NEW YORK, June 4: Restaurant owners, cooks and chefs in New York are struggling to cope with escalating costs of basic ingredients, including flour, egg, rice and cooking oil.

As a first step they are cutting down on the portions served.

“Everything is going up at the same time,” said a chef at a fast food Indian restaurant on Wednesday.

Although the restaurant owners did not admit to reducing serving sizes but during a visit to a couple of Indian/Pakistani eateries it became apparent that they had reduced the portions and the size of breads being served.

Some are cutting back on waiters and kitchen help, others are staying open longer or expanding their offerings to increase sales.

Prices of rice and flour have escalated fast. A 30-pound sack of rice now sells for $43, from $22, while a 15-pound bag of flour has gone to $22 from $8 and a 4.6-gallon container of canola oil is up to $34, from $18 or less at the start of the year.

“Rice and bread are such an important part of our business,” said the owner of ‘Tawa’ Indian restaurant. But he claimed, “We have not passed the price increases on to our customers.”

However, a number of customers interviewed by Dawn said the portions served by most eateries had been reduced and the small outlets which never added sales tax to their bills had decided to tack it on to boost their sales.

The Chinese, Japanese and Thai food outlets have stopped serving free rice with every entree. “We charge a nominal amount to offset the rising costs,” said one owner.