Why are US meal portions so big??
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I'm disappointed that this thread will probably be long gone by the time I get to read it. If only I had time to go to the pub before work.0 -
Ofcourse its different between crops and seasons. The strawberries were an example, but even prepared food and prepacked and all of that was sooooo sweet. And isnt lemonade supposed to be more sour than sweet? Or maybe I have been drinking the wrong type :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
The whole two weeks I felt like in "sugar shock".. thankfully I had alot of touristing (read: walking) to do so I got it out of my system.
Ok, so American fruit isn't pumped with sugar because Murica. Good, same page. You absolutely can get lemonade that's more sour than sweet, or you can get lemonade that is mostly sugar with a hint of lemon. That's why people ask questions when labels aren't available if they are sensitive to a product. I make my own lemonade and would only get it in a restaurant if it was the type that has a lot of texture from the actual lemons used. Or, I actually just don't get any drinks in restaurants besides diet pop, black coffee, or water with lemon. Drinking the water with lemon with no sugar helps me avoid feeling like I am in sugar shock. Maybe you could try that next time so you aren't in sugar shock? When you buy prepackaged, the sugar content is right there on the label. Best of luck next time!
Well next time I will be the pain in the butt person who asks for springwater.. or brings my own. I cant drink the water if it isnt pure because I start swelling up from too much chlorine in it (at least in Atlanta, smokey mountains, washington areas).
Next time I will also be doing the same as I did allot of the later half of the trip - share with hubby
Except the steak.. he doesnt want to share the steak!
If I really did think the berries were laced with suger I would have said so.. but they were definately waaay sweeter than the "fresh sweet strawberries" I get here in norway (what you get in Iceland is not comparable, not fresh enough). They are sweeter.. but perhaps all the sweetness in other food has made people so used to it so they prefer them that way.. hmm.. kinda like not everyone can eat real Skyr cause its too sour - the norwegian skyr is sweeter than the icelandic one (no its not sweetened but during the process you can choose how sweet the product ends up).0 -
oh good grief :huh:
1. Does it matter?
2. Is it a question to get really worked up about?
3. Is national pride really at stake?
I am an obese UK national who drinks a bit too much and probably starts a little too early and chooses to order by the pint and not the half pint.
Some portion sizes are large in the UK, depends on where you go and yes I travel abroad as well and find portion sizes are generally very large in tourist areas where there are a lot of outlets competing for the same customers.
Maybe the title is wrong but portion size really makes no difference its how much of it you decide to eat that does.0 -
I'm just going to say - American portions in general are big and I didn't notice until I was already quite chubby and actually started measuring my home cooked food - I hate wasting food and throwing stuff out at home, let alone how much every restaurant in the world tosses... We all have minds to use, and can learn that we don't have to eat it all... we create the demands for what the suppliers provide by how we frequent these suppliers. I have noticed more healthy choices in the past 10 years become available everywhere in the US. This was not by accident, they know some people won't come in and eat the bad foods. This thread has been VERY interesting reading, and it's amazing how much the world bashes eachother for issues we could actually learn about - carry on...0
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PS: I'm American but don't mind acknowledging cultural differences. If American portion sizes are on average bigger, that doesn't embarrass me or bother me. I agree with others that when I do go out to eat, I'd rather have leftovers to take home for the price I pay, unless prices were to drop dramatically. I didn't actually get annoyed until the Hawaiian shirt comment and the justification attempts from then on.
If the OP didn't want to offend, she may have left off the judgmental, "Where's the sense in that??" comment. It's one thing to make an observation on another culture, if that's what she truly wanted to do. But a comment like that is a criticism, which is also fine if she wants to debate, but then she should not claim innocence and that she just wanted to make an observation.0 -
Ofcourse its different between crops and seasons. The strawberries were an example, but even prepared food and prepacked and all of that was sooooo sweet. And isnt lemonade supposed to be more sour than sweet? Or maybe I have been drinking the wrong type :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
The whole two weeks I felt like in "sugar shock".. thankfully I had alot of touristing (read: walking) to do so I got it out of my system.
Ok, so American fruit isn't pumped with sugar because Murica. Good, same page. You absolutely can get lemonade that's more sour than sweet, or you can get lemonade that is mostly sugar with a hint of lemon. That's why people ask questions when labels aren't available if they are sensitive to a product. I make my own lemonade and would only get it in a restaurant if it was the type that has a lot of texture from the actual lemons used. Or, I actually just don't get any drinks in restaurants besides diet pop, black coffee, or water with lemon. Drinking the water with lemon with no sugar helps me avoid feeling like I am in sugar shock. Maybe you could try that next time so you aren't in sugar shock? When you buy prepackaged, the sugar content is right there on the label. Best of luck next time!
