When I first came to New York, myself and my then girlfriend would always share one main course between the two of us. Normally this would involve some annoyance on the part of the server, and often either a surcharge or a requirement that we both had a starter, but what it never involved was either of us being hungry. New York portions, like most portions in America, are huge. Only when you eat at really up market restaurants do the portion sizes flip flop, and you end up paying more money for much less food – quality not quantity.
Unfortunately after years of living in New York I’ve gotten used to eating a whole single portion myself, as my gut will attest and last night was no exception. On the way home from a talk I decided to stop by a local restaurant for a lovely coq au vin. This came in a bowl over-flowing with chicken, with very little space for the sauce. By the time I’d finished I was pretty darn full, from a dish that was mostly meat and maybe two small onions. Food coma set in rapidly.
This question arose in my mind while eating – why don’t I become vegetarian? I know that we can survive without eating animals, plus kittens are cute and fluffy as are calves. The only problem with this idea is… I like meat. Yep. That’s a biggie. So I’ve now hit on the concept of ‘concientious carnivorousness’. My premise is this; in choosing to continue to eat meat we all have a responsibility to the animals that gave up their lives to make best use of their sacrifice. This can be carried out by simply eating every piece of meat on your plate and trying not to put too much meat in your meal to help make sure you eat all of it. To that end restaurants could help by setting up an objective measuring system for how much meat is in a portion, and offering reduced size portions. Simple really. Coff.