Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I once saw someone open a microwave popcorn bag for their child during Mass. Cheerios and other non-pungent finger foods don't bother me, but microwave popcorn? Not only is it distracting to open the bag, but the aroma is not something most people want to smell during church services. Also, if your child is old enough to eat microwave popcorn without you having to remove all the crunchier pieces, then they're probably old enough that they shouldn't be eating snacks during Mass. That could just be how I was raised, but I think there's merit to it.

It was a Junior Mint. :-)

Can you tell I'm not busy at work?

Hi, my name is Traveller and I am an out-of-context eater.

I eat sushi, that's right, during my evening graduate school classes, and once, on a long train ride to London for a conference, I brought with me a tin of baked beans, opened it and ate it out the tin with a spoon.

I bring my own food to ball games, too, but that's mainly because I don't really trust the food at my local venues.

But never deny me my sushi. it's my way of dealing with class some nights. :)

I mentioned this in an earlier thread, but my BF has a disgusting habit of picking up a thing of sushi at the grocery store and eating it AS WE'RE WALKING AROUND SHOPPING. It's so embarrassing, I hate it.

My mom used to bring martinis to my softball games and chorus concerts. It was very high class, though, no bottle in a paper bag, she'd just be sitting in the front row with her Victorian pressed-glass tumbler. It horrified me at the time but now I think it's kind of funny.

Does eating ice cream while riding an exercise bike count?

I feel so bad for people who have schedules that require them to eat while they're traveling, whether it's while riding a subway or while they're driving. Or they have to eat in a class or somewhere else where others might think that it's inappropriate. But sometimes that's the only choice besides not eating at all. I can remember a few times, back in another life, when I would have to drive hither and yon all day long, and sometimes it would end up that my before-lunch appointment would run long and I'd just barely have time to drive to the next one, and my only choice for lunch would be to find a drive-through and then eat while I was driving. Either that, or eat a really late lunch after that next appointment -- if I wasn't rushing to the next one -- or skip lunch entirely. Better were the days when I could eat at a regular restaurant, at my leisure, and order something better than fast food. I am sooooo glad those days are gone.

In my 12-person fiction writing class, this one girl would come STRAIGHT from the dining hall. She loved Life cereal, and always smuggled out either a) a gigantic Ziplock bag of it or b) 2-3 cardboard containers full. Right there, in that tiny classroom, on top of the oval table where we all faced each other, she would proceed to pour cereal from her gigantic stash into a plastic cup of milk, dig in, and crunch her way through until the liquid ran out. Bizarre, but actually...something I wanted to do to :)

@hungrychristel: First, yeah, you would think that that would be a problem, but at the time I was a die-hard, yet very poor, vegetarian and sometimes had to eat about three of those tins a day just to make sure that I got enough food, so my body eventually adjusted. And second, nah, the desk-eating isn't out of context anymore, I would say. I have lost count of the number of times that I have had to do it, and everyone at my company does it nearly every day. Unfortunately, the three martini lunch (or in embolini9's case, softball games) is over. :( can we bring those back? I never got to experience those, and I always thought that they woul dbe nice once in awhile.

I worked in a Dilbert-esque cubicle farm once where the food rule was that the only food you could have at your desk was water. And that had to be in some sort of covered container. Sports bottle, sippy cup, whatever. And for the most part everyone complied. This company was very generous to its employees, so if they had asked everyone to dance a jig upon entering the building, most would have.

They also had very strict rules about breaks and lunch. Everyone HAD TO take them. This was a little odd at first, because I came from a place where working through lunch was a good thing, and there was no such thing as a break.

But at the nice company, everyone, from the CEO to VPs to lowly minions, we all took breaks and lunches. And the cafeteria was subsidized by the company, so food was cheap. And good.

@ Traveller - i love sushi too! when i was at college, my department had the single non-university-sanctioned computer lab (means we did all our own pc/mac maintenance, bought our own printers, ran our own wiring and AC, etc). because the university didn't know or didn't care that we had a computer lab, we were allowed to have food in there because no one was going to stop us.

there was many an evening i could be found hunched over a Mac, with a plate of sushi in one hand, and a beer in the other.

A friend and I had gone to a specialty cheese shop one day before going to see a movie, and we smuggled in some runny goats milk cheese and some specialty crackers. The cheese was so pungent when we took it out of the packaging it was in, that someone in the theater kept looking around wondering what the smell was. I finally decided to throw the cheese out because I felt it was rude to ruin someone else's movie experience because my cheese stinks.

@orangeobsession:
My sister just told me about an incident at her church- her pastor was just readying to enter with the lectors, eucharistic ministers, etc, the organist was just opening up with the processional hymn, when the priest glanced to his right to see a man sitting in the back row, a few feet away, tucking into his bag of McDonald's breakfast plus a huge takeout cup of coffee. He was not a homeless man, either- the priest recognized him as a parishioner.

He said nothing at the time, but did vent at a later mass that just when he thought he'd seen everything, this was a new one!

I've eaten lunches in bathrooms--especially when I was a student and spent hours in a tiny library where it was impossible to find a place (besides the bathroom) to nosh and work where you weren't in view of a librarian who would kick you out for eating. (And I wouldn't blame them a bit.)

I've eaten in research laboratories where food was verboten but long hours were required and no break room was provided. (God only knows what kinds of nasties I consumed with my Clif Bars and coffee.)

I once, as a kid, ate a burger and fries in my parents' pickup truck while the boxed ashes of my grandfather's remains slid around on the dashboard. (We were on the way to the cemetery that was his final resting place.)

In Japan, I did eat and drink in cemeteries during cherry blossom viewing season, but living in Japan meant never, never, never eating or drinking while walking down the street or on trains or on any public transport. Ever. Not even candy bars. Not even coffee. Even chewing gum was highly suspect.

Cassaendra--well, that's probably why you saw candy wrappers on the bathroom floors.

Also, when you see something like that in a school bathroom, it has a lot to do with bulimia.

@ceforrester - that is a great NYC moment. @cybercita - that is just awful. I get mad enough when people whisper and crunch popcorn loudly w/ their mouths open in movies where tickets are $12!

Eating at my desk is essential for me - not because I'm a workaholic, but because I have to eat every couple of hours (eataholic?). I'm not complaining about my high metabolism, because it has its advantages...but it can surely be inconvenient. Once in awhile I think wistfully about people who eat breakfast, then aren't hungry already by the time they get to work...or who can pack a lunch knowing it will be filling enough, rather than having to pack six containers of snacks in addition to the main-course sandwich/etc. to ensure they don't get hungry before it's time to go home, and half the time, it doesn't work (but I will pack the same lunch for my boyfriend, who is a head taller and outweighs me by 70 lbs., and it will be plenty).

For the same reason, I have to pack snacks when I go to the movies, especially long ones. (But I am aghast at the idea of eating at the theater.)

Eating in the car, though - that's not just fine, it's practically required! I don't drive often, but when I do I don't feel like I'm having the full experience unless I'm singing at the top of my lungs to the stereo or snacking.

producestories, how i envy you and your racing metabolism. weighing less than 200 pounds is a full time job for me.

heartofglass, glad to know i'm not the only one who shushes people. the last man i dated used to just DIE of embarrassment when i would give people the evil eye {or worse} in a theater.

My husband suffered through one of his classmates eating M&Ms from a holiday tin (clank-clank) during a law school final. Oddly enough, the prof did nothing about it. Might have violated their rights...

My husband is going to kill me, but since I find it very disturbing that he does this I have to tell you all.

He takes his coffee into the bathroom every morning. There aren't words to tell you how much it grosses me out.