Reverse Culture Shock

I was awed by the January issue of Bon Appetit magazine, which was my first. As a subscriber to the now defunct Gourmet magazine, I am an accidental reader of Bon Appetit.

What struck me most about the food magazine was the portion size. The recipe for this “Pork Meatball Banh Mi” is supposed to make “lunch or a casual dinner.”

That sandwich looks big enough to feed a person for a week. The recipe calls for four, ten inch long pieces of French bread. I am sure that the makers of the baguette hadn’t intended for it to be filled with quite that much meat.

But slowly, the longer I live in the US, the more accustomed I become to massive portion sizes.

My husband and I saw the New York Knicks beat the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena last night. It was a great game, and not just because it went into overtime.

In addition to the action on the court, we enjoyed massive melted cheese delights at a Mexican fast food shop. My husband’s chicken burrito was so huge that the woman behind the counter could barely contain all the “fixins” inside the tortilla.

The meal set us back $30, which is a lot for fast food, but cheap when you consider that they gave us enough cheese and chicken to feed a small village.

An American acquaintance told me that when he travelled to London, he spent a fortune on food because the portions were so small — he had to order two main courses at every restaurant. At the rate we’re going, when we return to the UK, we’ll have to do the same.