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by stevesimmons 517 days ago
Portion sizes in the US are ridiculous... often 2-3x larger than here in Europe.

When I regularly visited New York for work, and we'd get takeaway sandwiches, I'd have to open them and remove half the filling. I just couldn't physically eat that volume of meat, cheese or especially mayonnaise. For all drinks, I'd order small.
2 comments
bityard 517 days ago
Where in Europe? I haven't toured the _whole_ continent but I've been to restaurants in Germany, the UK, and Ireland and did not find their portions to be any different than what you'd get at the average corner restaurant in the US.

Now, there are plenty of food vendors and restaurants in the US where big portions are considered part of the experience. Especially hamburgers, subs, and other sandwiches. I once ate at a place that served a plate-sized burrito completely covered in french fries. 12 inches wide and 6 inches tall. SOME people can eat that amount of food but most people cannot, and nobody is expected to.

Finally, large portions in NY street food are often customary because for lots of people with demanding jobs and 12-16 hour shifts, lunch is often their only meal. Or, half of it is lunch, the other half is dinner later on.

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lotsoweiners 517 days ago
New York deli sandwiches are certainly not representative of what you get everywhere in the US. They are famously large.
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dfxm12 517 days ago
And expensive to match the size! A pastrami sandwich at Katz's is ~$30. A croque madame at a similar place in Paris is ~€15.

People generally split a Pastrami sandwich over a couple meals or with someone else.

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taeric 517 days ago
They may be famously large, but I don't think they are abnormally large for most of the US nowadays? I certainly didn't think they were particularly big when I visited.
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jacobr1 517 days ago
Katz serves roughly 3/4 lbs of meat. That is particularly big. You can get triple hamburgers which would be similar is size - but most people are ordering singles or doubles. And you can find other kinds of large sandwiches around the country ... but it is not the most common of sizes.
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taeric 517 days ago
I think what made them not seem excessively large to me, is that it didn't really come with much else? Yes, it was more meat than I would get on a sandwich, typically. But... that is about it?

Maybe I got too used to some of the obscure burrito places around Atlanta that would put way too much on them?

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