In Praise of the Picnic, or that time we had Thanksgiving dinner in the airport

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People tell me I’m a real pro at picnicking. I love high-low (potato chips with champagne, kobe beef hot dogs), I am a cheap snob, and I have celiac disease which means I’ve been following a gluten-free diet since before it was a thing. Celiac can make it hard to grab food on the run, so packing delish gf snacks is a good idea. It’s always fun to eat with a view, too.

Always Be Picnicking

In the trunk of my car, I keep a tiny plastic shoebox that holds my emergency picnic kit. Yes I drive around with a little dinky cutting board, this folding Opinel knife that won a design award, some plastic forks and spoons (it's real challenging to eat yogurt without a spoon, trust me on this), a couple metal forks for dignity, a corkscrew (duh) and some paper towels and a plastic vegetable bag from the produce section to hold any messy garbage. At PFI’s, I found a travel size Maldon sea salt for $1 that I decided was too much to haul around in the car kit but I do bring it when I stay at Airbnbs. A French barrel rep gave me a teensy tinsy thing of Dijon mustard that I threw into the kit and called it “my emergency mustard” but then I had a mustard emergency and had to use it. 9-1-1 what’s your emergency? I should keep some gluten free soy sauce packets in there. A tiny sriracha. Or those mini things of Tajin that come with pared pineapple at Safeway.

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In this car picnic scenario, the provisions come from the grocery store or farmers market. You'll enjoy the picnic from inside the car because you are out in the vineyard or on a road trip stopped at a pretty lookout and or you’re in Seattle and big surprise, it’s raining.

CAR PICNIC MENU

  • fruit and cheese, nuts, crackers

  • salami

  • If you're at Uwajimaya, grab a couple salmon musubi

  • and an avocado roll sushi with lemon

  • If you want to level up, get some sparkling water from the refrigerated case while you're at the store or grab another exotic random non-alc fun drink because car picnic means you are driving.

The concept is to minimize the mess, minimize condiments, but it’s more civilized than eating cheetos while driving (ask me how I know).

TOTEBAG PICNIC

The totebag picnic requires more prep, more intention than the spontaneous car picnic but there are big payoffs. You probably won't have a table, so any foods that require real chopping or slicing should be chopped or sliced at home / at the deli. It’s nice to bring a dishtowel to set up camp and you’ve got to be discreet about the wine drinking in public. Screwcap bottles are a plus in this regard. Great locations for a totebag picnic include Leschi T-dock, dahlia garden at Volunteer Park, Log Boom Park, bridges of Paris, castle gardens of the Loire.

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dock pic 2
dock pic 3

TOTEBAG PICNIC MENU

  • awesome sliced jamon or prosciutto from the deli

  • olives in a plastic container

  • hummus

  • cut up veg

  • tiny caprese salad in a tupperware

  • wine

  • mason jars to drink out of


THE HAPPY HOUR PICNIC

Maui picknic

A friend was telling me about this beachside bar in Hawaii where you can “have happy hour on the sand". I’m thinkin - we do that already, dude, for free. Discretion is critical but it is the best way to watch the sunset in my opinion.

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HAPPY HOUR PICNIC MENU

  • salty snacks of the region (macadamia nuts, cacahuetes con chile y limon, high end potato chips, salt and pepper pistachios from costco)

  • chilled rosé, you could bring a ziplock bag of ice to keep it cold on the beach

  • plastic glasses from your hotel room/ Airbnb

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AIRPORT THANKSGIVING

This was a first for me, having to think about what I could get through security. My friend Wren and I found the cheapest tickets flying on Thanksgiving day which meant we would be having Thanksgiving dinner in the airport. We ordered what was among the worst G&Ts of my life so that we could picnic at a restaurant table. This is almost certainly in violation of airport restaurant policy but we tried not to draw too much attention to ourselves photographing this picnic and thankfully, nobody bothered us.

TSA-approved THANKSGIVING PICNIC MENU

  • cheese

  • jamon / prosciutto from deLaurenti

  • marinated artichokes

  • celery salad (undressed)

  • roasted squash with hazelnuts (undressed)

  • 3oz container of olive oil and lemon juice I squeezed at home

  • carrots

  • chocolate bar

So Happy Thanksgiving from the N Gates at SEA-TAC, everybody!

How do you guys like to picnic?

Erica Orr