These Are Your Favorite Foods To Eat While Driving

No one loves eating while they drive. All of us, given the choice, would pick somewhere else to engage in the ritual of fueling our bodies — a kitchen counter, a table, a couch in front of a TV with mindless YouTube playing. But sometimes we’re forced to make due with eating en route, sometimes a long drive takes us straight through a meal, and we just need the calories so we can keep on trucking. In those situations, what do you pick to eat?

That’s the question I asked all of you earlier this week, and today I’m sorting through your answers for my favorites. Plenty of you are buzzkills, refusing to let anything beyond a bottle of water in your cars, but the rest of you seem to be normal human beings capable of recognizing that a car is just an object, and it’s okay to sully the interior with the smell of a chili dog. Let’s take a look at the foods you picked. 

Soup or fondue, depending on my appetite.

Soft-shell crab when visiting the Chesapeake Bay region, or whole lobster if on the Maine coast.

Submitted by: JustinQueso

Really, JustinQueso? Your go-to melted cheese dish is fondue?

If I’m eating while driving there is one perfect food: the McDonalds 2 cheeseburger value meal.

The buns are moist so there’s no crumbs. The toppings are minimal, so nothing drips on your shirt/lap. The taste is adequate and consistent. The fries are crisp, the soda is cold. Pre-covid you could be in and out of the drivethrough in about 4 minutes.

Is this the tastiest meal? God no. But for now, it is as close as we can possibly get to the food pellets of the future. 

Submitted by: Buckfiddious

Sometimes you just need protein and calories, and McD’s has them both. 

I hate eating while driving. It’s messy and not the smartest or safest choice. In a pinch when there’s a time crunch, I will get something but it has to be a wrap or other food that reduces the distraction and mess potential. But normally I will just wait until I get somewhere where I can eat properly.

Submitted by: Biff Magnitude

A wrap is a solid option, but you have to live in fear of the bottom coming open. 

In the car? Candy. Every other food leaves crumbs, gets all over my hands, and/or has the potential for disastrously landing in my lap and on the seat. No thanks. Anything else I’ll pull over at a rest stop to eat or go to a restaurant.

Submitted by: NotLewisHamilton

I like the idea of being so against eating food in the car that you coat your steering wheel in chocolate. 

A big bowl of Wendy’s chili, scorching hot potato soup from Panera, Panda Express’ Orange Chicken with extra rice (if I use chopsticks, it scares the passengers a bit more, and a (YUM!) chili dog!!! (I had five more that day…)

Submitted by: Xavier96

I still remember when we first got a Sonic in my college town. Needless to say, I’ve had plenty of chili dogs in cars. I think most of the chili dogs I’ve eaten in my life have been in cars. 

It’s generally truffle ham sandwich : not too much sauce to drip (curry sauce can be hard to get off white pants) while still tasty, or Grenoblois (Bleu du Vercors aka blue cheese + walnuts + salad).

But since I got an EV, I can safely go to messier and tastier things as classic Kebab sandwich, Tacos or even Poutine (which get the name “frites à la québécoise” these days) and eat them out of the car, which is much more comfortable.

Snacking? fruits are my favorite (but I may need a codriver to peel citruses).

Submitted by: Niko PetrHead

Fun fact: The “navigator” in rally is actually a misnomer. That’s the citrus-peeler, to ensure the driver doesn’t get scurvy while rallying. You’re also the first person to say poutine, and now I desperately want poutine for dinner.

My go-to road trip food is beef jerky, bugles (a combination of the regular and caramel flavors). water or lemonade. If it’s early morning or a redeye drive coffee in a spill proof travel mug.

If I’m on a time crunch then chicken nuggets/strips & fries.

Submitted by: Saabster

I understand that beef jerky and bugles were separate suggestions here, but now I’m wondering if they’d actually work together in a sort of roast-beef-sandwich-on-brioche way. 

Anything you can hold with a single hand and is contained in a wrapper so no mess. I have eaten like a taco bell chicken burrito and a small burger before but that’s about it. And the obvious like chips, or maybe chicken nuggets. Basically something you don’t have to worry about making a mess with. That said I haven’t eaten while driving in AGES

Submitted by: Liffie420

You may think that specifying a chicken burrito from Taco Bell is unnecessary, but I’m here to tell you it’s not. The ground beef burritos have way lower structural integrity. 

Banana. It’s quick to eat and a healthier alternative to fries and chicken nuggets. I have a paper cup in my cupholder to throw the peel in until I can get to an actual trash can to dump it.

Submitted by: Giantsgiants

Giantsgiants is on a whole new level, with food-specific infrastructure in their car ready to go in case they get peckish. 

I don’t eat while driving. For one, it’s no different than other forms of distracted driving. And for two, my wife is a sloppy eater and I don’t want to have to clean up after her.

None
Hear me out
First of all, it’s messy and gets your car dirty.
Second of all, it’s is ANOTHER distraction for all the inattentive drivers.
Third of all, if you can get to a drive thru, chances are you are close enough to a (real) restaurant.
Fourth of all, your car is not a dining room.

Nobody eats anything in any of my vehicles. We will go to a restaurant if you’re hungry or wait till we get to the destination. Water is fine if it’s in a bottle or something like that. 

Bottle of water. Other than water, nothing is allowed to be consumed inside any of my cars except my beater truck. I once drove cross country with a family member and he was kind of hungry at 1am so we stopped at a Pilot Travel Center. They were selling mini-Pizzas ready to eat from under a heat lamp display. He was about to get in my car with the pizza in his hand after taking a bite. I directed him to the trunk lid to use as his table and finish his food before getting in the car.

This is all PTSD from over 20 years ago when I had a kind of nice car and a passenger spilled red Gatorade while in the front passenger seat. I had black interior but the stains in the carpet and floor mat never came out. Not a big deal if you have a beater but it was horrible on my first nice car purchased. 

Why eat in the car? Drive, both hands on the wheel. I remember a story from about 25 years back. German engineers were appalled by the placement of cup holders in American cars. Does your coffee table have a steering wheel in it? No? Then why should your car emulate a kitchen? 

Nothing. No food in my vehicles. It makes them gross 
Which is why even a 20 year old Lexus has the faint pleasant tack shop smell of well maintained leather and fresh carbon-filtered air, not rancid fast food grease from dropped crumbs and fries. 
If I want to eat, I stop somewhere.

No food in the car. No drink in the car. So, no mess and no smell in the car

Nothing. If you don’t drop food on yourself, you’re going to drop it in the car. I’d rather eat at said restaurant or just wait until I get home. 

Submitted by: Give Me Tacos Or Give Me Death, Mustangmania, Chris Gill, Tex, Rick C., Winter Cat, Luc Desaulniers (minardi), Marcus C

Man, you all take your cars way too seriously.