The Ethnic Buffet is My Temple

If neanderthals, roasting a freshly killed elk over an open fire was the beginning of humanity's trek toward gastronomic greatness, then the buffet is the end of the journey.  The buffet, as a concept, is the purest form of eating, entwining mankind's biological and social necessities into one moment of perfect fulfillment.   In fact, I believe the buffet is the ultimate expression of human freedom.  A perfect representation of the central irony of human existence; we are free to choose our path, but have no control over which paths present themselves.

But the buffet in general exists solely to support its most evolved form, the ethnic buffet.  "Buffet" is simply a framework, a set of principles, a philosophy of eating, a shadow of its own potential.  The ethnic buffet is a realization of the promise "buffet" makes with humanity.  While it has many manifestations, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Mexican and Italian (listed in order of importance) there is an inherit sameness.  An ethnic buffet is to buffets in general as humanity is to all lower life forms.  A fulfillment of an eons long evolutionary promise which began when the first multi-cellular creature digested one of its contemporaries.

I may be waxing a bit overly romantic, but I have to say that a good Chinese or Indian buffet is kryptonite to me.  Kate and I rode past one today, and though I'd never entered that particular restaurant, I knew it as I'd know a parent I'd never met.  The thread that binds all ethnic cuisines, and chokes the life out of boring American food, is an anchor for the hungry soul seeking nourishment.

I'm doing it again.  Man I want some all-you-can-eat Lo Mein right now.