One Food Item You Should NEVER Eat At A Buffet!
One Food Item You Should NEVER Eat At A Buffet!
All-you-can-eat buffets can be a great way to indulge to your heart’s content. But if you’ve got a smaller appetite, you may never be able to or want to cram down enough food to justify the cost. Plus, you often don’t even get to bring home leftovers for a late-night snack, or tomorrow’s breakfast, which is sometimes the best part of eating out; getting two meals for the price of one!
Love ’em, or leave ’em, the one thing we can all agree on about buffets is that they are not really the type of place where you’re going to find any really high-end gourmet treats.
While most buffet food, though it can get kind of gross, will probably not actually endanger your health, there is one common item that you’re probably better off skipping. And trust us this is one bit of information you should definitely know.
A Reddit thread with the owner of a buffet restaurant answered that all-important question, “What is one item you would advise people to stay away from at an all-you-can-eat buffet?”
His all-important answer? Crab legs.
Reason? Freshness, or lack thereof. According to the restaurant owner,
“I have seen [buffet staff] at the fish market going and buying bottom of the barrel seafood including crab legs past their prime. And then they don’t steam them properly either to save on volume.”
So, do you really want to go through all that time and effort to crack open the legs and extract the meat, only to have it turn out to be a dry, overcooked disappointment that could be past its prime?. And then horrors! to find out that the butter provided for dipping is actually margarine?! Yuck. Just…yuck. So not worth the bother.
The Redditor and restaurant owner also advised that oysters aren’t really a safe pick, either. That’s especially true in places like the Midwest, where they’ve obviously had farther to travel, no matter their place of origin. Another commenter remarked that they always followed the advice given by Anthony Bourdain, which is to never eat mussels or oysters in a restaurant if it’s not their specialty, or you’re not acquainted with the chef, since even under the best of conditions, such shellfish are very easily spoiled.
Surprisingly enough, sushi tends to be relatively okay to eat, at least if it is being served up by a busy restaurant where the buffet food turns over quickly, and there’s little chance the sushi has been sitting out all day. The reason why sushi may be a safer pick than shellfish is that health code standards are stricter for raw fish. Also, restaurants are less able to skimp on the quality of the fresh tuna and salmon that are typically used for buffet sushi.
Perhaps the main reason you should pass on any type of dubious seafood as many types of buffet seafood tends to be is out of the entirely reasonable fear of a bit of post-meal discomfort… or worse. As Consumer Reports points out, improperly stored and/or cooked seafood can lead to a nasty case of food poisoning.
It’s not only seafood that can make you sick, though. Even at a higher-end buffet where they slice roast meats to order, you’re still in danger of getting sick, since meats from the carvery are amongst the restaurant foods most likely to cause food poisoning.
