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Most of the time, people who find themselves across an eat-all-you-can spread will literally try to eat all they can. On their first trip, they'll heap their plates high with rice and about 2/3 of the available viands. On their second trip, they go for the dishes that didn't make it to their plates the previous trip. The third trip, especially if you're paying for this dine-till-you-drop extravaganza, will really just be about making this entire experience "sulit" even if your taste buds have stopped working and your gut hit full capacity 37 spoonfuls ago.

I used to agonize over buffet meals because I loved them and yet could never consume enough to make the experience worth what I paid for. "Sayang lang sa yo ang buffet, para kang ibon kung kumain," my friends would chide. But I simply could not resist them. I loved the fact that I could have a taste from a wide array of pickings. A la carte, I'd probably end up ordering four dishes, eating off each yet finishing none.

My name is Emma. And I'm a sampler eater. And the moment I realized this a few years back, I learned how to make the buffet work according to my feeding style. I had learned how to make it "sulit" without necessarily vying to consume enough food to "break even", so to speak. Here's what I learned:

1. Don't start with the starters.

If you are paying a premium, you really want to get right down to business. Salad, soup, dinner rolls – they're all basic items that can fill your belly up one-third of the way and they're hardly the eatery's crowning glory (usually main course dishes like steak, seafood, etc.) Half a bowl of soup to warm the belly, sure. A few tears off a batard loaf that's freshly baked and paired with camembert cheese, go. Otherwise, if it's just commisary-sourced dinner rolls smeared with butter (that you can buy anywhere), there really is no need to pay big bucks for something you can make at home, is there?

2. Scan and get a bite-sized portion from each dish.
For dishes that come naturally in big pieces or whole portions, like Brazilian barbecue, have the rotisserie guy just cut you a piece off each skewered item. Of course I don’t mean get from each and every dish. Skip those you know you won't like. The point of this exercise is to determine what it is you do like and will eventually want more of. A well savored buffet meal is about love at second serving.

3. Use carbs to take out flavor fatigue or "umay" and not as your way from hungry to stuffed.

In short, keep rice, pasta, mashed potatoes, or bread at minimal portions and just enough to break flavors between viands. Get rid of Pinoy rice-ulam ratios (i.e. 3 or more units of rice to 1 unit of ulam). You want to fill yourself with the premium stuff to make the tab worth paying.

4. Underestimate yourself.
Even when you've homed in on the items you want more of, never get what you think at a glance is enough - always get less. If you just can't fight the impulse to get rid of every empty spot on your plate, use a salad plate so that you have a smaller area to cover. People usually make a mad rush on their first or second trip, maniacally piling their plates high as if on a food crisis hoarding spree, seeming to forget this invaluable fact: you can always go back.

5. Get a cup of hot water.
You know that sensation that suddenly creeps up on you when you're only halfway done with eating? One moment you're relishing each mouthful, then all of a sudden, as if out of nowhere – boom! Busog! There is no greater mood kill than sudden appetite shutdown. It's the blue balls of foodies. That's happened to me a lot in the past, and it's irritating because there really wasn't anything I could do about it. I'd try to "spite" it by eating on anyway, but that didn't make the meal enjoyable at all.
Now, I don't know if there's any science to back this up, but I find that taking my meal with a cup of warm water always helps. It gets me to a state of fullness more gradually, whereas cold water makes me feel full sooner. I'll have wine, juice, or soda, sure, to compliment certain dishes. But to actually quench thirst in between mouthfuls, I revert to warm water.

6. Know when the end is near.
I appreciate a good dinner that makes me feel satisfied, not stuffed; one that leaves me enough appetite to savor dessert. If you're done, you're done. You shouldn't feel shortchanged if you haven't consumed an amount of food monetarily equivalent to the buffet price. When it comes to buffets, it really isn't about eat-all-you-can as much as it is eat-what-you-want. The most important thing you're paying for, which you can't measure by number of plates, the luxury of eating under your own terms. What you're paying for is the luxury of choice.