With time seemingly meaning less and less, especially for those in lockdown, snacking after dark becomes ever more enticing, writes Charlotte Muru-Lanning.

There’s something enchanting about the prospect of food late at night. To me, kai at that time feels liberating because it sits outside the conventions of regular and accepted meal slots: breakfast in the morning, lunch at midday and dinner in the evening. When you’re eating in the depths of night – rather than eating because you should – you’re responding to your base desires, an immediate hankering for something sweet, salty, umami or oily.

Studies have suggested that our internal circadian rhythms increase our appetite and cravings for sweet, starchy and salty foods in the evening. This was useful historically – it helped our ancestors store more energy and increased their chances of surviving when food became scarce. 

So having established that late-night snacking is in our DNA, what should we eat? TikTok and YouTube abound with joyful midnight-snack recipes like fluffy pancakes, deep-fried jalapeño poppers, or even plates of perfectly seared salmon resting on roasted vegetables. In the real world, however, I firmly believe midnight snacks should not require sieving, whisking, blending or more steps than I can count on one hand. 

Think of any scene from a film that includes a midnight snack. It’s about bowls of ultra-sweet cereal, slices of cold pizza, or white bread slathered with a thick layer of Hellman’s mayonnaise. Or, more questionably, especially in Covid-19 times, glugging milk straight from the bottle.

As a very discerning YouTube commenter wrote in response to a compilation of frustratingly fiddly midnight snack recipe videos, “I don’t feel like pulling a Gordon Ramsay at 2am”. Inspired by that wise commenter, here are some deeply unimpressive but nevertheless honest ideas for when you get those inescapable late-night cravings.

Rice 

Leaving rice to cook in a steamer gives you the perfect amount of time to pop your pyjamas on, wash your face, put on a face mask (the beauty treatment kind) and do whatever else you need to do to sign off for the day. When you return to your perfectly cooked rice, eat it with soy sauce, sesame oil, Kewpie mayo or Lao Gan Ma chilli sauce. You could even top it with a fried egg or spam, or with a sprinkle of bonito flakes if you’re in need of a bit more depth. If you’ve got leftover rice in the fridge, a bowl of fried rice requires very little effort. In its most basic form you’ll want garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce and egg, but further additions are always welcome.

Pottled things

This is the realm of yoghurts, ice creams and those wonderful microwave steamed puddings. Pottles are a sweet-toothed late-night snacker’s best friend, with the added bonus that you only need a spoon to eat them. 

Bread

Toasted sandwiches, cheese on toast or quesadillas all taste especially magical at night, eaten sleepily in pyjamas. But bread-based suppers need not be limited to the savoury. Slices of brioche or challah bread filled with chocolate and marshmallows might be the best after-dark dessert I’ve ever had. Whether you’re in the mood for sweet or savoury, a toasted sandwich has your back. Not in the mood for cheese? A non-dairy snack that’s as delicious as it is easy is a spring onion pancake. You’ll find packets of them in the frozen section of Asian supermarkets. No defrosting necessary – all they need is a fry on each side in a pan. Another good option: take a note from Nigella Lawson and make yourself a cold fish finger sandwich straight from the fridge.

Instant noodles

It’s always useful to keep a variety of instant ramen on hand (Ottogi spicy jin ramen, Samyang Carbo, Mie Goreng barbeque chicken and Nissin Kyushu black garlic ramen are on heavy rotation for my twilight eats). And there’s a bewildering array of ways to upgrade a packet, depending on your mood. Take your pick from miso, soy sauce, egg, Kewpie mayo, minced garlic, sriracha, peanut butter, sausage, greens, seaweed sheets, kimchi, mushrooms, pickled ginger, Lao Gan Ma, sesame oil, butter, tteokbokki rice cakes, garlic powder, tomato sauce, onion, coconut milk, canned corn, milk, chinkiang vinegar, chilli oil or cheese. And that’s just for starters.

Or of course, you could simply follow the instructions on the back of the packet.

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In 2021, the things we do and the things we eat are far less bound by time and place than they used to be. Just six years ago, McDonald’s Aotearoa had a separate menu for breakfast and for the rest of the day. You couldn’t order hotcakes after 10.30am, and you couldn’t order a burger for breakfast. When I was a teenager, the idea of getting McDonald’s delivered or eating their hash browns for dinner was literally the stuff of dreams. Now, I can order a single McMuffin to my doorstep at 11pm if I feel like it. 

Meanwhile it feels that, for many of us, our unhealthy fixation on work has seeped into our approach to cooking and eating. Appliances like dishwashers and stand mixers, sold to us under the guise of making things easier, have at the same time encouraged us to attempt increasingly complex and time-consuming dishes.

But after-dark eating doesn’t have to involve unnecessary labour. While some might enjoy a methodical post-dinner cooking session, it could be good for us to take the opportunity to put the electric mixer down, eat a helping of leftover pad Thai straight from the fridge, and let ourselves be lazy, even if just for a moment.