Jólahlaðborð

When I was growing up in California, there was an explosion of all you can eat buffets, in my mind starting with the casinos in Las Vegas but soon becoming common place in chains throughout the US. The Simpsons have done a good job of making fun of this little bit of bizarro American excess. "Help Yourself to Our All You Can Eat Buffet!" Only of course you aren't helping yourself, you are making yourself overweight and contributing to rampant overconsumption, global warming even if you get down to it. A person is crazy for even walking into a place like that, because the odds of eating moderately are basically nil. On the other hand, you are also crazy for not eating a ton, since it is afterall an all you can eat place.

I have always taken it as a sign of reasonableness here in Iceland that these sorts of restaurants do not exist, though of course some places do have a buffet at lunch time for expediency sake.

When Christmas rolls around, things change. All of a sudden every restaurant in town is offering excessive jólahlaðborðs where a person can refill their plates on a huge range of delicacies and get unbelievably stuffed. At least though here they are expensive, instead of being bargain priced.