The Daily Meal's Hurricane Food Survival Guide
Dear New York City,
Greetings from the Sunshine State. October is the time of year when snowbirds from New York and beyond make their annual migration to the sunny shores of Miami Beach, and the folks who stay up north don lightweight jackets and admire the crimson and gold fall foliage in Central Park. But it seems this picture-perfect postcard scenario may change for those in the Big Apple. We hear there's a storm a brewin'. And people are getting prepared. Marc Hurwitz of The Daily Meal's Culinary Content Network reports that Boston's The Universal Hub has activated the French Toast Alert System, a sure indication to Bostonians that it's time to hit the grocery store.
Since Adam at The Universal Hub has sounded the alarm, we thought we would take a moment to put down our umbrella-accented slushy cocktails and cheeseburgers in paradise and compose a letter of advice and well wishes as New York prepares for the potential arrival of Hurricane Sandy.
With the National Hurricane Center's latest advisory indicating that New York may be visited by an unwelcome tourist named Sandy early next week — and we hope she cancels her plans — we do want you to be prepared to welcome her properly — with a hurricane party, of course. Now, don't get us wrong, there's nothing to celebrate about potential power outages, canned SPAM, and long hours spent confined indoors, but should you find yourself in the midst of a hurricane warning with hours to kill and the storm quickly rotating out to sea, we want you to know what to do.
In addition to stocking up on the necessities like bottled water, non-perishables, and flashlights, The Daily Meal has compiled the essential Hurricane Party Shopping List:
- Family-size Lucky Charms
- Game Boy Color
- Bottle of Jack Daniel's
- All board games except Balderdash, because really... who wants to play Balderdash?
- Coconut water
- Vices, be they booze, cigarettes, or other insalubrious items
- A battery-operated iPod dock or CD player, because you can't have a hurricane party without music. A battery-operated radio might work, but sometimes reception gets screwed up in big storms. If battery options aren't available, make sure somebody has a guitar.
- A generator to keep your phone and computer powered so that you can use said phone as a mobile Wi-Fi hot spot to have constant access to The Daily Meal, obviously.
As a reminder, it's never too early to host a hurricane party. While typically held during the storm, a true hurricane party can begin before the main non-event with a big feast or two held in the days prior to the hurricane's arrival, in which you eat everything in the fridge and freezer that might spoil when the electricity goes out. Everything (use it or lose it is the motto here).
Sincerely,
The Daily Meal
The Daily Meal's Hurricane Food Survival Guide is a tongue-and-cheek preparation guide. Whether you're calling it Frankenstorm or Hurricane Sandy, here's hoping no one else has to weather this storm.
Lauren Mack is the Travel Editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @lmack.