Mom had been wanting to go to the all you can eat shrimp fest for a while now. Various snafus and other hooha had kept anyone from going with her. After an especially nasty episode of drama, my dad gallantly agreed to a family dinner. We didn’t know the extent of Mom’s plan.
She knew that she could get a salad any time she wanted, while the cheddar bay biscuits would have been a treat, she had a goal! As for her side dish, Dad’s family is Irish, trust me we eat enough potatoes.
Our order was placed: three all you can eat shrimps and my food (I went with some pre planned meal gig since I wasn’t particularly hungry, but wanted to be all family like). The poor server, he never knew what hit him. She had the scampi and the pasta alfredo, wisely only eating the shrimp and not the pasta part. Then she moved onto the fried and battered shrimp. Finally, she asked our nice server if she could just have alfredo shrimp without the pasta.
While her all you can eat chums fell by the wayside, foolishly eating their biscuits and salads, she kept going. It wasn’t some kind of nasty looking, gluttonous Monty Python skit; it was a well thought out plan of attack. In the end, I had to salute her (and wonder about the iodine and mercury levels in her blood). Now I just need to teach her what veni vidi vici means (I’d go for I came, I saw, I ate, but I bet it wouldn’t have the same ring, and I couldn’t find a translation for ate.)
There’s a very nice Chinese buffet brunch around these parts where the quality of food at the buffet is equal too or greater than most restaurant’s entrees and I always see the locals stocking up on the crab and shrimp. They also force their kids to eat until their tears run blue with iodine poisoning.
A few weeks ago I took my wife and stepson to IHOP for an all you could cram in your piehole shrimpfest. They seemed to be really lo hadoking forward to it but only had two servings each. I had a sandwich. Chinese buffets are a different matter for me. My favorite greasy choptick place burned down but it was due to be condemned anyway because of the light rail coming in on that street. I may talk myself into dinner at a different one tonight.
But I agree with the principle.
Ha ha! New plan!
I’ll walk around the buffet exclaiming, “Have you tried the soup? Its fantastic.” or “Mmm, that bread and potato dish was superb.”
And while those fools stuff themselves with water and starch, I grab all the seafood.
Domestically caught shrimp have traditionally been expensive but I believe those flooding the market from Asia are much cheaper. Can someone verify this?
“Shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, sautee it. Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich… that’s uh, that’s about it.”
Lightweights. My brother and I just got back from an all you can eat pizza buffet. I (naturally) had a buy one get one free coupon. This was for a different place if anyone remembers.
I ate 14-16 slices of pizza (I can’t remember exactly, but I counted at least 12 crusts not including the 2 I ate), my brother ate about 15 slices himself, we each had 2 breadsticks and about 3/4 of a gallon of pepsi total between us. Of course neither of us ate anything today and probably wont eat anything else today and this was at 5pm.
There needs to be a Jewish deli with an all-you-can-eat buffet around here. I could do with unlimited Reubens, corned beef on rye, pastrami on rye, chopped liver, knishes, stuffed cabbage, matzo ball soup. That would officially be the best thing ever.
This reminds me of when Chevy Chase’s brother-in-law takes him to the $2.99, all-you-can eat buffet!
Chase: “ismthat the ckicken ala king”?
Attendent (plops sign into tub of yello glop): “No Sir, this is the chicken”!
Honestly, those buffets are horrible! You get top see WHY people are sooverweight!
I can’t remember if it’s in Colorado Springs, CO or Columbus, GA, but we used to go to this restaurant called Williams where, instead of a basket of bread, they bring you a humongous bowl of shrimp on ice…free of charge. If you finish it, they will refill it. If you all get up from the table to go to the salad bar, they remove the shrimp, so we learned pretty quickly to keep at least one person sitting at the table at all times. This is where I learned just how good unlimited shrimp could be. I can’t believe we didn’t eat there more often.
I loves me some shrimp! I would have gone with your Mom in a heartbeat.
(I just made some gumbo on Monday. Shrimp, crawfish, chicken and andouille sausage. Mmm, mmm, mmm!)
Mu husband asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday. Denis’ Seafood, here we come. Gonna have me a stuffed lobster. Just an overgrown shrimp, really.
