Eating While Gaming

It's quite common for people to eat while gaming, but what are the best things to eat?  After 13 years of regular tabletop gaming I've got some opinions on that subject.

Key points to consider are:
Footprint.  How much room does it take up on the table?
Convenience.  Are things like plates and cutlery required?
Mess Potential.  Nobody wants sticky dice.
Environmental.  How much waste is produced?
Health. It's not like we're getting much exercise, after all.

My home group mostly go straight from work to the host's house, and normally order takeaways to eat during the game.  Here's my analysis of some of the options out there.

Pizza

• Footprint: 1/5  Massive boxes that take up half the table.
• Convenience: 5/5  Can be eaten with hands straight out of the box.
• Mess Potential:  4/5  Potential for rogue tomato sauce or cheese grease but generally keeps to itself.
• Environmental: 3/5 Large cardboard boxes that can't be recycled due to grease, but are compostable if you have the facilities.
• Health: 2/5 Not actually that bad in moderation, but who eats pizza on game night in moderation?  Could be a source of vitamins if you go for lots of vegetable toppings, but again everyone is ordering double pepperoni.

The quintessential gaming food with wide appeal, pizza gets 15/25.

Kebabs

• Footprint: 5/5  Compact boxes that don't take up too much room.
• Convenience: 3/5 Cutlery is required, plates optional.
• Mess Potential:  3/5  Garlic sauce spillage is possible but generally well contained.
• Environmental: 1/5 Unless you've ordered something fancy (generally identifiable by being described as gyros or schwarma rather than donor or shish) kebabs normally arrive in a single use polystyrene box.
• Health: 1/5 - 5/5 Depends on exactly what you order.  Lamb donor with chips is pretty bad, but chicken shish with pitta and salad is a pretty healthy meal if you don't drown it in mayonaise.

Be careful to check food hygiene ratings before ordering.  Much more than the purview of drunk morons, kebabs get 13/25 for an unhealthy choice, and 17/25 for a lighter selection.

Burgers and chips

• Footprint: 5/5  Compact boxes that don't take up too much room.
• Convenience: 4/5 Generally handheld but some may prefer a fork for the chips.
• Mess Potential:  2/5  Small risk of ketchup leaks.
• Environmental: 1/5 The same polystyrene boxes as kebabs.
• Health: 1/5 Deep fried chips, fatty meat, and usually a load of cheese as well.

Another meal where food hygiene ratings are important if you don't enjoy being poisoned, burgers get 13/25.

Chinese

• Footprint: 3/5  Small boxes but there's a lot of them and they tend to spread out.
• Convenience: 1/5 Cutlery and plates are both required.
• Mess Potential:  2/5  High sauce levels make spillages a real risk.
• Environmental: 3/5 Plastic tubs can be recycled, and can also be washed out and reused.  Excellent for transporting miniatures or storing leftovers in the fridge.
• Health: 3/5 Again depends on exactly what you order, but stay away from the deep fried stuff and you generally get a decent portion of vegetables.

Another choice with wide appeal, Chinese gets 12/25.

Curry

• Footprint: 3/5  Not a huge number of boxes, but the naan bread will inevitable end up taking up table space.
• Convenience: 1/5 Cutlery and plates are both required.
• Mess Potential:  1/5  You will get curry sauce on your character sheet.  No exceptions.  I barely eat curry, and am not a messy eater, and yet every one of my character sheets seems to have a curry stain somewhere.
• Environmental: 2/5 Foil containers might be recyclable, but let's face it, they're going straight in the bin.
• Health: 3/5 Not as healthy as it looks with all those coconut based sauces.

Tasty but messy, curry gets 10/25.

Fish and Chips

• Footprint: 4/5  Initially looks compact but spreads out when you unwrap the paper.
• Convenience: 3/5  Technically can be eaten with just a wooden chip fork, but most people prefer real cutlery to tackle the fish.
• Mess Potential:  2/5  Grease may escape.
• Environmental: 4/5  Non-recyclable but compostable paper and boxes.
• Health: 2/5 A lot of deep fried stuff.

The British classic, fish and chips get 15/25.

Waffles

• Footprint: 4/5  Single boxes similar to pizza, but much smaller.
• Convenience: 3/5 Cutlery required, plates optional.
• Mess Potential:  4/5  A risk of rogue sauce, but generally keeps to itself.
• Environmental: 3/5 Much like pizza, boxes are non-recyclable but can be composted.
• Health: 1/5 Very very sugary.

Maybe not the first thing you'd think of for a takeaway, but nevertheless an interesting choice, waffles get 15/25.

Samosas

• Footprint: 5/5  Takes up very little space.
• Convenience: 5/5 Can be eaten by hand
• Mess Potential:  5/5  Providing you aren't dipping them in sauce, samosas are very tidy.
• Environmental: 5/5 Paper bags use significantly less material than cardboard boxes.  About the minimum amount of waste a takeaway can produce
• Health: 2/5 Usually deep fried, but normally some vegetables on the inside.

Dependent on access to a suitable Indian savouries shop, but increasing in popularity nonetheless, samosas get 22/25.

Conclusion

Samosas are the best gaming food.