What kind of food and drink do you like to have while watching a movie?
I don’t really eat anything at the theatre. I think my $6 soft drink is way more than what I want to spend. At home I do like snacks. I just had some guacamole while I was watching Bernie. I don’t suppose I have a particular ritual or type of food or drink I typically go for.
Home- Sliced fruit and black coffee
Theatre- Candy bars and black coffee
“One of the theaters I go to has natural butter that they pour on for your popcorn and they first put some popcorn in, spread some butter on.”
That was the way I used to do it, and customers really appreciate that tiny little courtesy, let me tell you.
After ten years of working at movie theaters I make the best home popcorn I know, and still prefer just popcorn and a soda at the movies. I only get candy if my date wants it.
Theater: Popcorn (no butter); diet coke. In Hawai’i, people like eating their popcorn with a Japanese snack that we call “mochi crunch.” (I like it, but I normally don’t get that.) If you want to get fancier, they’ll put furikake on it, too. (Again, good, but I don’t really do this when I go to theater.)
Home: depends
I’m a fan of the popcorn and soda though it’s starting to be more like popcorn and iced tea (is my sweet tooth dying or something or does desire for sweet things decrease with age?). Ye Locale Arte Theatre has nutritional yeast you can sprinkle over it, too good. They also have boutique/local sodas so those are a lot more tasty than the syrupy crap. Cane sugar > high fructose corn syrup.
—PolarisDiB
I’m assuming nutritional yeast is most for the nutrition and not the taste. Or does it actually make the popcorn taste better?
Not to derail the thread, but I’d be interested in hearing about snacks and beverages that are unique to one’s region.
It makes the popcorn taste better.
—PolarisDiB
I used to bring in nutritional yeast out for popcorn for those that kept asking for it.
The theater chain I worked at started out of the converted west side warehouse that I used to take the bus to when I was nine.
Man, I never heard of that. I’m curious to try it. (With a name like “nutritional yeast,” I’m assuming it’s good for you, too.)
Theatre: Nothing. I’m not paying their insane prices.*
Home: Water and some dried fruit, usually.
*When I lived in Chicago, it was much more believable for me to walk into a theatre with a backpack. I often went to the Walgreens right next door and stocked up on a 3 boxes of movie candy for $3. It would be a lot less believable now.
“(With a name like “nutritional yeast,” I’m assuming it’s good for you, too.)”
I’m really not sure. I grew up with it called ’brewer’s yeast’ until yuppies got ahold of it at co-ops and had to turn it into one part of a diet fad, including for some reason often using it as a vegan ingredient for faux cheese, not that it tastes like cheese at all (and any vegan recipe that calls for nutritional yeast is fuck awful, avoid it; this isn’t an argument against veganism or vegan recipes but ones specifically citing nutritional yeast as a cheese replacement, which its not). So now more people know what I’m talking about when I mention nutritional yeast than brewer’s yeast. I guess the latter title makes it sound like we’re trying to make beer or something.
What I will tell you and this won’t necessarily sell you on flavor unless you’ve tried it, is that sprinkling nutritional yeast over cat and dog food keeps the ticks and the fleas away.
—PolarisDiB
When I was poor, I used to buy a giant bag of Twizzlers and eat one Twizzler per movie (two if it was a longer one). I would take a small bite, break it into six pieces according to their natural structure, move five pieces to the side of my mouth and break the remaining piece in two. Then I would try to break teach piece down to the smallest fragment I could. I was conserving money and my health! When I stopped being poor, I started to eat like six or seven Twizzlers per movie.
Mighty amusing post, there, DiB-o.
What I will tell you and this won’t necessarily sell you…
You think? LOL! (I loved that.)
food matches the movies
samurai movies = sushi
mob flicks = meatball sub
old hollywood b-movies = fast food burger and fries
westerns = beer
mumblecore = vegan grilled cheese and soy milk
french new wave = cigarettes
etc etc
I grew up with it called ’brewer’s yeast’
I actually like it in orange juice, and was given it yogurt as kid.
