Some people judge the quality of a restaurant by the quantity of food they serve in each portion. For me, value or not, a huge plate of food is a huge turn-off. Especially if it looks like the one in the featured picture. Even if the plate didn’t contain fried food, I would be overwhelmed by the amount of food on the plate. If this happens to you, make a practice of asking for a to-go container and remove half of the food from your plate. No one should consume that many calories in one sitting. It is especially dangerous if you are very hungry because you will have consumed way to much before your brain registers that you are full. Ughh…there is nothing worse than that feeling of overeating. Your body can only burn so many calories at a time and the excess gets stored as fat.

Maybe it’s the artist in me but I much prefer the small plates of colorful, healthy foods artistically placed on the plate and garnished to perfection. It is easier to appreciate the taste of the food when you can focus on savoring each bite instead of seeing how quickly you can shovel it in. I grew up eating family style every night. We took our time. We dined. We talked. I tried to carry out the same tradition with my own family as the boys were growing up but I made one change. I plated the food ahead of time like they do in restaurants. I may not have been the best cook in the world but my plates were colorful and healthy….not great big blobs of food piled high as the sky. I can assure you, none of us starved.