Carmelo Anthony Delivers the Details on Generic Room Service Menus

NBA road trips are drastically different in the 2020-21 season. From team gatherings to nightlife, everything has shifted under the league’s enhanced COVID-19 protocols. In an effort to highlight the food options that are available to players, The Ringer’s Rob Mahoney put together a generic room service menu and asked a handful of NBA veterans to weigh in on those options.

Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony was among the four players tasked with diving into Mahoney’s mock menu.

Starting at the top, Melo touched on the romaine wedge option.

I would probably start with—not probably start with, I do start with; this menu looks very familiar. It’s like the same menu at every hotel. I would usually do a Caesar salad starter. I’m not a big carb guy at all. I try to eat clean and things like that. They be on me about eating carbs, but I’m a seafood guy—a fish guy, a salmon guy. So a lot of times, my dinner is seared salmon with a Caesar salad and a side. Or sometimes I’ll do a burger. I’ll do pasta every once in a while, maybe for a lunch or something like that if you can get in early enough.

When it came time to choose between the main course items, Melo discussed his steady staple: seared salmon.

I don’t really worry about ordering seafood from room service, ‘cause I stick to the script. I don’t try to do too much. I stick with my salmon and sometimes a vegetable, sometimes a white rice. I grew up in Baltimore, so we eat seafood out there. Always was a big seafood guy. If there’s no salmon, then I’ll go to a burger after that—or I’m on a delivery app at that point.

Melo, who is one of the NBA’s established wine experts, touched on the after-game wine options that are typically available on the hotel menu.

I look at the hotel menu to see what’s on there before I go. If you know the basics, then you know when in doubt, I can have a glass of this and be cool. You know what I’m saying? I know the basics of what these hotels have, so it’s easier to see what’s on the menu and know I can have a glass of this, it’s not gonna be too bad. But most likely I bring my own wine with me. I travel with my own wine. Especially now, because I can’t go to restaurants who may have a good wine menu or something. So I bring my own.

Outside of Melo, former Blazers center Robin Lopez also delivered his input. WARNING: reading Lopez’s comments might make you miss him more than you already do.

You can check out Mahoney’s complete feature at The Ringer.