The Grand Ol Buffet

While vacationing in Florida, my children were exposed to buffets. I remember as a child, my favorite restaurants were buffets. I am not sure why but when it was my turn to pick a restaurant, I always chose a buffet. We had a buffet in town called Bonanza. You could order a meat entree and then get the buffet with it. There was a salad bar and pasta along with many side dishes and desserts. I remember going there with my grandmother and she would always take a couple of pieces of bread home in her purse for later. Then when I moved to NY, we had a buffet called Ponderosa. The kids in the family would take turns picking a restaurant when we went out to dinner. I always picked Ponderosa and remember my brothers always getting mad that I chose there. Ponderosa was along the same lines as Bonanza. Then there were the chinese buffets. I have always loved chinese food so give it to me in a buffet and that was my ideal meal as a child. Reflecting back on this, I am not quite sure why I liked them so much. I actually forgot how great I once thought they were until my 5 year old was introduced to them and fell in love with the idea. My memories of buffets came back to me and for a child they are the perfect dining options.
On our first day in Florida we were all hungry after a day on the beach. Maya wanted chinese noodles so my dad suggested we try this great chinese buffet. Morgan and I agreed thinking we could eat rice and still follow our gluten free/sugar free diet. My dad took Ella up and Morgan took Maya up while I waited with Tate. I was soon joined back at the table with two little girls that had the biggest smiles on their faces. Ella said this is the greatest place. There are so many things to pick from and you can try it and not eat it if you don't like it and then go back and get more. When she said that, I realized exactly why I loved buffets growing up. There were so many things to pick from. You didn't get in trouble for wasting your food. You could go up there as many times as you want and try so many different things and eat lots of your favorites.
Later on that week, after spending a day at the museum, we were starving again. This time we went to the Golden Corral. Now this was a place I had never been to before but went upon much pushing from my father. I had a lot of laughs while experiencing this buffet. My husband ate 2 plates of fruit, I had 1 plate which consisted of a salad, Ella had some pasta and fruit, and Maya ate fruit, hard boiled eggs, and olives. I laughed at my daughter's choices. I did not put limitations on them and walked through the whole buffet line with them. They could have had fried chicken, french fries, pizza, mac n cheese and so on. But no they choose plain noodles and fruit.
While I was grunting and groaning at the food selections, my dad told Morgan this is probably the first and last time he will experience this restaurant with me. Yes, that was very true!
My dads argument makes sense though. The buffet is very economical. For a family of 5 to eat there it cost $30. If you are disciplined and have self control it is a great choice. The problem is it is so easy to over indulge yourself and make bad choices when everything is limitless and at your finger tips.
So on the last day of our trip, we let the girls pick where they wanted out go to eat. Maya wanted to go to the place where she could have Chinese noodles and fruit and Ella wanted to go to the place where she could try a few things and then go get some more if she wanted. So back to the Chinese buffet we went. My children will probably not visit another buffet until we visit Grandpa again. In fact Ella doesn't even think they exist in Colorado and that is ok with me.