Home from my parents
on February 12, 2021 at 1:01 amChapter: Tales Told out of School
Characters: David Walkerton, Joyce Brown
Location: Denver International Airport
Whenever Maggie would leave town, I’d try to figure out what terrible-ass place I could eat at that she hates. It always turned out to be buffets. Terrible, horrible, amazing buffets.
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I miss buffets
the last one I ate at tho, even though it was the salad buffet, I was throwing up everything I ate bc I had WAY too much
also isn’t that the correct way around
actually what I like now is like kaiten sushi, where I can keep taking food if I still want more but I pay per each and not have to feel compelled to “get my money’s worth” at the expense of my diet
I miss that too, stupid pandemic
I spent 3 months in Osaka, near a kaiten far from a train station and thus cheap. $1 for a plate of salmon nigiri. Ruined me for US sushi prices…
Oh gods that’s gross. The throwing up, specifically, I mean.
I guess the buffet too if you had that reaction to it. Yikes.
I used to like buffets when I was a kid. Ponderosa was a monthly event – mostly for the ice cream bar at the end.
But now – ugh. Just not a fan of food that sits out for ages and gets touched by random people.
Weirdly, though, the last place I ate out with friends last year in February was an Asian food buffet. It wasn’t very good, and it cost way too much, but it’s where my friends wanted to go to celebrate something, so… **shrugs**
It was specifically from overeating, not from food (lack of) quality. I had specifically wanted my money’s worth AND thought, well at least salad is healthy. Also I have self-control problems with being uncomfortable with the slightest but if hunger and feel like if I’m not bloated I didn’t eat enough (I do better these days but still feel “hungry” if I’m not literally in pain from fullness)
but if = bit of
Stupid phone
There’s a reason they’re “all you can eat”, not “all you can keep down”.
Wait, was Walky going out to eat *with a cold?*
I assume he was more just offering a flimsy justification.
I thought that too when I first read this strip.
It was a different time, when being sick didn’t stop people from going to public places and spreading their nasty germs all around and unless you were on death’s door your boss still expected you to show up for work.
That’s different how?
Some workplaces have achieved a modicum of sanity or humanity. Or at least expect you to show up in a mask.
“It was a buffet! ALL THE NUGGETS I COULD EVER WANT !!”
I miss buffets. We used to go to a Chinese place that only cost $7 a head to get in. The food was awesome, as long as you didn’t mind the occasional feather still attached to your chicken wings.
They hit all the “cheap Chinese buffet place” tropes:
– Chandelier hanging over the steam tables, in the middle of a recessed raised ceiling area, with noticeably missing crystals
– Booths and tables that noticeably deteriorated between visits
– Neon beer signs for brands you only ever see at these places
– Stereotypical Chinese-sounding background music, with occasional instrumental covers of western songs thrown in
– Food signage in sometimes-broken English that also didn’t always match the actual food
– An employee’s kid sitting behind the bar, playing with an iPad
– Questionable sushi
– The steam table full of bland generic stuff like pizza and french fries, for little kids and the cowardly
– The health department shut them down at least three times in five years, and over 15-ish years they suddenly closed and reopened in a new location under a new name thrice
The last incarnation we knew of shut down a few years ago, and so far we haven’t been able to find it again.
I haven’t been to a buffet in a ridiculously long time, and that’s not including since the covid pandemic started. Don’t know why it’s been so many years since I’ve gone to one, I love buffets.
The last buffet I went to was at Pizza Hutt. They had all you could eat nights for a set price. Unlike Jen I didn’t actually throw up, but I did have to lay down in the back seat cause if I’d sat I would have. Ah, those were the days.
For the record, Walky’s right. It IS “Feed a cold, starve a fever,” not the other way around like Joyce says. When you have a fever, you’re more likely to throw up, so you’re going to want to go easy on your stomach.
There was a Chinese buffet within walking distance of my job a year ago but they had a kitchen fire right before the pandemic and I guess between the lack of business and the repair expenses, they went under. It’s probably been great for my health in general but like every other week I mourn for it.
I never even saw Chinese buffets until I got to Bloomington/IU! This after living in Chicago, LA, SF. LA had all you can eat Mongolian grill but that’s very different.
Then a friend took me on a road trip through KY/TN and we kept passing Chinese buffets. I guessed it was because “all you can eat” was the only way to lure small town and rural Southerners in. A Chinese friend later said it was because of the “Fujian mafia” with a uniform business model outside of the Cantonese Chinatowns.
We did not visit those buffets on the road trip. I did repeatedly visit one near me in Bloomington. It wasn’t great but I didn’t notice it making me sick and it was tempting especially if I’d skipped a meal first.
Indian buffets are less horrible but I still have the “must get money’s worth” -> “oh god is my stomach going to burst” problem.
Someday soon we will eventually be able to visit buffets again and spread our germs around without killing each other.