Can ya tell I was raised Hippie (well Freak actually)?
What I will tell you and this won’t necessarily sell you…
You think? LOL! (I loved that.)
LO f***in’ L is right.
The taste is indescribable… not exactly bad… but its got a lot of vitamin B and you can taste it. “Red Bull soaked whole wheat” may not be in the ballpark, but it lands in the harbor nearby.
I love it in orange juice, which removes some of the breadiness and leaves the Red Bull part.
Without the gaurana.
“Red Bull soaked whole wheat” may not be in the ballpark, but it lands in the harbor nearby.
That’s almost as bad as the cat food bit. ;)
@Curtis Francis That’s an interesting way to eat foods tailored to the movies you watch.
Thanks for the responses guys. Keep them coming. I don’t think I’ve heard of nutritional yeast.
We usually go with popcorn and a soda. I prefer butter but the girlfriend overrules and we always get the caramel stuff. :( Haha. I can still put a dent in it though. And I’m usually chewing on the kernels by the end of the movie.
When I was a kid, our home theater used to have Chupa Chups lollipops and they still today remind me of going to the movies.
At home I prefer a beer but I’ve had too many agonizing last minutes to do this much more at the theater.
I got the chance once to watch a movie at The Alamo Drafthouse which had waiters you could summon to bring you pitchers of beer. Wikipedia say the place is “famous for its strict policy of requiring its audiences to maintain proper cinema going etiquette.” I’m not sure how waiters bringing pitchers of beer figures into the equation.
Unique Foods: Here in Korea you can buy grilled squid at the multiplexes. It’s great if you’re eating it. If your neighbor is, however…PHEW!
I once bought a box of what I thought were chocolates. Sitting in the dark theater I opened the box and popped one into my mouth. Just about killed me. It was a goddamned chestnut. Which isn’t a bad thing if you know what your eating. Unfortunately I didn’t at the time.
If it is a possible (only one theater I have been to had this). I like a curry dish
but in a standard theater I like popcorn and a soda
in an art theater, I like two glasses of wine, more than that might be a mistake
I never eat at a theater because there’s never a ‘small’ option. I’d love to have a regular sized pack of Twizzlers but not those giant packs they give you, because you know in front of a movie it’s impossible to stop munching on whatever’s in front of you.
At home, beer and frozen dinners.
Polaris said: “I’m a fan of … iced tea (is my sweet tooth dying or something or does desire for sweet things decrease with age?”
Do you not drink sweet tea? Here in the South, we like our iced tea Willy Wonka sweet, probably even more sweet than sodas.
Also, does nobody drink alcohol (aside from Curtis on Western night)? My favorite used to be getting a 6 pack of Bell’s Two Hearted on a Friday night, and watching a quality. movie at home. A beer like that is delicious, can be sipped, and is well made enough so that it’s not a big deal if it warms up a little bit.
I say “quality” movie, cause if it’s an action, comedy, or something like that, I prefer pounding the cheap stuff. At the end of a horror movie, I’m screaming “Don’t run up the stairs!!!’” as loud as anyone else :)
Also have been guilty of smuggling a bottle of wine or a flask into a theatre before, though, to be fair, their alcohol prices is about the same as their soda prices
I’m with you Captain. When I said a beer there was more stress on the “beer” and not so much on the “a”. Our “terrible” movie night wouldn’t have been so great without it.
DP
In a movie theater, none. Doesn’t matter to me at all. At home, depends on whether I’m hungry, usually just a beverage.
In college and my early twenties we frequently toked up before going to a movie so I probably sometimes did get something to eat and drink then.
I like the scene in Crimes and Misdemeanors where Mia Farrow and Woody Allen are watching a film on a moviola and eating hamburgers.
“Here in Korea you can buy grilled squid at the multiplexes. It’s great if you’re eating it. If your neighbor is, however…PHEW!”
I am lead to understand from many commentators that Koreans slurp their food as a general rule and especially while watching movies.
