Travel food – Fennel Confit and Caponata (though for traveling I didn’t use my fancy bento box)

First – you may have noticed that Salty Week didn’t happen. I overestimated my ability/desire to post while making a poster for a meeting, attending that meeting, and attending two graduate school interviews. Lesson possibly learned.  Salty week is still to come.

To make up for it, I want to share some tips about eating and traveling from my past year of travel.  (According to TripIt + mental calculation of road trips in the past year, I’m at 30,000+ miles.  I need to go carbon offset shopping.)

1. Know when and what food will be available to you.
   Obvious but I’ve only really started doing this recently.  A year ago an all day Southwest flight (only peanuts to eat) from Tampa to San Francisco, with a stopover in Chicago during which we couldn’t leave the plane, left me starving and now mindful of these details.
   • On the road, think about what areas you’ll be traveling through when you get hungry and check out what kind of food there is.  For example, on the 5 between SF and LA the only good food is Andersen’s Pea Soup, otherwise you’re eating fast food/Apricot Tree.  Andersen’s is only two hours from SF (580 route) though so I’m usually not hungry yet.
   • On the air/train/bus, know what food’s available when you’re moving and at terminals.  Airline-wise: Different airlines offer different snacks and sometimes meals for pay, check out some reviews.  Some require cash, others credit.  In the terminal: some terminals have really good food (e.g. SFO International) but most have fast food, maybe a Starbucks sandwich, maybe a Cinnabon, maybe a sit down burger joint.  My travel meals tend to be irregular; I never know when I’ll want to eat.  So instead of attempting a schedule I ask: When food is available, how long will it be since I’ve last eaten?  Will I want to eat the food that is available then?  Should I get some to save or wait until next food availability?
2. Bring food with you.
   You can do this after considering #1 thoroughly, or skip #1, and just bring food with you.  You need to know what kind of hungry you get in what situation.
   • In the car I like lots of snacks and a couple drinks.
   • For air travel, I always try to have something meal-like and trail mix.  If I’m traveling from home, the meal-like portion is either leftovers (photo above, Fennel Confit with mini-Pita and Caponata, for my trip I reused disposable containers) or tuna salad and crackers.  The meal-like portion is harder when I’m not traveling from home, grabbing transportable somewhat perishable food while traveling can be a pain, but being hungry on an airplane is worse.  Leftovers, sandwiches, bread and cheese, and deli salads are my best bets, all preferably from outside of the airport/train station.  (I have never had a problem with any mentioned item and airport security lines.)
   • Buy something fresh and crunchy if you tend to crave those, a desire for a piece of fruit or an edible salad in the airport is unlikely to be met.
   • Pack extra food when traveling with people.  Withholding food from people because they didn’t plan ahead just makes them cranky and unpleasant to travel with.
3. Fried food hits the spot and then I regret it.
   I’m exhausted. McDonald’s in the airport smells so good. I have my one Crispy Chicken Sandwich of the year and…  It feels like it’s sitting in the bottom of my stomach all flight and I start craving an apple or a salad and I’m stuck in a plane and an airport and regretting it.

Got some tips for eating while traveling?  Know a good site that reviews food at different airport terminals?  Comment below.