Where’s the Beef (or Any Food)?
I’ve been to three events now, and have had lots of fun at all of them, even though I was hugely disappointed by the US soccer team and flyweight boxer I was cheering for. The crowds are fun, the beer is dirt cheap and the Chinese fans are super friendly. One huge complaint that I’ve heard a hundred times at every event, however, is that there is no real food.
Now, I know that you don’t go to volleyball for the salads, but there is nothing except for popcorn and Oreos. One person even pointed out that, while they do serve instant noodles, they don’t have hot water. Not the best plan.
Yesterday at the soccer match, I did however discover that you can bring in sandwiches. The prospect of five hours of sports without any food was a little too much for me to contemplate. So I went to Subway Restaurant (please sponsor us!) and bought a delicious 12-inch sub on freshly made honey wheat bread. In fact, I had two in my bag. Although I had been warned ahead of time that my delicious and nutricious meal might be confiscated, I figured it was worth the risk. Worst case scenario, I was prepared to shove one down at the secuity check.
Fortunately, I had no problem. The guard looked at it, decided it was not much of a security risk and let it through. People in my row were very jealous that I was able to lose weight while eating a healthy Subway Sandwich (our advertising rates are cheap).
But seriously, what in the world would make organizers decide not to supply food? Ping pong is from 10AM-4PM some days. That’s a lot of ping pong to watch on an empty stomach.
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2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS | Limited food options at the Olympic venues responds:
Posted: August 15th, 2008 at 6:01 am →
[...] in. Which I understood from a security perspective, but the fact that I couldn’t even take a Subway sandwich in, really irked [...]
The Ant responds:
Posted: August 17th, 2008 at 5:16 am →
Amazing! You would think that would be a Yao Ming slam dunk for some very well connected restaurant entrepreneurs to turn out Chinese fast food , and that instead of too few food concessions that there would be too many. And wouldn’t the IOOC be keen on selling the rights to operate there to big western chains so that they could make even more money? You would think that McD’s and Starbucks would be all over that, not for a second allowing the IOOC or PRC authorities to forget that there was some nice money to be had there. I’ll take you’re word for it, though. http://www.chineseantfarm.blogspot.com