Hotel Buffet Breakfasts ( cold) How do you do them?

[NoelleHawthorne]

I was abroad with a lavish hotel breakfast of cold items. (North European)
If there were two of you eating, how would you arrange collection and arrangement of the items?

I think I did it wrong.

Agree with earlier poster who says this may be a family/children /holiday thing, at least in northern Europe. Have just come back from Germany. Stayed in business (ie city-centre, not resort) hotels with mostly business people staying. Everyone took food for themselves; no communal plates and no waste that I could see. Some people DID however put their hot food on a plate and a couple of rolls/pastries/ slices of rye bread in a neat little individual basket, rather than on a side plate, to eat after their hot food.

Why the heck have you posted this in AIBU?

to ascertain If my breakfast habits were BU

I've done that when my children were little because we didn't want them running about too much and if the food was a bit unfamiliar to them (they'd be more likely to try it if it wasn't part of a big spread). But I'd never take a large amount and always eat wheat the children didn't like and refill as needed. My mother grew up during rationing and really drummed into us that wasting food was immoral.

Norbert wow, that is bloody odd. Maybe he was a terrible husband and she an oppressed wife, and the only way she can ever get her own back is maliciously to season his food behind his back? Thus resulting in over-seasoning when he then returns and seasons it himself.

Or maybe not, maybe she's just in the habit of doing everything for him. But it's fun to imagine.

We do DIY, but sometimes go and get requests for each other. And sometimes have a shared plate.

Wastage drives me mad too.

When I'm staying in a hotel that has a buffet breakfast, what I usually do, is say to myself 'sod it' and stay in bed. I rarely have time for breakfast but when I do it's got to be a full English. But the buffet breakfast? Rubbery eggs, that skinny bacon that's mostly fat, hot-dog sausages, boiled shrivelled mushrooms etc etc. what are they thinking? Eating salami and cheese is just weird!

i have only been in that situation with not family. But were were culinary students, so if we had been arranging plates for a shared meal, it would have turned competitive.

Lurker - each to their own, of course, but what about the fresh fruit (pineapple, melon, pear...) and yoghurt, the fantastic breads (with sunflower, pumpkin and caraway seeds), the little pastries and the poppy-seed cake, the veg - I like the raw sliced peppers - and, yes, the different kinds of cheese. I also like the home-made cheese spreads (Liptauer etc).....

Well, to be clear, the German Buffet thing. Have done buffet in US And UK, everyone gets their own, which is why us American culinary students did so in Germany.

Worse was the Italian part of the trip. We filled a small hotel for a week. The first day, we were all yogurts, cereal and coffee. The ladies waiting to take orders for hot food just waited. The second day, most of us got yogurt and cereal, but then all that was left was flavours and varieties none of us wanted. The ladies waited in vain. The third day, the same unwanted yogurt and cereal. Some of us ordered toast, but otherwise, no work for the ladies, who nevertheless, stood and waited. Eventually, we went and got coffee and pastry at a place we had seen round the corner. The 4th day, our instructor complained we paid for breakfast inclusive, and we weren't getting it. The hotelier argued we could get hot breakfast, we only had to ask. So, we all went downstairs for coffee and pastry. The last day, our flight was too early in the morning for the coffee and pastry shop, and we ate at the airport. We all ordered hot breakfast.

I'd much rather have a 'continental' breakfast than a full English. DH thinks I'm a bit odd that way but I can't face much food in the morning. Fruit, meats & cheeses, breads & pastries are ideal for me.

Well Moma your instructor was a chump - should have asked on the first day. Were you doing hotel and catering management or something else?

The Germans are taking all the ham to place on their sun loungers.