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If you’ve ever traveled in any part of Asia, you may be familiar with the type of breakfast fare most high-end hotels offer.  The choices are mind boggling…and this is coming from someone that thinks of herself as a gluttonous eater!

I thought it appropriate to end my Shanghai/Suzhou visit on a food post because if you know me by now, happy stomach means happy me.

Imagine waking up to this extravagance…every…morning.  I’m not sure if it was a dream or a nightmare?  Nevertheless, this was the breakfast buffet at the Shangri-La Hotel in Suzhou.

I buzzed around with my cell phone taking these pics as quickly and unobtrusively as possible because there were more important things to be done, like, EATING!  Priorities!  I’m sure you can understand.

We start with the pastries.  Personally (and mercifully) not to my liking, so I was safe here despite an entire four-sided station dedicated to all things carb/sugar related.

A selection of cereal and french toast.

…a waffle station.

…an egg/omelet station.

Let me draw your attention to these large silver servers.  I didn’t want to stick my nose in and open every…single…one…of…them…just to take photos.  But, in hindsight, I regret not showing you some of the delicious dishes, such as sautéed chinese vegetables, the fried noodles…ACK!…taiwanese-style pancakes, braised tofu!  It was seemingly endless and all so good (trust me, I tried them all)!

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, “Bad Blogger, Good Eater!”.

What about a do-it-yourself salad and yogurt bar?

For those of you needing a little taste of home – some hash browns, bacon, ham, sausages, eggs.

A carving station…

…or help yourself to fresh salami, cold cuts and cheese!

Care for some sushi for breakfast or perhaps a finger sandwich?  If that’s not exotic enough for you…

…then hot bean curd with toppings?

Perhaps a fried Chinese donut?  It is savory, simple and wonderful.

…or a fully stocked, made-to-order, soup noodle station.  I’ve died and gone to heaven!  But, wait, is this breakfast, lunch…dinner??  Who cares, keep it coming!

Ooh, let’s not overlook all of the accompaniments for the noodles.

Another personal favorite, the steamed rolls and dumplings.  I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so many dumplings in one week…well…ok, you got me…not since the last time I was in China.

I certainly feel like a dumpling!

We’ll end this on a healthy note, the fruit station!

Honestly, by this time, there usually wasn’t much room for some healthy-for-you fruit, but I always ate a few pieces thinking that they might offset all of the more…um…tastier unhealthy choices I made.

As you can see, it is much like a Sunday Brunch buffet in America, minus some of the Asian choices (especially some of hot dishes that I didn’t show you), but this was only a Monday morning!

Needless to say, it was a challenge to shrink my stomach back to its normal size when I returned home since I was starting my day eating ALL of this for a solid week!

 “Some” good things should come to an end…sigh.

I hope you can tell from my posts that I had a wonderful time in China.  But, the very best part was getting to spend one-on-one time with my lovely, petite Mom and it was a pleasure to see that she can still out-eat me…sometimes!