Portland Fridge - Trail Blazer Channing Frye, Portland's "Buffet of Goodness"
Not only did Channing Frye create a foundation that inspires youth to adopt a healthy and active lifestyle, but Edible Portland recently discovered that Channing also loves fly-fishing, supporting Oregon growers, and sushi.
Learn more about Channing at his website, channingfrye.com. See him play in one of the five remaining games of the season: Trail Blazers schedule.
Channing Frye with Lily and Milton. Photo by Leah Harb
TRAIL BLAZER CHANNING FRYE
By Louis Sanden
For Spring 2008
At home games, in front of 20,000 roaring fans, 24-year-old Channing Frye comes off the Blazers’ bench and drops in mid-range jumpers like a fisherman gently tossing his line. When he first reached Portland, he told reporters, “I bring everything…a little personality, a little leadership, a little shooting, a little defense. I’m a buffet of goodness.”
Today, our Buffet of Goodness invites me into his condo on the top floor of a soaring apartment building. Two bulldogs nip at my feet. “Milton! Lily!” I hear from a room away.
Frye appears and shakes my hand. At six-foot-eleven, he looks surprisingly normal-sized, and I feel like a tiny preschooler. He warns me that his fridge is almost empty.
Frye:
I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news. The good news is that I remember what was in my refrigerator. The bad news is that my friends came up from Arizona three days ago and ate all my food. I had bought $500 worth of groceries and they destroyed it.
FLAKY WHITE FISH
Trust me, on Friday there was everything in here — so much good stuff. I had free-range chicken and salmon. Now what do we have? Here’s some wild-caught sole. I usually go for salmon because it’s versatile, but taste-wise I like flaky white fish.
At the beginning of the year, I was on this diet where I didn’t eat red meat or chicken for about three or four months, just strictly fish. I lost 25 pounds. When the season came on I started eating chicken, because I would have to eat half the ocean to compete with the calories I burn. My girlfriend is from Oregon, so she said, “Why don’t you eat free-range chicken and stuff that’s naturally grown and from Oregon?”
KOMBUCHA
My girlfriend and I eat the same stuff pretty much, but she tried to get me to drink Kombucha. She loves it, but I’m like, “Uggghhh.” I drink only water and 100 percent juice. No sodas or Gatorades. Oh, and she’s got me drinking Odwalla Superfood, too. I don’t know if that counts as juice.
Photo by Leah Harb
FINGERLING POTATOES
I don’t cook, but I love buying groceries for other people to cook. I figure I have to do my part somehow. My girlfriend was grilling chicken with some rosemary the other night with some of these fingerling potatoes. What else do we have in here? Mushrooms, lettuce, and you always have to have your eggs. Oh, here’s some gnocchi. It’s not too bad.
SWEET TEA
Have you ever had Sweet Tea? This is off the chain — so good. Let me get you a drink.
TURKEY TACOS
If I made myself lunch right now? A long pause. Probably some turkey tacos. He eyes the whole-wheat tortillas. I don’t know. Does that sound good? I’m a big Mexican food buff, but I don’t cook for myself too much. Heck, I don’t want to die. I’m the worst cook ever.
As Frye walks over to his cupboards, he leans down and offers Milton and Lily doggie snacks shaped like tiny steaks.
DR. OETKER ORGANIC VANILLA CAKE MIX
In my cupboards we have Wolfgang Puck soup — can’t go wrong there — and some cake mix. My favorite treat growing up was my mom’s cupcakes — you can’t eat only one. And this is great when you’re running late: Carnation Instant Breakfast. Real old school, but it works.
MULTIGRAIN CHEERIOS
We have a nutritionist, Ruth. When I played for the New York Knicks, they wanted me to be big. But here in Portland, they want me to be around 243 pounds. So I thought, I’ve got to figure out how to lose weight and be healthy about it. Ruth showed me that I could eat less but still feel as full. It’s kind of crazy — eat five cups of MultiGrain Cheerios or Morning O’s, and you feel like a million bucks for five hours.
I’ve figured out what foods make me feel good. Once before a game when I was a rookie, I was starving. So I had some fast food, because I didn’t think I was going to play. Oh man, someone got injured, and I had to play the whole game. Halfway through, I had no energy. I was dying out there. My lips were white, and they had to pour fluids into me.
SUSHI
After practice, I like having lunch at Le Hana. I sat there one day and ate everything on the menu — every piece of sushi. Some of the stuff I didn’t like. The sea urchin: It’s a unique taste and I’m glad I’ve tried it, but no thank you. Now I know.
Outside his huge kitchen window, we look down at the Willamette River far below.
FLY-FISHING
I love to go fly-fishing. I have custom-made waders and boots. Each year we go somewhere different. The first time, we went to Silver Creek, Idaho. That was amazing. There are so many trout, but they’re really smart. Imagine that you’re in the middle of the water — it comes up to about here on me. His hand skims his chest, somewhere above my head. You have a fly the size of my fingernail. You throw the fly right in the middle of all these fish mouths going “foop foop foop.” If you can catch one of those, you’re legit.
He returns his eyes to the window.
In the summer, you can see two sturgeons down in the river. They come within five or ten feet of shore. On clear days, you can see Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood. Portland is so much better than New York. There’s a real community feeling here. It definitely helps being the only professional sports team in town — there’s nothing like a crowd that stays with you even when you’re down. Portlanders are awesome.
Comments
If you want to eat /drink locally produced food forget Kombucha made in California and pick up some Kombucha Wonder Drink, which is made right here in the Portland area. Go to http://www.wonderdrink.com/
It's also certified organic by Oregon Tilth
Posted by: leslie | June 17, 2008 8:57 PM