h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The famous buffets of Las Vegas have inspired a great many chains of similar restaurants all over the country. The first couple of times that I went over to the States they seemed like a very good way to save money, but then I was reliably informed by a native of the USA that they tend to have quite poor standards of hygeine when it comes to issues like what you should do with food that's been dropped on the floor. For legal reasons I'll not name any names and I'm only commenting on places like this outside of Las Vegas, but after what I heard I'll be staying with the warming glow of the diner for my meals in the US of A in the future.

Do you beleive everything you are told. What about the english "take-away" stories of curried alsation?
I've eaten at most buffets in vegas and am still very much alive.

I do believe the old Crawling Chaos is referring to the buffet chains here in the US. And I would like to confirm that, yes, my experience has suggested that buffet chains are a good place to avoid.

In fact, the only buffets I've found which are worth patronizing are ones serving Chinese or other Asian food. No, not all of them. Some of them are pretty nasty, but if you can find a good one, it's a great way to experience Asian cuisine.

There's nothing to stop anyone from adding anything to the food in most restaurants apart from watching them constantly or installing cctv (and I have seen an episode of the US show "Real TV" that showed footage of kitchen staff engaged in some pretty unsanitary activities that I won't mention here for the sake of those with a weak constitution).

As far as the issue of my believing everything I'm told and urban myths about the missing pets disappearing into the back of takeaways, I'd think that having seen actual footage of this happening in the country in question and being informed about it by an intelligent and perfectly sane citizen of the nation in question lends just a little credance to the argument. There's a difference between being a sceptic and cynically rubbishing everything you come across.

By the way, thanks to Mr Aalst for backing me up on that point.