Would you prefer ‘Buffet’ or ‘A la carte’?
H says she would love to go for Buffet because there is a big
variety to choose from and there is no hurry to eat, we can take our own sweet time to
eat whatever we wish, Chinese, Japanese or Intercontinental food. There is lot to choose from and if
we don’t like what is on display we can select the raw stuff and go to cooking
station to get it cooked.
Sounds interesting, so family and I headed towards Puerto de la
Cruz at ‘Trompo Centro Commercial’ to a special restaurant called ‘Wok’ that
serves only buffet. The rate of the buffet varies with 15 Euros on weekends and
10 Euros during weekdays.
“Don’t rush to grab the food like some starving urchins” says B,
“let us order drinks first”. The drinks are not included (“they need to make
money on drinks”, informs H) so we wait for our order to arrive.
Whenever I go for buffet, I always make a round to see what is
on display and make a mental note of the food that I might want to try. There
is not much variety. There are only about hundred containers to choose from, and that includes soups, salads, starters, mains and dessert.
I don't have a very large appetite, therefore I must be very selective. I start with sushi, cabbage salad and boiled egg. How pathetic, I pick only two sushis from the variety of twelve different types. one is coated with salmon and other with dried mushroom. I soak each sushi in wasabi and soya sauce, add a bit of pickled ginger and take mouthful. yum...it tastes good.
My brother and his wife are pure vegetarian, so while they nibble on few vegetarian finger food and salads, they order some food from cooking station. Within ten minute, a plateful of freshly prepared fried rice and Pakchoy arrive.
Pakchoy with sea weeds is crispy, stir fried and cooked in ginger. Brother has his Aha moments with every bite.
After my second round of finger food that includes assorted roasted chicken and some vegetarian snacks, I walk to select few raw stuff for cooking. I pick up shells, shrimps, black mushrooms, capsicum, squids, lettuce and carrots and head towards cooking station to make me a spicy dish.
I want to see him prepare, so I wait. He empties my plate of raw food in a big pan, adds water and lets it boil for five minutes. Filter out the liquid and keeps the boiled stuff aside. He has different containers of differently prepared sauces. He takes a spoon of one sauces, stir fries and then puts the boiled ingredients, add few more sauces, few spices and the plates it.
It is steaming hot, ready to eat.
Completely satiated I head towards dessert station that has fruits, sweets and big range of ice-creams.
Did I tell you that I am a small eater? Well..they should have served Chinese tea for digestion..you know.....
