# Pigs Who Don't Understand A Buffet! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 1, 2004, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824 "2004-08-01T07:53:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/21 "2004-08-02T01:48:53Z")
> [@betenoir](#): > > And then put them in a (very large) steam tray, and, hey, you’ve got a whole new buffet… > > Hmmm…the bloated, wasteful, and overindulgent going to feed the next wave of bloated, wasteful and overindulgent…makes a certain economic sense 😛 . Soylent green buffet is **people**!!! ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/22 "2004-08-02T01:50:57Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > More than anything: > > this absolutely disgusts me. Every time I think about the amount of food just wasted in this country, I get depressed. And to see it so blatantly done by pigs who fill their plate and then don’t even come close to finishing it pisses me off to no end. Especially when they leave a pile of food on a plate, and then go badk to the buffet. Next time (which I’m pretty sure I’m done going to buffets ever again), I taking their leftover food and cramming it down their gluttenous pieholes until they choke. Then, as they gasp for breath, I’ll drown them in congealed gravy. Not to rag on your rant too much. But I think left-over food on buffet-eaters’ plates is a minimal source of food waste in this country. The amount of food, for example, that just gets thrown out by grocery stores to ensure that we get only the freshest food is immense. I try to not let leftovers going in the garbage get me down too much. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/23 "2004-08-02T01:52:51Z")
Oddly enough, Soylent Green™ is purple. ---
**Author:** ![SpasmicChaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@SpasmicChaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpasmicChaos)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/24 "2004-08-02T02:25:50Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > Actually, I’ve heard from a lot of folks that the chow at Quark’s Bar in the LV Hilton is top notch gourmet stuff. True? I ate at Quark’s Bar when I was in Vegas a few years ago. The food was good, but I don’t know about gourmet. Then again, I just had a sandwich. I think it was called the _Bird of Prey_. My drink was the best part of my meal. If you ever go to Quark’s, may I suggest ordering the [James Tea Kirk](http://members.cox.net/spasmicchaos/jteak.jpg). It’s a long island iced tea, but this picture really doesn’t do it justice. It’s a very cool looking drink, and it’s huge. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/25 "2004-08-02T03:17:23Z")
> [@Mithril](#): > > At a salad bar once, I was behind a mother and young daughter. To make sure that the daughter liked the salad dressing she picked, the mother grabbed the daughter’s hand, wiped it on the dressing spoon, and had her lick the finger. It was the salad dressing that I had wanted, but I just skipped it altogether. Ugh. Embarass the hell out of them, people. Say, “Oh, God, that’s GROSS, lady!” in a very loud voice. Point, if need be, and call over a server, asking for the spoon to be replaced, making sure that he, and everyone else, knows that it was THAT person over there who polluted the food. I used to hesitate to do things like that, out of some vague notion that it’s impolite to call people on their rudeness. It is, yes, I know. But I’m tired of it. People act like they’re the only goddam people in the resturant, or, more accurately, that they’re the only people who matter. Perhaps if there was more public humiliation of people like this, we’d see a dramatic cut-down in such behaviors. We cannot stand around like sheep while the nasty, rude, obnoxious people of this world ruin things for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/26 "2004-08-02T03:28:27Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > Don’t believe it? I didn’t either, until I came across the Modelling Model Behavior Modification Mission, dedicated to the eradication of antisocial actions of our citizenry. In just two short weeks, this organization can take the worst of plate-piling wastrels and inculcate buffet avoidance so strong, the graduates of the course demonstrate [this amazing display of self-control](http://community.webshots.com/photo/66763270/66768365lgdkgz). …and where you come from, “amazing display of self-control” means “Slowly dissolving giant tortoise who works as a Wal-Mart Greeter” or means “Clown-headed handmaiden of Llolth”? What the hell are we looking at in this picture? Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Mithril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mithril/32/3517_2.png) [@Mithril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithril)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/27 "2004-08-02T03:39:15Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > Embarass the hell out of them, people. Say, “Oh, God, that’s GROSS, lady!” in a very loud voice. Point, if need be, and call over a server, asking for the spoon to be replaced, making sure that he, and everyone else, knows that it was THAT person over there who polluted the food. You don’t know how much I wish that I had. I did shoot my best Miss Manners glare in her direction, but it seems that people who behave like this don’t notice the power of that look. Someday I’ll learn to be a little more confrontational… ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/28 "2004-08-02T03:56:54Z")
