This is what happens when the NYT Food & Dining section comes out every week.

I stay up till 3 in the morning, like I have nothing better to do, and read.
Cheese
I ate this. I think it's reason #1 that we nearly needed a sedative to get Epicure on the flight home.
I really want to be interested in this. But I don't drink liquor that much.
Sigh. Raciones.
So I read the ham story before the front page. And it's three in the morning. I miss Spain. But I have something to say here. Perhaps in New York City, there are entirely too many restaurants that offer entirely too few entrees. That's fair. NYC has long been an arbiter of trends.

This afternoon at about 4:45, I ate dinner in the kitchen before service. I'd already had a cookie; for dinner I had a salad, some pasta, and a few pieces of garlic bread. And then another cookie (ginger this time, the first was chocolate-toffee). An hour or so later, I got to drink a latte from the bar.

I'm making two points here: one, I love my job. Did you just check that list out? I got dessert twice and coffee.
My second point is that this was a meal that allowed me to work through the night, drive home, and drink a few beers until 3 in the morning with no problems. It was supremely functional. Perhaps if I worked in an office, I'd want to have this meal for lunch. But there was no entree for me tonight. I had some pasta, but not much more than I had salad.

When news gets slow, or the restaurant industry keeps chugging along inexplicably while the rest of the economy is faltering, pundits are apt to point out two facts: Americans eat out more than ever before, and restaurants keep serving fat Americans far more food than said Americans should eat. Has it occurred to anyone that perhaps Americans have been reading the press about their eating habits and waistlines, and have chosen to at least attempt smaller meals that provide more variety and less filler? I can assure you, as someone who's worked in restaurants that were a la carte, and those that serve all-inclusive dishes, that starches are seen in both kitchens as a great way to make up food costs. And as a consumer, I don't necessarily want to pay for mashed potatoes when I've already had bread, a fried appetizer, and may be tempted to order dessert. Entrees, like it or not, are often seen as one "star" dish surrounded by supporting players that the diner may or may not be interested in. And if I want the greens, but not the fish? I appreciate a place that lets me order a small plate of them.

Finally, small plates sell, and restaurants make money off of them. Honey is wise in the ways of the economics, and has pointed out many times as a server boxes our food, that we'd both be perfectly happy to pay 3/4 of the price for 1/2 the food; the leftovers don't get eaten anyway. We'd have a little more money, we'd enjoy our appetizers and main courses more, and we might even think about a cheese plate and some after-dinner drinks.

Restaurants, particularly the big chains, are terrified that a customer will leave hungry and never return, and portion size has been ratcheted up accordingly, to the extent that many, many entrees at the restaurants that most Americans patronize feature at least half the calories that an adult should advisably eat in a single day.

At The Big Chain Italian Place where I used to work, we were told in training where we could find nutritional information for diners. One employee bought her wedding dress early in her engagement, and knowing that she'd eat most of her meals at a place famous for big portions, she looked up the information. I still remember my disbelief when she informed me that one meatball had 1.5 times the fat that a human is supposed to consume in a day. Never mind the spaghetti, let alone the sauce. One meatball. But no one ever left hungry, and a few months later, I asked for the binder with the nutritional information and was told that we didn't have one.

I just don't believe that I'm the only person who goes out for convenience and still wants the functionality provided by my meals at work: enough energy to get me through the day, and enough flavor to make it worth my money. Restaurants have been slow to meet this demand with entrees, and many of us are happy with small plates. If I'm dining out, and I mean all-out: blow my money on four glasses (not a sensible bottle, I want variety) of wine, take three or four hours, soak up the ambience, I want to taste everything. I don't do this often, and I want my palate begging for mercy. I want to know, intimately, what the chef is proud of, what's good, and what will bring me back. I don't get much time off; if I'm going to dinner, I want to make it worth the dollars I'm not earning. Entrees don't always do it.

I'm also a devil's advocate. Check back for my argument in favor of the entree.