Food for Thought

Burger King home delivery signals the end of America: Find portion control, orperish

Have you seen the size of entrées served at some restaurants around town? Imean, take a chicken-fried steak. Who can eat that much food?
Photo via SavouryTable.com
Maria Selma Restaurant offers half-portions, here the mole pablano.
Photo by Marene Gustin
A half-order of chicken with lemon béarnaise at Phil & Derek's Wine Bar andRestaurant
Photo by Marene Gustin
I love that Giacomo’s cibo e vino offers half-portions of many favorite entréeslike the tortelli di bietola, pictured, and the pollo guido.
Photo by Marene Gustin
The tasty chicken and chips at Blanco’s Bar & Grill, even when split on to twoplates, resembles a full entrée for two.
Photo by Marene Gustin

Paula Deen has type 2 diabetes.

I’m shocked. Shocked I say.

But I’m not going to go all Anthony Bourdain on her ass. Let’s face it. She’s not the only person in America who is overweight.

Why is that? Probably because we eat too much of the wrong kinds of food.

Part of the problem is that most Americans don’t value their food as part of a cultural experience. That and we just tend to want more food for less money.

A recent article by Cliff Kuang on Fast Company, an award-winning magazine, crunches the data to show that while Americans don’t eat that many more calories than Europeans, they spend much less for the food they consume.

We don’t eat that much more than Europeans. But their obesity rates stand at 15 percent, while ours are double that, at 34 percent.

. . . Americans only spend 6.9 percent of their income on food. Compare that to a country such as Italy, which has a far lower rate of obesity. Italians eat only 100 fewer calories per day than we do — but they spend more than twice the income on food.

I agree part of the problem is that most Americans don’t value their food as part of a cultural experience. That and we just tend to want more food for less money. Hence the rise of fast food and cheap processed and packaged foods at the grocery store. After all, America invented Hot Pockets, for crying out loud. That’s a meal?

And while it’s obvious that we eat a lot of unhealthy food and cook less fresh, locally sourced meals than other nations, I think even good restaurants offering healthy foods are also part of the obesity problem in this country.

Can we talk portion control for a minute?

When I was a young working gal I loved to go out to restaurants. But I could only afford a glass of wine and an appetizer. Now, I can afford a full meal but I never order one. When dining with Dad or friends we always wind up splitting an entrée. Why?

Have you seen the size of entrées served at some restaurants? I mean, take a chicken fried steak. Who can eat that much food?

Well, apparently a lot of people can.

But should they? Luckily, you can split a meal when dining out at most places. (Oh, and here’s a pet peeve. Dear restaurants: Please don’t expect me to pay $3 or $4 just to split an entrée. If that’s the case we’ll just order one for both of us and I’ll put whatever I want on my bread plate.)

Burger King will now deliver that fatty fast food right to your door so you don’t even have to walk those 10 steps to the car to drive to the drive-thru window.

But kudos to those eateries that offer half portions on the menu. And a lot times, even if half portions are not listed on the menu, they’ll serve you one if you ask for it.

And let’s not get started on all-you-can-eat buffets. How many times have you been to Sunday brunch and watched people get back in line two, three, four times? (Wait, was that you I saw doing that this Sunday?) Why is it that we think we need to get as much as we can for what we are paying? Why can’t we just accept that we need to pay a little more for quality food and not stuff ourselves to death?

So I say let’s redo our budgets so that we pay for what we need, not all we can eat whether it’s healthy food or not.

Face it. It all comes down to this: Eat less, move more. Which is why this really scares me. Yep, that’s right. Burger King will now deliver that fatty fast food right to your door so you don’t even have to walk those 10 steps to the car to drive to the drive-thru window.

What the heck is this country coming to?

Oh wait, I know the answer to that. A nation of overweight and unhealthy people. At least with all that fork lifting we’re getting some exercise.

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Peak Plates

7 Austin restaurants make OpenTable's top 100 for 2024

Jeffrey's Restaurant/Instagram

Jeffrey's Restaurant is a great example of the type of fancy, well-established restaurant that made the list.

Restaurant reservation website OpenTable has issued its new list of the top 100 restaurants in America for 2024, and seven Austin restaurants have made the list. That's already impressive at a glance — 7 percent of the entire national list in just one city — but compared to other Texas cities, it's huge. Austin is the only Texas city to have more than one restaurant on the list.

The "2024's Top 100 Restaurants" list is a compilation of the most sought-after and top-ranked restaurants in the U.S. based on 14 million verified reviews on OpenTable from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024. Restaurants are not ranked, but arranged in alphabetical order by state.

Austin's seven restaurants (including several repeats from OpenTable's 2023 list) are:

Aba: Known for its laid-back, yet fancy patio and being a popular spot for visiting celebrities
J Carver's: Known for a commitment to the classic steakhouse experience and legitimately fancy dining
Jeffrey's Restaurant: Known for fine dining, a connection to Austin before its boom, and a fantastic wine program
Red Ash Italia: Known for approachable, yet high-quality Italian food with rustic touches
Sammie's Italian: Known for its romantic take on the archetype of an East Coast Italian joint
Uchi: Known for bringing Austin into the national sushi conversation and defining the scene
Uchiko: Known for a cool atmosphere and getting creative with sushi and other small plates

Austinites will probably not be surprised by this list, which names some very well-established restaurants that are all upscale. These qualities tend to appeal to similar lists, regardless of who's curating them.

It is interesting, given that the list was democratically based on user ratings, that there were not more beloved food trailers or casual spots. However, other factors that led to high rankings included alerts set and reservations made ahead — things that don't really apply to even the most awesome taco truck.

Mediterranean food was a trend among the Austin picks. Red Ash Italia and Sammie's Italian are, as the names would imply, completely dedicated to Italian food, while Aba covers a wider swath of the Mediterranean. There were also two steakhouses: J Carver's and Jeffrey's Restaurant.

As list-perusers may have guessed, Uchi and Uchiko are in the same family of restaurants, with Uchi being the more formal and Uchiko being a bit more accessible for drop-in meals and cocktails. But are two more incognito duos of sibling restaurants on the list: J Carver's and Red Ash, and Jeffrey's Restaurant and Sammie's Italian.

That could be a coincidence. It could also be a reflection of the utility of money and experience in opening a good restaurant, or a lesson about the effects of good (and expensive) marketing. Whatever it is, it doesn't sound like hospitality groups had any direct sway on how OpenTable made its choices.

This list was different from the inaugural list of OpenTable Icons, which launched in 2024. The "Icons" list chose restaurants that are getting a lot of buzz, which ended up being more subjective. It also seemed to let in — as a side effect of the process, rather than a hard eligibility rule — more new and Mexican restaurants. Two restaurants are on both lists: Red Ash and Jeffrey's.

Restaurants outside of Austin that made the Top 100 list, organized alphabetically, are:

Hudson House — Dallas
Steak 48 — Houston
Signature — San Antonio

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