Let them eat cheesecake

Okay, I admit it. I ate at the Cheesecake Factory. This required me getting over quite a bit of internal resistance. Aside from the fact that I never had any particular interest in eating at Cheesecake Factory, there was a recent article where to add the top 10 most unhealthy foods served at restaurants seem to be served at that chain. 

So suffice to say it wasn't my choice. However, I felt confident that I could somehow navigate their menu and find something that I would be able to eat without feeling disgusting. We got to our table and we're handed two menus, one with a spiral binder.

The other menu, which was just on folded laminated card stock, was called, and I can't even write it without gritting my teeth and scowling, the "Skinnylicious" menu. The regular menu items seemed completely innocuous. And the others in my party both ordered from there, one had an appetizer and entrée and one had two appetizers.

For myself, I ordered a Skinnylicious turkey burger. And opted to spend the rest of my calories on beer. The first appetizer for the other two seemed normal enough. Regular type portion size for appetizers. Entrée and the second appetizer however both came on plates that, and I'm not exaggerating here, were about 10" x 18" big. I've had chicken lettuce wraps before. They have them at Pod in Philadelphia and they're delicious. And make a nice light appetizer. At Cheesecake Factory, they come on a platter with approximately an entire head of lettuce, two full grilled chicken breasts, and other things to put in the lettuce including other vegetables, sauces, and, inexplicably, noodles. The entrée, the innocent-sounding chicken piccata, also came on what resembled a serving platter. Three sautéed chicken breasts covered with sauce, and an appetizer sized portion of pasta. My turkey burger looked like a three or 4 ounce patty ground turkey on a brioche roll with lettuce tomato and grilled onions and a salad. It was quite tasty and just the right size.

Nobody had any problem with the quality of the food. Everything tasted really good. I tasted things and will be having chicken lettuce wraps for lunch today. But now I know why everybody else in the restaurant looked overweight. If you ate like that even twice a week, there's no way that you could maintain a healthy weight. 

And it's completely needless. There's no reason anyone needs that much food. I suppose if you were one of those people who likes to go out and eat and then bring leftovers home for the next day, that would make sense. But this was in a touristy area and there was no reason to believe that anybody could do anything like that. I took the lettuce wraps because they're cold and can just be pulled together and eaten easily and quickly.

And then of course there's the cheese cake itself. Again, delicious. We did take those to go and have them several hours later. I, of course, did not order any for myself, because I could tell by the sheer weight of the shopping bag I was holding that there would be plenty for me. And in fact it would be plenty for me the next day also and perhaps the day after that, but we didn't keep it.

The point is, well I don't really have a point. I'm not one of those "how can you eat so much when children are starving elsewhere in the world" people. I just don't think the casual throwing about of extra food sends anyone a useful message. And it's genuinely wasteful. I don't understand it. I mean I don't understand the impulse. Who at corporate headquarters decides to bury people in food? In any event, I had my turkey burger, my beer, and two different kinds of cheesecake, so I ate very happily yesterday.