Whenever you go on vacation, you have to eat. But if you just eat the same thing you eat when you are at home, then how does your body know it’s on vacation? Doesn’t seem fair.
Many people have some special food they eat on vacation. For a long time my vacation food was Gorp. This is because whenever my father took me on a camping or backpacking trip, this is what we brought along. A mixture of nuts, raisins, seeds, M&Ms—Gorp is salty and sweet and pretty much you could live off the stuff for days if you didn’t catch any fish or the rest of your food was eaten by a grizzly bear.
But one day I graduated from Gorp to beef jerky (teriyaki flavored). I think it must have been the melted mass of chocolate and nuts in a neglected Ziplock that did it in. Beef jerky has enough salt to preserve your body should you ever die on vacation and they don’t find you for a few weeks.
Massive salt intake turns out to be a problem, though, because on vacation I never seem to drink enough anyway, and eating a pound of salt only makes the problem worse. And it’s not sweet. Without sweetness it just doesn’t seem to count for vacation food. You might as well be shoveling down lunch in between a web design meeting and a trip to the accountant to see how much you owe this year for taxes.
So on today’s trip to the grocery store I passed the microwave popcorn. Perfect. A little salty and sort of healthy. Picked up a large box. Then a small box of the kettle corn variety for a little sweetness. We’re almost on vacation. Life will be good.
Until I got home. “You bought HOW MANY???” “18 in this box and 12 on that one. This is good stuff. Healthy. Easy to make on vacation. Kids love it.” “I was thinking maybe 6, but 30?!!”
It reminded me of the time she brought home 500 plastic cup lids (yes, probably a 10-year supply), but I couldn’t bring that up because then she would mention the time I bought a gallon of olive oil on sale and it went bad before we could use it all. Then we’d be back to me and I couldn’t think of another one. (I dare not mention the large quantity of shoes in her closet. That’s off limits for Filipinos.)
So she goes to the store and comes back with bold and spicy Doritos. Too spicy. Not sweet enough. I just can’t do it. But she loves it, and she only bought one bag. Or at least I only found one so far. Maybe I should check the car before we leave.
What’s your vacation food?