Portions - American Style

Spade

Spade

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Nov 18, 2008
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This is not an anti American rant. I visit the States often. I eat in their restaurants. I like their food - French fries, tacos, grits (but not necessarily at the same time). Now, here's my problem. The portions I am served could feed a Prairie-threshing gang. When I look around, it is the same regardless of the order. It is impossible to eat without the Roman-orgy technique. So, this is what I'd like to know.

1. Why?
2. If you are an American, why is this amount an expectation?
3. If you are a Canadian, how do you cope?
4. Does this emphasis on excess bother you?
 
Tyr

Tyr

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Nov 27, 2008
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Spade said:
This is not an anti American rant. I visit the States often. I eat in their restaurants. I like their food - French fries, tacos, grits (but not necessarily at the same time). Now, here's my problem. The portions I am served could feed a Prairie-threshing gang. When I look around, it is the same regardless of the order. It is impossible to eat without the Roman-orgy technique. So, this is what I'd like to know.

1. Why?
2. If you are an American, why is this amount an expectation?
3. If you are a Canadian, how do you cope?
4. Does this emphasis on excess bother you?
Click to expand...

You're a much braver soul than I Spade. "Grits" are something that is best left for sloppin' pigs

If you have ever been to a chain of restaurants in the Southeastern states called "Big Bob's", you have truely seen monumental portions of artery clogging, gut wrenching slop of unheard of proportions. It caters to the early morning trucking crowd and the typical "breakfast" consists of re-fried chicken (yesterdays reconstituion), grits, collards, a piece of undeterrminate "meat" and biscuits. All smothered in ham gravy and served on a 2' platter.

Canadians (that I have seen) in Georgia, blanch, gulp a few times and tentively take a spoonful of the mush before settling on coffee, eggs and toast and planning how to get out of there.

The vast majority of patrons easily tip the scales at 300lbs+ (no easy feat for those under 5'6")

There is a reason why the US has the worlds worst obesity problem
 
Tyr

Tyr

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Nov 27, 2008
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Sitting at my laptop
 
VanIsle

VanIsle

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Nov 12, 2008
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Spade said:
This is not an anti American rant. I visit the States often. I eat in their restaurants. I like their food - French fries, tacos, grits (but not necessarily at the same time). Now, here's my problem. The portions I am served could feed a Prairie-threshing gang. When I look around, it is the same regardless of the order. It is impossible to eat without the Roman-orgy technique. So, this is what I'd like to know.

1. Why?
2. If you are an American, why is this amount an expectation?
3. If you are a Canadian, how do you cope?
4. Does this emphasis on excess bother you?
Click to expand...
Why do you think that happens only in the USA? While my husbandand myself were having lunch out the other day, I was thinking at the time that a person should be given the option of something akin to man size and woman size. I am always given what looks like a ton of food on my plate and it is so easy to continue to pick at what is on your plate long after you are "full". I have come to the conclusion that the best I can do for myself is to mess the plate up in someway like putting my used napkin over it so I won't eat more and setting the plate to the edge of the table so the server will take the excess food out of my view and any temptation to eat more. I think all of us know we eat beyond "full" and that's the killer. In our own Fish & Chip shop, we served a very large portion of halibut & fries with salad or True Cod and the same trimmings. Customers constantly complained about the vast amount of homecut fries we served (we cut all our own - no frozen) and I constantly asked my husband and son to cut back but for whatever reason, neither of them seemed to be able to do that. Both felt that plate had to be stacked a mile high and we threw out a lot of fries because there was just too many on the plate. Most restaurants have male cooks and they fill a man sized plate. I know that females can do that too but I truly believe we are conditioned to fill a plate up for the "man" and all plates get the same amount. So I go back to my original thought- man size and woman size. Maybe as a nation that would help with obesity. Have any of you watched "The Greatest Loser"? I never had until about a week ago. It's very interesting. By the size of the people on there I assume you have to be that size to get there. It is a USA based show and maybe they only take Americans. I assume you would have to be at least 100 pounds overweight to be there. I would like to go because they lose what I need to lose in just the first two weeks. They actually stay there for months.
 
#juan

#juan

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In 2004 we were on the way back from the air show in Oshkosh Wisconsin when we stopped for breakfast at what looked like a pretty ordinary restaurant in Montana. We were late stopping for breakfast and I was hungry. I ordered steak and eggs. The steak was good but my God, it was hanging over three sides of the plate. There were three eggs, hash browns, and three slices of toast. I ate most of the steak and the eggs but it eventually became obvious that I would be in pain if I had another bite. I wonder if that place is still in business.
 
D

dj03

Electoral Member
Oct 9, 2007
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We had an auditor come up from our Houston office and at lunch he commented that one of the things he likes about Canada is that you get reasonable portions at restaurants. He said you can't possibly finish the food you get down south.

