Surviving hunger while in flight

A couple of recent threads about surviving airport food and airline food got me wondering....what kind of snacks do you pack for yourself when you're flying?

In the past, I've brought Larabars, Cliff bars, trail mix, pretzels, candy, granola bars, and fruit (domestic flights), but I usually get bored. I have a couple of long flights ahead of me in the coming weeks, so any interesting new suggestions would be appreciated!

I once got a flight carrying an entire muffalatta from Central Grocery in New Orleans. I could hear everyone else on the plane drooling...

I try to pack water, a cereal bar and sometimes small bottles of vodka. My only plane food pet peeve is people who get on the plane with McDonalds. That food can stink up an entire plan in under a minute.

I don't pack snacks from home; on a long flight, I want more than just chips or a candy bar. Sometimes I will buy food from a nearby food specialty place, but most of the time I just buy food in the airport terminal. Many airport terminals now have much greater variety and quality in the food they offer, including local restaurant specialties as well as the fast food chains. (This is due partly to their recognition that they can make more money by offering better food, and partly due to the discontinuation of meal service on many flights.) There are also healthier offerings now (e.g. interesting salads). Most airports have websites where you can look up the food services they offer. You can look up the concessions in the terminals at both O'Hare and Midway at flychicago.com.

To be more specific, when flying out of Chicago, I would prefer to pack healthy snacks from home that I have prepared or purchased in advance. I really don't like the choices at O'hare and find them to be boring and overpriced - I'd rather spend that money during my trip. Thanks

Xanax 10 minutes before boarding.

If its a short flight, less than 4 hours, I can survive not having to eat or snack for that 3 or 4 hours

For longer flights to Hawaii, Europe, etc. I nibble on the food that is served/offered on the plane, and save my appetite for some good food at my destination.

We always fly out of Midway Airport. Since we get to the airport a minimum of 90 minutes in advance and security takes 10 minutes, we have a meal at either Pegasus on the Fly or Manny's.

I don't do airline food.

Pucca wrote:To be more specific, when flying out of Chicago, I would prefer to pack snacks from home that I have prepared or purchased in advance. I really don't like the choices at O'hare and find them to be boring and overpriced - I'd rather spend that money during my trip. Thanks

I completely agree. I've had a few long delays at O'Hare and have had time to roam the terminals for good snacks--have not found them yet, always end up with over-priced, over-seasoned Chex-like mix. Because of blood sugar issues, I usually need to eat every 3-4 hours, so I'm pretty accustomed to packing snacks wherever I go. My favorites for flying are:

-- Dried fruit (organic raisins, sometimes cranberries)
-- Nuts (usually raw almonds and/or Trader Joe's Plainview Pistachio mix)
-- Carr's Whole Wheat Crackers
-- Natural Ovens Wheat Bagels
-- Fig Newmans
-- An apple and a banana*, maybe a plum if they're in season
-- A PB-jelly sandwich
-- A very dry Landjager or two (though I don't like the smell it leaves in my bag)

*But be careful with fresh fruit: I had eaten the banana I was carrying in my backpack and still got sniffed out by the airport dog while waiting for my bags recently at Melbourne's Tullamarine. The result: an extra 20 minutes through customs.

I usually just tote some good trail mix -- something that is primarily nuts, seeds, and fruit. Or I take a small bag of almonds or sunflower seeds. That's all I need for flights under three hours. Sandwiches or roll-ups are good options for somewhat longer flights. The ban on liquids going through security rules out the old thermos of soup, but you could have soup at the airport and your sandwich on the plane.

I've seem people pull out everything from fresh fruit to carry-out containers from restaurants. I think that, aside from the no-liquids issue, you're only limited by your imagination and how much you want to carry. I travel very light, usually with everything in one carry-on, so I'm not really interested in toting lots of food. But if you check your luggage, you'd have a free hand for carrying food.

As for me, the nuisance factor outweighs culinary concerns. And perhaps because I've eaten so many truly awful things in remote places, airline food just doesn't seem that objectionable.

LuvstoEat wrote:I once got a flight carrying an entire muffalatta from Central Grocery in New Orleans. I could hear everyone else on the plane drooling...

