[Osx-nutters] *Big* government

[mmalc crawford]

On Aug 29, 2007, at 1:59 PM, Patrick Coskren wrote:

>> Still the portions are just shockingly large in USA. Or is that my
>> misperception??
>
> Nope, I think that's completely accurate.  Like I said, there's  
> societal effects at play here, too, and I don't want to minimize  
> them, I just don't have anything interesting to say about them.
>
One of the issues here is that many people don't seem to realise that  
you're allowed to leave food on the plate.

I had an interesting discussion about this with another ex-pat  
recently.  Our parents grew up under wartime austerity.  It was  
drilled into them that they should eat everything on their plates  
because that's all there was.  Nothing should be wasted.  In part,  
that was drilled into me too.  But over time I've realised that the  
rule no longer applies.  We have a surfeit of food (acknowledging that  
this is not the case across the globe, that this is Not Fair, etc...),  
and restaurants in particular typically put more on the plate than I  
(or most people) actually need.

I now don't have any problem at all with leaving on the plate that  
which I don't need.  Ideally, I'll ask for a doggy bag (often it's the  
case that one restaurant meal will last two real meals).  Otherwise  
I'll politely tell the waiter that the food was fine, there was just  
too much of it.

A waste?  Perhaps.  But I'm sure some of the food at least will get  
"recycled" somewhere, and it's probably a bigger waste of resources if  
I have to "get rid of" the excess I've consumed than if I didn't eat  
it in the first place.  And hopefully the feedback (pun intended) I  
give the waiter might help the restaurant reduce portion sizes in  
future...


And Henry, there's a reasonable chance I might not actually order  
dessert this evening, or if I do I won't finish it!

mmalc