Road trip food is a tricky beast for a few, chief reasons:
- You need your hands for other things, presumably driving or co-piloting.
- You can’t fill up on snacks, because what if you’re full by the time you get to the shack on the side of Route 1 with the sign that scrawls “County’s Best Blueberry Pie”?! That would be shameful.
Our solution to tackling this is to focus on the meals: Bring something that will grant you the power not to stop at the normal drive-through dinner options, but leave the periphery free and clear for snacks along the way (blueberry pie and Doritos both count).
Here, then: Our favorite full meals you can eat with one hand and without utensils—for this summer’s last road trips and all of those thereafter:
The Sandwiches (duh):
The Wraps Actually Worth Eating:
The Wildcards:
Tell us what you pack on road trips—or your biggest travel-related food fiasco—in the comments.
A New Way to Dinner, co-authored by Food52's founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, is an indispensable playbook for stress-free meal-planning (hint: cook foundational dishes on the weekend and mix and match ‘em through the week).
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Written by: Kenzi Wilbur
Popular on Food52
7 Comments
There are powered coolers these days, now more worrying about ice packs. You just plug them into the 12V cigarette lighter. Not quite cold enough for frosty beers (to be consumed when you reach your destination, of course), but good enough to keep a lot of food items stable.
Heck, my *TEN*-year old Toyota has three cigarette lighter sockets within the car (including one in the trunk). If I need to keep something cool or warm, it's not a big deal.
Cary is right, sandwiches are actually rather poor one-handed eating items, they are often sloppy with both hands, especially when the filling has soaked through the bread. Sandwiches handle best when they are consumed right after they are assembled.
Many of the pictured items are also rather greasy, something else to avoid while operating dangerous machinery. A couple of these show dipping sauces which are extremely dangerous and have a high potential of making a mess.
One of the cleanest portable snack items -- Japan's onigiri -- regretfully aren't listed here. Pity. However, that's not an endorsement to eat and drive.
Pull over for the sake of public safety. Saving a few minutes by eating while operating a motor vehicle shows poor prioritization.
See what other Food52 readers are saying.