Okay. I've been to China and Germany on a couple of occasions. If you can't find a good meal while making $2 million you're not looking very hard. Someone mentioned the chicken nuggets/pizza kids we all know, I guess for them it could be a problem in the smaller cities in China but I'd take the food options in most cities in Germany over the McDonalds/Pizza Hut in Huntington Indiana every day of the week.Here is an interesting article. Read the Jordan Crawford story.
Basketball tales from Americans in China
More and more American basketball players have been taking their talents to the Far East. We got a few of them to spill the beans on what it's really like to hoop it up in China.www.espn.com
When players go overseas, their biggest culture shocks are always listed as #1 language and #2 food. What some countries consider delicacies or their national dish, many Americans wouldn't eat if given a choice.
DJ Byrd played in Germany and complained about the food. Lewis Jackson played in Eastern Europe and lost a lot of weight because he did not like the food.
Caleb Swawnigan PLea
- Thread starter Bippus33
- Start date
But you are missing the big issue. You can't get a Hoosier Drive In Tenderloin anywhere but Huntington and that is the trump card.
Hah, I used to date a girl from huntington. We always went to that Mexican place. Too long of a drive from Valparaiso though.
This is terribly sad and heartbreaking to see.
All the more so when you know a little more of what Caleb Swanigan went through as a youth, how far he came, and how hard he worked with the right guidance, including earning his Purdue degree. It takes a lot of courage and discipline for that.....and support. However, as we know, there are also dark places and demons we all have to battle at some times in our lives. And, yes.....I am concerned for him way beyond whether he has any basketball career ahead of him. For many, asking for help is a very difficult task.
He still has a lot of his life left to live......he can turn it around again and find solace in new goals and opportunities.....it will be a difficult road to travel, though. As many have stated, I hope and send my prayers that Biggie can find his way again, refocus, and also summon the courage to reach out to those who can provide him the support, guidance, and need for discipline.
All the more so when you know a little more of what Caleb Swanigan went through as a youth, how far he came, and how hard he worked with the right guidance, including earning his Purdue degree. It takes a lot of courage and discipline for that.....and support. However, as we know, there are also dark places and demons we all have to battle at some times in our lives. And, yes.....I am concerned for him way beyond whether he has any basketball career ahead of him. For many, asking for help is a very difficult task.
He still has a lot of his life left to live......he can turn it around again and find solace in new goals and opportunities.....it will be a difficult road to travel, though. As many have stated, I hope and send my prayers that Biggie can find his way again, refocus, and also summon the courage to reach out to those who can provide him the support, guidance, and need for discipline.
Traveled the world the last ten years and consider myself somewhat of a picky eater, China is pretty tough. Other than that, you can get pretty good food once you know where to look. My last trip to China I had about $80 worth of protean bars in my backpack, not sure I would have made it without.
I'm not much of a traveler, but have heard from people that have traveled to China that breakfast was probably the easiest and they would load up then and hope to make it through the day. I'd be in trouble since I don't eat eggs.
Again, you are making a lot of assumptions. Read the first-hand accounts from the players. I'll repeat it again. It is always listed among the top adjustments they have to make. You may not like it, but your assumptions are obviously wrong.
I would suggest some basic cooking lessons before they leave. They’ll have beef/chicken/pork/fish available to them. Pared with a well prepared vegetable and starch and you’re good to go.
Never hurts with attracting romantic partners as well.
Never hurts with attracting romantic partners as well.
Last edited:
Yeah, I've travelled many times to Europe and Asia and while I personally enjoyed the experience of trying the variety of foods, there are things that I would never, ever eat again. When I travel in the US, I usually gain weight. On some of the trips overseas, I lost weight. When you are on the road, you don't always get to spend your time looking for a restaurant that serves your favorite foods. And in some cities, it just won't happen.
I've had the same experience. Even if one tries american food chains, the local restaurants tweak the ingredients to appease the local customers. For example, if you get a pizza hut pizza in Taipei, the pizza sauce will look and taste different.
yea, On my trips to China, whenever they bring out fried rice, bread, vegetables watch out because i was getting that. China is the problem I have personally. Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, etc. not many issues. All Americans that have not traveled, should count their lucky stars they live here. Nowhere in the world will you find the quality of food products we have at our fingertips.
So what I’m gathering from this thread is that Biggie needs to spend a couple years in China.
You wait a few more months and at the current rate of things, we won't be far removed from being like china.
