chinese buffet
Already : Hatachi Archives
chinese buffet Saturday September 18
my dad turned to me in the car yesterday and started a new thread of conversation:
"oh, did you hear tony's going to have some competition now; there's a new chinese buffet place opening up in the hilander shopping centre."
"bah," i responded. the china palace is, and will always continue to be, my favorite american-chinese restaurant. i have pride. i worked there for three years. they're like family. and they make a killer mapo tofu.
i should have seen what was really going on. today i went over to dad's house for breakfast, but then i began all of my computer work and reading, and i spent the better part of the day there. as such, i was there when my dad asked:
"do you want to go out to dinner with us?"
what he had done in the car was plant the seed, such that when this question came about it wouldn't shock me so much. he was preparing me, and i knew where he wanted to go. but i wanted to make him say it. i wanted him to admit his treason to me.
and when i asked, he said that they were "going to try the chinese buffet again".
infidels!
they convinced me that i could not nay-say until i had at least tried it, so i got in the car and rode over with sharon and dad to try out the, ahem, 21st century china buffet.
now, i have a veritable cornucopia of experience with chinese food, and i have always noted that the chinese buffets are usually, well, bad. and they always have names like "new china buffet" or "chinatown buffet" or "new century buffet" or "21st century new china buffet". even in new york. and now that i can read some characters, it's amazing how much you see 「新紀何か」. those same characters over and over. new century this, new century that.
what struck me about the place was not how well it adhere to the guidelines though -- chinese buffet is a formula like any other concept restaurant -- but how poor the dishes were.
they were. all. meat. and seafood. shrimps. with an 's'. you can't say 'shrimp' at a place like this, no, no, and they got them there crab legs, all yous can eat.
my dad and sharon realllly like it. but allll i wanted was vegetables. good vegetables. all i could get was msg-soaked, garlicy brocolli that came with the beef and brocolli. and string beans. so those are the two things i ate, along with a lot of white rice.
my sensitivities have changed. my tastes now lie in subtler flavors than salt, sugar and garlic; while i still love them dearly on occasion, i'll take my spicy thai curry or even a spinach salad anytime over this fried excuse for digestable material.
of course, this message isn't intended to condescend on anyone who likes chinese buffet. occasionally, i like it too. but i knew before going in i wasn't in the mood for crap, and well, even as far as chinese buffets go, you know roscoe's is going to be worse.
oh, and as a total side note, the place was full of fat people. not like, my-dad-is-overweight fat. we're talking, please-don't-eat-me-when-they-run-out-of-chicken-sticks fat. couples. and they had babies with 'em. i didn't see if the babies were fat yet or not.