Well next time I will be the pain in the butt person who asks for springwater.. or brings my own. I cant drink the water if it isnt pure because I start swelling up from too much chlorine in it (at least in Atlanta, smokey mountains, washington areas).
Next time I will also be doing the same as I did allot of the later half of the trip - share with hubby Except the steak.. he doesnt want to share the steak!
If I really did think the berries were laced with suger I would have said so.. but they were definately waaay sweeter than the "fresh sweet strawberries" I get here in norway (what you get in Iceland is not comparable, not fresh enough). They are sweeter.. but perhaps all the sweetness in other food has made people so used to it so they prefer them that way.. hmm.. kinda like not everyone can eat real Skyr cause its too sour - the norwegian skyr is sweeter than the icelandic one (no its not sweetened but during the process you can choose how sweet the product ends up).
Sweetness of strawberries is determined by the timing of a temperature change right before picking, the sandiness of the soil and the amount of sunshine in a day versus rain. If the temperature stays cooler a little longer, the sun shines in the afternoons, but there is early morning rain showers, and the soil is sufficiently sandy, then the berries will be sweeter. If it is hotter and wetter, the berries will not have as good of a flavor. Norwegian berries aren't as sweet because they lose a whole lot of flavor traveling from Florida and California and Mexico to market. Unless they're grown in a green house in Norway or something, in which case the artificial atmosphere makes for a right drab and disappointing berry. Except in Japan. Somehow, the Japanese have managed to produce a very sweet strawberry even though they mostly rely on artificial conditions.
America (The US, Mexico, South America) produces the world's best produce, and most of the world's produce. You can find better of everything here because it is grown here. Kind of like how you find better cheeses in France and Austria and better deep fried Mars Bars and blood pudding in the UK.0 -
Sweetness of strawberries is determined by the timing of a temperature change right before picking, the sandiness of the soil and the amount of sunshine in a day versus rain. If the temperature stays cooler a little longer, the sun shines in the afternoons, but there is early morning rain showers, and the soil is sufficiently sandy, then the berries will be sweeter. If it is hotter and wetter, the berries will not have as good of a flavor. Norwegian berries aren't as sweet because they lose a whole lot of flavor traveling from Florida and California and Mexico to market. Unless they're grown in a green house in Norway or something, in which case the artificial atmosphere makes for a right drab and disappointing berry. Except in Japan. Somehow, the Japanese have managed to produce a very sweet strawberry even though they mostly rely on artificial conditions.
America (The US, Mexico, South America) produces the world's best produce, and most of the world's produce. You can find better of everything here because it is grown here. Kind of like how you find better cheeses in France and Austria and better deep fried Mars Bars and blood pudding in the UK.
Interesting.. except for the part where Norwegian strawberries travel.. Norwegian strawberries are from Norway, Danish strawberries are from Denmark, etc. They are advertised and sold with the country they are grown in specially noted. Which is why you cant get Norwegian strawberries all year long. Allot of them are grown outside (its a tourist thing to do in Denmark for an Icelander, to visit a strawberry field). So you obviously do not know allot about that particular market.
And we will just agree to disagree about the "best produce" comment I like my strawberries a bit on the sour side. 0 -
Definitely be the pain in the butt who asks. There's lots of bottled water available at US restaurants these days. There's also lots of filtered water and bottled sparkling water.0
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My sister (half sister) was born and raised in Italy. She loves, and I mean LOVES taking every opportunity to slip in the fact that "things are dfferent in Europe" like it's some magical, cultured place and the poor white trash of North America can only dream of finding a way to get their trailer over there so they, too, can live like civilized human beings. The irony of how tacky this is blows my mind. Pinky up!0
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Ofcourse its different between crops and seasons. The strawberries were an example, but even prepared food and prepacked and all of that was sooooo sweet. And isnt lemonade supposed to be more sour than sweet? Or maybe I have been drinking the wrong type :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
The whole two weeks I felt like in "sugar shock".. thankfully I had alot of touristing (read: walking) to do so I got it out of my system.
