Let's EAT!!!!!

We ate lunch at the Ponderosa this afternoon. It was a first for us as a family. We found ourselves there at Evan’s request. If you don’t know (and frankly, if you don’t have young children or an AARP card, you shouldn’t) Ponderosa is a steak house buffet. Emphasis on buffet.

Ev and I had grabbed dinner there a few weeks ago when Mom was busy on a bike ride. It’s a great place to take young children because they have everything a kid could ever want: mac ‘n cheese, meatballs, spaghetti, pizza, a desert station with soft serve ice cream, and Jello.  The restaurant actually features a pretty good salad bar selection as well so I’m all set. Today he was in the mood for meatballs and red and blue jello and so there we went, Mom, Dad, and Evan.

As I’ve already indicated, buffet type restaurants really appeal to two audiences: Families with young children (young enough to be indiscriminate of quality) do well because of price and selection.  Buffet restaurants also appeal to the senior set for much the same reasons. A jumbo buffet for 6 bucks on a fixed income makes a lot of sense.

I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that there is one more demographic occupying the booths and tables at the local buffet:  The obese. I don’t want to be mean, insensitive, or discriminatory but I was distressed by what I saw.  When I see people, men, women and children, with significantly inflated body mass indices, set over multiple plates piled high with wings, meatloaf, deep fried fish, potatoes and gravy, pasta, rolls, and multiple desserts, I think someone needs to call the cops. I’m sorry, but if obesity is a national tragedy and a crisis in the making, then perhaps it’s time to outlaw buffets.  At least establish age parameters like we use to regulate access to alcoholic beverages.  The sign should read:

                          Buffet service is limited to patrons 12 and under or 65 and over.

                                                          NO SHARING!

                                                            We Care We Card

In the meantime, we'll start stocking a few boxes of Jello in the pantry. We're staying home. I can't stand to watch.