3 ms·

Only by insane american portion sizes. It's normal for an italian restaurant. And it's plenty of food.

iamacyborg 2y ago
I’m not American, I’m a short, skinny French guy. I’d be left very hungry if someone served me a portion of pasta that small.
- vinceguidry 2y ago
  This is why cacio e pepe is most often served as an appetizer, rarely as a main meal.
bigstrat2003 2y ago
Bro what. That is maybe four bites. It is by no means "plenty of food".
- deadbabe 2y ago
  It’s 50g of carbs, all you need in one meal.
  - iamacyborg 2y ago
    That’s enough for a mouthful when you’re mid-run.
  - devit 2y ago
    50g of carbs per "meal" are only enough if you eat 10-15 meals per day.
    - hollerith 2y ago
      Or if you get most of your calories from fats and proteins.
    - deadbabe 2y ago
      And then you wonder why your triglycerides are screwed eating 500-750g of carbs a day
  - supercurry 2y ago
    [dead]
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - chongli 2y ago
    No way that’s 50g of carbs. They started with 150g dry pasta and the serving they plated was less than 1/5th of it. I’d be surprised if there’s 20g of carbs in that serving.
BobaFloutist 2y ago
Ah yes Italians, famous for being stingy with portions, feeding you the minimum portion possible.
- Melting_Harps 2y ago
  > Ah yes Italians, famous for being stingy with portions, feeding you the minimum portion possible. So, this is an often [0] repeated misconception: you have to differ from family style eating, and that of professional cuisine gastronomy. The former is what you are attributing this POV, whereas a professional kitchen that focuses on the tre/quattro piatti format (prix fixe) the whole point is to provide small(er) portions between courses, often in order to get the waiter/sommelier to drop the wine card to match the palette/dish, which is where the real money is made in restaurants. When I ran kitchens in Italy, we often sold proteins at a loss (at least the first 5-10 orders) in order to promote the local wine/vineyards that we got a massive discount on by buying half the harvest/yield seasons anf sometimes years ahead and could mark-up the bottle--it's your basic loss leader approach, and pre-service is often where these things are tweaked and refined with a very clear intention for FOH to move the booze to make up for the losses in the kitchen. The owner I worked for during this time had a family owned dairy/caseficco business where we got our cheeses where we also got lamb from as well depending on the time of year. Its fun, to an extent, especially with weekend specials and selling out low-cost high margin dishes every night, but honestly after 3 seasons of this I realized I was just a middle man for back room deals with vineyards/distilleries that happened long before I ever worked there. I realized I preferred to cook seasonal in agrotourism settings as it hit all the goals I wanted to accomplish, and took the spot light more towards the farms/farmer, where I also worked at in the morning while working in kitchens in Europe. Sidenote: While I had half of Sundays off and free access to a table on the slow hours (along with anything on the menu and maybe a bottle of lambrusco or prosecco on a good week) when I was in Italy, the truth is I would peddle my bike to the nona's house to eat for like 4-5 hours with a nap which had those generous portions you are mentioning. 0: http://partaste.com/understanding-italian-menu/ http://partaste.com/understanding-italian-menu/
  - chongli 2y ago
    Thanks for clearing this up because I was confused by the other comments about how multi course meals are common in Italy but unknown in the US. So nobody in Italy is going to nonna’s house and sitting down to 10 courses of tiny amounts of pasta, proteins, vegetables, soups, and salads. They’re sitting down to one big feast with a much smaller number of dishes being passed around the table, like you’d see in The Godfather.
hansvm 2y ago
740 kcal of pasta and cheese went into the dish, and under half (370 kcal) ended up on that plate. People vary, but even short, old people with no exercise have a maintenance metabolism of 3x that. To maintain my weight I need 10x that. I suspect most of the reactions here are cultural (do you get most of your calories with breakfast, are restaurant meals larger or smaller than home meals, is that the only food with the meal or do you typically have other starters and desserts, do you snack throughout the day, ...). I typically eat once a day, sometimes adding in a small breakfast, I don't snack, I don't really care for desserts, and certainly for a weeknight meal I might make cacio e pepe but definitely won't also whip up breadsticks, cocktails, and a few sides most of the time. Nearly anyone with those eating habits would find this a small amount of food (in the sense that if they ate it instead of their normal dinner regularly they'd lose weight quickly, at least 3lbs per month, 25lbs in my case). Even people who eat 3 square meals and snack some (no more than half a family-size bag of chips) through the day will find this on the small side (losing weight if all 3 meals are that portion) if they're moderately active, no older than 40, and no shorter than 5'10.

