On the Menu | My secret buffet strategy to avoid awkward conversations, and why diners love them so much
- Whether it’s Chinese, Japanese, hotel seafood or any other, buffets are much-loved by diners and everyone tackles them in different ways
People tend to either love or hate buffets. I belong firmly to the former camp, and always have.
While I did draw the line at trays of lurid-orange sweet-and-sour pork glowing from London Chinatown buffets of the early noughties, my adoration for the humble buffet was cultivated from a young age.
Growing up in Calgary, Canada, in the 1990s, dining out was normally a large family occasion and we rotated between our favourite Chinese and Japanese restaurants, the occasional splurge at seafood chain Red Lobster and, my favourite, the buffet chain Foody Goody.
Even as a child I understood a buffet’s rules of engagement: scout first, try a little then load up on your favourites – even if that tended to be cubes of technicolour jello dusted in waxy-tasting desiccated coconut.
Foody Goody in Calgary was a popular destination for many Asian families, drawn to its promising displays of excess and relative value. Never mind that it was shut down in the early noughties due to health-code violations, according to Reddit users.
