Incredible

Buffets don't have to be unhealthy experiences. Observe a recent lunch from John's Incredible Pizza (Victorville, CA), completely devoid of pizza.

Presentation isn't a strong suit in these photos. You can see it's really just a lot of vegetable mass and cottage cheese for protein. Not terribly calorie dense. No breadsticks, pasta, soup, pizza, or desserts. Not saying those things are bad. But, eating a lot of them isn't kind on the waistline.

I was good. Then I went bad. Turns out one of my weaknesses at the buffet is the soft serve frozen yogurt machine.

Dessert takes on a new meaning with me. It's like a meal unto itself, stretching on far longer than it should, like an uninvited guest who wants to tell you a hundred stories. I'm a sucker for a good story so I'll listen to one more.

And yes, those are red pepper flakes in the frozen yogurt. Simply awesome. The blend of heat, sweet, and cold is a nice kick to the head.

Frozen Custard

This is one of those delectable foods that escaped notice til recently.

Frozen custard - looks and feels like soft serve, but in terms of fat and sugar content is richer than ice cream. It's thicker than frozen yogurt too. Made with egg yolks, so you know you're getting all that sweet cholesterol.

This picture is from my custard initiation, June 2010 at a place in San Jose whose name I can't remember. The chosen flavors where chocolate and vanilla, but the place sold a variety of other flavors as well. I figured it was safest to go with classic tastes.

For whatever reason there don't seem to be many custard houses in Southern California. I've noticed more of them in the Southwest (Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico). Whatever. It's not like this is the kind of thing you eat all the time anyway.

But it would be bomb if the machines at Hometown Buffet pumped out this stuff!