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As a Canadian who visits the United States often, I can definitely say the portion sizes are a lot larger in the United States. Every time I go to the US I go into a state of shock when I see the portion sizes.

You would think that after 20-30 trips to US I would have learned to adjust my expectations by now, but it is still amazing to me to witness how much food Americans eat no matter how many times I see it.

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I once offered to pick up some "Chinese food" for some colleagues visiting the US from China. They didn't recognize anything on the menu, and ended up ordering the "house special", with grilled chicken, vegetables, and rice. Reasonably healthy, from the looks of it.

About an hour after getting our food, I remarked that they had not finished what they ordered.

"This is too much food for us; we can't eat it all!" they explained.

"It's too much for us too," I assured them, "but we eat it all anyway."

For the most part, "Chinese food" (served outside china) is an attempt by Chinese resturaunters to cater to the tastes of locals. So a better description of what you had was "American Chinese Food".

If you ever have the opportunity, try Indian Chinese Food. It's fantastic.

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