primitives discuss dining on the train

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11576888

Oh my.

Skins's island has been pretty boring all day, so in desperation I went to the cooking and baking forum.

pinto (92,179 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

Train travel food ideas?

I'm taking a train trip next week ~ 34 hours. I'm going to do a big breakfast in the dining car. They do them well.

I'm looking to pack & carry some travel meals for the rest of the trip. Ideas?

surrealAmerican (5,465 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

1. If it were me, I'd probably make a batch of either ...

... "trail mix" or granola bars. Whether at meals or between, they should have a protein (nuts), a carbohydrate (grain or cereal), and fruit or vegetable (dried fruits).

cbayer (103,881 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

2. On our long car trips, we do this.

Take a soft sided cooler with a zip lock bag of ice.

Put sandwich fixings in there, but not fully made sandwiches. Meat, cheese, good bread, packets of mayo or mustard (steal them from a fast food joint), lettuce, tomato. Make the sandwiches when you are ready to eat them.

To do this, you will also need a small plate and knife.

Add some fruit, chips or crackers, nuts or trail mix, granola bars.

Whatever you want to drink can go in there as well.

You can replace the ice when it melts.

Does the train make a microwave available? Those noodle/soup bowls are pretty good.

pinto (92,179 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

5. LOL. "Local man arrested for theft of free condiments."

Yeah. Don't turn me in but I've got mayo, mustard, soy packets. Plan on some kind of sandwich with carry on fixings.

The noodle bowls are a really great idea. I'd just have schmooze a bit to use the cafe's microwave. That's doable.

And now, the fecund grasswire primitive, who's hot on the trail of the slayer of the late red round one:

grasswire (33,006 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

3. Take a cue from Europeans who travel coach.

I did when I went cross country and back again on Amtrak. Pack food!

A small pocket knife. A dishtowel or cloth napkin. Plastic utensils.

A salami to slice. Two chunks of cheese. (cheddar, and something else.)

Bread and crackers.

Fruit. Apples, grapes, banana.

Zip lock b*****s with pickles and olives.

Small jar of peanut butter or some nuts.

Zip lock with carrots & celery, radishes, romaine hearts.

Little one-use tub of ranch dressing.

Zip-lock b****e of pasta salad or tabbouli.

Tinned tuna salad or chicken salad if you like it.

All of that kind of stuff works really well.

And if you are laying over in Chicago, Union Station has some really really good food available there.

Frozen juice boxes.

maddezmom (125,835 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

4. from past experience I learned that cheese will last a long time if it's in a cooler. I'd also add some dried link salami and crackers. I love nuts but peanut butter is always a good thing, too. Apples you can cut up and if you like them, grapes also keep well too as long as it's the bag is cool.

pinto (92,179 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

9. I made a cross country trip one time with a big chunk of cheese and a jug of OJ.

I was young.

Yeah, I plan to do bread, cheese, peanut butter, juice and fruits. Do some noodles like cbayer suggested.

It's only a day and a bit and totally doable.

maddezmom (125,835 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

11. sesame noodles are great..cool or room temp

Mira (13,108 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

7. Here's what I did and learned

The pizza and sandwiches available are not so hot and the lines are long in the car that sells them. Coffee is good and plentiful. If you take your computer there are strips of outlets and tables in the cars adjoining the one that sells the snack foods. Get a seat early, and plant yourself. I found the only use for my real seat is for sleeping. But it's pretty spacious and be sure to pack a blanket.

The dining car, the real deal, is pretty expensive but the food is quite tolerable, and you need to reserve a seating space at a quiet time as the train rolls, ahead of the evening meal.

I took a tin of hummus and crackers i like. A bag of trail mix of a kind I like.

A few bottles of a drink I like. You can figure out good snacks. Be sure you have a baggy with wet papertowels, and a few for trash.

Hope this helps. My trip was only 2o hours. NC to NOLA. And it seemed like a flash. Take a camera. Talk to the people. You'll have a ball.

The primitive took a tin of garden fertilizer along, to eat?

HopeHoops (28,556 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

15. Sesame crunch bars - not the sweet ones, the pretzel-like ones.

HopeHoops (28,556 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

14. Two blocks of jello with marichino cherries in the center

Just leave them out on the lid of the travel container for a while for shits and giggles.

