Long flights-carry-on food suggestions please.
 

Atlanta to Rome-surely my fellow Fodorites pack only the finest dining fare to make the trip more bearable. Won't you share your tips with us?

The food offered by AA last fall on our flight to Oahu was really bad. I added insult to injury by requesting a low-fat choice---YIKES!My poor husband was salivating over the nearby passengers tray. Not this trip!!

I will be bringing some food with me for my 9 hour and 45 minute flight from Seattle to Amsterdam. I will bring a cheese sandwich with some spicy salami I love and some fresh veggies (carrot sticks, cucumber slices) and some grapes. Probably some trailmix and chocolate too.....

I don't really like to eat when flying, so bread and cheese would be the most I would have and maybe a piece of fruit.
I think the energy bars that are good, like the chocolate ones:) are good for taking with you..
Usually our flights are overnight so I don't mind not eating much and just trying to sleep, but when we get to the hotel and leave our stuff, we have a huge breakfast somewhere!

I bring the best sandwich I can find or make, preferably non-smelly. I bring whatever accompaniments don't require plastic cutlery since I can't bring that on board. I bring a piece of fruit and a sweet like a cookie. I drink the beverage the airplane provides
(plus I bring a lot of my own water) and then I try to get some sleep, or I read, while others are still fussing with drinks or dinner.

I usually order a fruit plate for the airline meal, since that is at least edible, while the hot food is often not, IMO.

I bring along picnic-type food: cheese and bread or crackers, regular and dried fruit and/or those fruit leathers. (The latter are great to have handy when your blood sugar has dropped and it's not mealtime in Europe!)

Nothing that requires refrigeration or has a smell that will bother those sitting near me: tuna, peanut butter (some people are severely allergic), garlic/onions, etc.

I find that between the food they serve and the wine, and drinking plenty of water, I'm never hungry on overnight flights. But I do carry snacks just in case - things like chocolate covered espresso beans, jelly bellies, dried fruit. I usually have them left over after the flight, and they make a good snack for the hotel. On the way home, I have usually hit the duty-free beforehand - baci perugina, etc - and although I'm probably not hungry, they call out to me so I end up eating half the package!

NUTELLA
What? No nutella??

Since flying is such a chore, I try to pack treats. For our upcoming trip on Friday, I bought the fixings for Prosciutto and Brie sandwiches on ciabatta with onion jam, Pim's Raspberry cookies, blueberries and apricots. I try to make it relatively light since my eating schedule will get thrown off with jet lag, and I usually pick at the airline food anyway.

I"m definitely traveling with the wrong person....do any of you cater??
I'm heading to the frig.......

JandaO, are you the same person who was complaining in another thread about sitting next to a woman who was painting her fingernails? Personally, I'd far rather put up with that for a few minutes than have to spend a 9 hour plus flight sitting next to someone eating a smelly salami and chomping on raw carrots and trailmix throughout the journey! You did mean that as a joke - didn't you???

You folks must not fly British Airways. They limit carryon's to one bag (coach) and it can't weigh more then 13 pounds (and yes, they sometimes weigh them). There is no way you can carry your normal stuff plus much food on one of their flights! When we fly BA I do take a few granola/energy bars and that is about all. I've ordered veg meals on their flts and the food is not bad (really).

I'm also a big fan of eating at the airport prior to leaving ... it works wonders to have a full tummy to start off with (and if the airline food is not so good you are not going to be totally starved).

Bailey, exactly what I was thinking :LOL
Maybe I would be more interested in eating while flying if one of these lovely people packed me a picnic :)

please excuse that frowny face, it just pops up on its own, I didn't do it , I swear!

Trail mix, pretzels, Genisoy power bars, nuts (cashews, almonds) and of course, chocolate...

xenos,
The salami isnt smelly, I eat without much noise and I dont eat the carrots for the whole flight. GET REAL.

The smell of the polish lingered for hours and others complained too.

Hi Scarlett,

The :L comes about if you put a colon in front of a capital L. The two keys are next to each other.

Some of the stuff you guys eat make me long for airplane food...

Here are some things I have brought on past trips
Chicken Caesar Salad
Sandwich cut into quarters for easy eating
Various crackers
Banana chips
cookies
various potato chips
Pate Trouffle Mousse with sliced baguette..yummy although a little smelly did not sit well with some of the people sitting next to me so I dont take it anymore...
Various dips/spreads with sliced baguette
Really an assortment.
I have a soft little lunch bag with cold packs to keep things cool.
I hope you have a pleasant trip to Italy!

Friends of our went on a trip laden with a Dean & DeLuca assortment of delectible goodies. From the looks of envy they got from fellow passengers, they said they could have auctioned their food off to the highest bidder! And paid for the better part of their airfare. (to protect the innocent I will not name the airline they flew on!)

If Xenos objects to the smell of a delicious, garlicky salami, he or she is flying to the wrong continent. In fact it's difficult to think of anywhere in the world - outside the North Atlantic heart disease belt - Xenos would feel comfortable.

If OTOH Xenos is expressing what the rest of us would feel sitting next to someone eating real food while we were tucking into microwaved rubber chicken - a combination of acute hunger, deep jealousy and irritation with ourselves - well, just see it as an opportunity to improve your self-restraint.

Let's have more 747's smelling like 1960's Italian railway carriages.