Eat Street: How the world portions its meals

Italy: In Italy, even a light meal comes in multiple courses, but in small portions. The Italians eat not to fill their stomachs, but to taste and enjoy the food, to have the pleasure of eating. That plateful of pasta served in restaurants isn’t how the Italians would have had it. For them, pasta is only a part of the entire meal, often as a small first course, says food expert and author Susan McKenna Grant, either preceded by an antipasto—salami, olives and maybe some crostini, or followed by a secondo—meat, fish, seasonal vegetables, or both.