“Super-size” Meals: Portions in US Restaurants

“You might think: Well, I can always take the excess to go. But that just leads to more excess: excess packaging, excess utensils and plenty of napkins.”

By Clara Cayosa

I love eating out. To me it’s the best way to learn about a country’s culture. When I arrived in San Francisco early this year, my relatives based in the city picked me up and brought me straight to La Petite Camille — a casual, long-running Vietnamese eatery near the airport. I found out, over our respective bowls of pho, that my well-traveled grandparents made it a point to eat at the same restaurant. The pho was great, but I felt bad that I couldn’t finish my bowl. This is something about dining in the US that I hate: American portions.

Though you can eat cuisine from practically every country in the world in the States, the portion will always be American-sized. Initially I thought it was probably because of my physiological makeup — a five-foot-tall Asian body that could only intake so much. But in all the restaurants I’ve eaten in, it wasn’t just me. Americans also couldn’t finish American-sized meals!

Portions in America were designed to be colossal. Following World War II, agricultural policy in the U.S. expanded. Farmers grew food more cheaply by using fertilizer, and in the 1970s, the government began subsidizing farmers to grow more. So the produce was cheap.

Because the cost of produce was so cheap, producing extra food didn’t cost restaurants much more. So restaurants started selling bigger-portioned meals so that they could charge more, not substantially more but enough to cover additional operating costs.

Food says a lot about culture, and these large portions served in restaurants made me realize: America is a country of excess. You might think: Well, I can always take the excess to go. But that just leads to more excess: excess packaging, excess utensils and plenty of napkins. More, more, more.

This piece was written as part of the SVA Design Writing & Research Online Summer Intensive 2023. Learn more at designresearch.sva.edu.