BEIJING--About 9,000 bananas are eaten off in the dining hall of the Olympic Village with around 15,000 athletes and officials having checked in for the upcoming Beijing Games.It's only part of the shocking numbers about the service on offer for the Olympic Village's accommodation.
The catering services in the Village's dining hall use up 4,000 liters cooking oil and three tons rice each day as the total number of diners reached 60,000 persons-time on Tuesday before the dinner is served, according to Culinary Director Doug Bradley.
"It's now far from the peak time. We expect a rough rise in numbers of the diner here in two days as the Olympic Games are gonna be underway on Friday," said Bradley from the Beijing Games' catering services supporter Aramark, a company of the United States.
"We had about 33,000 diners yesterday and the figure amount a double today, even before we serve the dinner," added Bradley's counterpart of the Beijing Office, Zhang Qiuping.
The 19,000 square meters hall, which serves 5,000 seats for dining at one time, have five zones of different flavors, with the "Med" serving Italian food like pizza and pasta, the "Asian Special" including halal and Beijing Duck, McDonald's fast food, dessert as well as the International zone serving regular western food.
"The food here is awesome," commented Jaime Hipp, a member of the women's water polo team of the United States. "I like it so much and my stomach is always full through these days we stay here."
However, not all kinds of food satisfied everybody.
"I think it depends," said Aleksandra Socha, a Polish fencer of the women's sabre. "I prefer Italian food, and ask for pasta almost every day. But my teammates love Beijing Duck and keep saying that my food is rubbish."
The dining hall of the Olympic Village, offering around-the-clock services, started running ten days ago, on July 27, the first day that the Village opened, and will run through the Olympic Games to end on August 24.