What food do you bring on the plane (or to the airport)?
 

So with people travelling more but airports and airlines trying to ramp back up, here's a question for you all. Do you bring backup food and if so, what?

Example. The last trip I took was YYZ to SIN via TPE (EVA). YYZ to EVA leaves dead of night and arrives at roughly 4:30am (well ahead of schedule). Even after clearing security to be let back airside, most of the concessions hadn't opened yet (or were starting to but definitely not ready to take customers). If it wasn't for the fact that I had a 6" sub (pizza minus the sauce, not that it matters) handy, I would have been hungry for two hours.

Personally, I've tried big-chain burgers (never again) and pizzahut (also never again). Tried cup noodles (but can't always find hot water)... might try breakfast sandwiches next time... would love to have a decent salad if I can figure out how to get the dressing past screening...

But what have you (dear readers) brought to consume on the plane (eg, can't because of allergies or some other circumstance) or at the airport (before or after hours)?

I sometimes bring a foot-long sub... or stuff like granola bars.

Beef jerky, granola, packaged nuts and a sub when connecting through CLT

I always pack granola bars and peanut butter cracker packs. Its more a diabetes thing than anything else. If my blood sugar crashes while we are stuck on the taxiway or sitting at the gate in a delay I can address it without having a FA intervention.

My suitcase always has some too since time zones mess up my sugar control and I will sometimes crash at 3 AM at a hotel and wake up and eat a snack. It's sometimes tough to find a 'quicky mart' type place, especially in a downtown area. So, I've learned to bring snacks.
Belvita bars, granola bars, Kind bars, etc. Easy to carry. I get the ones without chocolate so they won't melt. Surprisingly filling and somewhat healthy.

I have to remind myself to eat them all so I don't accidentally enter the country without declaring the snacks, get caught and lose my GE status.

I used to poach chicken, cut it into bite size pieces and throw it in a plastic bag with a sauce that would be good at room temp -- tomato chutney was a fav for a while, salsa also works. I was comfortable with that at room temp for a couple hours. Apple and orange slices are another fav for eating on planes. In terms of less perishable things, RX bars live in my backpack. Trader Joe's sells single-serving trail mix and single-serving olive packs. If I don't need to worry about food restrictions crossing borders, turkey jerky is a good high-protein go-to.

Packaged nuts and granola bars

I buy airport food for the plane. Sometimes I won’t like the plane meal so it’s good to have a food item that I’ll enjoy. I do try to eat ahead of my flight at the airport.

I always have a big bag of Combos in my back pack. And usually something else either chips or peanuts or some other easy to eat snack food. If I don't need it on the plane it will make a great hotel snack.

That's something I haven't considered. I assume since the sauces are acidic (at least the ones you listed) that they should last a while. As 99% of my flights are/were border-crossing I try to avoid bringing fresh fruits in case I forget to eat it. I suspect border controls are even tighter now.

I do as well, but that gets repetitive after a certain point (depends on the airport). Although thinking about it now, I might start carrying an airtight takeaway tub with me. It'd give me a wider range of options other than a sandwich of some sort or donuts.

My beef with the snack bars is that they tend to be too sweet for me. I usually don't arrive too late (or carry a cup noodle or two in my luggage to carry me through the night). But it's interesting to see what others do/carry.

A few years ago I packed few bananas in my backpack, planning to have them eaten before going through US preclearance in Toronto. I slept well on my flight to Toronto, declared them at the immigration checkpoint, expecting to abandon them. The officer asked if I had kept the stickers on it, and I had. I was surprised, and allowed to keep the bananas as the sticker showed the country of origin. Can't remember which country the bananas were from, but the USA imports bananas from there.

I'm allergic to nuts so many options available to others aren't available to me. I typically bring pretzels or something similar.

Yeah, I'll only bring one piece of fruit if flying internationally, and I always cut/peel it before flying so as to eliminate any mental objections (I only want a few bites, I have no place to put the peel/core, etc.) as to why "now" isn't the right time to eat it.

This is my standard approach, usually either a sub or a wrap. I haven't flown much in the last two years, but if UA still sells the snack boxes, I would occasionally buy one of those on the plane. I never bring food from home. For domestic flights, it's pretty rare that I can't plan meals around flights, so my preference would be not to eat on the plane at all. Nice thing about ORD is that my average domestic flight time is about 2.5 hours and pretty much never more than 4.

For long haul, I usually try to find a way into business class (much harder now that I'm not 1K) through purchase or upgrade, but if I can't, I'll buy a couple bags of chips in the airport just in case the meal isn't enough, or isn't edible.

Grapes, cut up apples, cheese, crackers, sandwich...
Bitterproffitt: Most packaged food is OK to bring back into the US. It's raw fruits/meat/vegetables/unpasteurized dairy that are not allowed. You can look up the exact rules, but I almost always return with a bag full of all manner of edible treats. If I'm at all in doubt about whether something is allowed, I ask at Customs and they either wave me through or take it away.

Peel/core can always be put in a napkin and then tossed into the garbage. Although if you do it before hand, you can bring a container (handy). I just need fresh fruits.... stuff like dried mango or apple I find often very sweet. I might try a ceasar salad one of these days and just hope I can convince the security that the mixed in dressing should not be considered a liquid.

I've grabbed a sub/wrap/burger more times than I can count but, the burgers and wraps often end up cold and hard by the time I try to eat it. Subs generally end up soggy (I've been asking for no sauce and it still happens)

I'm tempted to try the meat chunks idea. Sauce might be an issue, but it's worth a shot if I can find something in a less than 100ml amount.

On the plane? Sardines, liverwurst, limburger, hard boiled eggs.