Mouthing Off | Hotel buffet breakfasts waste food and are terrible for the environment – but I love them
The abundance, the greed, the bowls of lettuce leaves no one will ever touch – lavish five-star hotel buffet breakfasts are symptomatic of many ways we are destroying the planet, but for Andrew Sun, they’re holiday hedonism
A colleague of mine recently wrote an article about her hotel dislikes. As a conscientious person concerned about the environment and social action, she railed against hotel breakfasts.
In particular, she was talking about those lavish spreads stocked with endless choices from different cuisines which snake around long counters making your eyes bulge faster than your stomach – which we Asians especially seem to love. According to my friend, these morning excesses create enormous wastage and are symptomatic of other ways we are destroying the planet.
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She does have a point. The abundance, the greed, the bowls of lettuce leaves no one will ever touch (because who is stupid enough to pay five-star hotel prices to eat boring salads for breakfast?) can be quite obscene.
I’ll apologise to my eco-sensitive friend now because these breakfast indulgences are one of my guilty pleasures.
My morning gorge might be bad for Mother Earth, but I can’t deny enjoying it as holiday hedonism. Some people like to sleep in and chill on vacations. I am up at the crack of dawn fiending for food. And I love it. It’s actually the only time I look forward to breakfast.
At home, I rarely cook in the morning because I’m too busy or I’d rather sleep. Instead, I grab something simple like fruit, a piece of toast, congee, or yogurt and museli. Occasionally, I’ll purposely over-order pizza the night before so there are leftovers for the morning.