Buffets

I recently tweeted that I went into a buffet with a hot head and came out with a painful stomach. Ok my original post had a typo in it, but never mind that. One of my good friends and neighbor then replied "Avoid eating in anger or disgust or heightened emotions. Take your food with kindness and gratitude, for it will serve your body well". While a little bit spiritual for my taste, it certainly hit home.

But this post isn't about the importance of balance and taking care of oneself. Actually I just wanted to talk about buffets. Buffet s in general and buffets in Manila. I'm a big fan of buffets. I loved the Saisaki buffets growing up, and I love the growing trend of hotel buffets. Most of all, i love breakfast buffets. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I sure love proving it during a buffet.

So buffets are definitely awesome for a number of reasons, and I'm sure most would agree and have their own reasons. The following are just a few of mine:

1. It solves indecisiveness: I'm sure everyone has experienced going through a menu without being able to decide what to order. Whether it's simply due to intense hunger, because there are too many potential choices, or just plain indecisiveness, it just happens. Buffets solve this problem easily. Now I can have my salmon sashimi with my hakaw. Or I can have rogue chennai and roast beef. The limit is only the number of courses or kinds of food offered at the particular buffet.

2. Eat all you can: and I don't mean just sheer quantity of food, though you're welcome to it. I mean that you can have as much of a particular food as you want. It's not simply variety, as you can get the same results with a sampler platter. Nor is it limiting like an ala carte order. If you want 5 slices of beef and 3 shawarmas, then go ahead and call it a day. But it's not like you gorged out on 5 plates of food. For breakfast buffets, I love loading up on scrambled eggs.

3. There's something for everybody: you wanted steak and your date wanted Chinese? Hit up a buffet and you can both get what you want. If your sister is more of a dessert person, well she can go straight for the chocolate fondue, ice cream or cake.

4. It breeds creativity: not only can I now have my sashimi and dimsum together, but I can see if wasabi works well with dimsum and if chili works for sashimi. Or I can put hoisen on my steak and dijon mustard on my duck. There are no rules. You can do what you want.

I know the items sorta overlap with each other, but you get the point. Buffets are simply frikkin awesome.

Now it doesn't stop there. So you can get what you want and in seemingly limitless quantities. But you've only got so much space, no matter how big you are. So you wanna approach a buffet intelligently. Basically you wanna eat smart.

Some pointers on how to attack a buffet:

1. Survey the prey: especially if you're unfamiliar with the buffet in question, and even of you are, do at least a once over of the buffet. Take note of the dishes being served, mentally logging which ones you wanna eat or try.

2. Taste first: take the first round as the taste test round. Get a little bit of the dishes youre unfamiliar with but look interesting. Feel free to put food you really want on your plate as well, so your first round isn't a potential waste of time. Again, take note of what was good so you can get more.

3. Go for it: now that you know what you want, go for it. But leave space for 2 things: other dishes you haven't tried yet, and dessert.

4. Try some more: This part is discretionary and depends on how much you've already eaten and how much space you still have. But just repeat steps 2 and 3.

5. Dessert! : simply apply steps 2 and 3 to the dessert, OR, as there isn't usually a whole lot of dessert, just go with the sampler platter and only finish what you want to.
Important: unless there's a penalty involved, do NOT feel obligated to finish what's on your plate. Only eat what you want to.

Well thats it on buffets. Now that you're properly armed, get out there and enjoy!