Did the same. I felt guilty . . . but not enough to stop me. These days with the current in-flight food situation one could probably auction off one of those for some serious coin.

happy_stomach wrote:[
-- Fig Newmans

Paul Newman has a fig-based snack product now? The man's unstoppable!

happy_stomach wrote:I've had a few long delays at O'Hare and have had time to roam the terminals for good snacks--have not found them yet
.
.
.
My favorites for flying are:

-- Dried fruit (organic raisins, sometimes cranberries)
-- Nuts (usually raw almonds and/or Trader Joe's Plainview Pistachio mix)
-- Carr's Whole Wheat Crackers
-- Natural Ovens Wheat Bagels
-- Fig Newmans
-- An apple and a banana*, maybe a plum if they're in season
-- A PB-jelly sandwich
-- A very dry Landjager or two (though I don't like the smell it leaves in my bag)

Sounds like you haven't been looking very hard; you can get at least half of this stuff at the concessions at O'Hare. You can find a variety of dried fruit and raw nuts at "The Grove" shops; there may be other places, too, I'm not sure. You can get bagels lots of places, including Great American Bagel. You can get fresh fruit lots of places, too, including Corner Bakery.

nsxtasy wrote:

happy_stomach wrote:I've had a few long delays at O'Hare and have had time to roam the terminals for good snacks--have not found them yet
.
.
.
My favorites for flying are:

-- Dried fruit (organic raisins, sometimes cranberries)
-- Nuts (usually raw almonds and/or Trader Joe's Plainview Pistachio mix)
-- Carr's Whole Wheat Crackers
-- Natural Ovens Wheat Bagels
-- Fig Newmans
-- An apple and a banana*, maybe a plum if they're in season
-- A PB-jelly sandwich
-- A very dry Landjager or two (though I don't like the smell it leaves in my bag)

Sounds like you haven't been looking very hard; you can get at least half of this stuff at the concessions at O'Hare. You can find a variety of dried fruit and raw nuts at "The Grove" shops; there may be other places, too, I'm not sure. You can get bagels lots of places, including Great American Bagel. You can get fresh fruit lots of places, too, including Corner Bakery.

Please . . . with all due respect, are you serious? The Grove is so overpriced and the offerings mostly stale. You have to trek to get to the Great American Bagel, and again, it's overpriced, and the offerings on par with frozen Lender's. I guess maybe you can cull those items, scavenger-hunt style, from various vendors at O'Hare, if you want blisters and have the time. But seriously, O'Hare has to have some of the worst concessions ever at an airport. I feel embarrassed that it is the introduction for out-of-towners to our fair city . . .

I don't think I've ever packed anything except for extra water on a flight. I always feel dehydrated on planes, so I need a good two liter bottle to hold me over on any transatlantic or transpacific trip. As for food, I usually eat before the flight, and the airline meals are enough to keep me satisfied. I don't really think airline food is as bad as everyone makes it sound. I actually kinda look forward to it. At that point, any warm meal is a good meal. I'd much rather chow down on that than dried fruit and granola bars.

But whatever you do, don't pack teriyaki jerky along on your next flight, like a passenger on a recent flight did. It stinks up the whole friggin cabin.

nsxtasy wrote:

happy_stomach wrote:I've had a few long delays at O'Hare and have had time to roam the terminals for good snacks--have not found them yet
.
.
.
My favorites for flying are:

-- Dried fruit (organic raisins, sometimes cranberries)
-- Nuts (usually raw almonds and/or Trader Joe's Plainview Pistachio mix)
-- Carr's Whole Wheat Crackers
-- Natural Ovens Wheat Bagels
-- Fig Newmans
-- An apple and a banana*, maybe a plum if they're in season
-- A PB-jelly sandwich
-- A very dry Landjager or two (though I don't like the smell it leaves in my bag)

Sounds like you haven't been looking very hard; you can get at least half of this stuff at the concessions at O'Hare.

Yup--for about double the price I'd pay for all of these things at Whole Foods. Maybe I'd pay for the convenience of getting these items at O'Hare, but, again, I'm accustomed to packing snacks wherever I go, so having these things on hand doesn't really require any additional planning or inconvenience on my end.

nsxtasy wrote:You can get bagels lots of places, including Great American Bagel.

There are very, very, very few things that I absolutely will not eat if I'm hungry, but a bagel from GAB is one of them. It's like eating a big hunk of half-baked dough dusted with cornmeal. Ick. The above is my list of favorite snacks for air travel, so for the other things, substitutions could be OK, but these are the specific items I really like and therefore bring with me.

Kman wrote:

happy_stomach wrote:[
-- Fig Newmans

Paul Newman has a fig-based snack product now? The man's unstoppable!

They're the best Newman product out there! Seriously, very yummy, not comparable at all to the Nabisco version.

