Call: can people just stop eating on the train?
Adeline loves eating, a lot and often, both at home and out. Usually that goes well, but sometimes it doesn’t. In the series Eddie’s Food Irritations, she shares her observations. This time: people eating on the train.
Sometimes I think: let’s stop eating on the train. I usually think this at the exact moment someone is eating on a train. And I hardly ever take the train, so go figure. That’s why I automatically feel terribly sorry for people who are surrounded by other people eating on trains every day. The horror.
Rice cake from the packet
The other day I took the train to Groningen, which is a solid almost three hours by train from The Hague, increasing the chances of encountering people eating. A boy sitting diagonally opposite me was nibbling his orange (?) rice cake from the packet. You think: come on, man. The fact that you dare to eat a rice cake in a carriage filled with people is already truly next level.
And apparently it was the tomato variety too, no less. But then own it a little. Take that orange thing out of the packet and eat it as if you dare. Like a real big boy. He did none of this. Instead, the rice-cake nibbler munched his little wafer under the watchful eye (and approving sense of smell) of the other train passengers. Every bite was torture.
Crunchy raw vegetables
The annoying thing is that I also barely dared to eat anymore, because of my own irritation at the boy’s nibbling. In a fit of healthy madness, I had filled my bag with crunchy raw vegetables. The problem with crunchy raw vegetables is that they crunch and crackle with abandon. With every bite of my snack cucumber, which I ate in slow motion to produce as few decibels as possible, the entire carriage watched. I swear. As if I suddenly had thinner cheeks too, making the sound even louder.
Food-free carriage
After that snack cucumber, I didn’t even dare look at my radish anymore, because chewing that also makes your jaws work harder, and that is completely deafening. I say: let’s introduce the food-free carriage. At least something on the train would stay clean, because otherwise food scraps are scattered everywhere. That would genuinely make me happier than the quiet carriage, where you’re still allowed to eat.
You’re sitting there enjoying the silence when your neighbor suddenly starts slurping and grinding away. It completely defeats the purpose of that carriage. If that happened, I’d immediately move to the loudest train carriage. ANYTHING to make sure you don’t hear that nibbling, dear orange-rice-cake-eating boy (!).
Read also:
- Eddie’s food irritations: those countries where they throw everything into the deep fryer
- Infuriating: those people who pay the bill separately
- When your waiter turns out to be a bücker
