I’ve been a vegetarian for nearly 20 years. Since I was a kid, I have always been amazed at how many people thought it was strange or frowned on. Being vegetarian actually made me more confident in my own cooking and eating. It taught me that I could make delicious meals without feeling weird about it.
When I was younger, my parents would host family gatherings all over the country. On one particular weekend we had an outdoor family picnic. I remember being excited for the first hour of the trip when we were taking down the umbrellas and putting up the table outside. Then I noticed that it was getting colder and colder. And not just colder, that it was getting hard to breathe. I looked up and said, “No you cant do this.
My mother is a fantastic cook, but she also doesn’t like to leave too many dishes unattended. She has me help her with the ingredients so I wouldnt feel weird having a plate of my mom’s homemade chicken fried steak lying around. I don’t know if that’s still considered family style cooking, but it’s definitely a good thing to be aware of.
As a matter of fact, I think it is. If you’ve ever been in a restaurant and were served a meal that you couldnt finish because you were so hungry, you may be familiar with the concept of family style cooking. There are a lot of restaurants out there who just refuse to serve you more than you can eat. And while I do not agree with them, I think they do the right thing.
It might not be entirely family style but it’s definitely a good idea to be aware of and ask for more (and a LOT more) food. I hate to say it but if your family cant handle the idea of having to sit and wait for your food, or if you have special dietary requirements like lactose intolerant people, there could be a lot more than you bargained for.
It does take a few steps, but if you can do it, you can do it much more often. And while many restaurants that don’t serve you a ton of food might have a policy of serving less than you can eat, in many cases you can just go back.
The truth is that in many places in the U.S., if you’re not willing to spend a few extra bucks, you have to wait longer. I find that to be a real shame because I know that I’d rather eat less of the things that are actually the tastiest, but wait more.
Wait is definitely the most time consuming part of the experience. And while there are exceptions, I’ve never been to a restaurant that was willing to do half as much as I wanted it to in order to get the food I wanted. I’ve been to places that have been willing to keep a few extra pieces of bread or extra olives.
Even restaurants that advertise on their menus that they are “family-friendly” (which is really a lie) don’t have a lot of options. This is because, well, families eat. There are not many places where you can go and talk to the family members while you order the food. There are some, but there are not many.
So basically, you have to be willing to do a bit more than you want to for your food to be worth eating. Well, that and the fact that the food is not very good.