I've always been a firm believer in the value of a sturdy meal at midday. This happy tradition has fallen out of favor over the past few decades, with most people choosing to do their nutritional heavy lifting at supper. But I've been gratified by the recent research into human eating habits that supports the idea of consuming more of one's total caloric intake earlier in the day. I look at this as a perfect justification for following up my usual big breakfast with an even bigger lunch. Since I work downtown, when I'm lunching out I try to slip away at around 11:30 or quarter to twelve, partly so I can beat the noon rush and partly because by then I'm so hungry I'm ready to gnaw my own arm off. On those days when I discover myself gazing a little too appraisingly at my left biceps, I know I'm ready for no-holds-barred consumption. I repair to that favorite of the white-collar hog--the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet.
My new favorite is the lunch buffet at Jaipur Palace, an Indian restaurant that opened last year on Hubbard just east of State. While the power lunchers and tourists are just beginning to filter into Shaw's Crab House across the street, I'm slipping into the cool, ocher-walled Jaipur, which occupies a somewhat unobtrusive (despite the best efforts of the owners, who've put an aggressive red awning above the front door) space on the first floor of the Marriott Courtyard hotel. At that tender hour I'm almost always one of the first lunchers in the door, and the laden steam tables are still fragrantly unmarred. Once shown to my table I rarely even sit down before striding over to the alcove where the buffet is laid out. I dip into as many of the dishes offered as possible before heading back to my table, bearing the first of several glorious plates full of vibrantly flavorful food.
An old standby I visit all too rarely is the Szechwan, a low-profile joint on the very high-profile corner of Michigan and Ontario. Szechwan is located a flight of stairs below ground level. Diners enter what looks like a warren of smallish rooms that all wind back, through one entrance or another, to an impressively varied assortment of Chinese favorites of the spicy Hunan/Szechwan variety. I think they ease back on the heat a bit in the buffet dishes, in order to appease the milder-palated, but there was still plenty of zip in the pepper-laced General Tso's chicken.
On my most recent trip I savored some of the finer points of buffet dining appreciated by we cognoscenti: the whiff of burning Sterno (which I have always found a furious spur to the appetite) that hangs above the tables; the niceties of steam-table self-service (always gently nudge over the items on top to reach the warmer, moister food of the beneath it--but don't paw too indiscreetly); and the prurient pleasure of seeing what others are loading onto their plates (one of my fellow diners had filled a large platter half with deep-fried spring rolls and half with heavily battered pieces of sweet-and-sour chicken--yum!).
There's something peculiarly American about the all-you-can-eat buffet. A good one offers a huge assortment of food in whatever quantity diners are able to consume, all for one friendly price. Buffets are the antithesis of tapas and dim sum, which I link together because of the way they can burn you cost-wise, scarfing up all those little a la carte dishes while the tab rises. A buffet is our own version of the cornucopia: diner after diner carries away plates of food from a supply that is ever replenished, so there's always as much there at the end of the serving period as there was at the beginning.
Of course, that's provided Homer Simpson doesn't make an appearance. The opportunity the buffet presents we, shall we say, hearty eaters, has made it a source of much glutton-based humor. To many it's a joke, sure, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't appreciate the buffet's virtues. These great American chow-fests are an ideal means for exploring unfamiliar cooking, which makes them a perfect way to discover the dazzlingly profuse virtues of different regional cuisines from India, East Asia and Africa.
I find the buffet format an appealing option for any meal, but for most it's now all but exclusively associated with brunch, that languorous excuse for dietary abandon. There's something about springtime weekends, in particular, that makes people want to cast off the burden of the Sunday Times, pat their bellies, and take in enough at one sitting to impress an imperial Roman aristocrat. You can find a lovely brunch buffet at restaurants all around the Chicago area, but when it comes to the very best of these mega-meals, you can't beat the big downtown hotels (the Drake is my favorite). Sure, they're expensive, they're often crowded, and maybe they're a little stuffy, but they set the gold standard when it comes to sumptuous spread. Whether it's the weekend or a work day, there's no more pleasant way to tank up for that hearty midday feed. Go ahead--help yourself.
by Doug Seibold
Jaiper, 22 East Hubbard, (312)595-0911, Open daily for lunch and dinner; Szechwan, 625 North Michigan, (312)642-3900, open 11:30am-10pm daily.
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