No Salad
This afternoon my lunch-mate and I were refused salad at a Thai restaurant in a mall on Wang Fu Jing. The reason given was that salad is banned for the Olympics. This was news to me, but my colleague said that he had heard tell of this impending ban but had not believed that it would be brought into effect.
The motivation for this ban remains slightly mysterious to me. It might be genuine concern for people’s health during the games, which could in turn, stem either from concern for their welfare and from the costs and difficulties of caring for people brought down by digestive complaints due to dodgy lettuce. Another reason could simply be the potential embarrasment to the city and country should visitors, domestic and international become ill in droves.
I have seen rural vistas from my train carriage of the farmer sloshing the contents of the outhouse bucket accross the vegetable fields, but none-the-less regularly, and so far without consequence, tuck into a large bowl of uncooked local vegetables. I am glad that the local health authorities have taken this new step and protected me form the dangers that a salad can present to a healthy diet. But, as my colleague pointed out, if I want to continue my daily dice with dysentery I can always eat Chuanr in a D rated restaurant, or perhaps chow down at one of the salad-speakeasies that will inevitably crop up…
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chriswaugh_bj responds:
Posted: July 9th, 2008 at 4:37 pm →
Salad speakeasies…. I never realised people felt so strongly about raw veges.
Nick responds:
Posted: July 9th, 2008 at 11:16 pm →
Classic Beijing, priceless! Forget educating people on healthy food prep, ban food. Could just be that they need full lettuce production to supply te olympic village.. they sure as hell wont be eating the pork there!
Beijing Olympics FAN! » Blog Archive » No Salad For You! responds:
Posted: July 10th, 2008 at 8:42 am →
[...] at Cup of Cha finds that along with smoking in taxis and spitting on the street, eating salads has been banned for the Olympics. It’s the first time I’ve heard of this ban (and I’m in Cafe Zarah surrounded by [...]
TheOtherRichard responds:
Posted: July 10th, 2008 at 2:40 pm →
@Olympics FAN,
Went in search of salad this lunch-time and found it with no difficulty whatsoever. I am not sure if news is slow to spread, there was some horrible confusion at yesterday’s restaurant or if this is chaotic variation. I will keep this spot posted.
Lindel responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 2:32 am →
Tuesday evening I was driving south on I95. The tractor trailer ahead of me blew a tire. Due to traffic I was unable to swerve and had to eat some tire rubber. Fortunately only damage was a slight dent to the front bumber.
Brendan responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 3:29 pm →
I also got a salad for lunch just today, so my best guess is that the ban, if there really is one, will probably be limited to foreigner-heavy areas like Wangfujing.
Jeremiah responds:
Posted: July 14th, 2008 at 7:41 pm →
I’ve also learned that “not available” can be code for “I don’t know how to do/make that but I’d lose too much face exposing my own gross incompetence to you so instead I’ll just lie like twit.”
That said, had a salad today at lunch. Arugula. Pretty good.
Hidden Beijing responds:
Posted: August 9th, 2008 at 12:26 pm →
[...] taxi drivers, no-spitting campaigns and new no-smoking areas. Eating dog is banned (and apparently salad). I can’t say I really like the public spitting, but seeing a gorgeous girl in fashionable [...]