In another of his versions from the same narrator:

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ never ate on a dining table, nor from a fine serving bowl, nor was thinly refined bread ever baked for him.”

I said to Anas, “Then on what did they eat?”
He replied, “On the sufrah mats.”

He also transmits—through Qatādah, from Anas—that he once went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with barley bread and rancid fat. Indeed, the Prophet had pawned his coat of mail to a Jew and obtained some barley for his family, and I once heard him say, “The household of Muḥammad did not end the day possessing a single sāʿ of dates nor a single sāʿ of grain.”(1)

Imām Aḥmad said(2): ʿAffān related to us; Abān ibn Yazīd related to us; Qatādah related to us, from Anas ibn Mālik: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ never had both lunch and supper of bread and meat on the same day except when food was being served communally. Al-Tirmidhī likewise narrated it in al-Shamāʾil(3) through ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Dārmī from ʿAffān, and this chain meets the criteria of the two Shaykhs.

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī said(4): Shuʿbah narrated to us, from Simāk ibn Ḥarb. I heard al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr say: I heard ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb delivering a sermon in which he spoke of the conquests Allah had granted the people, and he said, “I have seen the Messenger of Allah ﷺ writhing from hunger, unable to find even the lowest-quality dates with which to fill his stomach.” Muslim also recorded it(5) through Shuʿbah’s narration.

It is authentically reported that Abū Ṭalḥah said, “O Umm Sulaym, I have heard the voice of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and I could recognize hunger in it.”(6) The full report will appear later under the proofs of Prophethood.

In the story of Abū al-Haytham ibn al-Tayyihān: Abū Bakr and ʿUmar went out because of hunger. While they were in that state, the Messenger of Allah came out and asked, “What has brought you two out?” They replied, “Hunger.” He said, “By Him in whose hand is my soul, the very thing that has brought you out has brought me out as well.” They then went to the orchard of Abū al-Haytham ibn al-Tayyihān, who offered them fresh dates and slaughtered a sheep for them. They ate and drank cool water, whereupon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “This is among the blessings about which you will be questioned.”(7)