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Why Do Japanese Serve Small Food Portions?
By Asian American in Tokyo | September 3, 2007
I've seen this question posed around the Internet without good answers. I've seen things like "that's all you need", "asians are smaller", "Americans eat too much", etc. Here's my take. In Japan, it's rude to leave food behind as it is seen as wasteful and unappreciative. There is also no such thing as a "doggie bag" so you don't even ask if you can take the leftovers home. Because of this, everyone finishes their entire meal, down to the last rice grain. To preserve "wa", or "harmony", the restaurants serve small portions so nobody will be stressed and have a difficult time finishing their meal. If you want more, you can always order more. Anyway, that's just my thinking. Anyone out there have a definitive answer?
Topics: Culture, Food | 10 Comments »
10 Responses to “Why Do Japanese Serve Small Food Portions?”
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March 13th, 2008 at 4:56 am
I think the answer IS because americans eat too much, that’s why there is an obesity problem. Take a look at Supersize Me
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390521/
March 13th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I think that this makes total sence. I knew a foreign exchange student, and she seemed rather shocked when at a resturant thw waitress asked if she wanted a “Doggy bag”. SO I believe you may be correct. yay!
March 14th, 2008 at 11:45 am
I think it has something to do with the rest of the world snacks, they eat a little when they’re hungry, so they have many small portions, instead of the North American way of 3 huge portions. Healthier that way, your body stores less fat if it knows there’s more food coming soon. IMHO
April 1st, 2008 at 12:38 am
I agree with krusty_da. American’s eat way too much. It’s the same way in much of Europe: portions are smaller than what we are accustomed to in the U.S.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I know! They have smaller portions at their restaurants! Being a capitalist economy, they are working a cost/benefit ratio! Yay! Money! Duh!
October 9th, 2008 at 3:56 am
My wife says she likes smaller portions because she gets to enjoy more different kinds of things that way. As opposed to the American way, where you get a humongous pile of just one thing.
Another aspect, I think, is that everything comes cut into little bits so you can eat it with the chopsticks.
November 6th, 2008 at 8:24 am
im donig an assignment and i need to no all about japanese, Thailand and Italian cultures and how they eat there foods and what kind of foods they eat and other things about there food culture so wold u be able to send me some infomation on the cultures?
November 14th, 2008 at 7:46 am
As told by a Japanese woman I was visiting in Tokyo, “In Japan, we don’t like to eat a lot of just one thing. We have a little bit of a lot of things.”
November 16th, 2009 at 10:57 am
the answer, my friends, is simple:
everything in japan is served bite-sized servings. since chopsticks are used instead of spoon and fork, you would have a hard time cutting pieces of food (like meat for example) using chopsticks. the solution is to cut everything in bite-size pieces for convenience.
January 11th, 2011 at 3:40 am
[Asian Studies Major]
In Japan they enjoy smaller portions. The reason for this being that many Japanese like to enjoy different foods, and so they sample. Rice for example is a staple in the diet, and they eat a small bowl full and then go back for more if wanted. This is changing with the entrance of the Western diet however. The portions themselves are smaller, however the choices to pick and eat from can be huge during a meal.