This past weekend, Robert and I had dinner at the Central Market Café, which in its current incarnation has some really nice options (I am very fond of the Salmon Nicoise) but for the most part, likes to pair their utterly delicious and no doubt evil French fries with everything. (In my opinion, they are the best fries in Austin.) Robert’s muffaletta came with a quite large quantity of these French fries that even together we could not come close to finishing. What was so odd to me was the fact that after eating about 8 delicious French fries, the 9th fry was distinctly not very tasty. Robert had a similar experience after about 6. Which makes me wonder, why does the marginal utility of these French fries drop off so quickly? My best guess is that French fries are only good when they’re fresh and hot, so by the time you’ve eaten a few at a relatively slow pace, the rest are cold and blah. I don’t eat fries often enough (and slow enough?) to know whether a similar thing happens to other restaurants’ fries also, or whether there is something about the particular kind of breaded French fry that CM makes that causes this phenomenon. (Uh-oh; I am now halfway to convincing myself to experiment with this “for science.”) The good news was that after eating not-great French fry number 9, I had zero interest in eating another.
One food I have learned to totally avoid, but that I do love, is cheesecake, due to its very strange utility curve. Unlike most things, where your first bite is the yummiest and then it quickly or eventually gets less yummy, for me, cheesecake is fairly bland for the first several bites, then (when I assume my mouth reaches some critical mass of cheesecake flavor) it gets really delicious for a sustained period time before decreasing. Unfortunately, by the time this good tasting stage arrives, I’ve already had to invest about as many calories into the experience as I want to spend in total on dessert because cheesecake is ridiculously calorie dense. The only way around this that I have found is to eat something super-decadent like a cheesecake with a chocolate brownie layer and fudge topping, in which the immediate wonderfulness of the chocolate carries you nicely to the point where the cheesecake flavor kicks in. Reasonable serving size for this particular dessert: 1.8 bites.
Speaking of reasonable serving sizes, I was very pleased to note this past Christmas that the makers of a popular brand of chocolate covered cherries finally realized that it was utterly ridiculous that the serving size on the side of the box was 1 and 2/3 cherries, a quantity that I don’t know it’s actually physically possible to eat even attempting to cut a slice out of that second cherry with a little knife; they changed it to 2 cherries.
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The only odd thing I've noticed with myself regarding the diminishing marginal utility of food is that I often find that pizza doesn't have one. No matter how full I get, I could always enjoy another bite. (Some pizza is too greasy for this too happen, and some isn't good enough, but otherwise, it's weird.)
With the cheesecake, might it help to take tiny bites at first to get your mouth used to it using fewer calories?
Oh yeah, pizza does continue to be crazy good for a long time. I have historically found ice cream to have a similar property.
Taking small bites of cheesecake is an interesting idea; I'll have to try it next time.
Mmm. Yes, ice cream, too.
Actually, I can't eat as much ice cream in one sitting as I used to. But then, when we used to go out for ice cream, I would eat all of mine, and then finish everyone else's off.
I used to be able to eat a whole pint of ice cream, even the premium kind, but now I can't even eat half a pint of Ben & Jerry's or the like. (Actually, I can, but I get into diminishing overall, not just marginal, utility.)
I'm not sure about sizes of a non-premium kind because no regular brand here comes in pints. (We have no Blue Bell equivalent, in other words.) When I buy regular ice cream in a larger container I often serve myself up to a cup, but it's usually too much. I don't enjoy the last few bites very much.
This weekend I discovered the food that is the anti-cheesecake: fudge. Robert brought some home from the farmer's market (it was like chocolate/white chocolate/cranberry) and I really only wanted the smallest taste of it at any given time. It had a completely explosive flavor.
Fudge, yes - I think that is the very definition of "rich."
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