5 ms·

I was kind of wondering how this didnt happen earlier. I have been to US 3 times. NYC, Vegas, San Fran, Los angeles etc. and one thing I noticed was how unhealt

I was kind of wondering how this didnt happen earlier. I have been to US 3 times. NYC, Vegas, San Fran, Los angeles etc. and one thing I noticed was how unhealthy alot of americans lived compared to europe. Obsese parents together with children as small as 6 years old were all dining at fast-food restaurants eating massive amount of food. The kids were very obese too. The entire culture seemed for _me_ as its rather normal to eat your dinner at kfc or mcdonalds than making food at home. When we took the flight fra NYC to Vegas we noticed there were more obese people than "regular sized". But when we took fra SF to London it was opposite. And whats up with the size of the meals served in restaurants? its huuge. alot food for little money. Sometimes we split one dish in between us because it was too much for a single person. The same when we went to movies, we got to choose size of coke and popcorn. So we picked medium coke. Medium is like extra-large in europe. I think its sad because americans are missing out on really great food. It is the food you cook yourself thats not only healthy but tastes so much better and authentic. I hope nobody is offended my post but I just felt its an area to improve on.

vinay427 10y ago
> tastes so much better and authentic. I agree with most of your post as I am fortunate to have been exposed to food cultures outside the US, but I disagree with this point. Many people either can't or won't cook food that is "authentic" to any reasonable standard especially if it is, to them, a foreign cuisine. This applies in basically every country around the world. That being said, I don't think the goal of good food is to be "authentic" if restaurant critiques are any indication.
- openfuture 10y ago
  I think you have different understandings of the word 'authentic' in the context of food.
  - vinay427 10y ago
    Could you clarify what your definition is in this context?
    - gressquel 10y ago
      I think I left it open to misunderstanding, but what I meant by authentic in this context was "shortest and less-tampered path from nature to ingestion". Foe example, in restaurants they may have frozen meat for long time or in bad condition. Vegetables and sauces maybe be re-used. Unknown ingredients may be mixed to enhance taste, color or smell. By authentic you kinda go to your local fishmarket, buy the fish (in here we got fresh non-frozen), buy groceries and make that food the same day. By making the food yourself you know what you are putting inside your mouth :) sorry for any misunderstanding, English is not my first language.
      - vinay427 10y ago
        That makes more sense. I assumed that by "authentic" you meant "genuine, traditional, etc."
rogerbinns 10y ago
> And whats up with the size of the meals served in restaurants? Two things. If you have a (non-fast food) restaurant and want to increase revenue, there aren't too many options. One approach is to increase the size of the meal (eg serve 10% more food but charge 25% more money). The other is the doggy bag (taking away leftovers with you). You can then reheat that to make another meal. When I lived in the UK, going to eat at a restaurant was a rare thing (maybe once every few months). On moving to the US I found my colleagues would often eat out three or four times a week, and have leftovers for many of the other meals.
wapz 10y ago
The movies really get you in america. It'll cost you something like $4 for a small and $5.50 for a large (where the large is quite literally 3 times bigger than the small). Of course if you're with an SO you can share the large but when people go alone they just buy the large and plan to drink it the entire day. Same for popcorn. I think you get something like 6-8 times more (because the free refill) when ordering a large compared to small and the cost is less than double.

vinay427 10y ago

> tastes so much better and authentic. I agree with most of your post as I am fortunate to have been exposed to food cultures outside the US, but I disagree with this point. Many people either can't or won't cook food that is "authentic" to any reasonable standard especially if it is, to them, a foreign cuisine. This applies in basically every country around the world. That being said, I don't think the goal of good food is to be "authentic" if restaurant critiques are any indication.

openfuture 10y ago
I think you have different understandings of the word 'authentic' in the context of food.
- vinay427 10y ago
  Could you clarify what your definition is in this context?
  - gressquel 10y ago
    I think I left it open to misunderstanding, but what I meant by authentic in this context was "shortest and less-tampered path from nature to ingestion". Foe example, in restaurants they may have frozen meat for long time or in bad condition. Vegetables and sauces maybe be re-used. Unknown ingredients may be mixed to enhance taste, color or smell. By authentic you kinda go to your local fishmarket, buy the fish (in here we got fresh non-frozen), buy groceries and make that food the same day. By making the food yourself you know what you are putting inside your mouth :) sorry for any misunderstanding, English is not my first language.
    - vinay427 10y ago
      That makes more sense. I assumed that by "authentic" you meant "genuine, traditional, etc."

rogerbinns 10y ago

> And whats up with the size of the meals served in restaurants? Two things. If you have a (non-fast food) restaurant and want to increase revenue, there aren't too many options. One approach is to increase the size of the meal (eg serve 10% more food but charge 25% more money). The other is the doggy bag (taking away leftovers with you). You can then reheat that to make another meal. When I lived in the UK, going to eat at a restaurant was a rare thing (maybe once every few months). On moving to the US I found my colleagues would often eat out three or four times a week, and have leftovers for many of the other meals.

wapz 10y ago

The movies really get you in america. It'll cost you something like $4 for a small and $5.50 for a large (where the large is quite literally 3 times bigger than the small). Of course if you're with an SO you can share the large but when people go alone they just buy the large and plan to drink it the entire day. Same for popcorn. I think you get something like 6-8 times more (because the free refill) when ordering a large compared to small and the cost is less than double.