This afternoon, I gave the oven a rest and popped down to Newcastle, England with my housemate, J. It is about 10 minutes by train from the little town where I study and in Newcastle, there is a (rather small) Chinatown. In this Chinatown, there is a buffet restaurant. Chinese buffet restaurants in England, in my opinion, are horrible. But there is something about the wide selection of greasy deep-fried or stir-fried “chinese” food that is rather comforting. A restaurant my friends and I recently discovered is No. 1 Oriental Buffet Restaurant. For 12.99 pounds, you get both the cooked food buffet and a steamboat/ hotpot buffet too. It actually is quite a good deal since it is a pain to make our own steamboat. What I really like about this place is that they have a wide selection of pork dishes and one of my all-time favourites…
Tofu!! 
)) I heart Tofu. But every time I look at them in the supermarket whilst grocery shopping, my heart breaks a little. Here is why. I always buy the Organic Firm Tofu from Waitrose which used to cost 1.38 pounds. However it is no secret food prices have hit sky-high and my tofu have also been affected. Right before I left for my New York holiday at the end of March it increased to 1.45 pounds per pack and when I came back a week later, the price had climbed to 1.55 pounds. With that, I ended my love affair with tofu. Thus when I first visited this restaurant I was so beeswaxly excited about the tofu that I ate all I could!
Anyhow moving on to the buffet. One can not expect Wagyu beef or abalone but one can expect luncheon meat, more tofu, crabs, fishballs and crab sticks. Er yes, I pay 12.99 to eat all the luncheon meat my tummy can hold. Oh, and another thing this place has, Bubble Tea. Er yes again, I pay an extra 2 pounds for Bubble Tea. Rest assured this is not an everyday thing.
Bubble Tea in a pint glass. Only in England
Left is a Chicken Stock Base and on the right, Chongqing Spicy Soup.
