Akademik

(KUP-hohl.dur kwee.zeen)

n.

Food meant to be consumed while driving in a car or truck and that comes in a package designed to fit inside a cup-holder.

This year Kellogg's started selling cereal cups designed for cup holders; as commute times increase — the average driver spends 34 hours a year just idling in traffic — breakfast is often served in the car. Kellogg's hasn't yet figured out a way to feed you dashboard cereal without a spoon, but Campbell's has managed to solve a similar challenge: in June, the company started selling Soup at Hand, a disposable, insulated, cup-holder-size container with a sip lid.

— Rory Evans, "Cup-holder cuisine," The New York Times, December 15, 2002

Yoplait Nouriche Smoothie (Price: $1.89 per 11-ounce bottle. Calories: 290 per bottle.)

Nutrition is the selling point for this very recent addition to the yogurt game. It calls itself "the only yogurt smoothie with the nourishment of a meal," what with the addition of 20 vitamins and minerals and whey protein. That last addition makes for a thick product — something approaching regular Yoplait yogurt in consistency. "The yogurt flavor is quite pronounced. It's like there's hardly any fruit in this," said one taster about the raspberry variety, which according to the label gets some of its berry blush from beet juice. The peach variety had a similarly slight fruit flavor. The hourglass-shaped container makes it ideal cup-holder cuisine for slurping while driving, however.

— Luis Zaragoza, "New products tweak yogurt for U.S. palates," San Jose Mercury News, August 28, 2002

Cup-holder cuisine is the latest salvo in the commuter food (1987) wars. In fact, drive-time dining (1997) has become so popular that the food industry now has a separate food-in-the-car (1998) category to keep an eye on the latest trends. Here, dashboard diners are often referred to, unflatteringly, as mobile stomachs (1998) and marketers fight for stomach share (1984) instead of market share. They refer to a morning meal eaten within the car as a carfast (2000) or a dashboard breakfast (1991).