buffet

buffet的t不发音，巴菲特的名字是Warren Buffett.

• v.  c. 1200, from Old French, from buffe 'blow'
• n. 1718, "cupboard, sideboard, etc., to hold china plates, etc.," from French bufet "bench, stool, sideboard"

A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners serve themselves. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels, restaurants, and many social events. Buffet restaurants normally offer all-you-can-eat food for a set price, but some measure prices by weight or by number of dishes. Buffets usually have some hot dishes, so the term cold buffet has been developed to describe formats lacking hot food. Hot or cold buffets usually involve dishware and utensils, but a finger buffet is an array of foods that are designed to be small and easily consumed only by hand, such as cupcakes, slices of pizza, foods on cocktail sticks, etc.

Since a buffet involves diners serving themselves, it has in the past been considered an informal form of dining, less formal than table service. In recent years, however, buffet meals are increasingly popular among hosts of home dinner parties, especially in homes where limited space complicates the serving of individual table places.

In the 19th century, supper, a lighter meal some hours after the main dinner, was sometimes served as a buffet (and so called), especially late at night at grand balls, where not everyone present would want to eat, or at the same time, or in the same quantity. Even in a very large building, at a large ball there might not be enough space to seat all guests at the same time, or servants to serve them in the manner required by the prevailing customs.

The term buffet originally referred to the French sideboard furniture where the food was placed, but eventually became applied to the serving format.

At balls, the "buffet" was also where drinks were obtained, either by circulating footmen supplying orders from guests, but often by the male guests. During the Victorian period, it became usual for guests to have to eat standing up.

Variations

• A variation occurs in a dim sum house, where seated patrons make their selections from wheeled carts containing different plates of food which the staff circulate through the restaurant.
• Another variation is a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, where seated patrons select dishes from a continuously-moving conveyor belt carrying a variety of foods.
• In another variation, Brazilian rodízio style buffets feature roving waiters serving churrascaria barbecued meats from large skewers directly onto the seated diners' plates.
• A so-called Mongolian barbecue buffet format allows diners to collect various thinly-sliced raw foods and add flavorings, which are then stir-fried on a large griddle by a restaurant cook.
• Some hot pot restaurants offer all-you-can-eat buffets, in which diners order plates of thinly-sliced raw foods and flavorings, and cook them in boiling pots of soup at their tables.
• A salad bar is commonly offered in delicatessens and supermarkets, in which customers help themselves to lettuce and other salad ingredients, then pay by weight.

六级/考研单词: buffet, fist, punch, blunt, stool, dine, norm, fingerprint, array, consume, slice, pizza, cocktail, supper, complicate, prevail, furnish, circulate, seldom, dim, patron, cart, workforce, convey, rod, barbecue, ingredient