Issy Wong: 'I could smash six Babybels in a row'

If you could just eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Just one thing every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Oh my god! Probably Marmite. It's a spread we have at home, savoury spread. I take it everywhere with me, so I've got a jar of it. It comes with me in my suitcase. You can have it on toast for breakfast, sometimes you can even have it like a toasted sandwich for lunch or on toast with scrambled egg and then for dinner if you're making a gravy, you can put Marmite in the gravy. So it's pretty versatile

What's your go-to meal?
All the hotels do a chicken breast, mashed potatoes and vegetables which is pretty good. It's quite plain but it's just a safe bet, you know what you're going to get. You get vegetables, you get carbohydrate, you got protein, often comes off quite nice like gravy as well? Which is nice. Tastes pretty good.

What's the least healthy thing we'd find in your fridge right now?
In the mini-fridge [at the hotel], not a lot actually (laughs). In my fridge at home… I quite like custard. I don't have it on its own, but it gets stored in the fridge. Or Babybels. Do you have them here? Little cheese wrapped in wax. I could smash like six of them in a row (laughs).

What's one food you had to give up to get fit for cricket?
Everything in moderation is all right. One meal isn't going to make me unfit for cricket. It's when you have one meal seven times a week that you're probably going to be in trouble. Probably try and eat less ice cream and save it for special occasions.

Which cricketer you know is the best cook?
I think Harmanpreet's a pretty good cook - she got her hand up over there. Harman, you have to cook for me. You can't say you're the best cook and not cook for me.

Harmanpreet: I can make… omelette?

If Harman was not sitting here, who would you name?
Charlie Dean once cooked me some… she hardly cooked it, it was some very raw broccoli. Very undercooked broccoli. Not very good. Katie George is pretty good. She cooks a lot of good food. I'll say she's probably up there. She makes really good chips, but healthy chips.

Baked?
Yeah, baked in the oven. Very good.

What is your favourite thing to cook?
I like barbecuing. I got a barbecue for my birthday couple of years ago so I'm all over it. I do Korean barbecue, chicken thigh. All sorts, really.

One food you've discovered on cricket tours and grown to love.
What's it called, chaat? Just chaat.

One food you miss when you're on tour.
My mum's Yorkshire puddings. My mum makes very good Yorkshire puddings.

Jhulan Goswami: Why didn't you bring some here?

Wong: Gosy! You can't bring them; they've got to be cooked fresh. Someone show her a picture. Yorkshire pudding goes with like a roast dinner with bit of gravy. My mum makes the best. If you want a Yorkshire pudding, have my mum's. No other Yorkshire pudding tallies up to it.

Which cricketing venue serves the best food?
Everybody says Lord's is good. I think it's too fancy because you sit there and then you got to wait, and they've never got enough of anything. And it's always been fancy.

Everyone says Lord's, what do you say?
I think Edgbaston's pretty good. They grow a lot of their own vegetables and stuff in the garden, which is nice. Where else is the food good? Taunton, they do a - it sounds really nasty - it's yoghurt with banana and honey. You look at it and think, "Oh, it's gonna be horrible," then you eat it and you're like, "This is great!". You just have it every day for how many days you're there.

What's your go-to post-workout snack?
Chicken roti (laughs). We had to do something the other day [before the WPL 2024 started] where we had to agree on something we all ate after a game. And all three of us [Goswami and Harmanpreet] had to say chicken roti.

And a protein shake, maybe.

What is your comfort food? What does a cheat-day meal look like?
Not really cheat day but it's chicken and cheese, slightly spicy pasta, pasta bake. It's comfort food. If my day has been really bad, Katie puts more cheese in it. So if I've had a bad day it's extra cheesy whereas if I've had an okay day, it's not that cheesy.

Are you a coffee fiend?
Yeah, old flat white. Straightaway, old flat white.

What's one snack that always travels with you in your kit bag?
Marmite.

One specialty from home you think everyone should try at least once
Birmingham's got very good curries, but I feel like I can't really say that in India because the curries here are very good too. From England, I quite like a roast dinner. I think you can't really beat a roast dinner. A roast dinner has just got everything.

What all does it have?
So you have like roast meat - maybe roast chicken or lamb or beef - whatever you want. And then roast potatoes, lots of vegetables, lots of parsnips and stuff, my mum does cheesy leeks, Yorkshire pudding, lots of gravy, sometimes stuffing. Anything you want really.

What does a meal look like on match days? Do you just eat what's served or do you have to watch your diet even then?
I make sure I have a big breakfast. Nutritionist says it's very important on game days to have lots of carbohydrates because that's your energy store. So the more carbs you can have, the better because you just got more energy. I usually have a couple of slices of toast, maybe some pancakes in the morning just to make sure I've got enough fuel in my body. If it's an evening game, I'll have some lunch at maybe 2pm in the hotel. Often the chicken, mashed potato and veg on game day. And then at the ground I'll probably have a couple of slices of toast and a banana. Again, just try and get those carbs stored up. After the game, I make sure I try and get some protein in so there's chicken at the ground or something [similar].

One food you despise and would absolutely not eat.
Mushrooms, I don't really like mushrooms. They're a bit scary. I think they're slimy. Sometimes when they're not slimy, they're nice.