Thread: Lunch at the Casino (a little long)

March is birthday month for the two of us. We usually take a trip to the
local Native American casino, gamble a little on the penny slots, break
even, eat and go home to do something productive. It's not far and is a
fairly scenic, short, drive along the foothills of the Rockies. There
are fields housing a small herd of bison (for tourist viewing; the
larger herd is housed elsewhere on pueblo lands).

Found out that casino 'members' (costs nothing, get flashy plastic card
and earn points which would take us 20 years or so to accumulate to a
useful level) can get a discount for a buffet lunch midweek. Turns out
the discount is a 'senior' discount and they gave it to me Ah well
anything for a cheap (USD5.00 per person and no sales tax) meal...

Food wasn't bad at all but unimaginative. Not much for vegetarians
(which neither of us are anyway). All looked very clean and someone was
always cleaning the service counters. It was arranged in stations in a
loose U-shape. Going in a clockwise direction: salad bar, soup and
dinner roll bar, 'Asian' food (ie American food with too much soy
sauce), 'Mexican' food (gringo food really; tacos and the like), 'USA'
food (meat mostly), baked potato station with toppings, 'Italian' food
(pizza and sticky pasta) and finally desserts. Sadly no native pueblo
food.

Salads were iceberg lettuce plus separate bowl of spinach, with
trimmings and six dressings plus extra oil and vinegar. Soups looked OK
but I had my beloved posole: hominy corn cooked with pork and red
chiles. Not bad but not very spicy.

Asian was fried noodles, some meat/veg stirfry, some vegetable dish,
wonton (same dumplings as the deep-fried potstickers LOL) and egg drop
soups, fried and plain rice and surprisingly excellent half-size crispy
vegetarian spring rolls.

Mexican was really Taco Bell style, which isn't necessary around here.
Had the cheese enchiladas (the rolled sort); the tacos were beef only,
so no go. Separate pots of green and red chile sauces. There were beans
and Spanish rice but didn't eat those. Maybe there was corn with red and
green sweet peppers in it but didn't eat that either.

USA food was baked chicken legs/thighs, very nice sliced pork loin and
'BBQ' brisket (again no go, but it smelt good). May have been other
things but didn't eat them except the green beans. Took a chicken thigh
and a slice of pork and ladled some green chile sauce over them. Line
cook at the Mexican station (where the chile sauces were) said that
obviously I knew how to eat! He also said I must be a New Mexico
native...not exactly LOL

Didn't bother with the baked potatoes as that would be a complete meal
for me, but the toppings looked good enough.

The real loser (for me anyway) was the Italian food. Couldn't identify
the toppings on the two pizzas, the pasta looked sticky and of course
the perfectly spherical meatballs were beef. No vegs at all.

They did well with desserts; my mother's favourite bit. Cut-up melon,
tinned fruit salad, softserve ice cream with toppings like most buffets
around here have, rice and bread puddings, cookies of several varieties,
lots of pies but didn't see any fruit pies, cakes and unusually for the
buffets around here, small pastries. All looked decent enough; had
chocolate cream pie and some bread pudding with caramel sauce. The
Maternal Unit had more bits and pieces in lieu of real food

So not a bad morning and even made a small profit on the slots. Also
learnt that 'Bingo' is a verb: one can Bingo; educational! A good time
was had by all.