I fly a lot, so this is a constant challenge for me. A few things I've found:

1. Carry an empty water bottle through security, then fill it at a water fountain. (If you don't like water, you could always add a few spoonfuls of a powdered drink before you leave home.) I have a reusable bottle that I got for a couple dollars at Walgreens. It's much cheaper in the long (and short) run than buying expensive water in the airport.

2. I always through a few energy bars into my carry-on bag. Even if I don't eat them on the plane, they serve as a quick and cheap breakfast or snack while on the road. I prefer Zone and Balance bars. The Balance Bare Bar is also good.

3. If you're stuck in the airport, there are a couple economical, healthy things you can buy. McDonald's sells a fruit & yogurt salad (apple slices and grapes, a vanilla yogurt dip and a few candied nuts), as well as a fruit and yogurt parfait (haven't bought this one recently, so I don't know if it's still on the menu).

4. Although they're pricy, Wolfgang Puck/Pucks Express often has a decent salad or soup if you're stuck with time to kill in the airport. (They are located in lots of airports nationwide.) If I'm ever in an airport with a Legal Seafoods, I'm almost certain to get a lobster club...it's a little messy, but I've been known to carry it onto a plane.

5. I don't carry fresh food that I've assembled at home unless it's a) transportable in a ziplock or something else disposable and b) can't be easily crushed. Who wants to carry a Tuperware container across the country and back again?

I'm with you Happy Stomach and aschie30. The Grove is severely overpriced and stale. I get my nuts and trail mixes from Trader Joe's.

Also, I just don't have the time, interest or energy to search out the options in O'hare. I don't like to waste time by getting to the airport more than an hour in advance. By the time I'm done with security and finding my gate, I usually only have 20 min to spare.

The only place I've ever purchased food from O'hare is at Berghoff's three years ago. I wasn't even that impressed. The options at O'hare are an embarassment considering that it's such a big airport.

chgoeditor wrote:4. Although they're pricy, Wolfgang Puck/Pucks Express often has a decent salad or soup if you're stuck with time to kill in the airport. (They are located in lots of airports nationwide.) If I'm ever in an airport with a Legal Seafoods, I'm almost certain to get a lobster club...it's a little messy, but I've been known to carry it onto a plane.

Yup. Terminal 3 at O'Hare has a Wolfgang Puck in the main terminal building, just around the corner when you get through security. It's my go-to place for food to bring on the plane. It's a sit-down restaurant with a carry-out display next to the hostess stand. I particularly like their chinois chicken salad; it's a cabbage/slaw-based salad with a sesame dressing, with chunks of chicken thrown in. Yum! (It, too, can be a little messy though.)

At Midway, I'm usually leaving in the morning, and have found that Illinois Bar and Grill makes eggs and pancakes to order, so they're not sitting around on a steam table. If I'm in a hurry, Lalo's has huevos a la mexicana ready made, and horchata to drink.

I usually pack a couple of apples, raw vegetables, and some trail mix. Most of my flights are of less than 3 hour duration. Since I'm diabetic having some extra food is mandatory and this works well. Occasionally I'll pack a sandwich of some kind too. I like having some food for post flight to snack while waiting for my luggage. I refuse to bring airport fast food on a plane because of the smell. Cold sandwiches are fine though.

I haven't had to go through being stuck on the runway yet but if I am and I'm getting fed up I will be having an intentional massive drop in blood sugar.

Of course I'm almost always flying out of South Bend and at its worse I leave about 45 minutes before the flight time. I'm about 15 minutes away and the lines are always reasonable.

Last time I had a Wolfgang Puck salad (admittedly, at LAX). I dislike the whole salad as a meal thing anyway. Tons of calories but no staying power. If I have to get something like that I get the sandwiches they sell everywhere from Starbucks to the Intelligentsia place, or a sandwich from the Berhof. I try to eat it before boarding, though.

Mostly, I stick with snacks. I usually have a survival kit with Men's Pocky and other dark chocolate treats, almonds and so on. The Starbucks espresso brownie hits the spot surprisingly in these situations. I have tried bringing along real real food but I hate having to throw it out if I don't end up being hungry, get bumped up to a class of service with a decent meal, or whatever.

Binko wrote:I don't think I've ever packed anything except for extra water on a flight. I always feel dehydrated on planes, so I need a good two liter bottle to hold me over on any transatlantic or transpacific trip.

Actually, it's not just a feeling. Dehydration is a serious problem when flying, especially on longer flights. That's why I always take Emergen-C with me when I'm flying it. I has scads of electrolytes, including twice the potassium of Gatorade, plus you get a substantial hit of vitamin C and several B vitamins, which helps your body deal with the stress of being in a pressurized metal tube and also helps you fend off the germs carried by at least a few of your fellow passengers.

