Eating Out at Golden Corral Might be Paleo/Primal Friendly, but is not Worth It

This morning, my family decided to go out to eat for breakfast. I have no shame in admitting that this was more than likely due to the bacon my wife cooked the night before, the smell of which still filled the house. Buffet-style bacon, heaping, piled high made my wife and I salivate at the thought. It did not go so well.

The Breakfast

We chose Golden Corral, since their meat selections for dinner are pretty good and in the past, their breakfasts have been equally good. But that was before we went Paleo/Primal and, more importantly, before we became meat snobs.

The bacon? Too cold and lacking in flavor until they made more and in the middle of the pile were some slices that were not cooked to a crisp and were rather good.

The other meats? They had sausage links which were good, but I could taste the sweetness to them. The patties were so full of sweetness that I couldn't eat more than a single bite. There were some pork chops, which has always been excellent in the past, tasted this time like they had been coated in some strange, sickly-sweet-gross substance. Probably the oil they use to sear them or to keep them from sticking to the pan in the oven.

The eggs? Well, they had scrambled eggs which were decent since they were made out of real eggs (I checked). They also had someone cooking eggs to order, but he was extremely hidden, suggesting that they do NOT really want to provide that service to their customers. They were decent, not cooked with any real flavor but that was to the best since I put them on my salad.

What’s this? On my salad? Yup. They have a decent salad bar with iceberg lettuce, romaine, spinach, and garden greens, all of which are in separate bins, and a host of toppings like onions, hard-boiled eggs, cold meats, nuts, cranberries, and so on. They also have a good half-dozen dressings, but they had no red wine vinegar. I love my red wine vinegar on my salads, especially because you can get it everywhere you go instead of the crap dressings... at least, I thought everywhere. So I used my eggs, which were sunny-side up and not fully cooked on top, to use as an impromptu dressing. It sufficed.

My wife stuck to nearly all Primal food items except for some hash browns and some fried apples, which I don't begrudge her for her cheats. She is looking damn good already, while I have still some weight to get rid of so I stay rather tough on myself, meaning I might have cheated once or twice in the past 4 months.

My three kids took full advantage of the food choices, though we allowed them only one donut to be shared between the three of them.

Afterwards

My son, who will shout for Golden Corral as his restaurant of choice whenever the choice is presented to the kids, declared that he felt ill and did not want to eat there again. My daughters had sugar-highs and crashed rather quickly.

My wife and I both had a need to visit the restroom. She crashed rather hard as well from her carb high, while I felt bloated and was rather gassy. We both looked at each other and declared never again.

We are snobs about our food. This we have discovered. My wife said that it would have been excellent 4 months ago, but now that we know what good, real food tastes like, there really is no going back. And our desire to have cheap bacon piled high, gloriously? We did no piling, nothing was glorious, but my wife is heading into town tomorrow to pick up some uncured bacon for us and she plans on cooking it all at once. We shall get our pile of bacon, it will be pricy in cash but it will be cheap in regards to our bodies. Oh yes, it WILL be glorious.

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