All About Buffets

[SobaAddict70]

Do you like buffets? Do you frequent restaurants that utilize them? (Salad and soup bars count.) What kinds of tricks do you use to make the most out of any buffet? What are your favorite kinds of buffets?

If you were to use a buffet for a dinner party, how would you go about designing one? Order of dishes? When is enough enough?

What kind of criteria do you use to judge a good buffet from a merely mediocre one to a poor one?

Personally, I find pacing to be the most common problem I have with buffets, especially all-you-can-eat ones.

What have your experiences been like?

Soba

[fifi]

Actually, I like buffets a lot. They give me the ultimate in control. Ok... so I am a control freak. When in Mexico, give me a breakfast buffet and I am in heaven. They really do those well in most places. There is an Indian restaurant here that has a buffet for lunch that is to die for. (I can't think of the name right now.) The common denominator for a successful buffet is the quality of the food and how they cycle it so that it doesn't get "tired".

I do have a problem pacing myself. I am not a big quantity eater and if there are a lot of options that I want to sample I have to be careful to take very small quantities of each dish. I can't stand waste.

For entertaining, I use the buffet concept a lot. My limit on sit down dinners is about six... and those have to be friends and family. At large parties, buffet is about the only thing that works for me. Usually, I am having to juggle different eating habits and restrictions and my most successful ones have been Mexican cuisine. Instead of one big buffet, I have often set up "stations" for different groups of food. For instance, I have a couple of friends that have shellfish allergies. I will put the crab and shrimp offerings on a separate station so that we don't have to worry about cross contamination. I can also group the dishes that would appeal to the odd vegetarian. And the pork stuff is over there. You get the picture. That approach also allows me to enjoy my guests and not fuss over setting a table and all of that.

[John Whiting]

Buffets and bordellos have a lot going for them.

[fifi]

Buffets and bordellos have a lot going for them.

John... Unless you are suggesting that the patrons sample the whores at random, I don't get your analogy.

[Mabelline]

Best W.C. Fields imitation: Ah, Yessss, a veritable smorgasbord......

Edited February 22, 2004 by Mabelline (log)

[John Whiting]

John... Unless you are suggesting that the patrons sample the whores at random, I don't get your analogy.    

Some, I'm told, even mix-and-match.

EDIT: Definition of a menu degustation: an authoritarian buffet.

Edited February 22, 2004 by John Whiting (log)

[marlena spieler]

buffets, can i tell you about buffets! ?

Soba Addict, what a great thread, a real anti-pretentious-"fine-dining" and not afraid to be real thread. and the thing is that buffets can have really good food in them. esp the breakfast buffets, and i'm thinking spain: oh, the garlic, the olive oil!

love your starting this thread. and while i might add more later, meanwhile here is the url for a piece i did recently about cafeterias. the lure of the buffet with a bit of dysfunctional family thrown in........

Shakespeare Didn't Eat at Cafeterias; The Road to Ashland Shakespeare Festival doth Not Run Smooth:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...1.DTL&type=food

[SobaAddict70]

Wonderful article, marlena.

My favorite line:

My husband was in a state of elation. Apparently, they don't have buffets and cafeterias where he comes from.

Soba

[Mudpuppie]

With the exception of a local Indian lunch buffet, I'm not a fan. I have very fond memories of eating at buffets with my grandparents, though. In the early 80s they fled the Midwest for Florida. We'd visit them during spring break every year. (Remember the Seinfeld episode with the early bird special? Well, it's very, very true.)

We'd go to eat at 4:00 at one of the all you can eat places. They're very popular among the Florida seniors. Duff's Smorgasbord was my Grandpa's favorite. It was mine too because they had a spectacular gimmick -- the buffet tables were on a mechanical carousel sort of thing. You'd just stand still and the food would come around to you. As a kid, it was very cool. Didn't matter how good or bad the food was.

[Mayhaw Man]

I used to like Piccadilly, but the quality seems to have suffered in recent years. I still have very fond memories of jello with fruit cocktail in it, okra and tomatoes, mustard greens, roast beef (carved, it was very cool when I was 10 y.o.), corn bread sticks accompanied by "green drink" and finally- boiled custard in green ceramic ramekins. They also had one of those cool cash registers that made change and spit it down the ramp into the little stainless cup. Toothpicks and junior mint patties on the way out. Great place to be a kid.

When I was a kid a trip to Luby's was a huge deal after church. My grandparents (Germans who were about as far away from gourmets as you could be ) thought it was serious cuisine and it was, in fact, pretty good for what it was.

[srhcb]

Actually, I like buffets a lot.

Me too! Jimmy's a great singer, and Warren is a finacial genius!

[Mabelline]

Oh yeah, buffets as a kid were a Wonderland to me, being brought up almost exclusively on home cooking. I went wacko for Anything that was different; the stranger the better.

I feel as though a successful buffet with friends and/or relatives is one of life's great pleasures. It is nice to the major food provider/cook, because after it's up, you get to relax.

Marlena, I'd just about bet you scandalized your little group with your first aid kit I can hear them back at the rooms. Oh my, did you see that? And I thought she was such a nice girl! Bless her heart!

[John Whiting]

Some of my fondest childhood culinary memories are of the pot-luck dinners given by the Ladies Aid Society. I was inclined to dismiss my recollections as childishly romantic, until I acquired a couple of years ago The Provincetown Methodist Church Cook Book, assembled after my father had been assigned to another parish and consisting of recipes many of which I had eaten as prepared by their authors. There was Boatman's Stew, Smothered Chicken (Portugese style) as served up by my fifth grade English teacher Grace Gouveia, New England Boiled Dinner by Eva Chapman, and -- the only veg I couldn't stomach -- fried okra, or "Poor Man's Oysters". Maybe I'll give it another chance.

