I know a guy who's so proud of his obsessive compulsive disorder. Sure, it slows him down, with all those counting rituals and the need to do certain things in the proper order, but it also keeps him on task. He could never skip any of these routines, and that includes never skipping one of his workouts. He's proud of his OCD, because it's given him great abs. A friend is proud of his knitting skills, and another of his weird talent for talking backwards. I'm very happy with my ability to chow down. That's right: pride in gluttony. One of the best places to do this is Buffet Palace. I know, I know. Buffet. I haven't been to too many, but the word on the street is that this giant, Vegas-lite restaurant, Buffet Palace in West Lakeview, is a notch or two above the typical buffet. Pay when you enter, sip your complimentary super-syrupy sodas, and belly up to the buffet stations. Begin with salads or jump right over to the eggrolls, though fried items don't fare so well in steam tables or under heat lamps. Asian pals swear by some of the wide variety of seafood available, including a bowl of tiny fingernail sized crabs scooped up with a big spoon. My only seafood has been the sushi, which is very "eh," but a diner who dropped a dollar on the tip jar, and asked the sushi chef to prepare him something special, was mighty pleased. There's also a live person behind the counter, who makes stir fries from ingredients you choose, and another who will carve from a giant roast beef. Sure, there's nothing Chinese about the latter, but are the pizzas, mac and cheese, French fries, onion rings, or tacos any more authentic? My guess is these are for the kids and the "I hate any food that's not American" crowd. I can't vouch for those, but the noodle dishes and fried rice are tasty (and greasy), while the sticky sweet General Tsao's chicken and Honey Chicken both up the sugar content to a delightful degree. There's Chinese greens in garlic and oil, shrimp and beef dishes, sautéed green beans, won ton or hot and sour soup, and several kinds of dumplings. If you still wanna eat after all this, there's a surprisingly tough Jell-o square, some very skippable low end pastries and what I like to call the Ice Cream Computer. Essentially, this is a soft serve machine with a keypad. Enter a digit, one through nine, and a flavor stripe that corresponds to your number runs through your ice cream. Chocolate, butter pecan strawberry, a very Laffy Taffy banana, and so on. Walking out the door, you'll swear never to return, cursing your lack of will power, and trying to forget the unseemly way you shoveled all that food in. A week later you'll be back. And that's something to be proud of. Buffet Palace (3026 North Ashland; 773.868.1888), is open every day of the week for lunch and dinner, and has plenty of free parking.