This is a real conundrum, but I don’t think it has anything to do with the size of Americans’ general appetites compared to British people. Jess tested this minestrone just before the holiday season. The holiday season is usually a time when our eyes are much bigger than our bellies. Waiting for certain celebratory foods (in my world, matzo balls, latkes, roast turkey, stuffing) to arrive elevates them to ridiculous heights. It just makes you hungry again.
On the other hand, during this post-holiday period, there is an overall feeling of fullness. My eyes definitely got smaller now that my stomach was full. To me, long-cooked, roasted, gravy, and Brussels sprouts take on a Voldemort-like quality. It exists too, but I won’t name it. Charm suddenly turned to revulsion. So this minestrone feels healthy, meat-free, not dangerous at all, and generally adequate at the moment, especially in small doses.
Still, as anyone who makes or tastes food for a living can tell you, the feeling of hunger (or fullness) can be incredibly appetizing. I spend most of my day eating fork food that never turns into a meal. This professional grazing confuses my senses. “Are you hungry?” This is a question I often ask myself, but I can’t find a good answer because I’ve thoroughly confused the gatekeeper in my brain that is responsible for letting me know when I’m full after eating. or “Is this delicious?” Another question you might think shouldn’t be discussed. But it is! In my test kitchen, I always have to subtract points from the first dish of the day sampled around 11 a.m. when my appetite is strong, and shore up the score for a disappointing contender at 4 p.m.
Appetite is also individual, fluctuating depending on mood, personality type, and other facts of life, but has nothing to do with how hungry you actually are. Like many things, it all goes back to childhood. My ultimate appetite suppressant as a child was the skin that formed on the warm milk my father served me before dinner. And so it is now. If the mother’s milk reaches her too late, before the dreaded skin forms, she will not be able to eat anything. Just seeing that made me stop eating dinner completely.
I share this distaste with British food writer Nigel Slater. He captures the impact accurately. Even those words send a shiver down my spine. This is what you take off your chest when you get a sunburn. The little flaps that hang down when you cut yourself catch anything. It is a transparent pod left behind by an emerging snake. The word “skin” is something I automatically associate with shin shins and mummified things. So what’s that floating on top of my cocoa doing? ”