I did 50 miles of the SDW recently on a combination of nature valley bars and dried dates. Apparently my body isnt a fan of that udea (nauseau + foul arse).
I wondered what real food people were using for longer rides, since I'd like to do the SDW unsupported soon. Obviously it needs to be reasonably portable and easy to nosh.
I reckon blocks of spam would be good - seriously!
I find the torq bars both palatable and good on the guts, same with cliff.
Sandwiches.
Peanut butter and jam sandwiches on granary bread.
Easy to eat, can be eaten if mis-shapen during transport, very tasty, high protien, carbs and a bit of sugar 8)
And pork pies naturally
Marmite sandwich for main course. Jam sandwich for pudding.
In the past I've stuck a little tuna mayo over pasta in a freezer bag so I could just squeeze bits out when I needed it. Tortilla wrap doesn't go mushy like bread. flapjack rather than cereal bars. Too much dried stuff doesn't really work for me as my stomach rebels. Anything soft which has some moisture content seems to work better, but everyone is different.
Rice cakes:
The Feed Zone portables book is good too:
http://feedzonecookbook.com/category/portable-snack-recipes/
I'm a big fan of using tortilla wraps for sarnies. Cream cheese + something and either rolled up or flat and cut up then in a plastic bag.
Other fillings are available.
Have you looked at other bars perhaps designed for sports?
big fan of wraps; with
refried beans
peanut butter
jam
nutella.
combos of the above.
One of the nicest things i've eaten on a ride was lavash with lamb tagine: not the most potable; but the tastiest.
Yeah tortillas/chipatis with peanut butter/banana/marmalade nom nom nom
And malt loaf nom nom nom
The individually wrapped mini malt loaves are good (especially the banana ones)
+1 for tortilla wraps, I wrap in baking foil then put in a freezer bag.
For sweet stuff I take marzipan - you can just take a bite when you want without the remnants spreading throughout your rucksack as would happen with peanuts or similar.
Eeewww.marzipan
Peanut butter and jam sandwiches on granary bread.
+1
And pork pies naturally
this man knows nutrition when he sees it.
[quote=torsoinalake ]Rice cakes:
The Feed Zone portables book is good too:
http://feedzonecookbook.com/category/portable-snack-recipes/
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This for me. Rice bakes, pasta bakes (although I've used them a bit much and they make me feel a bit ill now), rolled up sandwiches. Real food that you can roll smaller is a winner in my books.
+1 Feedzone portables. I like gels etc for short rides, but if I'm out for a few hours I need proper food.
Malt loaf and flapjacks (flapjacks preferably homemade with extra fruit and nuts for energy)
@torsoinalake - it's just ground almonds and sugar. I used it when ice climbing as it's basically oil based so doesn't freeze.
Strange isn't it? I like peanuts but don't like peanut butter (well I'll eat a PB butty but wouldn't make one out of choice).
As for anyone liking Marmite - that's just weird and wrong.
Similar to Malt Loaf is Plum Loaf which despite the name doesn't have any plums in it.
Malt loaf and flapjacks
This plus a banana works for me. Flapjacks provide a little crunch which I like 😆
So somebody already mentioned the feedstation portables book and rice cakes. That works really well.
Marzipan works, you don't need to use egg whites, I've had success with just using water and a tiny amount of honey to bind it together.
Sandwiches.
Pork pies have seen me through many a long ride.
Nice potatoes - microwaved the night before, small amount of strong cheese in the middle. Fantastic savory snack and easy to carry and eat.
Potato cakes. Make a sandwich using a bit of cream cheese to stop them being dry. Cut in half is about right to eat in one go.
Flapjack - experiement as my friend makes a ginger one which is amazing.
Spanish Omelets.
There is a good video of how to wrap food using foil parchment. Creates a robust but easy to open package which makes some of the more unusual snacks easier to handle.
Cold porridge made with not quite enough water, so it goes firm enough to chew - prefer it to hot 🙂
A New discovery 🙂
M&S mini eccles cakes, packs of 6, perfect riding desert after mini Melton Mowbray pork pie main courses.
And half a pocket full of jelly babies.
Fig rolls.
Peanut butter and banana sandwich.
Nutella and marmalade sandwich.
Already had peanut butter and jam.
Jelly beans are great for a boost.
Them elevenses cake bars are good. Chocolate ones taste nice.
I did 50 miles of the SDW recently on a combination of nature valley bars and dried dates. Apparently my body isnt a fan of that udea (nauseau + foul arse).
You don't necessarily need to give up on the artificial stuff if you don't want to - I get that nausea feeling if I drink too much sports drink, but I'm fine as long as I stick to gels+water. It could just be a question of trying different stuff. I do like to have something savoury about 4 hours if it's going to be a long day, though.
I like to eat those pots of moroccan couscous, doesn't take up much space and has plenty of energy with enough sugar to perk you up.
one of those, a couple of thick sliced cheese and tomato sandwiches and an energy bar will keep me going all day.
Mini pork pies & scotch eggs 😀
+1 on fig rolls (well they're sort of real)
Pork Pie - a masterpiece of design. Cornish Pasty similarly.
Half a baguette
Strong Cheddar
Nice Ham.
Thats why the central pocket in a Jersey is deeper
Ham, cheese & pickle sarnies.
Pies seem like a good idea, but would you rather try to eat a squashed sarnie or a squashed pie?
I'm a big fan of malt loaf and my home made flapjack solid rocket fuel.
