PORTIONS In Usa verses Portions in Spain

With the tasting menu I brought home, the meal cost quite a bit, over $120 USD per person, and it was a small resto in my hometown, with maybe 16 seats, which were full.

Basically a chef cooking everything, and his wife was the Front of House. It was easier for me to pack it away myself, and saved them labour.

In a place like NYC, I ask for a doggie bag.

If I’m visiting a country where I don’t speak the language, I’d rather be gauche and pack it myself, maybe when the server isn’t looking, than cause a server any stress or draw attention to myself by asking for a doggie bag.

3 Likes

From 2012

An excerpt that might serve to make this seem on topic;

“The doggie bag is not usually done in other countries and many foreign visitors to the U.S. seem to think this practice is somewhat appalling. It is hard to know just why but it is at least partially due to distaste for the wasteful over-large portions often served in America. To be fair, if the first doggie bags were really meant for leftover bones to be given the family pet, a prudent step in scarce times, then such distaste should be reserved for what the doggie bag has become, rather than what it was meant to be. Also, it is ironic that most of the world looks on Americans as wasteful and then beats us up when we show a bit of frugality!”

4 Likes

It seems like there’s an odd interplay among several emotions/attitudes/whatever. I started to try to describe my opinions about some parts of it, and that was no good, so maybe I can say: people have a real relationship with what they eat, and if America and Food went for couples’ counselling, there would definitely be a lot to talk about. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Count me among those who found this post somewhere between offensive and pointless. Even if we can agree in general that portion sizes in the US are larger than those in Spain or in other countries, the lack of understanding or even acknowledgement of why that might be undermines the value of the observation. I don’t know much about lifestyles in Europe. I do believe, as was indicated by other posters, that Americans work longer hours (not voluntarily), have potentially more anxiety/stress, spend a lot more time driving than walking (due to suburban sprawl), eat either very processed foods because the government here massively subsidizes corn and soy at the expense of other healthier crops, that restauranteurs make a lot more $ serving large portions and to hell with our health, and that the cosmetics/fashion/diet industries all work in tandem here to encourage our worst diet and exercise decisions and then blame us and try to be the savior. That is a lot for a single person to overcome, and perhaps Spaniards don’t have the same obstacles.

What most peeves me though about this OP is that she had a flamethrower, used it to make a judgement about how Americans were inferior because their plates were large, and then studiously avoided any further such accusations in her half dozen responses that are very carefully worded to state only the facts, ma’am.

2 Likes

We’re porkers.
I have no problem acknowledging that.
Svelte has never been in my vocabulary.
Always thought a siesta would transform American life for the better.
Couldn’t ever convince people of that truism.
:slight_smile:

1 Like

Here is a link to a post about an amazing course I took.

At some point I learned what I place on my fork is my prerogative, in any country, culture or state of mind. Call me crazy good people but this thread, in a devoted food community, is both insightful and dramatic.

We ARE the live to eat folk after all. Raise your fork with pride. :plate_with_cutlery:

A French-as-second-language friend, domiciled in Paris, asks for a “Baggie Dog”, inverting the adjective as French requires. I am tempted to copy her but doubt I could pull it off.

3 Likes

I’m not. Most of my friends and family and colleagues are not. And I will continue to push back against the stereotype that “all” Americans eat or look or are the same. I doubt that anyone here would tolerate another entire country being lumped into a single category. It’s bigotry, even if self-directed.

2 Likes

Here’s what I’ve always done. Morning coffee with a pastry. Pack minimum lunch around 11eat . Half sandwich, hard boiled egg , water . I’m done after 5 hours work . Wind into the evening . Have a beer . 20 minutes for nap time . Beer . Shower . Do the dishes. Wine. Meal prep . Wine . Cook dinner. Wine . Pile it on the plate . I’m not getting up for seconds. I’m tired . Lights off on the couch . Watching preferably a romantic comedy .
.

4 Likes

I was speaking of America in a general sense.
Not us.
:wink:

I know. And don’t let’s fight. But - and you may disagree! - there is no America in a general sense, unless you’re referring to our system of government or like that. Too big, too diverse, too hard to stuff into neat “this is them” boxes.

3 Likes

My friend had a basset hound who I’m sure qualified as baggy.

2 Likes

There ARE things that most or all Americans have in common.

There IS such a thing as the average American.

But the things in common are fewer, and the average much less instructive, than one might hope.

But beyond those not-very-fruitful things, there is statistics, and despite the dislike people often profess for that field, statistical information is often truly useful. To start with the potentially inflammatory point that was already raised, it makes no difference how many svelte little anecdotes any of us can find, the evidence indeed shows that what bbqboy originally said is (comparatively) right; in general, Americans are fat compared to people in other countries. This doesn’t automatically mean it’s a good or a bad thing, but it DOES mean it’s pointless to try to argue that they’re not.

Nobody ever thought “Americans are fat” meant every last person in the country, and it’s disingenuous to pretend that anyone would.

Disclaimer (or is it “claimer”?): I am close enough to be called American, and close enough to be called fat.

I’d like to hear more about that! I swear , nothing comes to my mind with any confidence. I guess we all want to feel different or special.

My husband came up with an answer, so I’m guessing others do too.

I found this from 2018 Wapo. If this is average, maybe I AM special!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/08/13/this-is-what-the-average-american-looks-like-in-2018/

One more.

“As Mark Twain famously wrote, “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” So as an exercise, let’s leave our proverbial “bubbles,” and compare our lives to that of the “average” American in 2019— we’ll call her Annie.”

But right now; no traveling. :frowning_face:

I especially like this;

" Perhaps most relatably, she also believes that she is smarter than the average person"

It actually says the average American, but I thought this was funny, and I think I’m funnier than average person.

3 Likes

Have you tried it quick pickled? There was a terrific recipe highlighted on CH a few years back which is now made at least weekly in our house.

1 Like

The average American is: add together ALL the characteristics of ALL Americans. Now divide by 330,000,000. *

It exists because it can’t not exist. But it isn’t useful for anything.

_
* That’s not an accurate description, but who cares, the real description is just as pointless.

Okay.

How about this?

Comparing mean, median, and mode.

" Symmetrical distribution includes some large observations, some small observations and some observations fall in between. For example, the age distribution of a group of residents in Bloomington/Normal probably follows symmetrical distribution. There are some kids, some elder people and then mostly are people of adulthood, so the frequency polygon will look like a bell-shaped curve as shown below. In a symmetrical distribution, mean and median are very close to each other, so you can use either of them as a representation of the average ."

1 Like

All that becomes interesting (or not) in different ways.

For example, the median income (list every person’s income in order from largest to smallest, then choose the one in the exact middle of the list) gives a noticeably different answer than the mean income (add everyone’s income together, then divide by how many people), because those few unimaginably rich people really cause the mean to turn out skewed.

The mean is what’s traditionally meant by the word “average”, but when you’re trying to learn something from numbers, you have to use those numbers that have something to teach you. Sometimes the mean is it, other times it isn’t.

Yes. I think my last post means I need to work on my sleep hygiene.

Edited to remove the…" yeah, but…"