Ok, so American fruit isn't pumped with sugar because Murica. Good, same page. You absolutely can get lemonade that's more sour than sweet, or you can get lemonade that is mostly sugar with a hint of lemon. That's why people ask questions when labels aren't available if they are sensitive to a product. I make my own lemonade and would only get it in a restaurant if it was the type that has a lot of texture from the actual lemons used. Or, I actually just don't get any drinks in restaurants besides diet pop, black coffee, or water with lemon. Drinking the water with lemon with no sugar helps me avoid feeling like I am in sugar shock. Maybe you could try that next time so you aren't in sugar shock? When you buy prepackaged, the sugar content is right there on the label. Best of luck next time!
Well next time I will be the pain in the butt person who asks for springwater.. or brings my own. I cant drink the water if it isnt pure because I start swelling up from too much chlorine in it (at least in Atlanta, smokey mountains, washington areas).
Next time I will also be doing the same as I did allot of the later half of the trip - share with hubby Except the steak.. he doesnt want to share the steak!
If I really did think the berries were laced with suger I would have said so.. but they were definately waaay sweeter than the "fresh sweet strawberries" I get here in norway (what you get in Iceland is not comparable, not fresh enough). They are sweeter.. but perhaps all the sweetness in other food has made people so used to it so they prefer them that way.. hmm.. kinda like not everyone can eat real Skyr cause its too sour - the norwegian skyr is sweeter than the icelandic one (no its not sweetened but during the process you can choose how sweet the product ends up).
Sweetness of strawberries is determined by the timing of a temperature change right before picking, the sandiness of the soil and the amount of sunshine in a day versus rain. If the temperature stays cooler a little longer, the sun shines in the afternoons, but there is early morning rain showers, and the soil is sufficiently sandy, then the berries will be sweeter. If it is hotter and wetter, the berries will not have as good of a flavor. Norwegian berries aren't as sweet because they lose a whole lot of flavor traveling from Florida and California and Mexico to market. Unless they're grown in a green house in Norway or something, in which case the artificial atmosphere makes for a right drab and disappointing berry. Except in Japan. Somehow, the Japanese have managed to produce a very sweet strawberry even though they mostly rely on artificial conditions.
America (The US, Mexico, South America) produces the world's best produce, and most of the world's produce. You can find better of everything here because it is grown here. Kind of like how you find better cheeses in France and Austria and better deep fried Mars Bars and blood pudding in the UK.
Not necessarily disagreeing with this but from my experience the sweetest strawberries I have ever tasted are non-commercial wild Fragaria vesca or/and alpina found in the French Alps (and other regions too), on walks. It could be that the location creates a bias but these are deliciously sweet.
The "queen of the valley" strawberries only lasts about 24hrs and doesn't do well outside of a local market trade.
The "godess of the valley" are a little larger, less tasty, IMHO.
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Ofcourse its different between crops and seasons. The strawberries were an example, but even prepared food and prepacked and all of that was sooooo sweet. And isnt lemonade supposed to be more sour than sweet? Or maybe I have been drinking the wrong type :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
The whole two weeks I felt like in "sugar shock".. thankfully I had alot of touristing (read: walking) to do so I got it out of my system.
Ok, so American fruit isn't pumped with sugar because Murica. Good, same page. You absolutely can get lemonade that's more sour than sweet, or you can get lemonade that is mostly sugar with a hint of lemon. That's why people ask questions when labels aren't available if they are sensitive to a product. I make my own lemonade and would only get it in a restaurant if it was the type that has a lot of texture from the actual lemons used. Or, I actually just don't get any drinks in restaurants besides diet pop, black coffee, or water with lemon. Drinking the water with lemon with no sugar helps me avoid feeling like I am in sugar shock. Maybe you could try that next time so you aren't in sugar shock? When you buy prepackaged, the sugar content is right there on the label. Best of luck next time!
Well next time I will be the pain in the butt person who asks for springwater.. or brings my own. I cant drink the water if it isnt pure because I start swelling up from too much chlorine in it (at least in Atlanta, smokey mountains, washington areas).
Next time I will also be doing the same as I did allot of the later half of the trip - share with hubby Except the steak.. he doesnt want to share the steak!
If I really did think the berries were laced with suger I would have said so.. but they were definately waaay sweeter than the "fresh sweet strawberries" I get here in norway (what you get in Iceland is not comparable, not fresh enough). They are sweeter.. but perhaps all the sweetness in other food has made people so used to it so they prefer them that way.. hmm.. kinda like not everyone can eat real Skyr cause its too sour - the norwegian skyr is sweeter than the icelandic one (no its not sweetened but during the process you can choose how sweet the product ends up).
