Don't waste time making this dish at home Forget all your fancy machines, don't waste time cooking Asian food at home. It's cheaper, better and faster to head out to a place that gets it perfect everytime. Photo: Jeff Herbert. Don't try these at home: Pasta, ice cream While you're at it, no D-I-Y Pad Thais, either PUT down your ice cream maker. Ditto the pizza oven. Yes, even the pasta maker, and any other expensive tool you bought so you could cook your favourite restaurant dish at home. Don't worry, we'll give it back - right after we tell you that there really are some dishes that should never be attempted at home. Yes, some foods really are worth leaving the house for. Elizabeth Meryment, food critic for the Sunday Telegraph told news.com.au Asian foods in particular falls into this category. For me, there are a whole heap of no-go areas when it comes to D-I-Y in the kitchen and most of those revolve around Asian food, and especially Thai. I'm actually not sure why anyone would want to make Thai food at home, not even Thai out of a ready-made-kit. Considering you can spend about $10 to get a sensational pad Thai or green chicken curry home delivered, it makes no sense to buy the multitude of ingredients you need for to do it at home," she said. I did try it once and have a brick of palm sugar in my pantry that's been sitting there for about three years. And after a lot of effort, the flavours are never as good anyway. A lot of other Asian food - Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese, say - are likewise very hard to do and so cheap to buy out," she said. That said, there are plenty of dishes Ms Meryment said should be kept for home for quality and value for money. Pizza? Picture: Barker Bob Source: The Daily Telegraph Pizza is one of the easiest and most successful things to make at home, with relatively few ingredients. If you have flour and yeast in the pantry you can make a good base in 30 minutes and all you need on top of that is tomato pasta and a tub of bocconcini. In the time it takes to get a pizza in the oven you could have a soggy processed pizza home delivered. It's not worth it," she said. What dish would you always save for the restaurant kitchen?