Best ride break meal?
 

Please note--this is not a request for nutritional advice or your opinion on in-ride nutrition. There's more than enough threads on those topics.

I have a habit of taking very long single-day rides (greater than 100 miles, so far longest 168), and during those rides I generally take an hour or so off in the middle for a real meal. My question is two-fold: Does anybody else do this, and what's the most enjoyable meal they've had on such a break?

For me, the most satisfying meal I had 95 miles into a 153 mile ride was a big bowl of beef pho and spring rolls, with lots of water. The salty broth just felt so good in that context that I may have enjoyed it more than much better bowls of pho than I had ever had. In terms of actual quality, the best meal I ever had on a ride was a (yes, really) goulash sub from a pizza place located in a gas station convenience store--the family was Hungarian, so the goulash was the real thing, and I've eaten it in Budapest. If you ever are in Sherborn, MA look up Rustic Pizza.

If you're ever in RI, stopping for hot dogs is a no-brainer. Better than Chicago or NY if you ask me.

Mentions of Clif bars and gel packs will definitely be off-topic. What's the best meal you've had during a ride?

Twice while on tour I stopped in Newport, WA for chicken fried steak and a biscuit with sausage gravy. Same route of about 100 miles two consecutive years. The first time was my first experience with chicken fried steak.

Heh heh... I always feel like strong beer is good, so I'll have a couple and still have 50 miles to go. At about mile 55 I feel oh so smart and oh so clever. Then miles 60-100 come around and I realize how dumb I was... But I do it alot, it's insane...

Probably some fried deer tenderloin. I launch from home and generally find my way back to refill bottles and such between 40 and 50 miles if I'm riding longer than that. I keep beer and overflow food in my shop fridge. I spotted that tenderloin in there while grabbing fresh water bottles. Even cold it was fantastic, and it even sat in the gut well for the rest of the ride.

Best ride meal I ever had was on a group ride 25 miles up a rail trail to a BBQ restaurant, then 25 miles back. That was my first half century.

The one someone else buys

Barbecue is a great during ride meal! Just feels right to eat it when you've been sweating in the sun. Definitely needs a Dr. Pepper with it (I eat like a pig during rides and drink diet soda which makes no sense, except habit).

I don't drink, but maybe the problem is not having more at mile 65?

I think we've got our marketing hook--Clif Beer.

Oh sure, just enable my worst impulses!

Casey's pizza.

For all the non-midwesterners, Casey's General Store is a convenience store primarily in small towns throughout the midwest. They have good donuts and pizza and they are typically tolerant of cyclists refilling water bottles and using restrooms, etc. Casey's is also frequently the only choice for any kind of resupply on a long ride in some of these towns, especially in areas where towns might be 15-20 miles apart.

In 2015 I entered (and completed) my first Dirty Kanza -- 200 miles through gravel and dirt roads through open range grassland. It was an infamously muddy year and involved several miles of hike-a-bike. You're only allowed crew support at designated checkpoints, which were 75 miles apart that year. I was shooting for a 15-hour finish, but with the adverse conditions I came in just under 18 hours.

Energy gels and Clif bars get real old after 12 hours on the bike. When I rolled into the second checkpoint at mile 150, it had already been 14 hours and I had another 50 miles to go. I was in pretty rough shape.

My support crew -- aka my wife and my dad -- had got some Casey's pizza for themselves. As I was refilling water bottles and such my wife said "Do you want some pizza?" Yes. Yes I did.

It was the most glorious thing I have ever tasted in my life, before or since. I wolfed down 4 slices in about 30 seconds. (In hindsight, the 4th slice might've been overkill and I very nearly yakked it back up a few miles down the road, but I digress).

Granted, the tastiness of the pizza was undoubtedly influenced by the fact that I had just biked 150 miles. However, I have had Casey's pizza at other times and it is pretty tasty on its own merits, as far as gas station pizzas go. And I will always have a fond place in my heart for it.

Heretic! No dog is better than a Chicago dog.

I second this. I've never eaten Casey's pizza on a ride, but they do have some very good pizza for a convenience store.

Believe it or not, Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup. Some 175 miles into a 400k (250 mile) ride, I was hurting bad. It had been a long, hot, steep, hot, long, tiring, hot day. Needed salt, and water, and carbs, and couldn't stomach even looking at anything inside that well-stocked convenience store. A fellow rider talked me into getting a bowl of soup and microwaving it. 15 minutes later, I was ready to ride!

I once stopped at an Amish fruit stand mid ride; I bought a giant yellow watermelon and a pint of raspberry jam. I found a shady spot further down the road and put my bamboo spoon to good use! Why yes, I do carry a spoon in my seat pack.

this is going to be a difficult one for me to isolate just to one ride's meal...

and here i thought you lived across the pond in Englandville.
huh.

Casey's is located in my town, and is hit in most all long rides in the country.
all gravel roads around here lead to a Casey's.

I never ride far enough to need to stop for a meal, but I do love me a Lance Peanut Bar as a quick snack.

You obviously haven't had a Sonoran dog.

I usually try to stay away from greasy things when riding, but Man a good chili cheese tater tots hit the spot sometimes, or a good burrito smothered in green chili.

*searches: milk OR chocolate OR chocolate milk*

Hmmmm... Oh you guys'll get into a slap fight about hot dogs and not ONE of you says "chocolate milk"???

WTH guys?

When the wife sends me to the grocery store for the shopping and I've loaded my panniers up to the brim, you're DAMN right chocolate milk is on the "secret list" every time! Granted, that's a short ride, but still, CHOCOLATE MILK!

I've always wanted to go on a long ride and eat a rotisserie chicken... all of it... in one sitting... DON'T JUDGE ME!!!

And to the fellow that stopped at the fruit stand, so far you're the winner in MY book bamboo spoon and all!

Just wait a little longer. Recent 160km ride had us stopping at a local microbrewery with about 53km to go. Very enjoyable lunch stop with fish tacos and beers and a comfortably numb ride home.

Fried cheese curds.

OK, I haven't actually had these on a long ride, since I try to stay away from solid food. But if they were to magically appear, I wouldn't turn them down. There is never a bad time for fried cheese curds.

Thinking back over some memorable metric and standard centuries since the 1970s...

A cliff side cantina midway along the Rosarita-Ensenada ride during the late 1970s-early '80s.

King Street Grill food truck BBQ and a couple of beers from a favorite local microbrewery tap room during a spring metric century. Some of the best BBQ in the area, mobile or otherwise.

Way too much schnitzel and beer at Greenwood's on Blue Bonnet Circle in Fort Worth at the 75 mile mark of a birthday century that turned into a 125 miler last fall. Only problem was all the burping on the way home.

Most of these memories are associated with group rides and good friends, so I'm biased. I could have eaten Jack in the Box mystery tacos, two for a buck, and probably been happy.

TOGOs #9 . (Hot Pastrami)

Rubio's fish tacos.

And my go to, because my stomach handles them well: 2 cheeseburgers from McDs, and large soda. 3.24 for lunch is hard to beat. Gourmand? No... but it hits the spot at the top of the local 30 mile loop