And yes, I've seen jello on a train.

HeiressofBickworth (232 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

16. Are you traveling coach

If sleeper, meals are included in the price of your ticket so this wouldn't be an issue. If you are traveling coach, please be mindful of the people around you who probably wouldn't appreciate the smell of stronger stuff like salami and some of the more fragrant cheeses. And no onions or garlic, please! And no ****ing kimchee!

I've taken the train often and smells are trapped in the closed coaches so it would be appreciated if you kept the odors down.

Yeah, yeah, like a primitive's going to be sensitive to the sensitivities of other people.

Sure, sure.

[ExGeeEye]

So what's with "eggi" and "aggi" being censored, above? 

Just curious.

[Big Dog]

So what's with "eggi" and "aggi" being censored, above?  

Just curious.

Frank abhors the baby-talk diminutives of "vegetables", "bags", "dogs".

Me, I fill in the asterisks to make ...other words. In the past, "throw out the rotten v*****s" became "throw out the rotten vaginas"- good advice for any man.

This time, "Zip lock b*****s with pickles and olives." becomes "Zip lock boobies with pickles and onions". Om nom nom. Of course, "Zip lock bitches with pickles and onions" works, too, but is much less friendly.



 

[GOBUCKS]

grasswire (33,006 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

3. Take a cue from Europeans who travel coach.

I did when I went cross country and back again on Amtrak. Pack food!

A small pocket knife. A dishtowel or cloth napkin. Plastic utensils.

A salami to slice. Two chunks of cheese. (cheddar, and something else.)

Bread and crackers.

Fruit. Apples, grapes, banana.

Zip lock b*****s with pickles and olives.

Small jar of peanut butter or some nuts.

Zip lock with carrots & celery, radishes, romaine hearts.

Little one-use tub of ranch dressing.

Zip-lock b****e of pasta salad or tabbouli.

Tinned tuna salad or chicken salad if you like it.

All of that kind of stuff works really well.

And if you are laying over in Chicago, Union Station has some really really good food available there.

Frozen juice boxes.

Poor, addled grasswire Judy boarded that train carrying half a grocery store.

She had a month's provisions, but for some reason didn't pack a pie.

She must have brought a chuck wagon on board with her.

Or maybe:


I've heard that crosscountry Amtrak trains are as sparsely populated as Old Elm Tree. If not, pity the poor fool who had to sit next to her.

[Doc Savage]

Beer!  Thats what the club car is for....

[franksolich]

Frank abhors the baby-talk diminutives of "vegetables", "bags", "dogs".

You got it, sir.  That's it.

It's pathetic, seeing 55-70-year-old primitives using baby-talk.

[NHSparky]

I did a comparison a while back for a train versus air trip between Boston and LA.

The train was longer by about 3 days each way, and about double the price without a sleeper car, more than six times the cost with a sleeper car.

Even a trip between here in NH (or at least as close as I could get) to NYC for a long weekend was far in excess of what driving my car, tolls and parking (even in Manhattan) would have cost.

34 hours in one of those seats?  I fail to see the attraction.

[vesta111]

I did a comparison a while back for a train versus air trip between Boston and LA.

The train was longer by about 3 days each way, and about double the price without a sleeper car, more than six times the cost with a sleeper car.

Even a trip between here in NH (or at least as close as I could get) to NYC for a long weekend was far in excess of what driving my car, tolls and parking (even in Manhattan) would have cost.

34 hours in one of those seats?  I fail to see the attraction.

We take Amtrack from Boston to DC and love it.  A long ride but has bathrooms and a food car.  Good thing is when one can get out of their seat and walk about from car to car, check out the other passengers, buy a beer, but bring your own food, the sandwitches sold have to be 3 weeks old and nasty. 

Unlike air travel the train had little time waiting to take of, a plane waiting to fly can spend 3+ hours  on the tarmac with you trapped in your seat. No walking about, no bathroom or drinks.  Small seats, little leg room and strangers in the next seat driving you nuts.

Cost is more then to fly, but no body groping or luggage checks.   Big windows to see America as it goes by, and if someone boards behind you or in front of you with crying baby's or uncontrolled kids, just stand up take your ticket and move to another quieter car. 

None of the white knuckle take off or landing, no problem with ears and air pressure, need air, open a window.  Most of us can walk away from a train accident, not so easy when one is in a plane.

