According to various studies, a lot of people suffer from the “fear of eating in public”, which is part of social anxiety disorders.
However, even if you don’t have this problem, you might still be intimidated by eating some food items in the public for the fear of being messy, especially if you’re on a first date or meeting new people.
If messy food is your arch-nemesis, then this article is a must-read for you. Today, I’ll walk you through some of the messiest food items that will most likely cause you more trouble than you can afford while you’re outside, so you should avoid them to save yourself the hassle.
Not only that, but I’ll also show you some tips to eat them with as little mess as possible if you absolutely have to eat them. Let’s dive in!
In a Hurry? Here’s a Quick Summary to the List
Here’s a brief roundup of the food items mentioned in the article:
- Tacos
- Spaghetti with meatballs, noodles, and Alfredo pasta
- Dusty chips
- Chicken wings
- Lobster and Crabs
- Burgers
- Popsicles and ice cream cones
7 Messy Foods That You Should Avoid
Let’s have a deeper look at the messy food items on our list, including how they can cause unwanted accidents as well as simple hacks and tips to minimize the mess or even avoid them altogether!
1. Tacos
Kicking off the list with one of the food items that always leaves you with despair and a shrug of “can’t help it”.
As soon as you bite into freshly made tacos, they instantly break into pieces, causing all the delicious content to start falling off into your plate.
A Simple Workaround
For smaller tacos, the best solution is to hold it with all your fingers exactly at the center where the meat is lined.
Take your first bite at one of the taco’s ends towards the center. The trick here is to raise the plate exactly under the taco and take your time with the bite. After that, bite into the other end in a similar fashion until you reach the center.
For larger ones, you might break it down beforehand using a fork and eat the contents with broken chips, just like nachos.
2. Spaghetti with Meatballs, Noodles, and Alfredo Pasta
Slurpy foods that are made of long thread-like parts, such as long thin noodles and alfredo pasta, can easily sauce-slap your chin as you slurp them up.
Spaghetti and meatballs is also a common first date meal because it’s astonishingly delicious, especially with marinara sauce. However, don’t expect a “Lady and the Tramp” situation where both of you end up slurping on the same spaghetti thread.
Instead, you end up with a mouth and chin full of red sauce with threads of spaghetti hanging loose from your lips all the time.
Not to mention, all the splashy sauce on the table, your clothes, and sometimes others, while you’re slurping down on the spaghetti.
A Simple Workaround
A lot of people suggest using a spoon while eating spaghetti, but if anything can be worse than the mess spaghetti makes, it’d be eating it with a spoon.
The best hack to follow here is slowly cut the spaghetti threads in various locations on the plate. It won’t make a lot of noise, and it’ll help you shorten the rolling of the spaghetti around the fork.
This way, you can roll smaller bits of spaghetti around your fork in an easy to bite and size friendly fashion.
You can also end the rolling with a small meatball piece to balance the bite and prevent the spaghetti from falling back into the plate.
3. Dusty Chips
There’s no denying that dusty chips and snacks that are packed with colorful flavors are the guilty pleasures of us all.
If you’re snacking on a bag of Cheetos or Doritos, you’re going to end up with red-orange colored fingertips. And let’s be honest, nobody washes their hand between every chip, so we’re all guilty of licking our fingers when we’re not alone.
However, if you’re outside with a meal that has a dusty chip situation, chances are your hands will be covered in dusty deliciousness for the rest of the meal.
A Simple Workaround
Surprisingly, there are various ways to hack dusty chips. For example, you can use chopsticks to eat them absolutely mess-free.
Yet, if you don’t know how to use chopsticks or think it’s a bit of an overkill, you can keep one of those handy food-grade finger covers that are specifically designed to keep your hands clean in those situations.
4. Chicken Wings
Chicken wings are probably among the first things that popped into your mind while thinking about messy foods!
And yes, for many people, chicken wings are the clear winner of the battle of messy foods. Everything about chicken wings makes things challenging, from the sauce drenched all over them, to the bones you might come across while eating them.
In fact, even chicken wings are well aware of that issue with some of them providing wet wipes to help you avoid the awkward situation after every rip.
A Simple Workaround
Chicken wings have various hurdles to bounce over. For instance, if you want to avoid getting your hands messy, you can use disposable food preparation gloves.
As for the bones, you have two paths to take. The first and easy one is to simply order boneless wings.
However, if that option isn’t available, you can find tons of youtube guides out there to show you have to remove the bones in the wing before you eat it.
5. Lobster and Crabs
Ideally, any type of food that will require you to use special utensils to eat them is a no go if you don’t want to embarrass yourself in public, especially on a first date.
If you order a whole or partially ready to eat crabs or lobsters, you’ll find yourself in a situation where you need to break the hard exoskeleton open, slurp the meat out, and expect tons of mishaps, wet chins, and a lot of messy remains.
A Simple Workaround
Unfortunately, some problems aren’t solved with simple tricks. Unless you’re an expert seafood connoisseur who knows their way around a crab or a lobster, there isn’t much you can do with a whole or partially prepared lobster.
In other words, if you’re financially afloat enough to order lobster or large crabs, you might as well save yourself the hassle of doing all the work yourself and order it in a ready to eat state.
6. Burgers
Depending on the type of burger you eat, the degree of sloppiness and mess left behind may vary significantly. For example, mini burgers with little sauce added will remain solid and easy to eat.
However, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll order a burger patty between two pieces of bread to avoid the mess. With tons of sauces and melted cheese options available for addition, you’ll encounter some juicy dripping from your burger.
Even worse, you might give in to the delicious temptation of ordering a double-decker burger. This usually translates to food content even slipping out of the buns, which reminds me of Pokemon’s Team Rocket saying “prepare for trouble and make it double!”
A Simple Workaround
Surprisingly, a lot of research went into finding the best way to hold a burger while eating.
Ideally, you should hold on to your burger with all your fingers by placing both your thumbs and pinkies under the burger from both sides and laying the rest of your fingers above. This method helps in holding all the lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and patties inside.
Additionally, keeping the burger in its wrapping while you eat and cutting the burger in two half will also give you a better hold on it.
7. Popsicles and Ice Cream Cones
Ice cream is the treat of the summer. We always order ice cream hoping to enjoy its refreshing sweet taste but often forget about one little detail.
It usually takes the ice cream a couple of minutes off the freezer for things to go south, literally.
The melted ice cream starts to drizzle on your hand, causing you to awkwardly slurp and bite into the ice cream in a race against time to get yourself off this sticky situation!
A Simple Workaround
To avoid the situation, you can order a large cone with smaller ice cream scoops so that they melt into the cone and not outside.
If that option is not available, you can opt for ice cream in a cup instead and enjoy it with a spoon!
Wrap Up
There you have it. A brief list with 7 of the messiest food items that you should avoid outside. If you have the choice, always try to avoid these food items all together.
However, if you can’t help but eat them, you can use the workaround hacks to minimize the mess as much as you can.
Remember to share the list with your friends if they’re expecting a work meeting, a first date, or any social gathering, so they can also dodge the sauce-filled bullet!
