Sumo supper

Gastronomica offers up the sumo wrestler's diet, including recipes (and a downloadalbe PDF): "When faced with the image of a sumotori (a sumo wrestler or rikishi), most food-minded people are likely to ask, "What do they eat to look like that?" ... The simple answer is that sumotori eat chankonabe, a chunky meat or fish and vegetable stew that they cook for their main meal of the day. But this first, seemingly simple, question invites many more. What is the significance of chankonabe, and what are its origins? What does food mean in sumo culture, and how does its use compare to that in other sports? What about food in Japanese culture in general? How can the Japanese people, whom we think of as health-conscious, and with such a minimalist aesthetic, so value obesity? And how can a society fearful of the health implications of McDonaldization accept sumo—a quasi-national sport requiring the consumption of up to eight thousand calories a day—as part of its religious and cultural framework?"