Why are US meal portions so big??

Pretty sure you're right. Yet that doesn't stop them from eating it anyway.

my cat will eat anything, she's a huge jerk

you are certainly full of it tonight.

by "it" I mean "funny cat videos"

I'm one of those people

from the internet

Hello to the internet, from the US. We are all fat and arrogant.

I wish it were as easy as just throwing them on the treadmill, like these people

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESM3495FiZM

I love the smell of thinly veiled America bashing in the morning.

Inorite?

Nothing tempers my inherent American-born superiority complex like some bitter anonymous posts on the internet.

I can't hear your big words over the loud sound of me chewing my enormous plate of restaurant food.

Only one?

Here in Mexico it is frowned upon to have all the food on one plate. Usually the rice is served alone on a plate before the entrée, which comes afterwards with tortillas in an extra container to keep them warm. Only poor people ( who basically live of rice and beans ) and I like to have their rice touch the stew and the beans on the same plate. I can't say, but wonder if this little part of Mexican food culture has maybe some bearing on how Mexican meals are served in the US.

I figured it had to do with South Texas' proximity to Mexico and the high Hispanic population in the Valley region. I've been to a "Mexican" restaurant in Canada. They had never heard of enchiladas. Makes me wonder how far off we are on other cultures like Thai food that aren't even on the same continent.

1. The US government subsidizes food production, making food crazy cheap (but not of good quality).
2. Americans have been conditioned to think that bigger is better. Bigger and cheaper is best.
3. To get smaller portions we have to pay more. For instance, if you want your meal split with half in a box to go, or wish to share your meal with your dinner mate, there is a surcharge of $1 or more at most establishments.
4. At fast food places the surcharge for smaller portions can double the price of the meal due to the increased labor cost in a custom order. Just try getting a half-sized banana split at Dairy Queen. It'll cost you nearly $9 to buy the individual ingredients.
5. We kind of like it this way.

I'm in Texas, and I almost always go splits on food with friends and I've never been charged a buck to do it. Maybe that's specific to certain regions.

There are a couple places here though where you have to bring your own wine if you want wine and they charge you a few bucks to open it and that chaps me a little. lol

Here in Oregon, most places, even fast food joints, have a wine list, lol! We're like Napa Valley North. :drinker:

Its in American mindset that big =good.

America is such a biiiiiig country, and it loves everything big. Big houses, big spaces, big food, big shopping malls, big cars. Somewhere in a small town (under a million) in Midwest where the spaces are so huge, people can afford living in a huge house and driving huge cars. Parking is always available everywhere, and a single parking spot is huge. Most of the mid class people live in suburbs, where houses are really big. They feel that their personal space is big too, like 5-6 feet.

Also personal space is much smaller in a big city like NYC, it's 1-2 feet at max, often less during the morning rush in the subway, it can be 0.2 feet away from another person.

nationalistic thread is nationalistic.

i know it's popular in Europe to take potshots at the USA whenever and wherever possible, but just because you ate one meal in one restaurant and got a dumb explanation from one friend, does not mean that such an assertion (as found in your thread title) is universally true.

go to an expensive foo-foo restaurant in NYC and you'll find much smaller (and more expensive portions).

go to a pub in rural England and you'll find large portion sizes.

there is no government agency in either country that enforces a mandatory minimum portion size for restaurants. every restaurant and chef is different and has different standards.