= Tokyo Olympics 2020: Raw sushi barred as too risky to serve =
Japanese foodstuffs face high hurdle for Olympics
Asiaone
Nov 2, 2015
https://www.asiaone.com/japanese-foodstuffs-face-high-hurdle-olympics-0
Japan faces a new hurdle for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games over whether it is possible to obtain international certificates for foodstuffs and wood to be used at the Games.
However, organising certification systems in Japan has been sluggish, worrying officials in charge of the Games.
The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games regards dining halls of the athletes’ village as places where washoku cuisine can be promoted to the rest of the world, and thus wants to use domestically produced foodstuffs as much as possible.
Even if Japanese firmly believe that domestic foodstuffs are safe, people from abroad might not be as understanding. Therefore, it is likely that the organising committee will choose foodstuffs that receive a certain level of safety certification.
At the Olympic Village, washoku raw fish is recognized for being an inherently unsafe unacceptable serious health risk thus banned from being served to the athletes in the Japanese food offerings.
Some articles have described in general terms what the athletes will be eating at the Olympic Village during the Tokyo Olympics.
Due to medical staff being diverted to service the Olympics by unwavering contractual demand of the IOC for 10,000 Japanese doctors and nurses, administering vaccines in the midst of a pandemic has ground to a halt and the delta variant of the coronavirus surged in Tokyo and the rest of Japan to provoke a fifth wave of infections in the population outside the “Olympic bubble” sanctuary.
The raging pandemic in Japan as the host country forced the athletes without their own food programs and chefs to remain trapped within the Olympic Village and mainly eat what gets provided at the cafeteria within a ten minute time allotment.
With raw fish being such a big part of washoku’s global identity served as sashimi or in sushi, it was nonetheless banned by commonsense measures from the menu due to IOC deeming raw uncooked fish to be inherently risky to consume.
Here’s What Athletes are Eating at the Olympic Village in Tokyo
Food & Wine
Jul 28, 2021
https://www.foodandwine.com/news/tokyo-olympics-village-dining-hall-food
With the city’s restaurants off-limits, dining hall chefs are bringing Japanese cuisine to the games’ 18,000 competitors.
The organizers of the Tokyo Olympic games apologized for throwing away around 4,000 of the 10,000 food-filled bento boxes that were pre-ordered for volunteers on the day of the Opening Ceremony.
The ingredients used in the meals have been sourced from all 47 prefectures of Japan, and the menu has been divided into Japanese, Western, and Asian categories (the latter includes cuisine from China, India, and Vietnam).
Ramen and udon noodles, wagyu beef, and tempura vegetables and seafood are all available, but raw sushi is not: according to the Games’ safety rules, sushi rolls can only contain fully cooked shrimp, canned tuna, or vegetarian options like cucumber and pickled plums.
Olympic Athlete Claims Team Gets 10 Minutes to Eat Amid COVID Outbreaks in Tokyo
Newsweek
Jul 22, 2021
https://www.newsweek.com/olympic-athlete-claims-team-gets-10-minutes-eat-amid-covid-outbreaks-tokyo-1612304
Several commenters expressed concern for the athletes. “10 minutes?! How does that promote health eating??!! You’d have to shovel the food,” one said. “I can’t stop thinking about the amount of waste generated,” another shared.
British racewalker slams ‘prison-like’ Olympics for serving ‘cold slop,’ other bad food
Aug 3, 2021
https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/tokyo-olympics-2021-british-racewalker-slams-prison-serving-cold-slop-bad-food-075529553.html
Athlete Says Tokyo Olympics ‘Feels Like a Prison’ in Rant About Food at Games
Newsweek
Aug 2, 2021
https://www.newsweek.com/athlete-says-tokyo-olympics-feels-like-prison-rant-about-food-games-1615105
British athlete Tom Bosworth has hit out at Olympics organizers on social media over the food option at the games, describing it as feeling “like a prison.”
In the extraordinary statement, the 31-year-old race walker lashed out at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and called on it to provide better meals for athletes staying in the city of Sapporo.
Bosworth railed against being offered “cold slop” and “partly cooked pasta” in the post, which also included a video of him walking through the cafeteria at the accommodation.
Bosworth railed against being offered “cold slop” and “partly cooked pasta” in the post, which also included a video of him walking through the cafeteria at the accommodation.
Tokyo Convenience Store Chicken Gizzards Saved My Life
New York Times
Aug 1, 2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/01/sports/olympics/olympics-tokyo-conbini.html
Enter the saving grace of these Olympics, the glue holding the whole thing together: Tokyo’s 24-hour convenience stores, or conbini, as they are known in Japan.
They have quickly become a primary source of sustenance — and, more surprisingly, culinary enjoyment — for many visitors navigating one of the strangest Games in history.
Tokyo’s sushi scene crippled by coronavirus outbreak — CNN
Mar 22, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/tokyo-sushi-restaurants-coronavirus/index.html
One earlier article set up a showcase of protoype washoku to be served at the Tokyo Olympics. Yet, it suspiciously encroaches upon the Korean bapsang table setting with many small banchan side dishes that is not a tradition of ancient Japanese food. Washoku was originally conceptualized from restaurant presentation, not home cooking as touted, to have only three “san” dishes.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a … 8117300331
Japan wants to serve food from Fukushima at 2020 Olympics
Mothership
Nov 21, 2019
https://mothership.sg/2019/11/fukushima-food-2020-olympics/
Apparently, the more fanciful mythical “twisted discourses” of washoku re-branding 2.0 did not materialize in 2021.
