I recently went to eat at a hotel buffet for dinner, something I haven’t done in a long long time. I used to enjoy the wide selection of mouth watering food, variety of Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese, Indian foods……and the sheer amount of food you could eat. BUT this time I couldn’t enjoy like I used to- why? Maybe I am too healthy now. My thought process to attack a buffet used to be:
- assess the choice and cuisines on the counters
- check out all options and plan a strategy for where to start.
- hit the entrees, main courses, value for money items like seafood and steaks had to be included, back to entrees, some more main courses…….pig out on desserts
- make sure you eat until you are really full
- perhaps compare yourself to others at the table in my group and make sure I didn’t eat too little
- feel a bit guilty that I didn’t consume alcohol if it was in the price, definitely not maximising my dollar value
- I also used to feel bad when people would say I wasn’t getting my money’s worth by eating too many of the cheap items such as mashed potato, salad, vegetables and chocolate cake
Now my strategy was:
- assess the choice and cuisines on offer, think “my goodness this is way too much food”
- consider which items have MSG in them….the Chinese soups do, the dumplings do, the Japanese vinegars and sauces, the Chinese dishes do. Right won’t eat those (I have a big problem with MSG, what it is and how widely it is used)
- ask the chef behind the counter “does this have MSG in it?” and frown at him when he says “yes” almost with a tone of “of course it does silly!”
- walk away from the MSG laden options
- have some Western vegetable soup to start, followed by some Western appetizers and Chinese vegetables and rice.
- consume a small portion of pizza and Italian food, its salty but I can’t eat too much else on offer
- have a huge bowl of salad with walnut oil, olive oil and red wine vinegar. Delicious.
- have some desserts, love desserts and don’t have them at home
- have a plate of fruit
- realise that I’m really thirsty and all the food on offer is too salty, some dishes are very oily, the Western options are carb heavy, white flour loaded and cream covered, and the Asian food has MSG in it
My conclusion after the buffet experience was I’m “too” healthy that if or when I do eat out it’s usually at a vegetarian restaurant, a Western restaurant where I can order seafood, vegetables, salad or control the portion size. Or at a Chinese/Japanese restaurant and I insist on no MSG and chicken stock/essence.
But is there such a thing as too healthy? I know the answer and yes there is, it’s called orthorexia, but I am not there yet, thankfully. I just am not suited to buffets.