Think millionaires shortbread but with a flapjack & raisin base. It is truly amazing. 😀
Ginsters cornish pasties. 2 for an epic ride.
Dates, but good ones, so Medjool dates.
Malt loaf
Bananas and other fruit
Cereal bars
A lorra lorra votes for Malt Loaf. One word. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm
Indestructible. Waterproof. Withstands a huge temperature range. And. Is. Frankly. Delicious.
Flapjacks. Homemade. Make what YOU like. A solid gold calorie bomb.
Pepperami. See comments above re: malt loaf.
(Quietly surprised I was first with Pepperami.)
Pepperami is lovely but real food it is not 😉
duffmiver - Member
Ginsters cornish pasties. 2 for an epic ride.
Pepperami. See comments above re: malt loaf.(Quietly surprised I was first with Pepperami.)
I think I'd have to be in the middle of an 80's Oxfam ad in Africa to go for either of those as actual food. Certainly not real food.
I've not really done serious high intensity long rides, but on all day rides of a lower intensity, like bikepacking, I find flapjack to go down really well
I do a homemade version with seeds, nuts and peanut butter. Cut up into small chunks and then rolled in something so they don't stick together (like smashed hob nobs or digestives). I can eat them out of a feed bag
Also things like marzipan oat rolls from ikea, mini elk salami from ikea, dark chocolate macaroons, eat nakd bars, chocolate M&Ms
But I think if I was doing something really high intensity like a rodie ride then I'm not sure how well my digestive system would cope
Mini pittas with cashew or peanut butter and jam.
Just the right size and tasty.
Recently we've been consuming left over parkin on rides. So much so that we've had to make more and it's not even anywhere near bonfire night!
Loads of sugar/treacle/golden syrup for an instant hit and the oats give some sustained energy release, a bit like flapjack I suppose but with gingery goodness.
Also - egg sarnies, cheese and onion sarnies, pork pies etc etc etc.
My best plan is to get a load of snap down my neck before I go so I don't have to carry as much on the ride though.
I stick a gel or energy bar in for back-up but invariably return with it still intact.
Recently ditched the hallowed malt loaf. It melts and sticks to everything 🙁
Some sandwiches and a bag of salted cashew nuts (as long as you have access to water) works well for me, gels for emergencies only.
Tortillas and tinned/smoked mackeral or tuna.
For really nice sporty food:
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Nutty, moist, fruity and slightly salty.
ez energy bars are ok natural ingredients and quite cheap i get them from discount supplements
john west and princes do foil containers of tuna pasta olives and stuff, come with their own sfork
I used them when I did london to brighton
in the words of crocodile dundee.........
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+1 for Cornish Pasty
I refer to them as 'performance pasties'
Also cold (from night before's order) performance pizza. Both delicious and easily packed into the camelback
Cold tuna risotto balls wrapped in film. Much prefer rice to pasta and this seems to hit the spot for me. Add marmite to the stock for more savoury taste. Delete tuna as needed. Keep the cheese for binding.
Tell me you've never passed a pub ? Pint burger salty chips and go !
Cheers chaps, lots of different opinions 😉
Wholemeal pitta bread filled with chiken- tika fillets, lime pickle, watercress and radishes. I use this winter and summer, more lime pickle in the winter months !! 9 bars as a back up, peanut variety are the best. Hope this helps.
On the go:
Clif Bars
Tortilla wraps with PB or Nutella in them
Beef Jerky
Chilli Rice Crackers
Cheese Strings
Tangfastics
Jelly Babies
Proper break:
Anything from the Savouries section of a Petrol Station (ie Ginsters)
Peanut butter and banana [u]and [/u][s]sandwich.[/s]
Nutella [s]and marmalade[/s] sandwich.
FTFY
[img] 
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wrapped in a small pack ready!
Ah, this is fresh in my mind as I'm just back from the European Adventure Racing finals, which was a 72hr non stop race including lots of biking as well as running and kayaking. I was fuelled on a variety of the following, with the aim of ingesting 250 calories per hour, heavy on carbohydrate. It was a mix of sweet and savoury stuff, as you can't survive on just sugary crap for that long, you start getting mouth ulcers and stomach issues.
Clif Bars (lots of)
Peanut M&Ms
Clif Builder Bars (protein)
Clif Shot Blocks
Ham and cheese tortilla wraps
Clif caffeine gels (double espresso ones are rocket fuel!)
Cashew and peanut mix
mini babybels
pepperami
jelly babies
flapjack
mini pork pies
nutrigrain breakfast bars
Rego recovery drink (powder mix)
Nurishment drink
A couple of dehydrated meals, eaten in transition.
Admittedly I'm now completely fed up of all of the above, having eaten one or other of them every hour for 72 hours, but they did the trick fairly well.
Stuff that others had that I was jealous of:
chocolate (simple but effective)
mint cake
cake (one team stopped at a WI cake sale and loaded up!)
cold pizza slices
sausage roll
I get a bit sick of eating sweet stuff all day in very long events, and have used Allen Lim's rice cakes as an alternative (more savoury than the recipe above)
Another of his pro team recipes is boiled tatties, rolled in olive oil and parmesan and wrapped in foil.
I can also recommend AUDAX events if you don't want to carry all your own food; managed to scoff 6 cooked meals in my last one!
This thread is a superb illustration of the diverse nature of STW forumites 🙂
Home made malt loaf (containing dates, figs and raisins), coconut oil in stead of butter.. with Nutella and jam filling.