Car Cuisine: do you indulge? favorite food?

[Gifted Gourmet]

CBS News article

With Americans eating more meals in their cars, food makers are obliging with an array of glop-free, finger-friendly foods suitable for any meal and in between. So-called cupholder cuisine ranges from cereal bars with the milk congealed inside to the new "crunch wrap" – Taco Bell’s answer to the age-old leaky taco problem.

McDonald's, meanwhile, put a salad in a cup and developed McGriddles breakfast sandwiches with the "yummy taste of maple syrup baked right in." ...  yogurt in squeeze tubes, Cheerios Milk ‘n’ Cereal Bars, miniature versions of Cheetos and Doritos ... about 19 percent of our meals are consumed in cars

If you indulge in this form of car cuisine, what are your favorites?

At what mph are you likely to stop nibbling?

[Kent Wang]

I enjoy eating honeycrisp apples in the car.

[SuzySushi]

I rarely eat in a moving car, although I always have bottled water handy and occasionally another beverage like iced tea.

Most interesting meal I've ever eaten in a moving car, however, was unagi don, a Japanese dish of grilled eel over rice. My husband was driving, and I fed him his share with chopsticks as we sped along the highway to an appointment. (Some people have sex while driving... we eat unagi!

[Lori in PA]

I eat in my car all the time. Yesterday I had lunch and dinner in there -- which is unusual for me. For lunch, I stopped at a grocery and ordered a couple of slices of good roast beef, a couple of slices of Havarti, and got a single hard roll from the bakery. I got some hot crab chowder in a cup and a yogurt and ate while I drove. For dinner, I ate a McD's Happy Meal, which does not make me happy.

[Nicolai]

No eating when I drive.

However when driven after clubbing, then it is usually a stop at around 04:00am at the local sandwich shop for a stuffing before hitting the mattress.

[jsolomon]

Hehehe, my eating habits in a car are much saner than my eating habits in a farm tractor.

A typical meal my mommy made for me when I was at home helping out in the field til all hours of the night:

Piece of fruit (usually apple, pear, or grapes)

Carrot or celery sticks

Thermos of soup

Sandwich

Hot veg

Piece of pie, cookies, or cake (if I was really good, brownies--no nuts, unfrosted)

Granted, moving at 4.5 miles per hour is much different than in traffic, but when you've got to worry about driving straight, 4 levers, 6-25 toggle switches depending on the implement you're attached to, and 15 feet on either side of you, it gets busy.

Edit to add: my favorite is a ham and cheese on a baguette with cranberry chutney. But, too crumby to have in the tractor. Strictly wonder bread unless you want to vacuum the cab every day, otherwise mice WILL get in.

Edited November 11, 2005 by jsolomon (log)

[srhcb]

If you're eating and driving at the same time you aren't paying appropriate attention to either activity.

SB (serious eater and driver)

[Kent Wang]

I once "drank" a seafood gumbo in the car, no spoon.

[Carrot Top]

Edit to add: my favorite is a ham and cheese on a baguette with cranberry chutney.  But, too crumby to have in the tractor.  Strictly wonder bread unless you want to vacuum the cab every day, otherwise mice WILL get in.

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Reminds me of two stories heard recently:

In a small town in West Virginia near here (you will imagine how small when I tell you this story made both the local newspaper *and* the local TV news channel ) one of the guys that lived about five miles out of town (a mere walk over the hill) was having car problems. It would start and stop, make funny noises, start and stop again. Being a country guy, he checked all the usual suspect things that he could, then assumed it had to be a computerized component. Had to get the car to town to the garage.

It took him about an hour to get there with all the starts and stops, but finally he made it. Slow day at the garage and besides, they were all his buds so they started searching for the problem. They could not figure it out either, so they all sat down to drink bad coffee, eat Tastee-Cakes and shoot the breeze waiting for an inspiration.

