- 11 Aug 08, 06:33 PM
During the last Olympics in Athens, I took an evening away from reporting the action and experienced the Games as a spectator.
I left my media pass behind, bought a ticket to watch the athletics and went into the main Olympic Stadium.
And I was appalled by the terrible food available to fans.
It was either fast food or a packet of crisps and a sad-looking sausage. The friends who came with me - and hadn't eaten - were very disappointed.
What's worse is that my experience at last night's basketball in Beijing was just as bad.
The basketball arena is impressive - great atmosphere, comfortable seats and generally good stewarding. Spectators were there for one of the big early nights of the Games - China v USA.
But all they could buy was popcorn, a small sausage on a stick or biscuits and tasteless ice cream.
There is one media restaurant in the venue, I'm told, but you have to order your meal 24 hours in advance!
Of course the sponsors of the Games should have the right to make sure their drinks are on offer in venues. And they do.
But London must set a new Olympic trend on catering and put on a decent service for fans in 2012.
If you go to a concert at the 02 Arena (formerly the Dome) these days, you have a variety of restaurants on offer. The O2 is now one of the most popular venues in the world. The same kind of service must be made available to Olympic spectators at all the major venues in London.
This is the 21st century and the spectator must be regarded as king. Even at ordinary football or rugby matches these days, clubs try to put on some reasonably decent food - even if it's just a bacon butty.
If the Open championship can usually put on some decent drinks and food in the middle of a golf course, surely the Olympics can.
The fact is that a bacon butty would have seemed luxury for some of those poor basketball fans in Beijing.
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Comments
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Do you really think that the fans, who can afford a ticket, would not be able to shell out for a bacon butty or ten?
The heat must have gotten to you...
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Yeiii, think you may have misinterpreted him. He didn't mean poor as in having no money (plenty of money in China now!), but poor as in he was feeling sorry for them for having no choice - just a way of speaking.
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You're right about the terrible food, but it strikes me that this has less to do with poor choice on the part of the respective host cities, than the deals and sponsorships that the IOC makes on their behalf. It sounds like Athens and Beijing are offering similar fare...fast food, quick and unhealthy snacks, soft drinks and so on. This can't be a coincidence, especially since the actual cuisines of both Greece and China are quite diverse and interesting.
Honestly, this does not sound much different from the food that is available at most concession stands at sporting events I've been to outside of the Olympics....sausages, pretzels, crisps, perhaps a soggy slice of pizza, hamburgers, soft drinks and ice cream. While some stadiums do have more upscale offerings than that, this sort of fast food seems to be an unfortunate universal norm.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
I think Adrian Warner has made a fair point. However, we Chinese don't have the habit of eating proper food (ie pies, pizzas) in a stadium. Most people simply go there to watch a game. When I was in China, I usually had an early dinner before going to see my homwtown's football team in action.
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Considering there would be spectators from all over the world, it would be impossible to cater for everyone's tastes.
And I think after the opening celemony on Friday, Boris already has enough to panic about the London 2012 Olympics, bacon butty might not be on the top of his agenda.
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The organisers of 2012 have already say that if you bring in your own soft drinks (orange juice, bottled water, etc.) they will be confiscated by the bouncers because they aren't Coca-Cola.
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I think Adrian Warner make a good point, but I think you only point out one thing. You must take the conventional custom into consideration, like word4word refered. Most Chinese people don't have the custom that eat things during the games. As the drinks, I think Chinese hoster must consider the safty problem. You know there is so many terrerist around the world. I think you must remember 911 and the explosion in London. I think you should take your foot into the hoster's shoes!
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If China does not care about foreigner may not use to Chinese food, we would not give you such westen taste. please do not always try to libel our Chinese!
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Fair enough, I have misunderstood him, my bad. But I do agree with word4word, whenever I go to a game or cinema here, a small pack of choclate is all I take. It's just not the done thing, to eat hot food in a public place like that.
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Adrian's not trying to have a go at the Chinese, no need to be so defensive...he's clearly pointed out he experienced similar problems at the Athens Olympics. And I think it's a fair bet that this could be much the same in previous Olympics as well. This is not Beijing-specific.
If the hosts don't want or aren't familiar with western food conventions then that's really not a problem. I'm sure it would be wonderful to have a full array of traditional Chinese foods on offer. Instead, neither is happening...the problem seems to be the low quality food available.
Adrian - a good point, well made. As you quite rightly point out London will have to buck the trend to improve on this, because it seems the IOC itself is at fault here, much as neoellinas wrote. I would guess it's something that they simply don't give much thought to, and while I can understand that it's to be hoped that future Olympics can always think of ways of improving things outside the remit.
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????!!Do you know the meaning? Just think about food in basketball arena, do you think about others except eating, you take your mouth to Beijing only! What a pity, you lost your head in LONDON!
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I would be grateful that the chinese arent serving up fish balls or any other delicacies with a rather interesting aroma!
ps. Fish balls taste lovely, bu the smell is rather interesting
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Wow, is BBC News full of over-defensive Chinese people these days?
