Place of Purchase: Paradise Casino, Incheon
Cost: Free with a caveat
KCal: Probably a lot
This is not a sandwich at all, but I kind of made a sandwich thing with the stuff on the plate and the bread, so yes, a sandwich then.
There's a casino not far from my house right next to the airport. It's a sprawling hotel complex with a huge casino, a shopping center, a convention center, food courts, all decorated in a highly garish and shiny way. If I was to compare I'd say the Belaggio in Vegas, like going for the total luxury vibe. There are jewelry shops with stuff on display for $20,000 and more, Michelin Star restaurants, and a buffet that is $100 per.
I understand gambling is illegal in China except Macao, and this place exists just for the rich people in China to get an easy flight to Incheon and just go to the hotel right next to the airport and get their gaming fix on. A dealer told me that some of them will bet more than $5 million per weekend.
I've had vices in my life, several to be sure, but gambling never quite got its hooks into me. Lost a few bucks here, won a few there, but nothing much. I feel bad when I lose money and think of all the things I could have gotten with it.
This place, though, seems intent on having me gamble.
It's a very simple and devious trick, really. All you have to do is wager $1 minimum and you are eligible to get this free food at the casino cafe. I suppose it's the same thing as a tobacco company giving you lunch if you just have a cigarette first. Dangerous game I'm playing perhaps.
Also interesting to note is that gambling is also illegal in Korea, for Koreans. The people at the entrance really check your identification carefully to make sure you are not a Korean citizen. It seems obvious Korea wants the revenue gaming provides but none of the social problems that can accompany that.
Anyways, I digress. The food. It was fine. It was a standard hotel buffet breakfast, without the bells and whistles like a guy making an omelet for you. There were scrambled and boiled eggs, potatoes, two kinds of bacon, (English and American), sausage, Chinese fried pork, baked beans, a bread selection and a yogurt and salad bar.
It was fine. The bread was double thickness, like Texas-Toast sized. The bacon was quite limp and the sausage wasn't very good. I made a sandwich with scrambled eggs, bacon, and apricot jam. That was very nice.
Every time I go there, I always play automated roulette. That means at the front of the room there's an actual roulette wheel that is robotically controlled, and like 100 terminals you can bet from. I always bet on 0 and 11, a dollar each time for 5 rolls, and there's my $10 in gambling money. I think if my math is correct betting 5 times on two numbers gives me somewhere in the 20% range of winning, which seems about right. When it does hit, it pays $36, and I just cash it in and don't push it any further. On this day, 0 hit on the last spin, so I walked out with a free buffet and $26 more than I had before. It doesn't happen like that often, but feels pretty good when it does.
A big drawback of this casino is the people who work there. They are without debate underworld figures, menacing looking gangsters, and much larger than an average person. They certainly give a strong, nonverbal message that there will be no nonsense or bamboozling in this establishment. It makes me nervous, and I have a mild and hopefully irrational fear that one day they'll take me out back and beat me up for taking one too many complimentary buffet breakfasts. At least in modern Vegas the shady stuff is kept behind the curtain for the most part. Not here.
So my breakfast sandwich was good, especially so that in this case I profited $26 to have it. I will give Paradise Casino's complimentary-for-gambers-buffet a decent 3.5 stars
It's a very simple and devious trick, really. All you have to do is wager $1 minimum and you are eligible to get this free food at the casino cafe. I suppose it's the same thing as a tobacco company giving you lunch if you just have a cigarette first. Dangerous game I'm playing perhaps.
Also interesting to note is that gambling is also illegal in Korea, for Koreans. The people at the entrance really check your identification carefully to make sure you are not a Korean citizen. It seems obvious Korea wants the revenue gaming provides but none of the social problems that can accompany that.
Anyways, I digress. The food. It was fine. It was a standard hotel buffet breakfast, without the bells and whistles like a guy making an omelet for you. There were scrambled and boiled eggs, potatoes, two kinds of bacon, (English and American), sausage, Chinese fried pork, baked beans, a bread selection and a yogurt and salad bar.
It was fine. The bread was double thickness, like Texas-Toast sized. The bacon was quite limp and the sausage wasn't very good. I made a sandwich with scrambled eggs, bacon, and apricot jam. That was very nice.
Every time I go there, I always play automated roulette. That means at the front of the room there's an actual roulette wheel that is robotically controlled, and like 100 terminals you can bet from. I always bet on 0 and 11, a dollar each time for 5 rolls, and there's my $10 in gambling money. I think if my math is correct betting 5 times on two numbers gives me somewhere in the 20% range of winning, which seems about right. When it does hit, it pays $36, and I just cash it in and don't push it any further. On this day, 0 hit on the last spin, so I walked out with a free buffet and $26 more than I had before. It doesn't happen like that often, but feels pretty good when it does.
A big drawback of this casino is the people who work there. They are without debate underworld figures, menacing looking gangsters, and much larger than an average person. They certainly give a strong, nonverbal message that there will be no nonsense or bamboozling in this establishment. It makes me nervous, and I have a mild and hopefully irrational fear that one day they'll take me out back and beat me up for taking one too many complimentary buffet breakfasts. At least in modern Vegas the shady stuff is kept behind the curtain for the most part. Not here.
So my breakfast sandwich was good, especially so that in this case I profited $26 to have it. I will give Paradise Casino's complimentary-for-gambers-buffet a decent 3.5 stars
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