07.03.08
Posted in Food and Drink, Travel Log (Asia) at 1:12 am by Benjamin Ross
No sooner do I write an article about how there is nothing “to see” in Shijiazhuang than do I walk right out of the smoky net bar to see something I have never before seen in Mainland China—a bona fide all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.
Growing up in the heart of America, my first exposure to Chinese cuisine (and Chinese culture too now that I think about it) was at the Lucky Dragon Chinese Buffet. Located in a strip center in Overland Park, Kansas, Lucky’s had all the makings of the prototypical Chinese buffet restaurant—General Tso’s chicken, fortune cookies, placemats with the Chinese signs of the zodiac on them. And best of all, for $5.95 we could stuff our faces with as much Oriental delight as we desired. It was so perfect, so foreign, and yet so utterly un-Chinese.
And like General Tso’s famous chicken, and like those desert cookies with fortunes and lucky numbers, and like the placemats with the animals, the all-you-can-eat buffet is virtually non-existent in China. China does have many restaurants with cafeteria-style dining 中国快餐 (zhong1 guo2 kuai4 can1), where diners choose from pre-made dishes, an art all of its own and probably worthy of its own post. However, these restaurants are never all-you-can eat. Instead, they charge 1 or 2 RMB per item.
So it came to be, just 30 feet from the Internet bar I spied my first ever all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet, in China. The price of 26 RMB was a little steep, but I couldn’t resist. I paid my money, was handed my silver trey, and dug in.
The buffet consisted of a long table, with over 20 hot dishes, as well as a similar number of cold ones. On another table were fruit, soda, and even a big glass jug of baijiu* with a stretched out dead lizard inside. Wanting to take full advantage of the 26 kuai I had thrown down, I packed my plate with mapo tofu, stir fried potatoes and pork, squid cooked with cumin, lion heads (Chinese meat balls), spicy napa, seaweed, a fried onion cake, a mound of rice, 2 vegetable dumplings, and a baozi. Now as you might have expected, the food itself was not of the highest quality, it was rather lousy. In fact, come to think of it this was probably the worst 26 kuai meal I have ever eaten. Most of the dishes were similar in quality to mid-grade 快餐, on which I can usually fill up for just around 5 RMB. The only redeeming item was the cumin squid which was rather tasty and unique.
Thus my first stop at the Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet will likely be my last as well. Here are a few pictures from the experience, the most interesting of which is probably the lizard in the baijiu. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s probably a good thing there aren’t too many Chinese buffets in the Middle Kingdom, and it’s probably also another reason the Chinese aren’t nearly as obese as us proud Americans. I can however assure you that I will most likely not be eating any more Chinese buffet until I return to Chicago.
*Chinese rice wine; usually around 50% alcohol
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| Looks familiar, right? |
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| The first table had primarily hot dishes and soups. |
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| The second table had all kinds of cold dishes, mainly veggies and tofu. |
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| At the end of the second table were an assortment of 主食 (staple foods) including rice, dumplings, cakes, and mantou. |
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| The dessert table consisted mainly of fruit. Sorry, no college dormitory style ice cream or chocolate pudding. |
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| Each item was served on chaffing dishes, just like back home. |
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| Here’s my first tray full of Chinese buffet goodness; Clockwise from the top-left, that’s the fried onion cake, dumplings, rice, baozi, stir-fried potatoes and pork, spicy napa, seaweed, squid cooked with cumin, lion heads, and the mapo tofu. |
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| A Chinese buffet just wouldn’t be a Chinese buffet without a jug of baijiu with a dead lizard in it right?….right?….anybody? |
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Benjamin Ross
said,
July 3, 2008 at 9:02 am
I finished this article late at night, mentally and physically exhausted after a full day of traveling, and woke up to realize I had made a potentially easily misinterpreted typo. Originally it had read
Although this grammatically doesn’t make any sense, could be easily misinterpreted and possibly offensive. Here’s what I had intended to write
Correction has now been made. Moral of the story: Don’t trust my own editing skills after a late-night train ride full of duck necks and PRB.
swiss james
said,
July 3, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I’d never really thought about the lack of Chinese buffets before- it is strange though, since the idea of all you can eat / drink is so common in Shanghai, what with Brunches + buffets of most other styles of food.
Anyway shame on you for not having the lizard Baijiu.
ZL
said,
July 3, 2008 at 6:21 pm
It’s pretty common to see all you can eat in things like hotpot, Japanese, Brazillian BBQ (though hiddeous here) and hotel brunches here in Nanjing.
What time was it when you went? Generally I stay away from a place that empty in a place as populous as China, if it were any good it would have to be a bit more crowded
Benjamin Ross
said,
July 3, 2008 at 9:09 pm
ZL-
I think it was pretty late, maybe 8 or 9. I had just been engrossed in a net bar for a few hours so my sense of time was a little out of wack. I’d imagine it was probably more packed (and tastier) during dinner time. I probably should mention I also waited until nobody was at the buffet to take the pics.
Jiang
said,
July 4, 2008 at 12:05 am
8 or 9? It’s pretty late for dinner. But there were still many dishes left. I guess they probably would be refrigerated and sold the next day. That means what you ate was cooked maybe 1 day ago or 2… Haha. No wonder it’s lousy.
gswafford
said,
July 4, 2008 at 5:11 am
Careful, careful.
My wife and I ate at a so called “bona fide” all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet in Xi’an one time. It was pay first, then dine. I didn’t have a problem with that and all went well until we had our fill and started to head out. That’s when the wait staff started chasing us down, demanding that we pay extra for the bowl of tofu that I failed to eat due to its extremely poor taste.
They actually took my wife back to the table and told her that she either had to eat the tofu or pay extra. After trying to rationalize with them for several moments and pointing out that there was no mention of this ass-backwards policy anywhere on the premises, I finally turned the bowl upside-down and told them to piss off or eat it themselves. They continued snipping at our heels half-way down the sidewalk until I finally had enough and chased them off.
That was the only “buffet” I ever attempted during the time I lived in China. I could understand some frustration if someone was obviously wasting food just for the sake of it, but this clearly wasn’t the case.
Benjamin Ross
said,
July 4, 2008 at 9:16 am
@gswafford
They have an all-you-can-eat sushi place in Chicago like that as well, where you only pay extra if you don’t finish something. However, the policy is clearly-marked so that you are well-aware of it before you order. By the way, did you ever see the Simpsons where Homer goes to the all-you-can-eat seafood buffet and they have to kick him out because he eats too much? Then he takes them to court and sues them for false advertisement, on account of the restaurant being “all-you-can-eat.”
Matt
said,
July 14, 2008 at 2:27 am
Hey Ben,
when we were in Beijing last year, we had an excellent vegetarian buffet at the Xu Xiang Zhai restaurant near the Lama temple. It was expensive for Beijing, but excellent. More here: http://www.bestfoodinchina.net/node/122
rachel
said,
July 28, 2008 at 10:38 am
the cantonese looooove buffets. love it. (not as much as dim sum.) i’ve only eaten in a couple hotel buffets; not excellent but generally delish.