little. yellow. different. A weblog by Ernie Hsiung

Why the Fremont, CA Sweet Tomatoes has so many Asian People

• It’s a buffet. And we all know that Asians LOVE a buffet, never mind that you’re paying $12 for soup and salad - you can eat AS MUCH AS YOU WANT! It’s like being in Reno, without the gambling! And in the case of my mother, you can also grab a sweet potato, wrap it in two or three napkins, and stuff it in your purse when no one is looking.

  (Note that while the local Hometown Buffet also offers a buffet selection, that’s just gross.)

• The Big Chunk Chicken Noodle Soup. It’s broth based and it only has two things in it: noodles and chicken. You know this is the cheapest soup for them to make (boil the fuck out of a chicken, add noodles, make profit) and yet there is always a huge line of Chinese people, fighting over the soup - it’s like it’s laced with opium or something.

  As a side note, there was one time when Sweet Tomatoes announced a new item: “Asian Ginger Soup.” It even had a red sign with the Chinese character for PROSPERITY next to it, just to show how prosperous the soup was. No one ate it, and it was quickly cycled off the menu.

• No dessert. Well, okay, not true; they have soft serve ice cream, orange and melon slices and a bowl of green jello and if you’re lucky, sugar-free chocolate pudding. But compared to the cake and pie warehouse that is Hometown Buffet, they barely offer anything sweet at all. I think Asian people just gravitate towards eating establishments where they don’t serve things that delight children.

Maybe it was the bad use of characters that scared them off from the “Asian Ginger Soup”?

I always try to blow off getting soup in Taiwan. It’s a constant disappointment. My friends think I’m loco.

Heh. I hate to say it, but I think the entire Asian population of my hometown can be found in Crazy Buffet every time I go in there. And here I thought it was just because the food was good…

it’s the exact same thing at the socal equivalent - souplantation — wrapped up muffins in purses, chinese ladies getting pushy at the chicken soup, and 2 platers. does that happen in fremont?

we’ve noticed that ONLY the asians grab and fill (with mountains of food) 2 plates at the beginning of the salad line. are they afraid that if they chance it and go back, they will be out of broccoli? or it’s probably an efficiency/lazy thing. i don’t know. it confuses me.

The Sweet Tomatoes I go to (in Sunnyvale) is filled with Indian people. Perhaps, I’ll start studying their habits as well.

I also plan to hit up the Crazy Buffet in Sunnyvale now. All that grease and MSG will do me some good.

My mother wraps wine glasses in napkins and takes them home. She thinks nobody notices.

i can attest to the indian love for sweet tomatoes. my dad always tries to take me there when i go home, and i find it simultaneously endearing and tasteless each time he asks. there’s something about the way an old, bald, 1st-gen man says “tomatoes” that makes me want to weep instantly. anyway. the koreans back home are all about old country buffet.

I used to eat at the one in Sunnyvale (on Kifer Road?) all the time. I don’t know what I was thinking. I did like the breadsticks.

That sounds disgustingly healthy.

I like my buffets with sushi or lots of meat!

LOL @ mileena above.

I used to eat at Souplantation in the 80s and I carried one of those huge, trendy straw purses. And guess what? It was filled with muffins and I’m not even Asian.

The one near my house is always filled with very large people. Gorging, slurping, very large people. My son actually wanted to go there recently but I was afraid he’d get eaten.

“…there is always a huge line of Chinese people, fighting over the soup - it’s like it’s laced with opium or something.”

Double points for that line. See it’s funny not only because of the addictive properties of opium but it also refers to the historic struggle China had with this particular drug…

Bravo Ernie… Bravo…

Damn I miss you!

Hilarious! Brilliant and true! Moreover, I can relate. As I mentioned once before, I love dim sum buffets in the USA. My favorite is “Lucky Three” in Falls Church Virginia. Every time I go there, I stuff myself with shrimp balls and siu mai.
http://restaurants.washingtoncitypaper.com/restaurant.php?rID=786

Ernie, Ernie, Ernie…

Two things:

Thing One:
Might it be that the Fremont, CA Sweet Tomatoes has so many Asian people because FREMONT, CA has so many Asian people?

Thing Two:
On the “no dessert” front, your comment “I think Asian people just gravitate towards eating establishments where they don’t serve things that delight children.” Wellll, now how does that fit in with the fact that every ASIAN buffet I’VE ever been to has desserts up the wazoo (and out the other side, & back in again, lather, rinse, repeat)? Hmmmm…

What I notice about the Fremont, CA Sweet Tomatoes is the number of white people there, with unruly children.

Also I notice the soggy, bland, nasty pasta. Ewww.

The Arcadia and Pasadena Souplantations - same thing, 90% Asian customers. My half-Japanese partner occasionally has to remind me that regarding buffets, “It’s an Asian thing.”

The one (and only) time I went to a Hometown Buffet, however (disgusting), it was full of obese white people.

See, it’s really a populationaltudinal thing–
At the FREMONT (well, Newark) Hometown Buffet, the dump is full of obese people of ALL colors.

It’s sort of like a heart-unit version of the “It’s A Small World” ride, but with less singing. So at least there’s that.

I’m just thinking that the wrapping up forks/potatoes/wine glass/chicken fingers is less an old Asian Lady thing and more of just a plain old lady thing. My grandmother was the master… We ate for days off of one visit to Ponderosa. There are still little plastic Ponderosa bowls floating around… I like to think of it as my inheritance.

the most disturbing comment in this post is by “mileena” who refers to asian people as THEY and her and her kind as WE.

i was thinking…”what a racist biotc…” but then i had a look at her site and i think she’s asian.

US asians have a word for that but i can’t say it. i’ve already committed my sin of a thousand sorrows yesterday.

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