One of my favorite books back when.
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I’ve been to your small cold island a few times, and I found plenty of diversity in the kinds of food I was served. Once I stayed with a guy who put ketchup on spaghetti, but I do not think that is typical English fare. At least, I hope not. And I was shocked, shocked to learn that some English people drink coffee instead of tea. Mind! Blown!
I was trying to figure out what island that might be that was “not as big as Kansas, with a population 1/5th that of America and none of us live more than 75 miles from the coast.”! Sounds densely populated!
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432 people per square kilometer, vs 36 people per square kilometer in the U.S. I guess you’re right!
Wow! That sounds interesting!
Okay, I give! What’s the island?
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England!
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Ohhhhhhh! Of course! Now I see it in @Harters avatar. In my search I just read a good explanation of England, Great Britain, United Kingdom: What’s the Difference?
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This didn’t give it away?
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I don’t even like to assume I know what “English” means!
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Ha, haven’t read through the voluminous responses yet, but I can definitely say I feel like a pig when I travel outside the US and order at a restaurant. 
I can deal with the differences in portion sizes , primarily because I’m constantly snacking or trying foods when I travel. Or quite frankly ordering more on a menu so I can sample is a good excuse.
But when I venture even into a McDonalds out of curiosity, I always think the average American would treat one of these sandwiches as a snack, not a meal. My expectations aren’t even that bad compared to others I’ve dined with. Especially in Asia where I swear so many people look rail thin.
One thing I appreciated in Spain is the tapas style eating. So many of the meals I had were in fact several small plates and portions of food. I certainly never felt like I wasn’t satiated after dining.
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I’ve not been to Asia but I’ve seen it on TV, and it certainly looks like at least in Japan, “they” tend to be “rail thin”. I had even wondered if there was some genetic predisposition, but thereare suggestions on the internet and on “Midnight Diner” (anybody else watch that?), that there is also a great deal of social pressure that would be frowned upon here.
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Being small and Asian, and I guess hiding my flab well, I “love” having sales people having to constantly come back to me with increasingly larger sizes for clothing I’m trying on. 
But I like shopping in Hong Kong, and other Asian cities, because the length works much better for me.
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I once had lunch with someone in England who was shocked, shocked to learn that some American people drink tea instead of coffee.
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I’ll make the excuse that my OMG coffee moment happened in 1984, and most of what I knew about other countries I had learned from books and movies. I’m guessing your experience was also pre-interwebs.
My experience was in 2000, not exactly pre-interwebs.
Right on the cusp. I still had dial-up, I’m pretty sure.
I already said (at least twice) that the average American is a useless piece of knowledge.
re tapas style dining, dh and I usually order 1 of something and share it. If we love it, we can always order another. If we don’t, we’re glad to order something else next round. And then there is the very true saw that says that it takes your brain 20 minutes to realize you’ve eaten. So another tactic of ours is to promise ourselves that we can order another in 20 minutes if we’re still hungry. But almost always, we are not.
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