I lived in China. Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonald's, Burger King all can be found with relative ease in the big cities. Other major chains catered to western dishes are also there. Now your Ruth's Chris, Morton's , etc or equivalent may be a bit harder to find. However, there should be no reason these guys can't find good food options in China. I typically ate Chinese food as it was so much cheaper. Theres also this thing you can do called cooking.
I have been in several cities overseas where I did not see American fast food restaurants. Maybe because I did not visit the tourist districts. In any case, you don't live the life of a pro basketball player going from city to city, so it is hard for you to put yourself in their position. And they are supposed to cook while on the road?
I didn’t realize car salesmen’s traveled overseas..... (TIC)
Someone has to sell American cars to the American players so they can drive to the American fast food joints.
Yeah, I had Papa John's in China multiple times, Pizza Hut is ubiquitous, and they love KFC. That was Shenzhen, Tianjin, and Wuhan, so I suppose in a smaller place it would be harder to find Western food, but c'mon. Germany actually has far less in the American food area, at least in my experience. But I like trying local fare everywhere I go, including China. Had donkey once - that wasn't great.
I have a hard time believing a lot of pro athletes learn to cook, but good point.
Being raised in the Midwest, I was surprised that one of my favorite dishes in Korea was the still-moving octopus in chili sauce. But I certainly understand any squeamishness on the part of Americans. I did not eat the blowfish. I had a hard time dealing with the idea that one small slip by the chef and my family has to figure out how to ship my body home. They eat horses in Germany, but I never tried it. It has a much stronger odor than beef or lamb. Just the thought of eating blood pudding in Ireland turns off some Americans, but I thought it was OK -- not great, but OK. So I did fine, but I can see why many Americans find it difficult to adapt to food in other countries. I certainly dismiss them as lazy or stupid when they say it is one of their biggest adjustments.
In most foreign countries you can't buy frozen pizzas and they don't stock their grocery store shelves with peanut butter and jelly -- things most Americans take for granted.
Have good friends in Germany and when we visit we eat many of the same things we eat here and they live in a small village 15 minutes outside of Ragensburg (pop. 150,000). About the 1.5 times the size of Lafayette/W. Lafayette. I did a google search of "best pizza in Ragensburg" and 18 restaurants poped up. Did a search of "where can I get a hamburger in Ragensburg" and got 20 results including a Burger King and McDonalds. "Best steakhouse" 15 results. "Best Italian restaurant" 15 results". Just for fun I typed in "best sushi retaurants in Ragensburg" and got about 15 results.
One thing BoilerAndy was right ablout is that when I typed in "best peanut butter and jelly sandwhich in Ragensburg" i didn't get any results.
The narative that you can't get good food in Germany is just ridiculous.
One thing BoilerAndy was right ablout is that when I typed in "best peanut butter and jelly sandwhich in Ragensburg" i didn't get any results.
The narative that you can't get good food in Germany is just ridiculous.
Last edited:
It seems to be very important to you that something widely reported as a complaint by players is proven false. Why? Since you showed that you can perform searches, you obviously have searched what players say about the food. This is so important to you, so you should take it up directly with the players. Tell them they are lying and that they should stop complaining and cook their own food in their hotels while travelling. Get their responses and stop making silly assumptions.
When our son enrolled at Purdue in the mid 90s, my wife and I started coming back to campus for football games. One thing that was very noticeable since the last time we had been on campus in the 60s and 70s was the number of students that were overweight. Probably a third were overweight at their very young age. Many were actually obese. It has probably gotten even worse since then.
Here is an interesting article. Read the Jordan Crawford story.
Basketball tales from Americans in China
More and more American basketball players have been taking their talents to the Far East. We got a few of them to spill the beans on what it's really like to hoop it up in China.
When players go overseas, their biggest culture shocks are always listed as #1 language and #2 food. What some countries consider delicacies or their national dish, many Americans wouldn't eat if given a choice.
DJ Byrd played in Germany and complained about the food. Lewis Jackson played in Eastern Europe and lost a lot of weight because he did not like the food.
I've always had a "when in Rome" attitude about that stuff, but a lot of people do not. At all. In the end we are killing stuff to cook and eat, and the things we deem suitable are fairly random.
Eh, that is Germany. If you were in London you could get pretty much whatever you wanted, too. But 1) you underestimate how particular people can be - if the pizza is not exactly like what a kid would get from Papa Johns, they are alarmed and 2) other countries and cities would not have the familiar food available in some western european places.
