Also, portions.
Muffins, butter tarts, sandwiches, especially in Canada are so much bigger than they were 40 years ago.
The British premade sandwiches at EAT, M&S, are roughly the size of what sandwiches used to be in Ontario. Restaurant sandwiches in Ontario are twice that size, lately, usually.
The burger I ordered yesterday- without fries- was big. Twice as big as a burger would have been 20 years ago. Prices have gone up, and while a standard restaurant needs to make $15 or $20 off each customer, they want the customer to feel like they’re getting value, and I think it’s easier to increase the amount of food on the plate. My dc’s burger with fries came with close to 2 cups of fries. Maybe 1/4 were eaten.
And of course, food is a comfort. Most of us eat when we want to be comforted. We have been living in stressful times, and it’s been much harder on those who are working class or not working.
I read a bit about the food here and was surprised, as I used to think alcohol was always served there.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
#118
Where? In the UK & Ireland?
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
#119
Since April, restaurant, cafe and takeaway businesses in England must now publish the calories of each dish on their menu. And it has actually affected my selection a couple of times - you look at the count and think that’s the whole of the recommended daily intake.
Happened to me a few weeks ago. I was in a pub near the in laws and I was going to order the Korean chicken burger , but it was pushing 1,300 calories according to the menu. This was in the evening. We went for Sunday lunch a few days later and no calorie count on the menu at all. A blessed relief when it’s a roast.
From what I understand a business will only be fined if they are issued with notices for not displaying calories and they have 250 or more employees. It wouldn’t be surpised if some places stop displaying them.
1 Like
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
#121
Yep, you’re right. It’s really only going to effect the chains
For around 5 years, chain restaurants with 20 or more locations have been required to post calories in Ontario, Canada.
At my 2 local chain pubs, any sandwich and chips/fries meals, fish & chips, and burger & chips/fries meals were around 1500-1800 calories. The only meals around the 700-850 calorie were the small size chicken curry with rice, the shepherd’s pie (really, cottage pie, shepherd’s pie is ground/minced beef in Canada unless stated otherwise). I’ve eaten a lot more chicken curry and shepherd’s pie over the last 5 years than before the calorie counts were posted.
Edit: my local chain pub no longer offers the small chicken curry.
Many casual restaurant and pub menus are now much more streamlined than they were in mid- March 2020, to keep things simpler for kitchen staff, since there’s a kitchen staff shortage now.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
#125
OK, I just had to pass this link on - just so everyone can drool over the great Northern brekkie. Most are in Manchester’s city centre but a few out in the suburbs. And, no, I havent tried any - well, you don’t take a 30 minute tram journey into the city for breakfast.
6 Likes
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
#126
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
#129
Our latest outing saw breakfast for lunch for me (and a fish finger sandwich on sourdough bloomer for herself). It was at the Expo Lounge a few minutes drive away. The Lounge is a smallish national chain of bar and eatery. Although there’s very much the uniformity of decoration, furnishing and menu, all outlets have different names - something vaguely Mediterranean and definitely ending with “O”.
It opens for breakfast and serves a variety of breakfast dishes all day, accompanied from lunchtime till late evening closing by a selection of burgers, assorted “small plates” (which they insist on calling “tapas”) and the like. It’s reliably decent food.
Greed got the better of me and I ordered the Big Lounge Breakfast (1603 kcal at £13.95). What you get is three rashers of smoked back bacon, two Cumberland sausages, three hash browns, baked beans, tomato, thick slice of black pudding, mushrooms, two fried eggs and two slices of toasted sourdough.
I’m waiting for May, so I can have a British breakfast or maybe kedgeree on my local pub’s patio. This is the nicer pub’s menu, in Canadian dollars. I wonder if the prices will be even higher in May, the way things are going.