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It does seem strange when the athletes themselves probably need to obsess about what they eat.
Also the Chinese, in fact Asia as a whole, is renowned for the excellent fast food they sell on the streets of their cities.
If you want to experience proper chinese cuisine, perhaps you could try going a little further a-field, i.e. outside the olympic village.
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Food for thought is great . . . interesting points; my concern would be the loo lines = ).
I do know when I travel to other countries, I eat sparingly until my body adjusts to the foods available.
I would probably put a record time in sprinting to the loo.
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I thought we'd seen the last of that idiot Clive Woodward.... then he rears his ugly head in the Olympics. Will someone tell him that winning a world championship in Rugby (which is less competitive than the Scottish Premier league), is not really very useful when we are looking at the creme de la creme of world sport. Tell him to go back to working with Rugby players and let the sports people play sport.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
I think certain people need to read this blog again and stop being so overly sensitive!
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Why don't they sell good quality Chinese food rather than making a bad attempt to try and please everyone by a poor attempt at American food? Chinese food is loved the world over and there's always something that someone would like. If I went to Beijing I would expect to be eating Chinese food, not hot-dogs and pop-corn. If the visitors don't like Chinese food, then tough! It's a shame the hosts have forgotten what they are good at (great food) and have not made the most of showing the world that.
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You are in a country where most people subsit on a meagre diet of rice and live in extreme poverty.
Don't worry, though, the poor will be kept well out of view during these Olympics.
Think on that next time you feel like whingeing about catering.
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The corporate sponsorship is bad enough without the O2 Arena being named for a mobile phone company. And if it is true that people's drinks will be confiscated if they are not Coca-Cola, that, like so many things about London 2012, has to change.
I think that China is trying too hard to please the West and thus offering bad imitations of Western food. They not only need to be themselves and accept themselves, but they also need to improve the food - so the BBC bloggers have one less thing to complain about (since they can't complain about their honourable hosts in general).
Why not take your own?
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'I think that China is trying too hard to please the West and thus offering bad imitations of Western food.'
I hate to say, but when I go to most big sporting venues in the UK, they seem to also offer bad imitations of Western food (and Eastern food) and at ridiculously inflated prices to match! If the Chinese are just copying us, then their not putting a foot wrong!
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As many posters have suggested, this article is not aimed at the hosts who are doing a great job, but the IOC who control these matters. The likes of Coca Cola et al pay $100m or so, and then have exclusive rights to sell their products in the games. It will be the same in 2012.
And it's not just the Olympics. Remember the 2006 football World Cup where the only beer allowed in the German stadia was Budweiser? The Germans with their centuries-old purity laws and brewing traditions loved that one!
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Agreed Dr_Grammar.
TBH, I have no problem with exclusive contracts for selling on premises, however I would like to also have the choice of bringing my own stuff.
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The Chinese are well aware of western diets (the big 'M' exists everywhere - a cause of great concern!) However, as others have suggested, we should not expect to have western food available everywhere we go.
I had my first ever taste of Olympic action at Tianjin and was gutted to have to throw my fruit loaf and 2 botles of water in a bin before entering the security areas. More to the point, there were a great many Chinese people who had arrived with families and large picnics which they were desperately trying not to waste by consuming everything possible with indecent haste!
If the rules are that you can take nothing consumable with you, it needs to be very clear before you arrive at the event!!
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Vaughan_the_Prawn. I don't agree with your interpretation. Adrian said "luxury for ... poor basketball fans ...". When luxury goes with poor, it definitely make readers think in monetary sense. If Adrian didn't mean poor in monetary sense, he'd better work harder on his articulation. His writing absolutely fall short of journalist standard. But in case he really mean poor in terms of money, he is humiliating the poor people just because they can't afford something. Since he just said "some of those poor basketball fans", I can't assume he was referring chinese. So I can't say he is racist, but he is definitely not a moral man.
Yeiiii, I don't think you need to apologize.
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I'll have a beef chow mein with singapore fried noodles please
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I am sure that at the 2012 olympics in London they will be serving gourmet food at all the venues...well done Adrian!!
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dear oh dear, poster #27 (garykm).
If you do not understand English, then you should not presume to take offence at your misguided attempts to read it.
Whatever the merits or demerits of the article, it was not taking a pot shot at (alleged) poor people. Let alone Chinese poor people!! Interesting how a lack of knowledge can lead to such a fundamental misinterpretation. A case study for linguists.
But do keep up the language lessons ; like most languages, English has complexities of expression.
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#27 - please believe me that this is not what he meant. Poor has many meanings in English - for example, my Mandarin is poor (and I'll happily take corrections from anyone when trying to speak it!)
But in this case it has nothing to do with money. Peace!
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You are being paid to be at one of the most wonderful events of the 21st century and you're moaning because you can't get a bacon butty? Behave yourself!
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