How to eat like a geek

by Alanna Kaufman, Posted Jul 1st 2008 @ 12:01PM

Geeks have a lot of street cred these days. It's their moment, you could say. They own cool grown-up toys and wear hot glasses and everyone wants to befriend them or marry them or something. And now, geeks even have their own culinary genre: geek food.

According to Urban Dictionary, geek food is considered high-calorie, often caffeinated, easy-to-make food that works with the lifestyles of techies and the like (check out this geek food pyramid). For those looking to try out some geek recipes, this Geek Food Podcast (which is sadly no longer posting) teaches everything from Donkey Kong bars to Wookies (the perfect snack for watching Star Wars). Geek food is by no means limited to sweets and snacks, though, or even to American dishes. This article on Geek Delicacies reports that sushi and various forms of take-out are absolutely within the genre.

Additionally self-proclaimed geek boyfriend informs me that pizza is another classic geek food, and that in the book Microserfs (about computer programmers), a character only eats flat foods like pizza and cheese for weeks, as these are the only foods that his friends can slip beneath his door while he works. Okay geeks, I know you are out there. It's your turn: What do you eat?

Filed Under: Trends
Tags: geek food, GeekFood, geeks, pizza, Star Wars, take-out

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-01-2008 @1:13PM Chris Furniss said... Out of all my Geek friends, I'm the only one who really cooks seriously (save one or two who like to treat themselves now and again). Most of my friends go out to eat or were raised on frozen food (dorm food, too). So I like to have people over for elaborate, multi-course dishes. Usually I turn to the French Laundry Cookbook or a recipe from my childhood, typically french/italian bistro fare. Weekly staples for me are a nice roast chicken, marinated steak with balsalmic glaze, artichokes with home made mayo to dip and caprese salad. Often times I'll become obsessed with one particular method, doing it over and over again until I get it right. In college it was bread, and now it's mayo. I love the process and the varied flavors you can accomplish with the right additives. And after you whisk so hard your arm falls off, you feel pretty accomplished. :)
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7-01-2008 @2:18PM Misca said... I am a total geek.
But really I hate cooking for myself. If there are other people involved I'd not think twice about making home made perogies to stuffed bell peppers to ginger glazed broccoli and chicken, or even homebake breads.

Now, when I'm alone its another story. Then I worship the egg. I poach an egg eat it over a toast point or buttered pasta. I scramble it and eat it over rice with soy. I boil it and dab it with shiracha. And I ALWAYS have like a 5 lb bag of frozen veggies (various mixes, right now its green beans, broccoli, carrots, onions and get this--grapes!) that I can steam or toss in olive oil real quick to replace said eggies at any time. Or accompany if I'm REALLY hungry.
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7-01-2008 @2:29PM Meg said... As a gamer, I stick with many finger foods/snack foods when I game. Usually pizza, mini corn dogs, sausage balls, etc. When I COOK, I go more gourmet and play around with new recipes. I'm on a Japanese kick right now so it's a lot of udon noodles and things of that nature.
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7-01-2008 @3:00PM Cleo said... Mhmm geek food. I work in an engineering firm and I can report that everyone hear loves pizza, bagels and coffee. In fact, if you want to guarantee people show up to a meeting serve any of those three.

I have a candy dish on my desk and the favorite of almost everyone are the Twix bars. I'm more partial to Sour Patch kids myself.

When I was in college, my breakfast of choice was a bottle of Coke and Pop Tarts. So tasty, so bad for you.

A few of us (myself included) cook. My husband cooks like a chemist, measuring everything perfectly while I have taken more to cooking like a Greek (my heritage) in that I toss things in and estimate by eye.
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7-01-2008 @3:51PM kgb1001001 said... I'm proudly a geek, and love cooking for my family and friends. I tend to cook standard American/Midwestern/Southern dishes, although I will occasionally drill into my much-appreciated copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and pull out something more elaborate.

There are more of us than you would imagine; Once I was on a technical conference call with a dozen or so engineers the day before Thanksgiving -- wouldn't you know that almost ALL of us were going to be doing the cooking for Thanksgiving dinner, and we had a surprisingly informed and detailed conversation on the pros and cons of brining, organic, kosher and heritage turkeys, stuffing recipes, and the secrets of making good giblet gravy.

For an entire subculture reflecting this, see the Cooking for Engineers website and blog at www.cookingforeengineers.com
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7-02-2008 @3:58AM Bernie B said... The older geeks I know have really gotten into Asian foods. Thai, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. There's great flavors to be had, and often you can get quality food very reasonably.

Locally, I'm fortunate enough to have an Udon restaurant nearby. Fantastic little place known as "The Udon Sushi Bakery" in Lansing, Michigan.

Sushi is still appreciated, but the market here is a bit saturated at the moment. When "sushi" is sold in supermarkets you have to wonder.
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7-03-2008 @10:56AM Matt said... I'm a geek and I do cook actual food very frequently, but for this topic, geek food of choice has got to be Pocky.
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