Hacker News Reader

Comment by protomyth | Hacker News Reader

I would imagine if it meets the following criteria: is it in a form that I can eat while driving a car[1], can it be served in the same time as other fast food, and is it priced within the fast food spectrum.

I still think the greatest fast food I've ever had was a Greek place that did amazing kabobs.

1) regardless of your safety beliefs, this is done a lot

View on HN

Bento really isn't designed to be eaten while driving (or even moving around). Eating while standing would be possible but probably less than ideal. Most bentos are designed to be eaten with chopsticks.

The primary on-the-go food would be onigiri, with "festival booth" foods second (mostly stuff on a stick e.g. karaage, dango, yakitori, takoyaki, ikayaki).

I think the intention with mentioning a car is the fact that the US is so commute-heavy that the majority of our fast food is intended for car consumption.

And I'm saying bento really aren't suitable for that. Onigiri would be.

Yeah. I was responding to the I wonder what it would take to get similar offerings to compete with American fast food? part. Onigiri looks like it would work if it holds together in your hand (don't know, never had it). Bento wouldn't.

It has amazed me that there isn't a USA chain that has taken some food from Japan or China and it put it in a form that would be a good burger substitute. I would imagine some wrap? I could really go for a spring roll when I'm driving instead of a burger.

I remember years and years ago encountering a Japanese-themed burrito joint called Samurai Sam's.

They were pretty tasty, but the only one where I live went under ages ago.

(Googling shows that a chain by the name exists, but they don't have burritos. Either they pivoted or it's a new business who picked up the name.)

That would be awesome. I could really see getting a burrito with Japaneses or Chinese (well, the Americanized version) stuffing.

Sushirrito is a (delicious) thing

This post was also discussing lunch where, presumably, eating while driving is less of a big deal. (Though, yes, some Americans eat in the car a fair bit which makes sandwiches and the like more suitable.)

If you are going to replace American fast food, then eating while driving is pretty much a requirement.

It's not as ubiquitous as McDs, BK, etc., but pizza and Chinese are among the most common fast food alternatives to the primarily sandwich chains. (Fried chicken is the other.) And neither Chinese nor pizzas are very amenable to eating while driving.

I guess I'm conditioned to think of fast food in terms of drive-through. Even KFC has a lot of stuff on the menu that can be easily eaten in a car. Taco joints are the same way. Heck, the Greek place I mentioned was a drive-through.

When I think pizza, I tend to think of it as its own thing given the whole delivery culture.

I doubt I’ve gone through a drive through in decades so my perspective is probably different.

...I really wouldn't want to try eating kabobs while driving.

If you hit a bump eating a sandwich, you mash a soft loaf of bread into your face.

Do the same thing eating a kabob, and you're sending a skewer through the roof of your mouth.

Do the same thing eating a kabob, and you're sending a skewer through the roof of your mouth.

Uhm... you can eat kabobs from the side.

edible bento boxes?

Not necessarily:

https://www.npr.org/2016/02/11/466178523/like-millennials-mo...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com