All you can eat..
When I was a student, ways of getting cheap food was something we all tried. Being around on a Sunday was good as my flatmate's Dad used to visit and often took us to the local pub for a pint and a roast.
Then of course there was the University soup kitchen, where impoverished students could grab a cup of soup and a roll for free if you were staying at the Uni in the holidays. This was all good not that I was ever really impoverished. I have to say that I was rather embarrassed when I found my picture on the front of the student paper being handed my soup. It took a long time to live that one down.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Chinese_buffet2.jpg
A favourite haunt in those Uni days was Pizza Hut. They had just started a new promotion that seemed to be proving a tad popular, lunchtime buffet. At the time this was not common. Pizza Hut were offering all you could eat pizzas for a bargain price. The place would fill with students who would quite literally eat until the cupboards were bare. At that time you paid a price for a salad bowl but could fill it only once. My friend came up with an ingenious plan where he stacked the bowl with cucumber slices building them up the sides considerably increasing the volume of the bowl allowing for much salad to be selected.
Nowadays these all you can eat buffet places are more common. In particular the Chinese style. I visited one of these today. £9.95 all you can eat.
It looked quite promising. The buffet was well stocked and the food looked fresh. When you are hungry these restaurants are good as you can get straight to the food practically without sitting down. No waiting for the menu or other diners making up their minds on what to choose. I picked up a plate and tucked into the starters.
Chinese food is quite filling and I think this is one of the reasons that these buffet places survive. They obviously employ tactics to prevent you getting more food. Their main defence is the removal of your plate. As soon as your plate gets anyway near empty as if by magic a waiter arrives to whisk it away. At first glance this appears to be a little crazy, surely they are just creating more washing up, yet they do it so efficiently there must be a reason. I think that this is psychological. If you have to go and get a new plate you might be less likely to grab more food.
The thing to do is to keep hold of your cutlery. A plate can be replaced but often the cutlery is harder to find. Without a fork you are forced to remain only with the finger food.
Another technique they use is also psychological, whereby the plates and bowls that they use are of a smaller than average size. Therefore the plate empties quicker and more trips have to be made, just how many platefuls are acceptable?
When eating at an all that you can eat buffet it is your duty to eat until you can't eat anymore, the food should not be wasted. But remember to leave room for pudding. The desserts in these places are also disappointing, usually some small defrosted cakes, icy Neapolitan ice cream and cheap fruit salad the stuff dominated by sliced apples and oranges. But saying that it shouldn't stop you going up for seconds, thirds or perhaps fourths.
Then of course there was the University soup kitchen, where impoverished students could grab a cup of soup and a roll for free if you were staying at the Uni in the holidays. This was all good not that I was ever really impoverished. I have to say that I was rather embarrassed when I found my picture on the front of the student paper being handed my soup. It took a long time to live that one down.
A favourite haunt in those Uni days was Pizza Hut. They had just started a new promotion that seemed to be proving a tad popular, lunchtime buffet. At the time this was not common. Pizza Hut were offering all you could eat pizzas for a bargain price. The place would fill with students who would quite literally eat until the cupboards were bare. At that time you paid a price for a salad bowl but could fill it only once. My friend came up with an ingenious plan where he stacked the bowl with cucumber slices building them up the sides considerably increasing the volume of the bowl allowing for much salad to be selected.
Nowadays these all you can eat buffet places are more common. In particular the Chinese style. I visited one of these today. £9.95 all you can eat.
It looked quite promising. The buffet was well stocked and the food looked fresh. When you are hungry these restaurants are good as you can get straight to the food practically without sitting down. No waiting for the menu or other diners making up their minds on what to choose. I picked up a plate and tucked into the starters.
Chinese food is quite filling and I think this is one of the reasons that these buffet places survive. They obviously employ tactics to prevent you getting more food. Their main defence is the removal of your plate. As soon as your plate gets anyway near empty as if by magic a waiter arrives to whisk it away. At first glance this appears to be a little crazy, surely they are just creating more washing up, yet they do it so efficiently there must be a reason. I think that this is psychological. If you have to go and get a new plate you might be less likely to grab more food.
The thing to do is to keep hold of your cutlery. A plate can be replaced but often the cutlery is harder to find. Without a fork you are forced to remain only with the finger food.
Another technique they use is also psychological, whereby the plates and bowls that they use are of a smaller than average size. Therefore the plate empties quicker and more trips have to be made, just how many platefuls are acceptable?
When eating at an all that you can eat buffet it is your duty to eat until you can't eat anymore, the food should not be wasted. But remember to leave room for pudding. The desserts in these places are also disappointing, usually some small defrosted cakes, icy Neapolitan ice cream and cheap fruit salad the stuff dominated by sliced apples and oranges. But saying that it shouldn't stop you going up for seconds, thirds or perhaps fourths.
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