Non-Perishable Roadtrip Foodz (Or: How To Not Eat Out 15 consecutive meals)

DVG

Long Story short, PAX East is next week, and I'll be traveling from Columbus to Boston.

As far as I know, there will not be a fridge in the hotel room and it would be impractical to keep cycling ice through a cooler. Therefore, does anyone have an ideas on some no-refridgeration necessary foods we can take with us to avaoid eating out all the time?

ddahcmai

Cans are your friend. Canned tuna, canned chili, canned soup, canned fruit, canned vegetables. Peanut butter and raisin sandwiches are marvelous. Dried fruit is good as well. So is jerky, all sorts of cookies and junk food keep you going as well. If you'll have a stove in the hotel, adding rice to anything makes it good, and cooking dehydrated soup and rice together makes for a fantastic meal.

Sos

Something to keep in mind is that you can always stop by a grocery store and restock your cooler with perishable foods and ice. As for what was requested:

Nuts and granola bars
Dried fruit
Canned anything. Canned beans were a common one for me. Also tuna.

If you will bother to go to a grocery store just pick up some bread and peanut butter, maybe some extra fruit for snacks.

Shadowfire

There's a Shaw's supermarket right by the Hynes (I think.... it may be a Star), so there's that.

Full disclosure, I work at a Shaw's. But then, I also don't care.... ;-)

Perpetual

Beef jerky.

You'll get thirsty though, and pee a lot.

Kakodaimonos

Are you staying in a suite with a stove and fridge? Or a regular hotel? Personally, I'd wait and see what the setup is and then head out to a local grocery store. I'm sure there's some in the Boston area and then you don't have to drag 15 meals worth of food along with you.

Elin

Most hotel rooms will have a coffee maker. You can use said coffee maker to make ramen and instant oatmeal. A jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread works too. You can hit a grocery store for some fresh fruit, apples and bananas even go well with aforementioned peanut butter.

DVG

Kakodaimonos wrote: »

Are you staying in a suite with a stove and fridge? Or a regular hotel? Personally, I'd wait and see what the setup is and then head out to a local grocery store. I'm sure there's some in the Boston area and then you don't have to drag 15 meals worth of food along with you.

A regular hotel, and I'm mainly planning off the listed amenities, which don't make mention of anything other than a coffee maker.

And I'm not trying to avoid eating out at all, more like avoiding eating out all the time.

Belruel

if there is a coffee maker, I assume it can just boil water for you, yes?

if so, ramen can make for some tolerable food that is low-mess and super cheap too.
as others said, this is also in a city, so you can always stop by a supermarker for sandwich meats/whatever sometime too.

When I went to pax I ate a lot of beef jerky, granola bars (for breakfast), and chips.

Spacemilk

Also if you don't or can't cook ramen, dried ramen isn't bad - just put peanut butter on it for a filling and delicious snack, yum!

edit: The thing to watch out for is your sodium intake - if you are eating lots of canned foods/soup/jerky, you are going to get wayyyy more than your recommended daily amount of sodium. Drink lots and lots of water...

Backstop

Call the hotel and see if the rooms have refrigerators or microwaves, or if you can reserve a room with one if some do and some don;t. Websites are so sketchy with the actual details, especially if they are thrown together by the corporation and not the local staff.

You can buy fruit like Elin said and take them along, they will likely be cheaper in Columbus than Boston. Apples and oranges aren't going to go bad in five days, bananas and grapes should make it a few days, and the PBJ idea is good. No doubt the hotel will have an ice machine, you just throw a bucket in your cooler before you leave and at night and you could keep picnic food in there.

Most of the time when my wife and I are traveling, we figure on breakfast and lunch in the hotel and then eat out for dinner. So we get a bag of bagels or English muffins with a few of those individual-serve peanut butter or cream cheese packets that don;t need refrigeration. Or a jug of milk and some cereal (you may have to take Styrofoam bowls and plastic spoons to throw out, or wash bowls in the bathroom sink and stash them in your bag). For lunch just like grade-school, the aforementioned sandwiches with some carrots or Checx-mix or crackers. A cooler is really not much trouble if there's ice on-site and there generally is. Get a few of those one-gallon ziplock bags and put your ice in there to isolate the melt from your goods. Just dump the water out and re-fill.

If non of this is going to work the desk person at the hotel is a good resource for where to find a store and restaurants nearby that are not jobbing the tourists. There's always a convenient mini-store near hotels that's selling $3 apples and one block away is where the locals actually get stuff.

UncleChet

Dude, ethnic foods for the win. Your local grocery or specialty store should have some instant soba/udon soup bowls, pouched curries and things like that. If all you have is a coffee pot, you can put the pouch of curry into the pot and let the water heat it, or use the hot water from the pot to cook a noodle bowl.

Take along some nori/sesame sticks and dried nuts/fruits for snacks. Also, you can get boxed milk (liquid) and other juices to drink less soda.

travathian

DVG wrote: »

Kakodaimonos wrote: »

Are you staying in a suite with a stove and fridge? Or a regular hotel? Personally, I'd wait and see what the setup is and then head out to a local grocery store. I'm sure there's some in the Boston area and then you don't have to drag 15 meals worth of food along with you.

A regular hotel, and I'm mainly planning off the listed amenities, which don't make mention of anything other than a coffee maker.

Just call the hotel, ask them what is in the room, and ask them what other amenities are available for an additional charge. People in this industry are glad to answer questions, especially if you call in the early afternoon or very late night when they aren't busy.