Monday, August 2, 2010

Insanely Large Portions - BITTER

OK. I think we now have a real problem in this country with portion sizes. Here's a decent article on the topic. Go to Wendy's and order a medium. May sure you rent a hand truck to cart it away. After the movie Super Size Me literally killed the Super Size/King Size concept, everyone kept doing the same thing, only they just changed all the contents of small, medium, and large.

Anyway, I went to this pancake place the other day since I heard it was the best rated and always packed. I took the family and we ordered a bunch of different pancakes. I was told I could get 4 medium sized or 2 oversized pancakes. I got the 2 oversized and boy were they ever. These 2 pancakes were each the size of a small pizza. It was served to me on a platter and the pancakes were pouring over each side. No syrup here unless I wanted it all over the table. The kids also got food spilling over their plates and they barely touched it for the sheer impossibility of working with the food.

I ate literally 20-25% of the food, about 1/2 of 1 pancake and then asked the waitress, "Has anyone...ever...actually eaten all of this?" She pointed to a wall of names. The busboys were walking around the restaurant with take away boxes for anyone that wanted, but I thought, "What's the point?"

When I finally got up I started to notice everyone looking at my table. I let them know that I obviously had no idea what I was ordering.

I think at a restaurant like this the wait staff have a responsibility to tell you if they have insanely large portions. Also, just asking if I want the over sized pancakes is not the same as asking if I want to super size it. People who eat a super size fries do not get their name on a wall.

That may be the underlying problem after all. If I have the girth to be able to shovel two garbage can lid size pancakes down my gullet I get celebrated on a wall. In a few years, that wall is going to end up being pretty crowded by my estimation.

Here's an idea! Give a wall to the normal sized families with the normal sized kids that eat normal sizes meals and don't have a Coke with a vat of pancakes at 9am.

Out of control food portions, you get a BITTER.