Buffet World

I've just come home from eating at Chinese buffet in town. As I was eating and looking around in the quiet restaurant, thoughts scurried in my head about the "buffet effect."

DH's father has been visiting us since last week. Since he was going to be returning to far away Quebec City (but such a beautiful place!) tomorrow, we wanted to do something that he enjoyed: eating all you can eat.

Since the implementation of our vegetarian diet and Little R's special gluten-free and casein-free diet, we've really kept our eating at home. Eating out is tricky, especially at a Chinese restaurant since they have soy sauce in most of their dishes if not all. Chinese restaurant food also contains too much salt and MSG (mono sodium glutamate); these are not good for one's health, so it's been better to avoid these places. But since we wanted to just enjoy time with the kids' grandfather, we thought that it would be all right to go and see what our experience would be.

The most convenient attribute of an all-you-can-eat buffet is that you don't have to wait for your food. As soon as we found our table, I went into the buffet area to get some food that Little R would be able to eat: plain steamed white rice, boiled eggs (thank goodness for the salad bar), watermelon, orange wedges, honeydew, canned peaches and mango salad. I asked the manager what things did not contain soy sauce, and the response was not very many. Little R did very well at eating all he could eat, though. I think he ended up eating 3 or 4 eggs (just the white part after two whole eggs), 3 helpings of rice and lots of fruit.

Little S stuffed herself as well as wore much of the food. DH and his dad had several platefuls without me even knowing what was on there. I definitely ate too much as well. During our feast of salty food (the taste was actually okay), the waitresses refilled our glasses, brought us more napkins (for Little S) and took away dirtied dishes. So thoughts entered my mind: buffets are very wasteful.

Personally, I would eat everything (that's why I take small portions at a time) that I take onto my plate or bowl including sauce. However, my observation of bussed buffet plates tell me that much food is wasted. Some people just take more than they can eat, so the excess is toss into a garbage bag. Paper napkins are mindless "used" and tossed. I bet if we had to pay for our paper napkins that we would be more conscientious about how much and how we used them. Personally, I prefer a reusable and washable wet cloth or napkin. Aside from material waste, there is also the unnecessary washing of used dirtied plates. I don't understand why everyone doesn't just use the same plate (I've always done this, and people keep telling me to take a clean plate) for their subsequent helpings. This would greatly reduce the amount of bussing, water, detergent and electricity for washing the dishes before the sitting is complete.

So what is this "buffet effect" that I'm talking about? Just from today's experience and previous buffet experiences, the effect is wasted food, water, paper napkins, overly full bellies, tummy aches and a general bloated feeling afterward. I think that if done responsibly, an all-you-can-eat buffet is a good idea. If people can learn to responsibly decide how much they should eat, eat slowly and sip water (guzzling water or any liquid while eating actually hinders digestion), reuse their plates, use reusable clothes instead of paper napkins, a buffet can be a very pleasant outing; you can choose what you want to try by looking at the prepared food, take more of it later, and you don't have to wait to order.

We did have a pretty good time out despite the overflowing bellies. Little S was in cookie heaven! Unfortunately for Little R, he couldn't have any because they all contained gluten. The manager felt bad that Little R couldn't eat the fortune cookie after it was presented to him. DH and I should be more on top of that. Then again, we really don't go out much so we didn't expect that someone would hand our child a cookie... poor guy, he really wanted it watching Little S eat hers and his.