Eating On the Road
On our way to eat Thai food in St. Louis (among doing other things) last week, we had a typical discussion in the car about what we should do for lunch. I often like to bring my own snacks for the car, so that we don't have to stop at interstate fast food restaurants, but hadn't brought anything along this time around.
And so there's this quandary,* do we take extra time to drive into a town to find a halfway decent restaurant? Or do we quell our hunger with small snacks until we arrive at our destination? Or do we throw our hands up, and just eat fast food? What do you do? No matter what you choose, it's hard to eat well when on the road.
This time around though, one of our co-travelers, KK, came to the rescue. We stopped at a gas station just as we were trying to choose among our equally unattractive lunch options, and he said, "Or...I did bring about 10 pita sandwiches, which should be enough for everyone, so we could just eat those for lunch?"
He had made us all lunch! He'd stuffed pita with hummus, couscous, and a variety of vegetables--green onions, bean sprouts, and more! What a perfect, portable, delicious on-the-road lunch.
We found a few picnic tables (outside a Russel Stover store in some small town in Illinois) and relished our little roadside meal with an unparalleled gusto. Something about having this easy option spring up among the other unappealing options when we least expected it, made it seem especially wonderful.
It made me realize how possible it is to eat well on the road, even if you don't always have an awesome friend like KK with you along for the ride, if you just think ahead a little bit. Pitas wrapped up in foil make great road food, and although you don't always have the time or materials to make this happen, it's good to keep in mind as a totally attainable ideal.
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*I won't call it a "dilemma," in order to not rub my husband's logical needs the wrong way, since that word literally means a choice between only two options, therefore "di"-lemma (though popularly the word can mean "any difficult or perplexing situation or problem.")
And so there's this quandary,* do we take extra time to drive into a town to find a halfway decent restaurant? Or do we quell our hunger with small snacks until we arrive at our destination? Or do we throw our hands up, and just eat fast food? What do you do? No matter what you choose, it's hard to eat well when on the road.
This time around though, one of our co-travelers, KK, came to the rescue. We stopped at a gas station just as we were trying to choose among our equally unattractive lunch options, and he said, "Or...I did bring about 10 pita sandwiches, which should be enough for everyone, so we could just eat those for lunch?"
He had made us all lunch! He'd stuffed pita with hummus, couscous, and a variety of vegetables--green onions, bean sprouts, and more! What a perfect, portable, delicious on-the-road lunch.
We found a few picnic tables (outside a Russel Stover store in some small town in Illinois) and relished our little roadside meal with an unparalleled gusto. Something about having this easy option spring up among the other unappealing options when we least expected it, made it seem especially wonderful.
It made me realize how possible it is to eat well on the road, even if you don't always have an awesome friend like KK with you along for the ride, if you just think ahead a little bit. Pitas wrapped up in foil make great road food, and although you don't always have the time or materials to make this happen, it's good to keep in mind as a totally attainable ideal.
--
*I won't call it a "dilemma," in order to not rub my husband's logical needs the wrong way, since that word literally means a choice between only two options, therefore "di"-lemma (though popularly the word can mean "any difficult or perplexing situation or problem.")
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