There are plenty of people who have no problem with a seafood smorgasbord in the middle of
America.
But what are some underground facts about seafood buffets that Americans might not be
willing to accept?
Here is the ultimate insider lowdown on your favorite endless seafood feast.
"But the sign said all you can eat!"
Anthony Bourdain famously wrote in his 2000 book Kitchen Confidential that he only eats
mussels at restaurants if he personally knows the chef.
The risk of sickness from eating a mussel that isn't prepared correctly is just too
high.
Boston chef and restaurant owner Mary Dumont agrees, telling INSIDER,
"I never order mussels at restaurants…
I'm meticulous about their storage and care if I serve them, but all it takes is one bad
mussel, and you're down for the count."
So since mussels are a bit of a specialty item, it seems like they might be best consumed
when prepared by chefs who more than likely aren't working at all-you-can-eat seafood
buffets.
There is definitely no guarantee that the mussels are being prepared properly from water
to table, which is really important.
In fact, mussels are so delicate that they should be served within two to three days
of being caught, if they're fresh.
When it comes to sushi, good quality and precise preparation are essential.
If it's not kept at the right temperature, it can make you really sick, and it can taste
pretty gross, too.
"Hey, what can be more disgusting than raw fish?"
This is why it's probably advisable to avoid the sushi at a seafood buffet.
Even if the sushi is prepared by an expert sushi chef, it’s hard to determine if the
employees are keeping track of how long it's been sitting out and if it's at ideal temperatures
for sushi.
If they don't keep it on ice, the amount of bacteria can rapidly expand in under 60 minutes.
Eating raw oysters is dicey no matter where you do it, and no matter how delicious they
taste.
Oysters are filter feeders and can contain viruses and bacteria that can cause disease
when served raw.
The scary part is, there's no way to tell just by tasting them.
Commercially harvested oysters do have processing steps by which the bacteria is usually eliminated,
but experts still warn that raw oyster lovers should slurp at their own risk.
The known risk for consuming raw oysters is perhaps why consumers are warned to carefully
consider hitting the raw bar at a seafood buffet.
WebMd reports that you straight up should not consume oysters at a buffet, claiming
they've likely got, quote, "seawater pathogens."
Doesn't that sound delicious?
It's no secret, Americans love their foreign-born seafood.
In fact, 90 percent of the seafood we consume was imported from other countries.
In 2017, we imported more than six billion pounds of seafood.
And shrimp appears to be a stand-out American fave.
According to NOAA Fisheries, it's the most popular of all the underwater fare we import.
But there are some risks associated with imported shrimp.
The shrimp farms from Southeastern Asia cause negative environmental consequences in the
area, while also carrying a risk for antibiotic contamination.
And Thailand shrimp facilities have been linked to human trafficking.
If eating locally sourced seafood is important to you, you might have to do a little legwork
to get it.
And since eating only local shrimp means eating it seasonally and paying a higher price, it's
probably not what you'll find at seafood buffets.
If your favorite seafood buffet has Chilean Sea Bass on the line, congrats, that's one
fancy buffet.
Chilean Sea Bass is usually associated with fine dining, but that hasn't always been the
case.
The fish we know as the Chilean Sea Bass used to be called the Patagonian or Antarctic toothfish.
Legend has it in the 1970s, an American fish merchant stumbled upon the five-foot long
fish near a Chilean port.
He decided the fish was just bland enough to be a great, quote, "blank canvas" for American
chefs.
Not knowing its real name, he started marketing and selling the toothfish as the Chilean Sea
Bass.
These days, seafood buffets serving Chilean Sea Bass usually have a pricey entry fee but
just know that you're paying that price for a toothfish.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the primary ways a
buffet might make you sick isn't the food, but what's serving it.
As opposed to a high school cafeteria, for example, there isn't a worker serving the
food in a buffet line to make sure the handle doesn't drop in the platter of fish sticks,
or that someone who hasn't washed their hands can't grab it.
The sneeze guard helps somewhat with contamination of the food but there isn't a lot of regulation
on what's happening with the big spoon that hungry diners are using to heap shrimp 'n
grits onto their plates.
Disease prevention experts emphasize that picking up that serving utensil is basically
the equivalent of shaking hands with everyone at the buffet that day, and then sitting down
to a meal.
You might want to use a napkin to pick up the serving utensil... or maybe just skip
the buffet.
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