Episode: 1638
Title: HPR1638: Surviving A Roadtrip: Food
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1638/hpr1638.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 06:09:58

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It's Wednesday 12th of November 2014.
This is an HBR episode 1638 entitled Surviving a Road Trip, Food.
It is hosted by Windigo and is about 15 minutes long.
Feedback can be sent to Jacob at flagbeam.com or by leaving a comment on this episode.
The summary is a few tricks about food and eating that can help you survive a road trip.
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Hello Hacker Public Radio, this is Windigo again with my second installment in my how
to survive a road trip series I suppose I'm not sure what it's going to be but there's
going to be three parts so this is part two of three and it's about food.
Now you'll have to excuse me I'm a little bit sniffly and stuffed up so I might sound
a little bit strange or busy or muted so if you'd like to record a HBR episode about
how to be a cold I would be much obliged but anyways getting right into it.
As road trips are by definition a pretty decent length of time you're going to need to
sustain yourself on these road trips.
Since you're out of your comfort zone and most likely not somewhere that you're familiar
with this can be challenging but this is one of my favorite parts of road trips.
It's a great opportunity to stretch your money and it is also a great opportunity to
explore around and experience the area you are in in a very unique way.
But first let's start off with food that we bring because buying your food on the road
trip is an excellent way to spend far too much money.
Convenient stores especially are terrible for this.
They don't have your health in mind food that you get there is generally very salty or
super sugary and rather expensive for what you get.
In addition to that stopping for snacks at convenience stores and other places add lots
and lots of extra time to your trip.
You'd be surprised how each little stop adds up to maybe an hour or two each day even.
So one of the best things you can do is stop at the grocery store before you leave.
Non-perishable snacks are usually pretty easy to get at your local groceries.
Things like nuts and trail mix are usually very well associated with this kind of food.
And that's for a reason.
These kind of snacks are full of protein and very good for you, full of fiber and they're
easy to snack on inside a vehicle.
While you're in there you might even want to pick up some fruit.
Fruit will usually last for a couple days and it's again pretty easy to eat in a vehicle.
Most fruit isn't too terribly messy.
Apples and grapes especially are very nice.
Oranges?
They get a little bit tricky with the peels.
If you want to prepil your fruit I guess that's an option but they don't last as long.
I'm not really a big orange person in a way so I usually leave those out.
Now they don't last quite as long as trail mix or other non-perishable snacks so you might
want to be careful about how much you bring unless you'd like to give it away as gifts.
Another very important supply to have with you is water.
No matter what kind of area you're going to if it's a desert kind of area even more
so but water is very important to have along.
We usually bring a gallon jug with us and that way you can refill it at rest stops or your
hotel or wherever you happen to stop.
I really don't mind tap water myself but if you're picky there are water filters that
you can bring along that are mostly designed for camping but they'll filter just about
any water source you can get.
You could fill up a sink at a rest stop and filter it straight into extremely good drinkable
water.
These kind of devices are usually designed to pull water out of streams and things so
they will filter out most anything that you can find in a water source.
Whatever you do just make sure to keep yourself hydrated.
Now I often violate this rule because I don't like to make too many stops and I have a
terrible, terrible bladder.
But hydration is very important and you can feel it if you're getting dehydrated so it
adds a lot to your mood if you keep yourself properly hydrated and don't go too hard on
your body.
If you have the option of bringing along a cooler your options for food that you bring
along at least are greatly increased.
Things like cheese and sandwich meats should do just fine in a cooler even if you run
out of ice halfway through the day it's not going to get terribly terribly warm in there.
Speaking of ice make sure to fill up when you leave and if you're in a very warm hot
area you might want to fill up in the afternoon if you can make a stop to gas up.
It's convenient stores that have gas will usually have ice so that's not terribly challenging.
Also if you're going to bring a cooler you might as well make sure that your lodgings
for the evening are going to have refrigeration because you could technically keep them in
the cooler but that becomes a pretty big stretch.
You'd have to fill it up in the night and it's much easier if you can take everything
out of your cooler and just put in a refrigerator for the night.
In addition to food that you bring along with you stopping to eat in my opinion is extremely
important.
You can save all the money you want but road trips aren't all about getting from point
a to b.
A great way to experience the area you're going through is to ingest a small part of it
so why not stop for dinner or even lunch.
It requires a little bit extra preparation you need to add an hour or two to your travel
time for a meal stop if you're going to make one.
