Take All You Can Eat and Eat All You Take

I am saddened when I'm at an all you-can-eat of Chinese, Indian, or the Golden Corral or wherever an American can eat until their eyes pop out of their heads for one low price. The reason for this emotion is the grazing of the overweight and obese. I know what you are thinking: “Why are you singling out the fat people, you are there to?” You are right to ask this question and my response is as follows: I am not obese or overweight, I exercise six days a week, I don't smoke, drink excessively, and I eat well 90% of the time. I don't think I can say the same thing about my fellow gluttons.

And of course, Brazil has given me an idea on how we can firm up the flabby United States. Two words: Self-Serve. What is self-serve you ask? Well, I'm going to tell you. Typically this is only a lunchtime thing, as lunch is the most important meal of the day for Brazilians. Many of the self-serve restaurants change to bars serving food designed to be shared with everyone in your party. Most self-serves I have seen offer some variation on a basic theme. A hungry person can choose from several salads, fruit, pasta, pizza, roasted meat, chicken, regional food, meats taken off the grill and put onto your plate, and of course beans and rice. A person can eat whatever and as much as they want but there is a catch. You pay for what you put on your plate and eventually put in your mouth. Each time through the line your plate gets weighed and they mark the price right there on your ticket. I think if we hit the all-you-can eat crowd in the U.S. in the pocket book we could take a bite out of the obesity problem in the U.S.

I love to eat and I love the food at self-serves. I could easily spend $100 on lunch, but the way it is set up I limit what I eat. After lunch I feel satisfied but I don't feel ruined for the rest of the day like I do after a session at the 8 Lucky Buffet. A self-serve model in the U.S. would also help with the problem of wasted food and save money. It would put a price tag on everything on your plate. There would be no more trying a half-plate of pickled duck bills to find out that you don't like them after one bite. It would be like putting a five dollar bill on your plate and it getting scraped into the garbage disposal with the egg  foo young that you that you were too full to eat. The only things I see life on plates at a self-serve in Brazil are bones from a drumstick or ribs that have picked clean.

I composed this post in a self-serve after some fresh fruit and some different salads. The damage...$2.25 and I ate exactly what I wanted and didn't feel the need to stuff myself.