Buffets

Last Friday night was another EPIK welcoming dinner for the new batch of teachers that arrived. I guess this is my third one as they bring in new teachers every six months. Just like the previous dinners, I met maybe one or two new teachers whom I spoke with briefly before spending the rest of my time hanging out with my friends or catching up with people I hadn't seen before. It was an all you can eat and drink buffet in the brewery at Daegu Hotel and just like every other buffet I've been to in Korea, the food was crap.

That was my second time at Daegu Hotel. I've been to the buffet at Ariana Brewery twice and that one is actually passable. I've been to the buffet at the New Yeongnam Hotel, and that one is bad, and there was the Christmas dinner at the Eldis Regent Hotel. I was at an Italian buffet in a Homeplus in Seoul a couple weeks back, and that was also passable I suppose.

All the buffets are exactly the same. They have some excuse for lettuce and then not enough vegetables to make a proper salad, usually just big ass wedges of tomato which you have to cut up into three or four normal sized bites, and some weird kiwi-flavored dressing that's generally the only available dressing at any given buffet. There's pasta with watery sauce, there's dry slices of pork next to the mystery meat tubes that exist in some category between hotdogs and sausage, and dwengjjang paste that is mistakenly labeled "bbq sauce". There is always a selection of standard Korean food like kimbap and sundae, and there are plates of fruit which is easily the most delicious and reliable selection. There's also always some form of sushi and some seafood dishes, and even though I don't eat seafood, I'm willing to bet its not worth much attention based on the quality of the dishes that I do eat. For dessert there is also a plate of little Korean roll-cake type desserts which aren't too bad, but certainly not something that stands out. If you're lucky there is also a pot of assorted fried potatoes and a bowl of ketchup to go with it. Ariana and the Italian place at the Seoul Homeplus have thin-crust pizza which, again, is no standout, but it does help.

So the buffets in Korea are pretty consistently mediocre. Fortunately, my standards for Western food have gone down significantly as it is no longer feeding me for three meals a day.