Text 6447, 130 rader
Skriven 2013-11-03 20:23:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: chinese buffet 418
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There's this newish buffet in Laurel that Dale and Gail
had heard about, and which has coupons on the Internet.
According to sources, it's called either the Grand E
Buffet or the Grande Buffet and either is quite good or
quite nasty. But it seemed worth the try on the whole,
so we made the trek (it's near where they get cheap gas).

It's in a down-and-outish strip mall, a few doors from an
Old Country Buffet (probably suffering now), with the
sign for the thrift shop that used to occupy some of its
space still up. On the building itself it says something
like HIBACHI SUSHI GRAND [script]E[/script] BUFFET STEAK
SEAFOOD, and other than bunches of contented-looking
folks walking away there's nothing promising about it.

Inside some care seems to have been taken in decorating,
and the smells are fairly enticing.

A big square room.

The coupon: $2 off when you buy a buffet and a drink.
Drinks are $2. We noted to the cashier that that means
free drinks, and he said, that's right.

The place seems to specialize in seafood, as does Poseidon
down in Glen Burnie, where the Shipps have taken me before.

What I had.

First plate:

Salt-pepper shrimp - medium head-on, fried in a delicate
cornstarch coating, fresh and firm. Quite salty and without
a trace of hot pepper, so sort of hard to eat. There were
slices of onion and bell pepper, so I took some onion, which
cut the salt reasonably.

Steamed cherrystones - the usual, very plain, decent.

Steamed manila clams - in a light black bean sauce, also
decent, though Dale liked them a lot better.

House special beef - gristle and mushrooms. The mushrooms were
mushy and nasty, but I went back for seconds of gristle, which
was from the chuck, pretty tasty though tough, and I doubt
others appreciated it as much as I, so this probably is a failure.

Chicken wings - reasonably crisp and plump; fresh; nicely fried.
There were Buffalo ones next door, but I didn't bother.

Crawfish - pretty good, actually, not reeking and not obviously
frozen either. With the bad Chinese frozen ones you tend to get
at buffets, the head goo is inedible; here it was good, and I
got seconds of these as well.

Boiled cuttlefish - very rubbery; I didn't mind and enjoyed the
crunch of the tentacles. I'd have gotten more, but when I went
back all the tentacles were gone.

Pot roast - I found a big clot of fat and tendon and appropriated
that. It was good but salty and satisfied my fat quota for the
rest of the meal.

Second plate:

Mostly seconds. Salt-pepper shrimp, cherrystones, and house special
gristle, but also

Oysters - these were reasonably fresh and had been in salt water
in the recent past, unlike the tidal Gulf ones at Poseidon; pretty
good, but I didn't get more later, as they looked a bit picked over
when I went by there again, and when Dale came back with the news
that they'd replenished the supply, I was already on dessert.

Steamed shrimp, cold, bland - fine, probably 40-50 count.

Steamed shrimp, hot, in shrimp boil - also as above but somewhat
tastier; Dale reported that these had been mushy, but what I got
were just fine.

I also tasted a potsticker from Dale's plate: the very model of
mediocrity, though it had a strong scallion taste, which wasn't bad.

Third plate:

More salt-pepper shrimp, three more crawfish, and a bunch of things
I normally would not try.

Boiled corn - nasty.

Mac and cheese - nasty by definition, but actually okay for
those who like mac and cheese. Not nearly so salty as Kraft.

Steamed fish - some kind of bass, a pleasant surprise. Overdone,
not a surprise.

A spring roll - nasty.

A crab - medium-size, steamed in Old Bayoid so quite salty and
spicy. Fairly fresh and good but had been fished from somewhere
that had the smell that I identify with paralytic shellfish
poisoning, so I was careful about eating the roe and liver. The
meat was tender and sweet, though the smell was offputting.

Fourth plate:

Peanuts in meringue - Gail had had some of these before and had
gotten stale ones, so I finished her serving, finding no stale
ones, and got a half cup of my own. There were a couple stale
nuts in this batch, which almost ruined my impression of them.

Some kind of chocolate cake - okay.

Some kind of mocha cake - surprisingly pleasant.

Vanilla pudding - not very rich but not bad, tasting neither of
obvious cornstarch, obvious skim milk, or that wintergreeny off
taste that white mass-produced dairy products get, whether it be
pudding or white cream gravy.

No booze here, so we all had Pepsis. 

I'd probably go back, for the $12-ish, plus Pepsi free with coupon.

This meal was notable for Dale's introduction to sushi - a piece
of maki filled with chopped tuna. It looked okay (no better), and
he liked it okay (no better).
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