The Office Observes Dessert Stomach

I.

At some point between the main course and the dessert menu, the statement "I couldn't possibly" is made. This statement is sincere. The person making it believes it. They have just eaten an amount of food that has produced a genuine physical sensation of fullness.

Then dessert arrives.

II.

A new capacity is found. It was not announced. It was not planned. It appears like a freight elevator that only operates on special occasions.

The medical establishment has some explanations for this. Something about appetite regulation, sensory-specific satiety, the stomach's ability to reconfigure when a new stimulus is introduced. The explanations are accurate.

They are also somewhat beside the point.

III.

The point is that everyone at the table knew this was going to happen. The "I couldn't possibly" was noted and silently discounted. The table has seen this before.

The second time someone at a shared table says "I couldn't possibly" and then eats a piece of cake, it becomes a known pattern. By the third time, it is a small tradition. By the fourth time, everyone starts ordering a separate dessert for the person who said they couldn't.

IV.

Someone invented a technique for this. The technique is: order dessert before the meal, while your future self still believes your present self's assessment of your future fullness.

This technique works approximately half the time.

The other half, the person eats dessert anyway and also feels the specific guilt that comes from having predicted your own behavior accurately and eating the thing anyway.

V.

The technique has been passed around dinner tables like kitchen wisdom. It has been offered to people who did not ask for advice. It has been endorsed by people whose track record with it is mixed.

Skipping dessert started looking like a kind of culinary negligence some years ago. This is not a development anyone planned. Familiarity did it.

Familiarity outranks correction. The stomach maintains a separate department. Both facts coexist without resolution.

VI.

The gulab jamun was very good.