> [@Mockingbird](#): > > I think there should be a charge from the restaurant for leaving a significant amount of food behind like that. It eats into the profit of the restaurant, and it is a repulsive sign of waste and conspicuous consumption. A number of the buffet restaurants around here started doing exactly that. I don’t know what the cutoff is, or if they even enforce it at all, but at least having a visible reminder of “hey, people, wanna step back and take a look at what you’re doing here?” does actually seem to produce results. I went to an all-you-can-eat place for lunch on Saturday, and discovered it’s actually quite good for maintaining a healthy diet. I took a good look around the place (both the serving areas and the customers) and lost my appetite. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/29 "2004-08-02T06:19:28Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > First of all, you CAN go back…so why in the hell do you have a plate 14 inches high, with mashed potatoes, watermellon, apple pie and spareribs on the same plate? I have my own lame little buffet story. My wife and I were on our way back home from a semi-long trip and we decided to stop at The Sizzler. (She likes the salad bar but I’m not to fond of the place.) I get the buffet and there’s nothing much I care to eat aside from the potatos and fried chicken. No breasts, that’s fine I just get a thigh, some mashed taters, and gravy and return to my table to consume until they restock the buffet. While I’m eating I notice a member of the kitchen staff restocking the buffet with chicken. When I finish my plate I return to the buffet and wait my turn as a woman starts putting chicken on her plate. She went through the chicken and picked out every last breast and took them to her table for her and her party. Leaving me and two other people to the thighs and legs. Her party was seated at the table next to my wife and I. When I returned I told my wife what she had done. My wife said that the woman bragged to the rest of the table about getting all the breasts. Talking about pissing in my Cheerios. I was tired, I didn’t really like Sizzler to begin with, and this woman just put my in a foul mood. Yeah, it was lame. The worst part of this post is the fact that I used the word breasts so many times and it didn’t conjure any happy thoughts. Marc ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/30 "2004-08-02T10:46:49Z")
With Chey Chase? That hilarious scene at the buffet…customer complains “this isn’t the chicken ala king!”…attendent picks up sign, drops itinto a big tray of steaming yellow glop, and proclaims: “THIS is the chicken ala king!” Bleech! Every time I go to Vegas, I see those horrible buffet lines…and you know what? There are plenty of corn-fed German tourists in those lines… Buffets are for slopping hogs! ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/31 "2004-08-02T11:08:11Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Cigarette ashes are sanitary. So are unused feminie hygiene products, but no one (well damn few at least) wants to see a tampon, blood or no, sticking out of someone’s plate. Something need not be unsanitary to be disgusting or rude. My parents–you’ll pry my cigarettes out of my cold, dead hands types–taught me that putting cigarettes out in your plate is disgusting and filthy, and only done by sub-humans. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/32 "2004-08-02T11:17:15Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > corn-fed German tourists in those lines… > Buffets are for slopping hogs! How ironically funny! When I lived in Germany, Germans would not eat corn as it was animal feed. We were warned never to serve it if we had Germans over for dinner. I asked a couple of Germans about it and they at least thought it animal food. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/33 "2004-08-02T15:24:59Z")
> [@lee](#): > > How ironically funny! When I lived in Germany, Germans would not eat corn as it was animal feed. We were warned never to serve it if we had Germans over for dinner. I asked a couple of Germans about it and they at least thought it animal food. They also see barley as lower class food, something used to bulk out more expensive foods with. That being said, I got my german friend Christian into american indian pudding =) [cornmeal cooked with egg, milk and spices] Going to try him on cornbread next time we get together=) ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/34 "2004-08-02T16:32:01Z")
