My First Meal Back (and other thoughts on food)

So even though Chuy's won the "what do I eat" poll (I'm guessing the kids arranged to have that poll stacked because that is what they wanted), we in fact had ... Vietnamese for dinner. I couldn't face Chuy's, Rudy's or, to be honest, any other Western food. Instead, we had Bun Bo for dinner. It was made from memory so I missed several things, which is why we are trying again tonight with Hue pancakes and the marinated beef from a Bun Bo recipe for spring rolls.
Thoughts on food? The portion sizes in the US (well in Texas everything is bigger) are HUGE as is the emphasis on protein. When we had Bun Bo on Tuesday, we had what I thought was twice the amount of meat that four people would have had in DaNang. And we ended up eating almost half what we would had we eaten it as steak.
The other huge food revelation was how HARD it is to avoid all of emphasis on food (and unhealthy food) in this country. I was NOT hungry when I got off the plane and had no need to eat. But after standing in the airport (and walking from D terminal over to C37 in DFW for the exercise), I started thinking "I want that" - pretzel/cinnamon bun/bean burrito/pumpkin spice latte.... I didn't want it but all of the sights, smells are so hard to avoid that its no wonder that people eat more here. It isn't a matter of will power or self control - the system is stacked against you, even when you have that.
Which is why we will be eating Vietnamese-style for a while at home - it is just easier to manage a healthy diet this way. And a side trip to Chuy's will be all the more special because of it.