FOODINGS

[fuyu]

... I think, next con, I have to set aside a budget for food and also PACK food supplies.

Because if I don't, then I don't eat for four days. Or I mean, I do, but just enough so that my stomach isn't growling. And then I get back home and I want to eat EVERYTHING.

I'm actually baking a cake now JUST BECAUSE IT'S THERE AND IT'S FOOD.

And I'm about to go make an egg and a sammich.

... stupid post-con food syndrome.

Comments

[bassclefsolo.livejournal.com]

...I really could go for some cake right about now.

Spice cake, with chocolate icing.

[fuyu]

Mine is delightfully fudgy. I've eaten entirely too much of it.

[pyrasaur.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'm a horrible bitch when my blood sugar is low, and a lack of vegetable matter in my diet makes me ill. So I've figured out a trick or two when it comes to staying fed at an anime convention. Care for a whole bunch of tips?

[fuyu]

Sure! Hit me.

[pyrasaur.livejournal.com]

Well, packing some food is a good idea. Just be careful not to let perishable things like meat and mayonnaise get warm, because food poisoning would suck hardcore. Frozen bottles of drink make great coldpacks. Also, packing food in non-mashable containers will make it less annoying to carry a supply of food around. Sturdy plastic is your friend. Plastic bags of things are not. There are few things sadder than a pound of pulverized trail mix in a battered Ziploc bag.

When you're at the con, try wandering around within a few blocks of the convention center and your hotel. You might find a grocery store or a small restaurant. Your best bet is to look for the kind of places locals might eat -- fast food joints will probably attract hordes of otaku, so you'll wait in long lines for greasy, expensive food. Which is lame. I've found great to-go meals at grocery store deli counters and unassuming little family restaurants, and they're reasonably priced because they're not tourist-trappy (unlike, say, the highway-robbery-priced concessions stands inside a typical con).

Your hotel can be helpful. Its restaurant might have stuff like buffets, and some hotels will have a deli or some other food shop on their ground floor. Interrogating the front desk staff might give you leads on other places to eat, too. And there's always pizza delivery!

It's a practice thing, I find. Once you've been to a con a few times and you know the routine, it's easier to work in foraging for a decent meal. Or you could just find someone like me and follow them around, that works too!