I'm off to Houston for a few days tomorrow...maybe I should start the low dose aspirin now.
 
#juan

#juan

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This is the place...

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Chico Hot Springs Lodge
Pray, Montana (406) 333-4933

Chico Hot Springs is clearly a study in contradictions. It boasts a resident ghost as well as the most extensive wine list in Montana. It's miles from nowhere (somewhere south of Livingston and north of Yellowstone), yet it always draws a crowd. Tomatoes can't grow here, yet the restaurant raises its own herbs and most of its own vegetables. These and many other anomalies give this elegant yet laid back western spa a diehard local following. Set on 150 hot-spring-laden acres in the foothills of the Absaroka Mountains, the lodge serves superb steaks, including a classic New York strip ($20.95 and $23.95), a mixed-grill platter of free-range game and fish (market price), and beef Wellington for two ($46.95). Their signature dish, says general manager Colin Davis, is a 20-ounce beef porterhouse ($26.95). The menu is meat-and-potatoes says Davis,"because that's the way the locals want it." [/SIZE][/FONT]
 
lone wolf

lone wolf

Grossly Underrated
Nov 25, 2006
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In the bush near Sudbury
What are the prices in these grandly-portioned places? Brunet's is a truck-stop halfway between North Bay and Sudbury that serves a great meal. No grease-laden plates of yuck these. For your money, you get a "man-sized" portion mostly from the Mennonite owner's local farm - at better than McDonald prices. Fortunately, they're generous with the doggie bags too....
 
Cannuck

Cannuck

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Feb 2, 2006
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Islandpacific said:
Why do you think that happens only in the USA? ...
Click to expand...

He doesn't. Contrary to the initial post, this is just another anti-American thread. There are more all-you-can-eat buffets in most Canadian cities than anyone would care to count. Gluttony is a North American phenomenon.
 
VanIsle

VanIsle

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Nov 12, 2008
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Cannuck said:
He doesn't. Contrary to the initial post, this is just another anti-American thread. There are more all-you-can-eat buffets in most Canadian cities than anyone would care to count. Gluttony is a North American phenomenon.
Click to expand...
Sorry - I have to disagree with you. Spade is not anti anybody (except for maybe the PM) and I never read a single response from anyone else that was anti-american. Really it's almost the other way around. How can you be anti-american when you are simply stating that they are over generous with the amount of food they put on your plate? When you go to any "all you can eat place" anywhere, it's you who puts the food on the plate - not the restaurant. The best we should hope for is that restaurant owners everywhere cut back on their servings and the easiest way of doing that is to have a large or small serving so we can all gauge ourselves. Less food in the trash, less waste/waist, and better profits in the end for the restaurant as long as they watch the difference in what they charge to make it worthwhile to buy the size you want. If for example, they charge only a $1.00 difference, most people will just buy the regular size but even $2.00 is a good start.
 
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Spade

Spade

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Cannuck said:
He doesn't. Contrary to the initial post, this is just another anti-American thread. There are more all-you-can-eat buffets in most Canadian cities than anyone would care to count. Gluttony is a North American phenomenon.
Click to expand...

I am not referring to all-you-can-eat buffets. I am referring to restaurant portions. I will not comment on why you are not aware of the difference.
PS
Thanks Islandpacific
 
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SirJosephPorter

SirJosephPorter

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Nov 7, 2008
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Food is cheap in USA. That can be a blessing in disguise. Because things like potato are very cheap, it doesn’t cost much to heap the plate high with French fries (you won’t see any restaurant heaping the plate high with salad vegetables).

Same with meat, it is relatively cheap in USA (compared to other countries), so people tend to overeat. I remember seeing on food channel a few months ago they were talking about a diner. The steak size there is huge, may be 40 oz or more, I don’t remember. But if you can eat the whole steak, it is free. The proprietor said that in his memory only two or three people have been able to win the free steak.

In Europe, portions tend to be much smaller since food is expensive there. But the flip side is that prevalence of obesity is a lot less in Europe compared to USA.

Similarly with gas. Gas is very cheap in USA, so people tend to drive big gas guzzlers and pollute the atmosphere mightily. In Europe, gas is much more expensive than USA (mainly because European governments take much more in gas taxes). But the flip side is that cars tend to be smaller, people tend to car pool more and as a result pollute a lot less.

So I don’t think it is anything in American psyche that causes them to eat huge portions, I think food is just cheaper over there.
 
Cannuck

Cannuck

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Spade said:
I will not comment on why you are not aware of the difference.
Click to expand...

I'm aware of the difference. The difference is not important. The issue is gluttony and a glutton is a glutton whether he chooses a buffet or orders something off the menu that is of ridiculous portion. The All-you can-eat buffet is a symptom of this problem. I will not comment on why you are not aware of this.
 
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