If you pay attention to food as you’re eating it, you may notice that the first bite of something good is the best. Your tastebuds react to all the flavor, your mouth enjoys the crunch or smoothness or other texture of the food. The next bite is almost as much fun, but now you know what to expect. By the tenth or eleventh bite, that’s gone. In fact, if you’re honest about it, you really aren’t tasting anything, you’re just eating.
This is not an original thought with me, though in my experience it is really true. The tenth potato chip, the tenth spoon of ice cream, the fiftieth cashew and you really don’t taste anything. You’re just eating. It’s the American way. Our portions are huge, our plates are too big and we’ve trained ourselves to clean our plate and eat every bite. And we are very large people.
There’s an alternative in the trend to small plates and simple bites of great food. Thomas Keller’s great restaurant, the French Laundry, is based on the premise that a succession of tiny portions, timed and paced so that the last lingering of the first exciting morsel is just starting to turn to the need for another when the next item appears. In Keller’s case, it’s all wonderful, prepared with an exactitude that leaves you marveling (particularly if you read some of his recipes). And, it is paired with the perfect wine. The experience of a lifetime.
So next time when you find yourself gorging on a pile of fries, or a hamburger half the size of your head, pause and consider whether you’re tasting anything, If you’re not, then don’t keep at it. Believe me, another bite won’t be better.
