ntwirl.net

“They always have to put cheese on everything,” my husband grumbled as our meal arrived. “Just because it’s Wisconsin and they want us to be fat.”

To be fair, the restaurant probably didn’t overtly have obesity on its mind—er, menu—but he had a valid point. Instead of French fries, he’d ordered a side of wild rice pilaf, thinking it sounded healthier.

It arrived drenched in cheese. Which, by the way, had not been mentioned in the menu. My husband was more than a little disappointed, but ended up scraping the melting cheese shreds off the top with their accompanying tomatoes and peppers. The rest of the pilaf just had rice.

Too much cheese! If you specifically order a plain hamburger, you get asked if you want cheese with that. If you decided on a chicken sandwich, you get asked if you want cheese with that. It’s gotten so if you don’t specify you want cheese, you are an object of instant concern, as if your dining experience is somehow lacking without those added yellow or white globules. 

I love cheese. Smoked Gouda, Camembert, extra-sharp cheddar aged 5 years…the litany goes on, fruitless though it is since I shouldn’t have any. But I never automatically thought of adding it to every single dish when I did have it. Why has this mindset taken over, at least in restaurants? Had I ordered that rice pilaf, I’d have had to send it back. Why should you have to ask for it NOT to be added?

Just us, or nationwide? How much cheese is TOO much?