Oct 6, 2026 – Andy is in OurLittleCorner today

At Last, a Free Lunch That’s Actually Free! (Maybe)

Who hasn’t at one time or another heard the phrase, “There is no such thing as a free lunch?” It was certainly part of the wisdom passed down to me by my parents (more than once).

It seems that free lunches became an issue sometime in the late 19th century when it was common for bars to lure customers with offers of free food. As you can see by the below excerpt from a magazine article published in 1892 about San Francisco restaurants, the “free lunch” promise was not without its skeptics:

But it wasn’t until 1933 that the no-free-lunch phrase as we know it today made its public debut (at least according to Wikipedia). It was the punchline to a story published in the The Cleveland Press by American writer and journalist Herman Fetzer :

The story is a fable about a king who hired four hundred economists to write an outline of economics. When they told him the outline would consist of four hundred volumes, he executed half of them, and continued doing this each year until only the chief economist survived, and made his summary in eight words: “There is no such thing as free lunch.“

The no-free-lunch credo gained scholarly credibility in 1975 when economist and Nobel laureate (and Playboy contributor) Milton Friedman published his influential book,”There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.” Without going into the econometrics of it all (which I don’t fully understand anyway), the idea is that, without exception, any exchange of goods or services involves a cost somewhere along the line.

But does the no-free-lunch dictum apply to the modern world of e-commerce? You may recall my recent blogs about the lure of free shipping and of free returns offered by online merchants. It turned out that each of these freebies had its own hidden costs.

Fortunately there’s hope. The NYTimes recently reported on the appearance of alternative websites that may pose a challenge the no-free-lunch rule. They’re called dopamine sites.

These websites originated in South Korea last spring and are now trending world wide. Basically, they allow viewers to go through the motions of shopping for and ordering goods without ever having to pay for them (and without ever receiving them). Such imaginary purchases tap into something called “anticipatory utility,” the dopamine-induced good feelings we get from looking forward to something we desire — hence the label “dopamine sites.”

The Fake Haul website is a good example. It was created by a Microsoft developer and patterned after an existing Korean dopamine site. The below blurb from the site gives some idea of how it works :

I tried it out and, although it’s not my cup of tea, the site looks, feels, and acts like a legitimate e-commerce website — right down to the notice that by adding a tad more to my digital shopping cart I would qualify for free shipping.

But to my way of thinking the biggest challenge to the no-free-lunch postulate is from the website called “Dopamine Kitchen” which offers free lunches (literally). This site was launched in India this past June and to date has amassed 2.7 million views (which is a lot of dopamine under the bridge). With the apt URL foodnevercomes.com, the site has an extensive on-line menu allowing viewers to place orders for (fake) deliveries. Viewers even can follow the progress of their (fake) deliveries on (fake) Uber-like maps. And the kicker is that the site offers actual recipes for the food that never gets delivered — allowing you to make it at home (for real) to satisfy that unfulfilled dopamine rush.

Does this mean that we have moved beyond the era of the not-so-free free lunches of the 19th century and entered a dopamine-driven age where a free lunch (fake as it may be) is really free — and just a few mouse clicks away? According to a recent essay by Gary Mortimer, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behavior at Queensland University of Technology, probably not.

Professor Mortimer points out that the “free” part of these sites can be deceptive. For one thing, they have the potential to serve as gateway platforms leading to what psychiatrists call CBD or Compulsive Buying Disorder. According to a research article in World Psychiatry , CBD is the real deal.

Additionally, these sites can be incredibly valuable to marketers who can use those fake purchase choices to track online browsing habits and create targeted ads. Mortimer warns, “If you do purchase that pretend jacket, or order that delivery of fake tacos, don’t be surprised if you start seeing more ads for the real thing.“

So it appears that the “bold and saucy” paneer tikka (with a 4.3 rating) I ordered from the Dopamine Kitchen (and never got) may not qualify as a free lunch after all. Despite that, I did manage to download the recipe and would like to share it with you here on BigLittleMeals.

So, for your dining pleasure here’s a printable recipe free of charge. But don’t be surprised if ads for Indian food start popping up on your screen while you’re enjoying your homemade Paneer Tikka.