I think it’s actually spelled boo-fay. If not, it should be. My wonderful Hubby is one of those all-you-can-eat greedy bastards. He doesn’t waste food, which is of limited admirability, but he does make it a point of pride to load his plate up with as many food products as can be balanced on porcelain. Short line, long line, doesn’t matter. The point is the acquisition of food. Lots 'o food. And he complains bitterly if the plates are too small, which seems to be the one trick restauranteurs sometimes employ. Now anyone who swipes the last bacon will hear about it from him, you don’t even want to mess with this man’s bacon. Or sausage. You would never guess that he’s quite civilized and educated, that he holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology - that meat is a primal issue. I figure it’s some sort of hunter-gatherer thing. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/35 "2004-08-02T17:13:50Z")
I remember as a pre-teen going to a buffet restaurant. It had stationary tables, but there was a carousel that sl-o-o-o-o-o-o-wly rotated through a window into the kitchen. It was for hot food, so the kitchen help could make sure everything was loaded up and hot and fresh. You could wait a good five minutes for the fried chicken to make their way around again. A woman was complaining because the carousel spun so fast it made her dizzy. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/36 "2004-08-02T18:04:26Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > Not to rag on your rant too much. But I think left-over food on buffet-eaters’ plates is a minimal source of food waste in this country. The amount of food, for example, that just gets thrown out by grocery stores to ensure that we get only the freshest food is immense. I try to not let leftovers going in the garbage get me down too much. From [Here](http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/deptmpl.asp?url=/content/dep/conservation/food.asp) > [@](#): > > In this world of consumer glut, perhaps the most shocking realization is that our nation wastes 96 billion pounds of food each year, approximately 27 percent of the 356 billion pounds produced. Over one-quarter of our food production ends up in dumpsters, according to a 1995 study by the Economic Research Service. On the homefront, that means that 280 pounds of food are wasted per household per year – 28 billion pounds in all. And yet, while waste is morally disgraceful, there is a tragic human element to be considered. According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) study released in mid-September, 12 million American households experienced food insecurity, the “limited or uncertain access to enough food”, while four million American households reported moderate or severe hunger. and > [@](#): > > Avoid all-you-can-eat buffets. No meal service wastes more food than a buffet – or creates more pressure to overeat. While I agree that in toto, buffets are not the most wasteful, of food service options, they are. Now, how much of that is food left on plates versus dumping the cake that the idiot’s child dragged her finger through, I have absolutely no clue. But on a completely aestetic level, it’s still a huge pet peeve of mine. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/37 "2004-08-02T18:09:51Z")
“ALL YOU CAN EAT” is _not_ a challenge. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/38 "2004-08-02T18:19:27Z")
> [@vetbridge](#): > > “ALL YOU CAN EAT” is not a challenge. Unless your son is named “Dilbert”. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/39 "2004-08-02T19:23:51Z")
> [@vetbridge](#): > > “ALL YOU CAN EAT” is _not_ a challenge. _Ominous voice_ It’s not all you want to eat… It’s all you CAN eat _Ominous voice_ ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824/40 "2004-08-02T19:50:53Z")
> [@Mockingbird](#): > > I think there should be a charge from the restaurant for leaving a significant amount of food behind like that. It eats into the profit of the restaurant, and it is a repulsive sign of waste and conspicuous consumption. I don’t agree with this at all. Buffets in Vegas, like everything else, is a gamble. Two nights ago I went to the MGM Grand Buffet and payed a rather princely (and unexpected) sum for the privlege of eating there. I have a system when it comes to buffets, so I hit the salad bar first. A little bit of green salad, pasta salad, potato salad and some sort of mushroom dish. They all looked rather appetizing. The only thing on the plate that I found remotely edible were the mushrooms. Even the green salad tasted “off” to me. So I left a plate full of food. I figured I’m paying $25, I shouldn’t be forced to eat a bunch of crap that makes me gag. I better find something else that justifies the cost. That’s the only buffet pet-peeve that I forgive. I agree with everybody else on the thread, for the most part… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pigs-who-dont-understand-a-buffet/257824.md?page=3)