Long vacations with friends and family are ideal during the summer. As summer holidays are the best time to travel, it is now the official holiday season in India. More intimate than flying or taking the train, road excursions with friends and family are always enjoyable. Whether stopping for a meal at a roadside Dhaba or bringing sandwiches from home, car trips feel incomplete without constant food ingestion. Road trips are all about food. The packed sandwiches, homemade lunch, dhabha wali chai and roadside snack stalls are all the highlights of a great road trip. The journey is always better than the destination! However, bringing packaged food on a long car journey increases the likelihood that it will spoil, especially in unfavourable weather. The scorching heat and the humid weather have a higher chance of spoiling the food. But don't worry, we've got you covered.
Here are some snacks you can carry to your road trips without any fear of them getting spoiled-
Chakli
The best snack available, chaklis are portable and convenient for travel. This dry, lengthy-shelf-life Gujarati snack is comprised of seasoned rice flour. When kept in an airtight jar, chaklis don't spoil easily and last a long time. Bengal gram (chickpea) flour, rice flour, and black gram flour are used to make chakli (urad dal). Salt, asafoetida powder, oil, sesame seeds, red pepper powder, turmeric powder, and coriander seed powder are additional ingredients. In some variants, green gram (moong) and pigeon pea (tuar/arhar) is used in place of black gram.
Muffins
Muffins are individually sized baked goods with a "moist, coarse-grained" texture. Both savoury muffins like cornmeal and cheese muffins and sweet muffins like blueberry, chocolate chip, lemon, or banana flavours are available. Muffins that have been sweetened might range from those that have been mildly sweetened to those that are "richer in fat and sugar than many cakes. They are available ready-made and can also be made at home. They are less likely to get spoiled during the heat.
Banana chips are slices of banana that have been deep-fried or dried and are typically crunchy. The Saba and Nendran cultivars of banana, often known as "cooking bananas" or "plantains," are commonly used to make them. They can be sprinkled with sugar, honey, salt, or a variety of spices and come in sweet or savoury varieties. It is far preferable to carry banana chips than to eat potato chips. These are delicious, healthful, and, of course, unaffected by the heat. Banana chips are the perfect travel snack because they have a two-week shelf life and will last pretty much the entire journey.
Cold Sandwiches can stay fresh for much longer than you might think. The finest sandwiches to bring on a long road trip are homemade, fresh cucumber and cheese sandwiches. If you leave early in the morning, you may eat these sandwiches for breakfast while driving. If you intend to eat them later, try to stay away from soggy chutney sandwiches and choose the dry variety instead because moisture has a tendency to cause food to spoil. The classic cold sandwich is the cucumber and butter sandwich with a pinch of black pepper and salt. It will keep you full and fresh throughout the journey.
Popcorns
A road trip is a great time to enjoy popcorn as a snack! Even while driving, one can consume a few without getting messy. You have the option of making your own fresh popcorn or purchasing packaged popcorn from the grocery store. Simply make sure to store them in sealed containers and keep them away from moisture to prevent popcorn from becoming soggy and losing its crunch.
Things to keep in mind while packing food for trips-
1. Make a plan and make sure you have extra disposables in your bag.
2. Food items that are brittle and fragile and could break should not be transported.
3. Pack the food bag the night before and don't leave anything to the last minute.
4. Packing dry foods is generally the greatest option for the vacation because you want to make sure that the food you carry doesn't spill or make a mess.