Also understanding that it’s not considered rude. I lived with an Indian and then his friend for two years and they were very, very confused as to why I was so annoyed at them smacking their lips whenever they chewed. At first I just tried ignoring it and considering it my problem and then I decided to tell Sakthi that in the US, it’s considered rude eating etiquette (which it is) and he was kind enough to be considerate about it, but think about being 25 years old and suddenly deciding to change the manner in which you chewed…. I tried not to be a dick about it but man, lip smacking chewy noises? Big problem for me.
“Do you not drink sweet tea? Here in the South, we like our iced tea Willy Wonka sweet, probably even more sweet than sodas.”
I am aware of the Southern culture of fried foods and iced tea, here in the Southwest we are somewhat put off by it. Even the ‘Southern style sweet tea’ we have needs a few extra packets of sugar to get half the way to the stuff you drink out there. However, when I’m in the South (which happens because I have family there), I do have to admit that whatever chemical admixture you manage to balance makes the sweetness at least flavorful and, when added with a heck of a lot of crushed ice, surprisingly refreshing. It’s just one of those things you can’t get right outside of the region, just like you Southerners don’t have a whimsy of a clue of a hint of what good Mexican food tastes like until you get your fried chicken asses over here.
This is me inviting you to dinner, by the way.
Also to Southwesterners: no, you’ve never had real barbeque. Get ye to North Carolina.
Back to movies: how to prepare the perfect serving of popcorn:
Step 1: pop corn in non-oil based air popper
Step 2: melt 1/4 cup salted butter (the real stuff) and add an eighth-wedge of lemon (but not too much).
Step 3: sprinkle nutritional yeast flakes over mid-level popcorn and top popcorn.
Eat. As you get to the bottom, be sure to use some of the bigger kernals to ‘mop up’ the lingering yeast that trickles down to the bottom.
—PolarisDiB
—PolarisDiB
“I like the scene in Crimes and Misdemeanors where Mia Farrow and Woody Allen are watching a film on a moviola and eating hamburgers.”
They’re eating Indian takeout food.
For what its worth, I usually just do popcorn (no butter) and a coke zero. If I’m at Film Forum I’ll occasionally have a slice of their cranberry walnut bread, which is overpriced but delicious.
Popcorn would be a good reasonable nutritional option for movies, except I’m incapable of eating it without getting kernel fragments lodged under my teeth.
Good question. Personally, at the theater, it’s popcorn and RC (always sneak one in, $7.50 for a large soda? Kiss my ass). I put tons of salt and a decent amount of butter on my popcorn, as well.
At home, it’s whatever I feel like. Usually I drink RC and maybe have some cereal, chips, noodles, etc. Whatever I’m in the mood for. Sometimes, I don’t have anything.
at the theater : curly fries and a blue icee (when im not paying for it) or some random food i smuggled in like sour gummy octopi or a peach snapple.
at home: Kix cereal and blue gatorade but it’s usually nothing since im too lazy to go upstairs and find something.
HAL 9000
One of the theaters I go to has natural butter that they pour on for your popcorn and they first put some popcorn in, spread some butter on and then put the next half of the popcorn on with some more butter. Also, they have a better choice of drinks then the multiplex with such things as lemonade, which is what I drink, coffee, tea and then the usual such as soft drinks and water. I’ve never had them, but they have italian ice as well. The multiplex has good hot dogs though. They do tend to put a lot of salt on their popcorn where as the other theater that I just mentioned salt is optional. I think the purpose of that is to make you thirsty so you go out to the concession stand during the film. The multiplex also carries food like pretzels loaded with salt and sauce with it and nachos as well. They also have chicken nuggets. Sometimes I’ll get candy such as Twizzlers or Junior Mints. The small theater that I go to, they make their own cookies and you can have things like ice cream. I think something like ice cream bars. So, my question is, do you like to have food and drink while you are watching a movie? And if so, what do you have? Also, home is another option as well if you do that in addition or just watch movies only at home.