Sweetness of strawberries is determined by the timing of a temperature change right before picking, the sandiness of the soil and the amount of sunshine in a day versus rain. If the temperature stays cooler a little longer, the sun shines in the afternoons, but there is early morning rain showers, and the soil is sufficiently sandy, then the berries will be sweeter. If it is hotter and wetter, the berries will not have as good of a flavor. Norwegian berries aren't as sweet because they lose a whole lot of flavor traveling from Florida and California and Mexico to market. Unless they're grown in a green house in Norway or something, in which case the artificial atmosphere makes for a right drab and disappointing berry. Except in Japan. Somehow, the Japanese have managed to produce a very sweet strawberry even though they mostly rely on artificial conditions.
America (The US, Mexico, South America) produces the world's best produce, and most of the world's produce. You can find better of everything here because it is grown here. Kind of like how you find better cheeses in France and Austria and better deep fried Mars Bars and blood pudding in the UK.
Not necessarily disagreeing with this but from my experience the sweetest strawberries I have ever tasted are non-commercial wild Fragaria vesca or/and alpina found in the French Alps (and other regions too), on walks. It could be that the location creates a bias but these are deliciously sweet.
The "queen of the valley" strawberries only lasts about 24hrs and doesn't do well outside of a local market trade.
The "godess of the valley" are a little larger, less tasty, IMHO.
Not fair. I have a fond memory of picking wild strawberries like that as a child in Germany with my dad on a hike near the French border (shhhh, don't tell anyone I was born in Europe to expat Americans). Now, my mother and I trail walk and pick wild blackberries in Florida. There's a patch almost an acre wide that she and I discovered a few years back. We've come home with a bushel of them at one time, fingers stained purple.
The point of my post was that the sweetness of berries is determined by growing conditions, not magical fertilizers. And the poster was saying that berries in her country are not sweet. Her remark that I don't know anything about growing berries in Scandinavia is partially true. I know Scandinavia produces lots of berries because the jams and jellies are exported to the US and throughout the world (those are chock full of added sugar, though). I happen to enjoy sour berries from time to time.0 -
Wild strawberries are lush!!! :bigsmile:0
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I know Scandinavia produces lots of berries because the jams and jellies are exported to the US and throughout the world (those are chock full of added sugar, though). I happen to enjoy sour berries from time to time.
Usually the worst of the crop goes into the jams and jellies. The added sugar helps the taste. So that would mean Scandinavia -- if they're exporting a lot of jams and jellies (I don't know the details) -- doesn't grow the best berries.
And wild blackberries? YUM! There were bushes WAY back in my BFF's backyard growing up and we used to eat them straight off the bush every day in the summer.0 -
Also the irony is that the US is mostly made up of the descendents of people who fled that "magical" place. And a lot of first and second generation immigrants, as well. (On a side note, my great-gandparents came from Italy. My great-grandmother's family couldn't buy her shoes there, but here she and my great-grandfather ended up owning several houses.)My sister (half sister) was born and raised in Italy. She loves, and I mean LOVES taking every opportunity to slip in the fact that "things are dfferent in Europe" like it's some magical, cultured place and the poor white trash of North America can only dream of finding a way to get their trailer over there so they, too, can live like civilized human beings. The irony of how tacky this is blows my mind. Pinky up!
What I find interesting is that people who move here from England don't do that. I have been told by more than one British immigrant that they were very surprised by living here, that it wasn't anything like they expected (in a good way). Some of them visited before living here and other than that, their only experience with the US was tourists.
It's common sense that they would notice the rude, loud tourists and not the nicer, quieter ones. So they think all Americans are like that.
We aren't.0 -
It's common sense that they would notice the rude, loud tourists and not the nicer, quieter ones. So they think all Americans are like that.
We're not.
I went on a Caribbean Cruise a few years ago... The polite, quiet "Americans" were Canadians.0 -
So you spoke to every single person on the ship and know that every polite, quiet person from North America was Canadian?It's common sense that they would notice the rude, loud tourists and not the nicer, quieter ones. So they think all Americans are like that.
We're not.
I went on a Caribbean Cruise a few years ago... The polite, quiet "Americans" were Canadians.
Also, spend some time in Niagara Falls or Disneyworld sometime and tell me again that Americans have the market on loud and rude.0 -
I know Scandinavia produces lots of berries because the jams and jellies are exported to the US and throughout the world (those are chock full of added sugar, though). I happen to enjoy sour berries from time to time.
