For some odd reason tonight, I wanted some Chinese. Went to the all you can eat Chinese buffet, and discovered a new concept to me tonight.

Apparently, they sell fresh steamed crab legs. And apparently, a certain subset of the population, make it their god damn mission to not only eat $10.95 worth of nothing but crab legs, but they shoot for the moon. I sat in awe as table after table piled the discarded, eaten crab legs to the side, making their way back to the buffet for 7ths, 8ths, and 9ths.

These "people" had two to three feet of discarded shells, stacked high on their table. Buttery goo dripping from their hands and face, onto their shirt, which looked like a full stick of melted butter had been dropped upon. I finished my meal and spent an honest 30 minutes watching, gazing, staring in awe as people hurriedly cracked the legs open and sucked the buttery goodness down, like a man on death row eating his last meal quickly before his time is up. Not one single person was content with just a plate or two. It was as if their life's mission was to put the Chinese place out of business. I estimate that each and every table must have eaten at least $40 worth of seafood.

It was a sight to see - a real lesson in humanity.

If you have one of these Chinese buffets around that sells crab legs, may I suggest you checking it out, at least for the experience.

And no I dont eat seafood other than fish and shrimp, so I did not partake in the festivities.

If I ate at a Chinese buffet, crab legs would be the last option, and I like crab legs.
But since I do not partake in ANY buffet type restaurants, learned my lessons over the years, I'd pass.

If I want crab legs, I'll steam them at home..

Glad you enjoyed your evening.
Wife and I do love people watching...

I've witnessed this myself here in Alabama. Sickening to watch after the first 5 or 6 rounds. I mean I'm a big boy but some of these whales here think it's a game.

In defense of the masses.....and it kills me to defend the masses. Crab is not all that filling. I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay and bushels of crabs were the norm. Crab feasts were all about lots of crab, lots of beer and a little corn to fill you up. .

I will say snow crab/king crab and dungeonous is more felling but I can still put down a lot of crab.

Now all that being said crab legs and Chinese buffet are two sets of words when put together sort of terrifies me.

Also your story makes me smile as all I can think is .....

"YOU HERE 4 HOURS!!!! YOU GO KNOW!!! I GIVE YOU ENOUGH MSG TO KILL ELEPHENT!!! EAT VEGITABLE!!! YOU GO KNOW!!!!"

RIP John Pinette.

I have seen this and the results. Most of these buffets are out of business too. The other behavior which pisses me off is the cherry picking of shrimp out of different meals leaving only the other ingredients.

I took a pile of crab legs OFF of the plate of a sow who kept beating me to the front of the line at a joint like that. She'd repeatedly empty the newly refilled pan onto her plate as everyone else watched in hungry horror. I followed her up on her 4th or 5th trip, and grabbed a huge tong-full as she walked away. Not my smartest move as a skinny little (at the time) white kid in the city!

The only crab variety that I've seen at a Chinese buffet is snow crab. Very little reward for the effort as the tiny little things hardly have any meat in them.

I'd rather pay for king crab legs at a seafood restaurant, and get full for not a lot of effort. Quite a contrast to all you can eat snow crab mountain of empty shells and still feeling hungry. That's not even factoring in the great unwashed masses sticking their bugger hooks all over everything and their boorish behavior.

I have always thought the best business model for buffets is to charge by the pound.


Pounds of the individual coming to eat that is.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
That's not even factoring in the great unwashed masses sticking their bugger hooks all over everything and their boorish behavior.

No buffets for Sunset because of my belief of what you just said. It's bad enough the cooks, alleycats, waitresses handle food, throw in people who never wash their hands, and I'm out.

Immediately thought of this:


You eat like Killer Whale

I can't remember the last time I was at a place like that, I can't handle it. I go into a downward mental spiral about how much of either my tax dollars and/or health care premiums subsidize their crappy life-choices and get really upset. Nope...with extra nope-sauce. I hope the trough is above 40 or below 140, good luck at the ER.

It's supposed to be "All You Can Eat," not "Eat All You Can."

But yeah, if you think you're getting by with just a couple of crab legs, you obviously have never eaten crab. After a proper seafood crab meal, you should have an Everest size mound of shells.

And melted butter with crab...Yuck. I prefer the French way; homemade mayonnaise with my crab meat, thank you very much.

And yeah, why anyone would eat at those places is beyond me.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
It's supposed to be "All You Can Eat," not "Eat All You Can."

And yeah, why anyone would eat at those places is beyond me.

No kidding.
Some people literally have no clue. They likely think all crab is the same. Quality has no meaning in their lives. All-you-can-eat places are a joke, who ever came up with such a concept?

The wife and I watched a guy eat three heaping plate fulls of bacon at a buffet, it was quite interesting to watch him go from normal to shaking like a heroin addict. honestly thought he was going to die on the spot. I like bacon but that's a bit crazy

Twenty years ago I was studying for a BSc in chemistry. I was friendly with 6~7 graduate students from the PRC. All of them advised against eating any food from the PRC (except tea, Tsiang Tao, or rice), especially alcohol and seafood. No way that I would even touch chinese origin Kepone Crabs, PCB Catfish, or God-Knows-Wot-Heavy-Metal-Shellfish.


It may be the JB Rye influencing posting, but I vaguely recall the chinese students calling the buffets as 'heavy resteraunts' or '2-3 resteraunts'. That meant that patrons weighed double or triple the weight of a chinese person.

And I agree with the OP, sad and appalling.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
It's supposed to be "All You Can Eat," not "Eat All You Can."

But yeah, if you think you're getting by with just a couple of crab legs, you obviously have never eaten crab. After a proper seafood crab meal, you should have an Everest size mound of shells.

And melted butter with crab...Yuck. I prefer the French way; homemade mayonnaise with my crab meat, thank you very much.

And yeah, why anyone would eat at those places is beyond me.

I agree with you about eating at a buffet like that. Yikes. Andcrab, like shrimp, is something that people can eat a LOT of. I can eat loads of them as long as I have iced tea to wash it down with.

But mayo? On crablegs? Shudder..Sends a shiver of revulsion down my back. Actually, mayo on anything gives me the creeps.

quote:

"YOU HERE 4 HOURS!!!! YOU GO KNOW!!! I GIVE YOU ENOUGH MSG TO KILL ELEPHENT!!! EAT VEGITABLE!!! YOU GO KNOW!!!!"RIP John Pinette.

That was the first thing that came to my mind when I started to read this post.

I haven't done an ALL-YOUCRAM-INTO -YOUR-PIE-HOLE place since I went to the Golden Corral in Manassas, VA. I saw a person lick the "mac and "cheese" serving spoon clean and place it back into the almost full tray. I stepped up to warn the next grazer only to be met with a hostile screech of "No cutting the line!" At that point I left.

Never again.

We also had a bad experience at the Golden Corral. Quill pigs pushing and shoving, wait staff banging into you, not once did we here an apology. Shortly after our visit, I read where the same restaurant got shut down because they were storing their frozen seafood on the dumpster.