"buffet" news and stories

When you plan ahead, hosting a party or get-together becomes a lot less daunting and a lot more fun, right? And if you always wanted to host your own party, then it's time to make it happen this holiday season. Buffet entertaining can be less stress when you plan ahead. And these easy, savory white cheddar, onion and apple crostini will be a sophisticated part of your buffet spread.

One Week Before
Review your ingredients, check the guest list and put aside any canned goods or dry ingredients you'll need to make your recipes. Set out serving dishes, serving spoons, and platters the morning before your party. By completing these tasks early, you'll be sure that all your entertaining supplies are clean and that you have a plate or platters ready to serve each dish or appetizer. Buy a bag of ice, so you won't have to fuss with refilling ice trays.

Night Before
Prep your recipes that can be assembled or partially assembled the night before and then refrigerated, such as stuffed mushrooms, spinach or bean dips. Place them in oven-safe dishes and cover them with aluminum foil before storing them in the refrigerator, so they can go straight into the oven the next day. Store dressings, sauces and icing in zipper-lock bags so you can just snip the end and pour, drizzle and ice at will. Place a large plate in the fridge under the bag if you're worried about leakage.

One of the last surviving chains from the golden age of Southern cafeterias is abandoning the classic cafeteria model for buffet-style service.

"It's a completely different experience from what folks have been accustomed to," Furr's Jill Gouge Laird says of the restaurant's new Fresh Buffet concept. "Now they really control the experience."

As recently reported by the Dallas Morning News, the Texas-based chain has opened nine Fresh Buffets over the last five years, and plans to open as many as a dozen additional stores by 2012. Existing restaurants will continue to operate as cafeterias, but Laird confirms all future outlets will be structured as "scattered buffets."

You know you've been tempted. Perhaps you've even offended. However, All You Can Eat Buffet prices are per person, y'all, no cheating.

Seriously. Just ask 40-year-old Dan Linscomb of Texas City, Texas, who was arrested last week for letting his girlfriend share his buffet plate and then refusing to pay.

Linscomb's brazen attempt to save $7 cost taxpayers many times that, as he was escorted from Iron Skillet in Atlanta to the cooler. The big cooler. The cooler with bars. The slammer. The iron bar motel. The joint. The clink. The pen. The pokey. Jail.

Linscomb served two days in the Fulton County Jail and was released after pleading guilty not to "theft of service," but the the lesser charge of "disorderly conduct."

[via San Francisco Chronicle]

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When I was in college, one of the best things about being on the food service plan was that every Easter, Bon Appetit (the food service company at Whitman) would go all out and put together a fancy brunch for everyone who stayed behind that weekend. It would be held in the lobby of Cordiner Hall and there would be tables of pastries, made-to-order omelet stations and an absolute abundance of fresh, gently blanched asparagus. I would go every year in large part to binge on the asparagus, eating it until I could hold no more.

For some reason, the moment I saw this image of a bouquet of fresh asparagus, this memory of Easter asparagus in college is what my mind immediately conjured up. I don't have much in the way of Easter plans this weekend, but I do believe that I need to add "buy asparagus" to my shopping list.

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When does a person get charged double what everyone else is charged for eating at a buffet? When that person is 6 foot 3 and 265 pounds.

A Louisiana man and his cousin have been banned from a restaurant because they eat too much. The two men had been eating at the Manchuria Restaurant in Houma at least three times a week for about eight months. On their last visit, the waitress gave them a bill for $46.40, which is almost double what the regular price is. When they asked why they were charged that much, the waitress said "Y'all fat, and y'all eat too much" (it helps if you picture Paula Deen saying it).

Police were called, and though the restaurant changed their mind and gave them the meal free, they still banned them from the restaurant.