Colm O'Regan: That hotel buffet breakfast, magical, and 'included'

Breakfast buffet at the hotel or restaurant

The hotel buffet breakfast: It’s often on a list of Important Things That Were Lost During the Pandemic. I’m here to say: Don’t despair. I understand why people mourn it. The buffet was that magical of things. Free, and unlimited. Technically a hotel breakfast isn’t free. But the whole capitalist system is based on us perceiving ‘included’ as free. Like how Facebook is ‘free’ but it’s included in the cost to us of electing Trump.

But the hotel buffet was definitely unlimited. And it is there that we made an absolute show of ourselves. First, a brief virtuous offering at the altar of the fruit and natural yoghurt before then slavering and rolling around in sausages. Then there are the second and third trips up and the final abasement – wrapping up 15 little Danish pastries in a hanky or in our jumper.