In a previous job I worked, mostly remotely, with some engineers in China. On one occasion they came to the United States for a visit, and some local colleagues and I suggested to them that we order some Chinese food.
"We don't recognize anything on the menu," they told me.
They ended up ordering the restaurant's "house special", which turned out to be tiny bits of grilled chicken atop shredded lettuce and rice. A while later, I noticed they had only eaten about half of their lunch.
"This is too much for us," they said. "We can't eat it all!"
"It's too much for us, too," I assured them. "But we eat it all anyway."
Soon enough, they may not be thinking that the portion sizes are too large. Since the '80s, food consumption in China has skyrocketed. The typical traditional Chinese cuisine used to be chock full of vegetables in healthy portions. Now, the consumptions of meat has gone up 100% in the past 20 years. Really, eating more meat and fatty foods is one of the first signs of a nation growing in prosperity.
On another note, one time we brought our coworkers to a "real chinese restaurant". They didn't order anything on the menu and asked the cook to make a special beef-fried-rice for them. While the rest of us were enjoying our bitter melon & pig intestines, they survived on the single-course-fried-rice deal the cook managed to conjure up. They actually liked the pig intestines & cow tendons until they found out what they were eating.
"We don't recognize anything on the menu," they told me.
They ended up ordering the restaurant's "house special", which turned out to be tiny bits of grilled chicken atop shredded lettuce and rice. A while later, I noticed they had only eaten about half of their lunch.
"This is too much for us," they said. "We can't eat it all!"
"It's too much for us, too," I assured them. "But we eat it all anyway."