EDIT: From another era: Mrs. DeCosta's recipe for Baked Scallops begins, "Allow 15 to 18 scallops for each serving." Just right, back when they were free for the taking.

Edited February 22, 2004 by John Whiting (log)

[Toasted]

I usually do a buffet at our bigger parties. The key to a good buffet is the selections of hot and cold foods and the freshness of ingredients. I always have

plenty of salads- including a wonderful fruit salad, a variety of good breads and

butter, and lots of finger foods. Buffets are nice because you have choices instead

of one "set" meal. It's also easier for me in terms of satisfying the different eating

habits of our family and friends i.e meat eaters, vegans, vegetarians.

[Cynthia G]

Shakespeare Didn't Eat at Cafeterias; The Road to Ashland Shakespeare Festival doth Not Run Smooth:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...1.DTL&type=food

Loved the article... and I suddenly feel so much better about having a stash of condiments in my desk drawer at work!

[Mabelline]

Marlena, I forgot all about telling you how much respect I have for your no-nonsense decision to do for your folks rather than do an invite to a truffle festival. Both your heart and your head were in the right place. Truly admirable.

[snowangel]

If I am going out to eat, I'll be damned if I'm going to wait on my self. Why spend that to do what someone else can do for me?

At home parties, perhaps another story, although if I'm inviting people for dinner, I'm disinclined to ask them to wait on themselves. It's more relaxing to pass dishes than have everyone get up and get their own.,

[Mabelline]

We've got an excellent quality place here in Billings called China Buffet. Most people are down on a Chinese buffet, but I love this one. Flavorful dim sum, dumplings, seafood of all kinds, flavorful Chinese dishes, good signage denoting hot,peanuts,seafood, etc., and wonderful service. They are some of the nicest people I've ever met; when SO ate in there without me and they found out I was in the hospital, they sent down two quarts of hot and sour soup to telemetry (and they don't usually deliver). There are quite a few Asian places here, but we always find ourselves headin' there.

[mongo_jones]

a thread about buffets and not one mention of vegas? what next? cats and dogs sleeping together?

[jo-mel]

I love buffets!

Usually I skip the side things, like salads and breads(unless it is a salad buffet) and go directly to the entrees -- sometimes even skipping the desserts -- sometimes.

The Windmill, south of Denver had the most wonderful complete buffet I've ever seen. Long closed. Just as well. It showed me what a pig I can be when unleashed.

The one time I made bread the highlight of a buffet was in Germany where the breakfast selections of sausages and breads were to die for. I can still smell and taste those breads!

Other breakfast buffets, of which I have wonderful memories, were in good hotels either in China/Japan or HK, where European and American foods shared space with Chinese foods. The selections were extensive. It made me realize that I could be a 'breakfast person' if the right things were there!

May I tell a story of a buffet incident between my Dinty Moore, ChefBoyArdee, loving DH and me? In NYC's Fulton St. Seaport marketplace, they had a wonderful international buffet (not the one they have now) and we went there for brunch. We found a table, then went our own ways down the buffet lines. I came back to the table and my husband asked me what in the world I had. I pointed out sushi, sashimi, empanadas, stuffed grape leaves, shao mai and so on. I looked at his plate ----- he had waffles and bacon!!!! AARRGGGHHHH!

I've done buffets for groups, but they were simply different things to put on rice. No real plan, except to balance the flavors and textures. One salad (no selections) no breads, one dessert. Not a true buffet.

[mongo_jones]

Other breakfast buffets, of which I have wonderful memories, were in good hotels either in China/Japan or HK, where European and American foods shared space with Chinese foods. The selections were extensive. It made me realize that I could be a 'breakfast person' if the right things were there!

agreed--breakfast buffets in fine hotels in asia and europe are usually excellent. i have fond memories of the breakfast buffets at hotels in st. petersburg and moscow (featuring caviar and blinis) and in hungary and germany (featuring sausage, sausage, sausage, sausage, eggs, bacon, sausage and sausage)--all these experiences courtesy the wonderfully generous family of my then girlfriend who invited me on their trips.

closer to home (well this home at any rate) there are the great buffets in vegas (especially the ones at the bellagio and mandalay bay, though paris has a great sunday brunch buffet too) where the chefs quail and the accountants resign at my appearance.

[Maison Rustique]

Am I the only one who detests "little" fingers digging into buffets items? Or those who walk up and cough or sneeze in front of it? Not to mention the food sitting for God-knows-how-long without proper temperature control!

Yuck! I guess I'm too finicky for that. I prefer sanitary conditions for my food selection/consumption. Mind you, I'm talking public buffets where there are the hungry masses and their off-spring descending upon the tables unsupervised. Ewwwwww!

[Mabelline]

Damn! I just now reread John post about 15-18 scallops per serving. Oh, man!

That must be like a few generations back where they fed prisoners and servants so much lobster they were gonna revolt (as if)! Or when the entrances of the rivers on the East coast were so full of monster sturgeon that the ships had to wait them out to dock...

[mongo_jones]

Or those who walk up and cough or sneeze in front of it?

hey, when the chef does it they call it special sauce.

[Mabelline]

I've never seen anything of the sort at the buffet I described. The only thing close to the children is a separate ice cream station, scaled down for kids, alongside the adult desert bar. This place is assiduously clean, and about every couple of minutes, someone's arriving from the kitchen with fresh food. So, for myself, nah, I'm not worried about eating there. In fact, the food at the hospital scared me more.