Much safer then driving, one can nod off listening to the click clack or the rails. No getting lost when a detour is forced on one driving , no stops for gas or getting a flat tire. No stopping beside the road behind a tree for a Pee break. No worry about looking for gas off the interstate and ending up being pulled over by some cop that says you were speeding in a Podunk town. 

I LOVE the rails, the destination is one thing, getting there is another.  I would love to take Amtrak from coast to coast northern route and back by southern route.  One can get off at any interesting stop and Bord again the next day.
 The trans Canada route is I have heard is to experience a whole Continent, some day perhaps, someday. 

[JohnnyReb]

Dummie should pack two 2 day old chicken salad sandwiches in a warm container. Eat one early on and the other later if not dead yet.

[GOBUCKS]

I did a comparison a while back for a train versus air trip between Boston and LA.

The train was longer by about 3 days each way, and about double the price without a sleeper car, more than six times the cost with a sleeper car.

Even a trip between here in NH (or at least as close as I could get) to NYC for a long weekend was far in excess of what driving my car, tolls and parking (even in Manhattan) would have cost.

34 hours in one of those seats?  I fail to see the attraction.

And even at those prices, Amtrak has lost more than a billion dollars a year, every single year, since it began operation over forty years ago.

That will look good compared to the losses we'll soon see due to the crazy money pit of high-speed rail that Amtrak and Congress are beginning to embark upon at this moment.

[AllosaursRus]

Dummie should pack two 2 day old chicken salad sandwiches in a warm container. Eat one early on and the other later if not dead yet.

Better yet, make 'em with Miracle Whip and set them on the heater to stay warm! Guaranteed to make it a "memorable" trip.

My Dad did that once and set his lunch on the doghouse in his cab over. He was violently sick for days as it gave him tomain! Apparently Miracle Whip can go bad fast if it gets heated!

[JakeStyle]

After my folks divorced in 1976 my mom turned vegan, that meant my sister and I had to be vegans as well.  We used to eat a lot of hummus and I'm not talking about fertilizer, it's mashed up chickpeas with lemon juice and garlic and other spices.  I hated the stuff, but it can be made to be sort of tasty if you roll it into a ball and deep fry it, then it's called falafel.  

We used to spend our weekends at my dad's place where we would eat nothing but steaks and burgers and bratwurst, it used to really piss my mom off as she was a liberal hippy that just had to impose her will on us.  

[delilahmused]

Good freaking Lord they make everything so complicated! How hard is it to pack a lunch in one of those soft sided lunch bags with one of those freezer things! A couple of sandwiches, fruit, hard boiled eggs, cheese & crackers, a few cookies, yogurt, chips, Two If By Tea, whatever...they aren't taking a covered wagon over the Rockies. It's basically a day and a few hours trip with a dining car if they happen to forget anything.

Cindie

[ChuckJ]

cbayer (103,881 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

2. On our long car trips, we do this.

Take a soft sided cooler with a zip lock bag of ice.

Put sandwich fixings in there, but not fully made sandwiches. Meat, cheese, good bread, packets of mayo or mustard (steal them from a fast food joint), lettuce, tomato. Make the sandwiches when you are ready to eat them.

To do this, you will also need a small plate and knife.

Add some fruit, chips or crackers, nuts or trail mix, granola bars.

Whatever you want to drink can go in there as well.

You can replace the ice when it melts.

Does the train make a microwave available? Those noodle/soup bowls are pretty good.

And if you've ever wondered why a lot of places now charge for extra condiments ask cbayer.

[Karin]

We use a lot of those portion-cup condiments in our takeout joint, and they are NOT cheap.  Especially the Frank's Buffalo, which I have to get special via mail.  This substance happens to be manna from heaven around these parts, so people love it that you have it.  They also steal it. 

Anyway, Jake you poor kid you!     I never want to see hummus again as long as I live.  Nor Tibbouli.  Blechhh. 

[jukin]

If a conservative does not like to eat meat, they don't eat meat.

If a Liberal does not like to eat meat, they will force other people to not eat meat.

[GOP Congress]

In the end they will just pick up their standards.

Cheetos, hostess cupcakes and twinkies.

Then they will complain to each other on the train ride on how the schools are turning kids into blimps because they serve whole milk instead of soy juice.