'I went to this restaurant last night that was set up like a big buffet in the shape of a Ouija board. You'd think about what kind of food you want, and the table would move across the floor to it.'
Steven Wright, comedian
YOU'VE GOT YOUR eye firmly locked on the target, the biggest plate you could find in hand, and an unnatural sense of hunger welling inside you. Just centimetres away is the object of your desire: the chocolate fountain, pumping out gallons of seductive, aphrodisiac lava. But just as you are about to dip your strawberry skewer, several children dart in front of you. What do you do? Trample them like so many chocolate-covered ants, the glutton in you yells. Be patient, whispers back the gourmet.
Welcome to the life of a buffet slayer, a member of the thousands-strong club that makes Hong Kong one of the world's premier 'all you can eat' cities. The flames of the bains-marie have not stopped burning since the colonial era when the buffet, as opposed to the banquet, represented an exclusive - and wealthy - dining experience.
And with the dinner buffet making a return in Europe - possibly as a result of the increasing number of hungry Asian tourists - it seems the SAR is at the cutting edge. As in Las Vegas, hotel lobbies, cafes and even top restaurants are home to mountains of food that Hongkongers have an apparently unquenchable desire to conquer. Does that make us gluttons or gourmets?
The Grand Hyatt hotel's executive chef Marco Avitabile generously affords us the latter tag. 'People like the variety of the buffet, the opportunity to taste many dishes in smaller quantities. If you eat a la carte, you can only try so much. Even overseas, they are going into the buffet culture [for this reason],' he says.