes different.

Takeaways are always a disappointment, maybe ours around here are just a bit shit?

McCain home fries oven chips/Birds eye battered nuggets are just as good as maccies imo. I do my own version of a Filet o fish with battered fish fingers

Supermarket sourdough pizzas (Aldi, Tesco finest) are really nice, and better than some greasy take away pizzas

Tesco sell a Gressingham half crispy duck with pancakes and sauce, just chuck in the oven and chop up some cucumber and spring onion, delicious!

I don't like BIR curries, can't stand the food colouring and pre-prepared sauces. I make my own curries from scratch using an ancient Madhur Jaffrey recipe book, with whole spices, fresh coriander, ginger etc. i can do some lovely veggie ones and a cracking biryani which is absolutely delicious.

Some nice recipes in this book
https://www.amazon.com/Dominiques-Kitchen/dp/1405952652

Or, Mowgli for Indian food

TBH, I always like the idea of a takeaway more than the reality. I'm just as happy with home coked versions. But I freeze in advance, then defrost on Friday, so we still have the convenience of not cooking

I make my own lamb doner kebabs which I prefer to the real thing. Served in warm wholemeal pitta with shredded lettuce, cabbage and carrots, pickles, tomatoes and Sriracha sauce

My doner kebab, chicken shish and sausage McMuffins are fabulous. They're not diet though!

Thank God you two came along @DiscoBeat and @idontlikealdi I was just going to say we bought a bag of frozen donner meat and Warburton pittas last week, was bloody good!

MSG. And salt. The key is always MSG.

Yes I think the people who are saying fakeaways can be really nice meals in their own right (and of course usually cheaper, healthier etc) but not the same as/better than an actual takeaway have it.

A homemade curry for instance is a beautiful thing and we often have ours with trimmings like poppadoms and chutney etc to make it a bit more special but sometimes there's nothing that hits the spot like the ghee and cream laden kind you get from the takeaway. Plus as well as the huge volumes of fat, sugar and salt used, takeaways often have specialist equipment you just don't get at home, there's nothing like naan bread fresh out of the tandoor for instance. And despite many of my friends and acquaintances claiming to be able to make pizza at home as good as a takeaway, I've yet to taste any pizza base that comes out of an ordinary domestic oven that's a patch on a proper wood fired one, or even an industrial gas oven, domestic ones just don't get hot enough (the little mini ooni pizza ovens come close but still not quite there IMO)...

What on earth is a “fake away”?

Google is your friend here... It's a homemade version of takeaway favourites, made to resemble a takeaway as much as possible, sometimes using some shortcuts e.g. a ready made sauce. E.g. a homemade tikka masala with pilau rice. A homemade pizza. Google and loads and loads of recipes come up. The idea is to save money and calories by cooking the same thing you'd get from a takeaway at home.

Not read all the replies but I cook a lot of Chinese takeaway food and it's absolutely delicious. Sticky beef, char sui pork, vermicelli noodles etc.
The bbc good food recipes are great.

I also cook a lot of Thai food and curries I prefer homemade to takeaway.

We very rarely have takeaway these days