Usually the worst of the crop goes into the jams and jellies. The added sugar helps the taste. So that would mean Scandinavia -- if they're exporting a lot of jams and jellies (I don't know the details) -- doesn't grow the best berries.
And wild blackberries? YUM! There were bushes WAY back in my BFF's backyard growing up and we used to eat them straight off the bush every day in the summer.
No we just really like jam! Seriously we love our jam! We have it on EVERYTHING! Its also a cultural habit to make jams, because for the longest time you couldnt store berries or other things properly so everything had to go into jams or be dried and salted.
How sugary the jam is depends on the culture as well.. Maybe we export the sweetest jams because thats what sells over there?0 -
So you spoke to every single person on the ship and know that every polite, quiet person from North America was Canadian?It's common sense that they would notice the rude, loud tourists and not the nicer, quieter ones. So they think all Americans are like that.
We're not.
I went on a Caribbean Cruise a few years ago... The polite, quiet "Americans" were Canadians.
Also, spend some time in Niagara Falls or Disneyworld sometime and tell me again that Americans have the market on loud and rude.
Well you're on a boat... largely a captive audience. People are randomly seated together at dinner tables. By the end of 2 weeks there's a good chance you have met everybody!
What struck me though was that every Canadian was VERY quick to point out that they were not Americans!0 -
I tried to ignore this but yes I've travelled far and wide, at least 8 countries in Africa, including Ethiopia, Namibia, Ghana; Asia including China, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand x 2 and Kazakhstan; South America including Argentina and Ecuador; Costa Rica x 2 and all over Europe of course. Haven't reached Australia and New Zealand yet but they're on my list. On all my travels I've never seen portions as large as the US and it wasn't a criticism, I was more worried about the waste but this has been explained to me, ie doggy bags to take home, not easy for me when I was travelling and staying in hotels!Hooray! Thank you! I 'm the original poster and I have been dismayed by the venom in some of the replies to my post. But perhaps it has made people think!
Just another post by a little traveled xenophobe making generalizations about an entire nation from eating in tourist traps and high-volume troughs.
It's OK, I've seen Americans do the same thing.
We have xenophobes too.
No worries. :flowerforyou:
what were people saying before about nasty name calling...? I'm pretty sure this would fall into that category. 'little traveled xenophobe... eating in high-volume troughs' -- completely uncalled for nasty assumptions. She's probably travelled more than you, pet.
but hey if we put an emoticon in that makes everything a-ok right?
So you're a "reasonably" traveled xenophobe. That's just dandy.
Look, I get it. I've worked with my share of British xenophobes, and in several countries. Trust me. You're not the only one. Of course, we have had our own brilliant travelers write about Europe and Asia too. I can't tell you how many times I've had friends come back from the U.K. to tell me how absolutely inedible the food was. :flowerforyou:
If you can't learn to stop taking limited experiences and writing them large, then there is little anyone else can do to change your attitudes. I have eaten at those type of places a handful of times. The food is usually awful, the portions huge, and they are decidedly aimed at a certain market. If you want to leave the cheap and fake "Italian" places, the TGIF Fridays, and the "Chinese" buffets and go to real restaurants, you will have a different experience. But, meh . . .
if we are going to stereotype...would you rather be a stinky, non deodorant wearing European, or an out of shape, obese American...I choose option two over stinking...0 -
I've been on a cruise. There were thousands upon thousands of people on that boat and it was a smaller cruise ship than Royal Caribbean has. I didn't come close to meeting everyone.
So you spoke to every single person on the ship and know that every polite, quiet person from North America was Canadian?It's common sense that they would notice the rude, loud tourists and not the nicer, quieter ones. So they think all Americans are like that.
We're not.
I went on a Caribbean Cruise a few years ago... The polite, quiet "Americans" were Canadians.
Also, spend some time in Niagara Falls or Disneyworld sometime and tell me again that Americans have the market on loud and rude.
Well you're on a boat... largely a captive audience. People are randomly seated together at dinner tables. By the end of 2 weeks there's a good chance you have met everybody!
What struck me though was that every Canadian was VERY quick to point out that they were not Americans!
And, seriously, the majority of Americans (United States) are not loud and rude. I live here. I've lived here for 36 years. I kinda think I've met more Americans than you have. And probably more Canadians. I lived on the Canadian border for six years.0
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