As one of the guys sat facing the car, he heard a noise emit from it. A funny squeaky strangly noise. He hadn't had any liquor that morning, so it surprised him. "Did you hear that?!" he asked his friends. They all listened, and yes, again they heard it.

Walking over to the car, they looked under the hood again. This time, with a flashlight, they searched every nook and cranny.

There it was. A patch of fur was showing inbetween two parts of car where nobody has assumed that *any* thing Ford hadn't made, would fit.

It was one of them durn raccoons.

They had to take almost the entire insides of the car out to set the thing free - and when he was set free he just waddled placidly off to the bit of field in back of the garage, apparently none the worse for wear.

The owner of the car was worse for wear though - three hundred dollars the worse for wear. Buddies or not, that garage bill had to be paid.

..........................................................

I was channel surfing several months ago and ran into a show called "Pimp My Car".

Naturally, the children shouted out excitedly that this was something they *must* see! I sat down to check it out.

Apparently what they do on this show is well. . .pimp up peoples rotten old cars. They take an old junker and re-do it, but re-do it in a certain uh. . ."style". Pimp style. So to speak.

The woman on the show had a tiny old car from the seventies and apparently she had been eating her meals in it since she owned it (she was college-age) and the person who had owned it before her must have been also.

It was disgusting. Spills, crumbs, torn upholstery.

The guys started to tear it apart and voila! What ran out but about a dozen RATS.

Yes, rats. They had made a nest somewhere under the back seat and were living there! Living the Life of Riley, too, with all the food pieces they could find. The guys had to get face covers to clean the thing out for fear of inhaling the droppings which were. . .everywhere.

..........................................................................

Sigh. Yes I eat in the car. Two children who have had long drives to make twice a month for several years are my excuse. If we take the time to stop the car and eat the drive will take close to two more hours than it does.

So I can inform you that the current rate for a detailing job by a professional is $150.

Sigh again.

[PAYAL SHARMA]

CBS News article

With Americans eating more meals in their cars, food makers are obliging with an array of glop-free, finger-friendly foods suitable for any meal and in between. So-called cupholder cuisine ranges from cereal bars with the milk congealed inside to the new "crunch wrap" – Taco Bell’s answer to the age-old leaky taco problem.

McDonald's, meanwhile, put a salad in a cup and developed McGriddles breakfast sandwiches with the "yummy taste of maple syrup baked right in." ...  yogurt in squeeze tubes, Cheerios Milk ‘n’ Cereal Bars, miniature versions of Cheetos and Doritos and Campbell's "Soup at Hand" line of drinkable soups...  John Nihoff, a professor of gastronomy at the Culinary Institute of America, says about 19 percent of our meals are consumed in cars – though his definition of "meals" includes in-between snacks like doughnuts or a bag of carrots.

If you indulge in this form of car cuisine, what are your favorites?

At what mph are you likely to stop nibbling?

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Glass full of chopped fruits, luna bar, nuts and occasional slice of pizza are my favorites whilr driving. I will eat till about 50 mph then it gets difficult.

[melkor]

I rarely if ever eat in a moving car. I had lunch in the car today though - chicken salad sandwich while parked on the side of highway 1 in northern Sonoma watching it rain into the ocean.

[jamiemaw]

Vietnamese sandwich, extra peppers: Go faster.

[andiesenji]

Empanadas, chicken fingers, French toast sticks, criss cut fries extra well done, taquitos, pizza bites.

I have a 140 mile commute - 70 miles each way - 1 1/2 hours when the traffic is good.

Much, much longer when it has jelled because of an accident, rain, idiots, car chases or lookie-loos slowing down to look at something happening at the side of the road.

I am not alone. There are obviously a lot of munchers on the road at the same time as there is always a line of cars in the drive-thru lanes at McDs and Jack's at Crown Valley Road off the 14, especially in the morning. I don't speed because it wastes gas and the CHP has really been cracking down on speeders and about time too.

