So Long, Salad Bar – Bye, Bye, Buffet

 

I used to LOVE salad bars and buffets. So many choices of food! So many choices of dessert! In Oroville it was Golden Corral. In Chico or Marysville it was Sizzler. Way back in my youth, Chico had a place called Fjords. That was my first experience with an all-you-can-eat type of restaurant. I’m afraid all of this is a thing of the past now.

 

I would always get some salad to quiet my conscience, then hit all the “bad” stuff. I do enjoy salad, but I like all the little extras like garbanzo beans, REAL bacon bits, olives, sunflower seeds, cottage cheese etc. I know you can have that stuff at home, but once you open that can of garbanzos, what do you do with the leftover? I don’t want an entire can of them on my salad. I don’t want an entire can of olives, either. When I was going to Chico all the time to help my parents out, my mom and I would always go to Sizzler for lunch and they had the makings for taco salad. Out of this world!

 

After the salad I would hit the chicken wings…HARD. I absolutely LOVE chicken wings. I could make an entire meal of them. There was probably other meat I would have too, but always the chicken wings first. And a baked potato with TONS of butter.

 

For dessert, there was almost always some kind of ice cream with various toppings. Brownie bites. Pudding. Golden Corral always had the best hot cobbler. If that was available I would concentrate on that instead of the other desserts.

 

As the years have gone by though, I just couldn’t justify the all-you-can-eat price, because I couldn’t do it justice anymore. If I could have, I would have liked to have a small container I could fill up for the next day.

 

One reason I loved Hula’s in Chico was that you could get as much as you possibly could in that bowl they gave you and take the leftovers home. I would pack as much meat as I could in the bowl and then add water chestnuts and tiny corn. When it was all cooked, I would top it off with pineapple. Back at the table I would ask for a plate to mix it all in with the rice they give you.

 

But that’s not something available anymore. *sigh*