story snacks - alll-you-can-eat buffets
Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 3:10 pm
A colleague and myself, looking for a place to have lunch, found ourselves sitting in an Indian restaurant.
Then, I found out it was an all-you-can-eat style place.
And I asked my colleague to leave.
Before my eyes opened (a crack), I thought "Yeah, lots of food and no limit". And, of course, "I better get the best ROI here by stuffing myself to the gills before I even consider calling it a day".
So, for one, less important, thing, what these places serve must be the worst quality around, as, if quantity is not in their hands, they must tweak quality to make ends meat.
For another, the most important, thing, the kindling of our worst instincts, as above, undermines any hope we might have to keep sanity, health and dignity in our relationship with food.
And, if you look at it carefully, it really characterizes all main street food places. To provide a semblance of large portions and rich dishes, they'll smother the dishes and the customers with excess of the cheapest ingredients, namely oil and flour-based foodstuffs, such as bread and pasta.
And doesn't the same profit-driven debasing of our food start in the feeding of the animals from which our meat comes?!
They get stuffed with soy or corn, and we get fat animals whose fat composition is nothing like that found in the wild.
But we get a lot for so little. A devil's bargain.
And on the high menu panels of one famous chain, many of the meaty ingredients come with something like a 'based on' or 'derived from' label. In other words, it's the meat extended with something cheap.
And the super-size drinks so often ranted about - isn't it the same economics? Cheap HFCS is the new "let them eat cakes."
Then, I found out it was an all-you-can-eat style place.
And I asked my colleague to leave.
Before my eyes opened (a crack), I thought "Yeah, lots of food and no limit". And, of course, "I better get the best ROI here by stuffing myself to the gills before I even consider calling it a day".
So, for one, less important, thing, what these places serve must be the worst quality around, as, if quantity is not in their hands, they must tweak quality to make ends meat.
For another, the most important, thing, the kindling of our worst instincts, as above, undermines any hope we might have to keep sanity, health and dignity in our relationship with food.
And, if you look at it carefully, it really characterizes all main street food places. To provide a semblance of large portions and rich dishes, they'll smother the dishes and the customers with excess of the cheapest ingredients, namely oil and flour-based foodstuffs, such as bread and pasta.
And doesn't the same profit-driven debasing of our food start in the feeding of the animals from which our meat comes?!
They get stuffed with soy or corn, and we get fat animals whose fat composition is nothing like that found in the wild.
But we get a lot for so little. A devil's bargain.
And on the high menu panels of one famous chain, many of the meaty ingredients come with something like a 'based on' or 'derived from' label. In other words, it's the meat extended with something cheap.
And the super-size drinks so often ranted about - isn't it the same economics? Cheap HFCS is the new "let them eat cakes."