[Carrot Top]

The most startling story of food in the car was related to me in a "thank-you" card from a sixth grade student after a cookery/social studies fun activity with corn that I did one day at the school.

(Here's a link to the activity:)

Corny Kids Stuff

The thank-you note said: "The corn was really good. My mom ate it in the car while she was driving me to soccer practice."

Raw corn on the cob. With bits of butter and seasoning. Wrapped in wax paper ready to "microwave" (what can I say. How else to educate the non-cooking to the life of real corn but to make it too simple to avoid making).

The life of a modern-day Mom with no time to eat, shown as she bites into an ear of raw corn as she drives along. . . ..

[NYC Mike]

Spend a ton of time in the car for work, if I stopped to eat everytime I got hungry I would never get where I was going.

Cooler of diet cokes on the floor of the passenger side is a must. The food is whatever I can get my hands on from McDs drive through to road stop pizza to giant snickers bars. This time of year is great since Starbucks has their Thanksgiving Dinner Sandwich cooking.

[Rebecca263]

We (not the royal we, kiddle and me) usually eat apples while moving along in the car, I've almost always got a few in my car bag, somewhere! Tea or coffee sometimes come along as well. Now, as for eating in the car on the side of the road, in a parking lot, etc. well, it's usually a baked good or a to go meal from some interesting looking place we've just found.

[Soup]

I enjoy eating honeycrisp apples in the car.

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May be the great apple variety. Wholefoods isn't carrying them here in DC this year. I am bumbed.

[kategoldston]

I enjoy eating honeycrisp apples in the car.

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May be the great apple variety. Wholefoods isn't carrying them here in DC this year. I am bumbed.

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I thought you both would like this. Honey crisps are the best apples ever. Here is their biography, aka "interview with an apple" by an alternative newspaper in Seattle. Pretty funny. looky

Edited November 13, 2005 by kategoldston (log)

[Kent Wang]

I thought you both would like this. Honey crisps are the best apples ever. Here is their biography, aka "interview with an apple" by an alternative newspaper in Seattle. Pretty funny. looky

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Very funny!

[jgm]

Fried chicken legs work pretty well in the car. I've also been known to eat cold salmon, straight from the deli, as well as various salads. Tabbouleh is a challenge. But one must Know Thy Cops in the area. Sometimes they'll pull eaters over for inattentive driving.

What I prefer to do is go to a nearby park during my lunch hour, and eat in the car, in absolute peace and quiet --or while listening to Day to Day-- and watch the geese and the squirrels. Sure beats lunching with lawyers at work.

[jglazer75]

I eat the official food of the truckstop and road trip: BEEF JERKY. Here in the upper midwest, it's dirt cheap, you can get a large package for about $2.99 or so. Good stuff. If I could just muster up the will I'd make it from scratch. But alas, no gun and no time.

[Grovite]

Granola bars, beef jerky, those little "100 Calorie" packs, you know, "less messy" items. Bottled water is a must and I keep a case of it in my car at all times. Sodas, coffee and the ocassional cup of Earl Grey are found in there as well.

If I grab a burger on a drive, I will get it plain Jane. Don't get me wrong, I love a good, messy burger, but when driving, the last thing I want is a shirt full of mustard, onions, tomatos, etc.

I have eaten a bowl of menudo in a moving car once. Good menudo, but I had a nice dry cleaning bill after that meal.

On long road trips, my passengers and I have called the next town ahead and ordered a pizza for pick-up.

[Kent Wang]

A greasy steering wheel can become very dangerous!

[Gifted Gourmet]

A greasy steering wheel can become very dangerous!

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back to those greasy, drippy tacos ... mentioned at length here which are always

best served at 0 mph

[robert40]

I rarely if ever eat in a moving car.  I had lunch in the car today though - chicken salad sandwich while parked on the side of highway 1 in northern Sonoma watching it rain into the ocean.

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Umm.....Dave I don't doubt for a second you would chance eating in your car.