Text 11963, 78 rader
Skriven 2007-02-17 17:48:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DAVE SACERDOTE
Ärende: Oysters etc. 79
=======================
 DS> True to form for Royal, the seafood selection was outstanding
 DS> and included oysters on the half shell alongside the cherrystone
 DS> clams.
...
 DS> The oysters, however, were probably the best I have ever eaten.
 DS> Texture, taste, sweet/brine ratio: they were perfect.  I was so
 DS> impressed by the quality that I mentioned it to our waiter, 
 DS> telling him how good they were.

It's season. Yesterday oysters were a special at the place Carol
and I went for Valentine's dinner: $1.50 each. Big fat briny ones,
just about perfect, like yours.

 DS> To my surprise, about 15 minutes later he carried to the table a
 DS> serving platter with twelve beautiful oysters (somewhat larger
 DS> than the ones on the ice table) arranged around a small cup of
 DS> cocktail sauce and a decoratively sliced lemon.  "Kitchen open
 DS> these special for you, hope you enjoy."  !!  They were every
 DS> bit as fine as the others, I should add.

Though they like us well enough at this place, we didn't get
any such thing!

= = 

 DS> - There is no way that this buffet is going to lose money, even
 DS> with the large number of really spectacularly HUGE people
 DS> eating there. (Seriously: I'm skeletal compared to many of
 DS> the diners I saw.)  They were walking away from the buffet
 DS> with massively-piled plates of food, but nothing really
 DS> costly.  Lo mein, meat-and-vegetable stir fry - one woman
 DS> stacked her plate with about 8 slices of pizza!!

So she paid full buffet for a pizza that would have cost her
less (and have been better) from a pizza parlor?

 DS> - What is it with plate-pilers anyway?  It's a BUFFET, f'chrissake,
 DS> you can go up as many times as you want!  WHY do they feel
 DS> the need to bring back three pounds of food on their plate??

A challenge. Because it's there. There are of course buffets that
offer all-you-can-put-on-one-plate, which offers a different sort
of challenge and one that is well documented on the Internet. The
impressive mound of food I amassed at the Adelaide Central Market
was maybe a third as big as what one sees on flickr and the like.

 DS> the snow crab, I was virtually alone in helping myself to the 
 DS> stone crabs, which are my favorite kind of spider and completely
 DS> ignored by the other diners.

I like most kinds of crab, and snow crab clusters in fact can
be pretty nice. The first time I had them, in the unlikely
setting of the Contemporary Resort Hotel at Walt Disney World,
they were superb, the equal of any crab I've had, with the
possible exception of the freshest Maryland blues. At least as
good as Maine reds, muds, Sri Lankans, Dungies, Alaska king,
stone claws, or anyone else's favorites. I admit that there is
one candidate for preeminent crab that I've not had, the Shanghai
hairy crab, but it would have to go a long way to beat these
first snows. Since then I've never had any so excellent, but
there have been some mighty good ones.

 DS> - One of the offerings that night was whole poached flounder -
 DS> head and all, poached with lemon and herbs.  It was marvelous,

You could have saved your friends the buffet owners a sizable
sum if you had taken the head and paraded it around the room -
or perhaps taken an eye or two and put them protruding from
between your lips as you made the tour.

 DS> but I was one of the first to try it.  The look of revulsion
 DS> from buffet patrons was priceless. 

The main reason I am usually repulsed by buffet fish is that it's
overcooked. But then, as Carol keeps reminding people, I'm different.
___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)