You don't want to be trying to rush through a meal just so you can get back on the road
that kind of ruins it for everybody.
Now I usually recommend that you pick either or lunch or dinner and depending on your criteria
one might make more sense to you.
For instance, lunch might suit your timetable better if you're an early riser.
Lunch may also be a better idea because they offer slightly less food on the lunch menu
for a greatly reduced price so if you're looking to stretch your money a little bit that might
be the way to go as well.
In addition it might be easier to get in and out for lunch.
Maybe restaurants will be less crowded, maybe the dinner scene is crazy that might be harder
to find out in advance but it's worth a try.
Now if you like dinner as I do this might be a better choice if you are a late riser and
don't like getting up in the mornings which is my case.
Dinner menus also usually have more variety and are a little bit more expensive.
But I prefer the dinner experience I think.
Whatever you do, lunch or dinner, don't go to a chain restaurant.
Don't ever go to a chain restaurant but especially if you're on a road trip.
Local restaurants usually are found in the downtown areas away from highways but they are
well worth the diversion.
Chain areas have vastly different cuisines and trying new stuff is always fun.
For instance when I was on my road trip in 2013 I tried crawfish for the first time.
Who do?
It was very very good and if I didn't stop in Lafayette to visit John Cope I don't think
I'd ever have that experience so that was tons of fun.
I would highly recommend that you find something on the menu that you don't recognize and
order it.
There's always a little bit of risk involved especially if you are picky eater but try not
to let that stop you.
For instance coconut soup was a very big surprise for myself in that it's not sweet like
most other coconut things.
Coconut soup is very savory and smooth and milky and it's just really tasty so if you
don't like normal coconut stuff maybe that'd be something you'd be interested in.
If you're able to stop at one of these restaurants make sure to be a nice person.
Don't be that tourist and if you live anywhere near an area that tourists frequent you know
exactly what I mean.
This can be rude and obnoxious and if you're in an area on a road trip odds are that your
server has dealt with a lot of those kind of tourists so don't be that guy.
Just be nice, be patient, understand that they might have something else going on.
This also benefits you in that your server or wait staff or whatever you want to call
it they will be more likely to help you if you're not a jerk and you're going to need that
because if you're ordering random stuff off the menu you're going to want to ask questions
as well.
You can do your best to figure it out on your own but don't be afraid to ask questions
of who's you know taking your food orders.
If you have food based allergies or dietary requirements these might not be accommodated
most areas and this is where the questions come in very big.
So if you're a vegetarian or vegan or allergic to gluten, peanuts or dairy you're going
to need to ask lots of questions about what's on the menu and they might not know exactly
what you're talking about.
Not all the areas of this country or this planet really understand what a vegan is.
Heck my father is a vegetarian and he's gotten strange looks at that.
If you do have these kind of restrictions you might even want to do a little bit of research.
You know where you're going to be going you can kind of plot out when you're going to
get there so research a couple of the restaurants in the area.
Give them calls ahead of time and see if they have vegan options or if they have gluten-free
breads.
I know that it's kind of a bummer that people with dietary restrictions usually have to
bring their own food or be prepared for that kind of thing but it's possible that if
you can make enough preparations you might be able to enjoy a night out every once in a
while.
This could also save time because if you're not prepared to find a restaurant with
your specific requirements you might have to stop at multiple restaurants in town and
you don't really know your way around and that can add up time wise as well.
The most important part of food on a road trip is to just enjoy yourself.
Customers are usually very high stress affairs because there's lots and lots of logistics
and money involved.
So take a meal break and try and let away some of that stress.
Just blow off some steam, enjoy yourself, enjoy your company, take some time to look
around and make this more of a trip unless on the road.
Nobody really wants to stare at pavement all day and especially the person driving doesn't
always get a chance to sightseeing.
So maybe stopping for an hour or two and grabbing a bite to eat is the perfect way to give
everybody a break and let people explore and enjoy the scenery.
So I think that about sums it up.
If you have any other recommendations or comments about eating or road trip activities in general
feel free to send me a message at podcast at fragdev.com or leave it in the comments on
the hacker public radio website or even better record your own addition to this episode.
Put out a new episode with all your favorite ways to eat on a road trip.
I would love to hear it myself and I'm sure I'm not alone.
So until then, this has been Windigo.
Make sure to try the crawfish.
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