Emergen-C is a dry powder that comes in little foil packets -- just add it to water once you're on the plane. Lots of good flavors, easy, convenient, and a lifesaver.

bibi rose wrote:I dislike the whole salad as a meal thing anyway. Tons of calories but no staying power.
.
.
.
Mostly, I stick with snacks.

That's funny - I would say exactly the reverse, i.e. many snacks have tons of calories but no staying power, which is why I stick with salads. In fact, many salads don't have excess calories at all (although when it comes to calories, the type of dressing selected is usually the bigger variable than the salad itself).

Salads as unhealthy food - too funny!

Cynthia wrote:Actually, it's not just a feeling. Dehydration is a serious problem when flying, especially on longer flights. That's why I always take Emergen-C with me when I'm flying it. I has scads of electrolytes, including twice the potassium of Gatorade, plus you get a substantial hit of vitamin C and several B vitamins, which helps your body deal with the stress of being in a pressurized metal tube and also helps you fend off the germs carried by at least a few of your fellow passengers.

Not just a feeling at all. IIRC the standard is to pressurize the plane so that it's equivalent to being at 8000ft altitude. At such, a lot more water is "sucked out" of you via respiration and through the skin than at sea level or at Chicagoland elevation. To make it worse, a lot of the cockpit air is recycled - just sucked in, run through very basic filtering, and spat right back out.

I read somewhere not too long ago that 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 passengers get sick within 3 days of taking a flight. I know I tend to at times - and it always gets me after the flight back from wherever's I was.

Like Chicagoeditor, I also spend a great deal of my time traveling for my work. Asides from trying to eat healthier (room service at hotels makes fast food a better alternative), travel snacks are very important. Here's my winner for both taste and fullness: Grape Nuts.

It is very easy to take any cereal, I think Grape Nuts pack the easiest, through security. While in the terminal there are plenty of restaurants that will give you a bowl and spoon for free or for a quarter (potbelly's) and milk is readily available at any snack shop and its even free from the flight crew!

Wow,

I'm a little amused at how many people seem to carry loads of food from home onto the plane. I recently sat next to a mid-30's woman on the way home from Vegas and she must of had at least 8 or 9 different food items. I gained another three pounds on the flight after a 10-spot my week in Vegas. Now, she was a mother, don't know if preppeing food for her kids got her in the habit of carrying food with her in general or not. And, about half the food she had was purchased in the airport, half from home.

Now, I think Midway has some very good options for an airport: Harry Carry's, an Irish Pub, a Greek place, many others in the main food court.

O'Hare is generally unimpressive but man I thought I was lazy...we must have some fellow lazy travelers on LTH. I mean, the Berghoff outpost in O'Hare IMHO is good for a corned beef ot turkey or pastrami sandwich. That's pretty damned good food in general and excpetional for an airport. Also, there is Billy's Goat's Tavern in the little food court in Terminal C that serves good burgers and very good full menu breakfasts.

There are also a few Starbucks if memory serves which has good baked prodcuts and a very good yougurt parfait. Not that hard to find pretty good food. But, O'Hare should be better.

Bster

Cinny's Mom wrote:I try to pack water, a cereal bar and sometimes small bottles of vodka.

How do you manage that?!?! Past security?

Water and small bottles of vodka were my plan prior to the liquid restrictions. Even with those liquid restrictions, if the bottles of vodka are less than the maximum, they will pass through security. Interestingly, I have a friend that packs any size liquids or gels she pleases and never has a problem. Go figure

I have a friend who wears looser pants (think: dress trousers) and carries through a glass cologne bottle in his pocket through security. I guess it would work with other liquids, too.

As to the prior poster's friend who packs liquids/gels of any size and gets away with it...as long as s/he is putting them through the x-ray machine, s/he will eventually get caught. I've inadvertently packed some liquids in my regular luggage. At times I've been stopped, and TSA has insisted that I fit them into my quart-sized bag. Other times, nothing has been said. I've also heard TSA agents tell travelers, "You didn't pack your liquids in a quart-sized bag. Don't do it again." It's a ridiculous rule.

(Flying home from LA today I realized that I didn't have my ID. Contrary to popular belief, you can fly without an ID, but you'll be subject to secondary screening. As the TSA agent was wiping down my possessions to search for signs of explosives, I thought to myself, "This would have been much easier if I'd just handed my luggage to my boyfriend before entering security." Had I done that, then the luggage would have gone through regular security with him, and less time would have been spent searching and dusting me. Silly, I tell you. Absolutely silly!)