The pretend eaters who amused me the most, though, were the skinny men and women who had developed a whole theatrical routine — a pantomime of gluttony — to obscure their asceticism. It wasn’t enough for them to be thin; they had to pretend that it was a fluke of metabolism, magical and effortless.
My friend A. was like that. I told her that we were going to a new steakhouse in Brooklyn.
…
We got the porterhouse, we got the fries, she loaded up her plate, and then she commenced such frantic knife and fork movements that a veritable cloud of dust rose around her — I was reminded of a Road Runner cartoon.
When the dust settled 15 minutes later, I took a close look at her plate, and almost nothing was missing. The food had just been reconstituted and rearranged, a Picasso of its former self.
” Frank Bruni, What They Brought to the Table, New York Times, Aug. 19, 2009