I’m not American, I’m a short, skinny French guy. I’d be left very hungry if someone served me a portion of pasta that small.

vinceguidry 2y ago
This is why cacio e pepe is most often served as an appetizer, rarely as a main meal.

bigstrat2003 2y ago

Bro what. That is maybe four bites. It is by no means "plenty of food".

deadbabe 2y ago
It’s 50g of carbs, all you need in one meal.
- iamacyborg 2y ago
  That’s enough for a mouthful when you’re mid-run.
- devit 2y ago
  50g of carbs per "meal" are only enough if you eat 10-15 meals per day.
  - hollerith 2y ago
    Or if you get most of your calories from fats and proteins.
  - deadbabe 2y ago
    And then you wonder why your triglycerides are screwed eating 500-750g of carbs a day
- supercurry 2y ago
  [dead]
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- chongli 2y ago
  No way that’s 50g of carbs. They started with 150g dry pasta and the serving they plated was less than 1/5th of it. I’d be surprised if there’s 20g of carbs in that serving.

BobaFloutist 2y ago

Ah yes Italians, famous for being stingy with portions, feeding you the minimum portion possible.

Melting_Harps 2y ago
> Ah yes Italians, famous for being stingy with portions, feeding you the minimum portion possible. So, this is an often [0] repeated misconception: you have to differ from family style eating, and that of professional cuisine gastronomy. The former is what you are attributing this POV, whereas a professional kitchen that focuses on the tre/quattro piatti format (prix fixe) the whole point is to provide small(er) portions between courses, often in order to get the waiter/sommelier to drop the wine card to match the palette/dish, which is where the real money is made in restaurants. When I ran kitchens in Italy, we often sold proteins at a loss (at least the first 5-10 orders) in order to promote the local wine/vineyards that we got a massive discount on by buying half the harvest/yield seasons anf sometimes years ahead and could mark-up the bottle--it's your basic loss leader approach, and pre-service is often where these things are tweaked and refined with a very clear intention for FOH to move the booze to make up for the losses in the kitchen. The owner I worked for during this time had a family owned dairy/caseficco business where we got our cheeses where we also got lamb from as well depending on the time of year. Its fun, to an extent, especially with weekend specials and selling out low-cost high margin dishes every night, but honestly after 3 seasons of this I realized I was just a middle man for back room deals with vineyards/distilleries that happened long before I ever worked there. I realized I preferred to cook seasonal in agrotourism settings as it hit all the goals I wanted to accomplish, and took the spot light more towards the farms/farmer, where I also worked at in the morning while working in kitchens in Europe. Sidenote: While I had half of Sundays off and free access to a table on the slow hours (along with anything on the menu and maybe a bottle of lambrusco or prosecco on a good week) when I was in Italy, the truth is I would peddle my bike to the nona's house to eat for like 4-5 hours with a nap which had those generous portions you are mentioning. 0: http://partaste.com/understanding-italian-menu/ http://partaste.com/understanding-italian-menu/
- chongli 2y ago
  Thanks for clearing this up because I was confused by the other comments about how multi course meals are common in Italy but unknown in the US. So nobody in Italy is going to nonna’s house and sitting down to 10 courses of tiny amounts of pasta, proteins, vegetables, soups, and salads. They’re sitting down to one big feast with a much smaller number of dishes being passed around the table, like you’d see in The Godfather.

hansvm 2y ago

740 kcal of pasta and cheese went into the dish, and under half (370 kcal) ended up on that plate. People vary, but even short, old people with no exercise have a maintenance metabolism of 3x that. To maintain my weight I need 10x that. I suspect most of the reactions here are cultural (do you get most of your calories with breakfast, are restaurant meals larger or smaller than home meals, is that the only food with the meal or do you typically have other starters and desserts, do you snack throughout the day, ...). I typically eat once a day, sometimes adding in a small breakfast, I don't snack, I don't really care for desserts, and certainly for a weeknight meal I might make cacio e pepe but definitely won't also whip up breadsticks, cocktails, and a few sides most of the time. Nearly anyone with those eating habits would find this a small amount of food (in the sense that if they ate it instead of their normal dinner regularly they'd lose weight quickly, at least 3lbs per month, 25lbs in my case). Even people who eat 3 square meals and snack some (no more than half a family-size bag of chips) through the day will find this on the small side (losing weight if all 3 meals are that portion) if they're moderately active, no older than 40, and no shorter than 5'10.