The Sun's Beijing coverage falls short in one respect
Dear Rick and Kevin,
I've really been enjoying your reporting from Beijing, you're doing a great job, but I'm afraid you just haven't answered the most important question, the one on all our minds here at Dining@Large.
We all know about Michael Phelps' famous appetite. Here's what he was eating in Ann Arbor for breakfast after his workouts, for instance, according to the Detroit Free Press:
A bowl of rice pudding followed by "three eggs over easy, hash brown potatoes, five sausages, wheat toast. Depending on his appetite, he'd request a side of bacon."
We also hear that Phelps isn't going to get back into the pool until February once the Olympics are over. ...
So here's the question inquiring minds want to know:
Is he going to keep eating all that food? All of us have had to stop exercising -- OK, maybe not quite so intensely -- at one time or other because of injury or whatever. You just can't keep eating the same way.
Will he sit down one morning after the Olympics and have a bowl of cereal with skim milk and an order of whole wheat toast, hold the butter?
While we're discussing his diet, should he actually be eating all that saturated fat and cholesterol even though he needs the calories? Isn't that unusual for elite athletes?
C'mon, Rick and Kevin. We need some answers.
Your friend,
Elizabeth the Restaurant Critic
PS: And while we're talking, where's my guest post on the fabulous Chinese banquets you two are enjoying over there?
Comments
I want to know about the street food over there.
Posted by: Lissa | August 15, 2008 9:04 AM
Rick & Kevin:
Don't eat the chicken head. It's just decoration.
Your friend,
Bucky
Posted by: Bucky | August 15, 2008 9:40 AM
But do try the boneless duck feet.
Posted by: jl | August 15, 2008 10:20 AM
I wonder (without irony or sarcasm) if a vegetarian has ever been a world class athlete in something as grueling as swimming or running? Curious.
Posted by: Owl Meat Gravy | August 15, 2008 12:43 PM
I remember reading a few years back about a vegetarian bodybuilder. He competed at a high level, and basically ate several tubs of plain tofu a day, because getting enough calories was a problem.
Posted by: Lissa | August 15, 2008 1:54 PM
Owl Meat -- Carl Lewis became a vegan in 1990; afterwards, he set a world record in the 100m (World Championships, Tokyo, 1991) and won three more Olympic gold medals (4x100m relay 1992, long jump 1992 and 1996). (One web site claims that Lewis is a vegan only when training.) Paavo Nurmi, a vegetarian from the age of 12, won 12 Olympic medals (9 gold, 3 silver) in various middle and long distance running events. Edwin Moses is a vegetarian, and I assume that he was such during his Olympic career. Other vegetarian or vegan athletes can be found at this site.
Posted by: hmpstd | August 16, 2008 7:21 AM
Killer Kowalski was a vegetarian? Wow...I would have not guessed that in a million years.
hmpstd, once again...awe.
Posted by: Rob't from TBRS | August 16, 2008 9:52 AM
Didn't Killer Kowalski eat the turnbuckle stuffings? I guess turnbuckles don't have a face, so they're ok.
Oh, wait...that was George the Animal Steel....Nevermind.
Posted by: Robert of Cross Keys | August 17, 2008 10:07 PM