Do You Get Hangry?

IMG_5454Hangry. Hungry-angry. Getting grumpy or cranky when you haven’t eaten a regular meal. Does this happen to you?

Today I went with a group of friends to a fried chicken festival in St. Louis. Fried chicken is one of my all-time favorite foods, and all of the best St. Louis restaurant were to be featured at this festival. It seemed like a great chance to try several of them that I haven’t had the chance to eat, like Gus’s, Byrd & Barrel, and Old Standard.

We weathered the heat to show up at the festival, only to find that it was packed. Lots of fried-chicken lovers in St. Louis, apparently. I was all excited. I even wore my eatin’-Southern-food shirt.

We got into the shortest line (Juniper) and waited about 20 minutes, only to reach the tent to learn that they were way behind on frying chicken, and it would be another 20 minute wait. By then it was already 1:00, so we just bought some lemonade and decided to try a different line.

After a few minutes of waiting in the massive Gus’s line, we realized that we were going to wait there a long time, and we had no guarantee of actually getting chicken at the tent. So we decided to leave the festival and go to Southern, the fried chicken restaurant that organized the festival. They had the biggest line of all, so we figured it wouldn’t take long to eat at the actual restaurant.

Wrong again. Apparently a lot of people had the same idea, as there was a very long line outside of Southern, and they appeared understaffed due to the festival.

By this time I was starting to get hangry. I tried to stay calm–no need to ruin the day for the people around me. But there was some urgency, because if I don’t eat meals at the normal time, I tend to get migraines later in the day.

Fortunately there is another restaurant attached to Southern, a well-known barbecue joint called Pappy’s. They also had a long line, but it seemed to be moving faster.

It took a while, but we finally sat down to eat around 2:15. It’s then that I experienced the one good thing about being hangry: Taking that first bite, feeling the nutrients flow into your body, and smiling at your friends while they do the same.

Do you get hangry? My brother recently told me that he doesn’t mind missing meals, because it makes the food taste so much better when he finally gets to eat. I’m not like that, but everyone is different!

6 thoughts on “Do You Get Hangry?”

  1. Oh man, yes, that feeling of your blood sugar returning to normal levels — there’s nothing like it. Sometime in my 30s I finally learned that I should treat myself like a 3 year old on this front, and never leave my house without snacks in my bag. But I’m not sure it would occur to me that that’s necessary when going to a food-based event!

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  2. I have to laugh because even those types of events sound like fun, the reality of being packed in a space with lots of people eager to eat leaves me feeling like cattle in a feed bin. It is also for this reason I prefer to order off menus vs a buffet.

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