Is My Entree Dead?

The portioned article below is by John Kessler of the Food & More Blog.

Have you been noticing lately that the small plates often outshine the entrees on restaurant menus?

For this week’s column I look at the issue — something I see as a sea change in the way Americans are eating out. Other food writers have weighed in on the issue lately:

The most excellent Besha Rodell, late of Creative Loafing and now the lead critic for LA Weekly has this to say:

“… the tapas trend has done for American dining what no other trend has done, at least not as pervasively, and that is to make eating out more communal and less formal.”

Pete Wells, restaurant critic for the New York Times, grouses:

“…many dishes served at allegedly tapas-style restaurants simply don’t split well. Either they look like a car crash by the time you’ve divided them in four, or your portion ends up being so small you hardly get to know it before it’s gone.”

Here’s what I have to say:

I love my readers, even when they have problems with me and my restaurant reviews. They complain I pay more attention to wine than beer, that I give desserts short shrift and that sometimes it seems like I could live my whole life on Buford Highway eating Asian food.

Lately, there’s been another quibble, which goes something like this:

“Kessler: Again with the small plates? Don’t you ever eat a normal-sized portion of anything?”

Continue reading the article HERE

Source: Food and More by John Kessler, Food Critic