Hyper-Bowl would describe typical US portions. The good thing is, that its also common to get "to go" boxes alongside so you can reasonably eat twice for one purchase.

It is very rare (on my personal observation, I have no stats here so its anecdata) for anyone to walk out of a ready-made food outlet without the soda and chips.

I have also felt at times "pret" was a bit stingy. If I get a turkey and brie sandwich, I want the brie to be visible, not hypothetical.

Katz' deli, I didn't have a boy in the army to send a salami, but the thickness of the meat layer in my salt beef sandwich was .. unreal. I think, they do this because its now expected. In most salt beef outlets I've been to which didn't feature in films, they are a bit more reasonable.

There is an Aussie food called "a halal snack pack" which is a heart-attack in a styrofoam box. Its a box of gyros/kebab/doner/shwarma meat, with all the trimmings but no bread: healthy, since less carbs. Oh wait, its poutine too: they put fries and cheese in there...

The pastrami (or corned beef) sandwich thing at the better known NYC Jewish delis is a bit of a Manhattan trope. And, yeah, people mostly either split it (for extra cost) or they take half of it home.

Back in the 80s, I used to get hot salt beef rolls with my Dad in an inner-london cafe when he got off the sleeper from Edinburgh, coming to London to go to meetings. They heated it up with the steam-jet of the cappucino machine...

The HSP will go down in history as one of Australia's great culinary creations, along with Vegemite and the meat pie.

I'd say pavlova as well, but we're trying to be nice to our Kiwi cousins so they'll let us visit.

Throw in chips and soda for a "meal" and you're looking at probably 1600+ calories.

This is an important point - a 24oz Coke is about 250 calories, and a 1.75oz bag of Doritos is also about 250, so “making it a meal” adds an additional 500 calories on top of any sandwich.

Well sure, but I'm making the point that a standard American sandwich simply isn't excessive. That the notion/caricature of a regular American lunch sandwich being unhealthily large is simply incorrect.

Of course you can get some mega-cheese melt if you want, just like you can get a triple quarter pounder if you want. But I don't see anybody who sees those as examples of a normal portion. Within America they're seen as excessive. They're not representative of a normal American lunch.

I think this is one of those things we're going to disagree about. Within the America I see as a conference attendee seeking lunch outside of meetings in the food malls, portion control is out of control. Overall, yes, you can eat healthy anywhere. There is a "value" proposition which drives a lot of people to order bigger than they need. The same "value" proposition drives food outlets to compete on size for the same dollar cost. Carbohydrates are a cheap way to achieve size/bulk. Adding extra carbs is low input cost, high profit outcome.

Super-size-me as a film required the market to exist. They didn't make the problem up.

Technically sandwiches are often sold at a loss and are just there to sell customers on the high-margin items like drinks and fries. So you're partly right but it doesn't really make for a motivation to increase sandwich size without limit. They'd still rather sell smaller sandwiches.