Travel tip: How to eat tacos on the road without making a huge mess

Nothing is worse than listening to your kids scream for tacos on a road trip, or your wife for that matter. Travel tip? Yes, you can eat tacos on the road.

While my kids sit in the back of the car making a mess of the “thank God I covered the seats in plastic” middle row, I often wondered if I could eat a taco on the road while driving.

Two important things come to mind, one, the tilting of the head is not ideal as your fact immediately is taken off the road. I feel like a great white shark attacking its prey. Head down, white cartilage covers my eye and I take a quick bite and return my view to the road.

The second is that as soon as you bite into it, the shell breaks (especially at Taco Bell) and everything inside is now in your lap. No, the paper-thin wrap they use to roll the taco up in, is not a saving grace. It only serves to direct the falling food into your lap.

So how can you eat a taco while driving? Well, you can with one little trick. Ask for a flour tortilla or bring one with you. All you have to do is wrap that tortilla around the taco and voila’ you are good to go. The wrap holds the broken pieces in place and prevents most of the filling to land between your legs on the seat.

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It may be considered a cheat but it works. Having a fresh warm tortilla from a restaurant is better than the cold ones you have in a bag but you can warm those up in the summer by tossing the bag on the dashboard and letting mother nature’s sunlight warm them up in the plastic.

But what about the head tilt? The tortilla helps with that too. The idea of tilting your head is to get a clean bite on the hard shell and not forcibly break the whole thing but if you clamp your holding hand down a little tighter towards the opposite end, you can hold the taco in place and lift it towards you and not having to take your eyes off the road.

Tacos shouldn’t be taken off your drive menu. I recently put this theory to the test when I stopped at a taco joint outside of Palatka, Florida. It worked and I wasn’t wearing much if anything. In fact, I think I had more on me from the chicken sandwich I ate on the way down to our vacation rental.

Now, nachos on the other hand? Forget it. There is no solution for those aside from not eating them. Even dipping a solitary chip into queso takes your eyes off the road and dripping cheese will adorn your shirt and shorts. Eating while driving is not ideal no matter what it is but tacos can be enjoyed with a little addition. So there you have it, the next time your family wants to munch on tacos while you are driving, don’t leave yourself out of it. After all, we all love tacos! Now, as far as the backseat goes, sorry, there are no full-proof ways to keep your kids from making a mess.