I've taken two trips in the past two weeks. The first was to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Frontier Airlines. Snacks were available for purchase and they even tried to sell bottled water (although, if you waited a few minutes you could get a cup of water with the regular beverage service). The second trip was to Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Southwest Airlines. Southwest offered as many cheese nips and peanuts as you could eat. While it was a step up from Frontier, it was a far cry from the early days of flying.

In a New York Times article, William Woys Weaver (on a totally unrelated note, I love his name!) writes about how he has been collecting airline menus for the past forty years. Not surprisingly, as airline's food and other offerings degrade, more and more people seem interested in his collection.

The New York Times article also contained some images of menus from his collection which feature items such as Selected Delicacies from Various Countries, Roasted Duckling, and Poached Turbot.

What's the best meal you've had in the air?

It's pretty much a given these days that you don't get much in the way of food on airplanes, especially when you fly in the continental United States. I was shocked to discover on my last flight out to Portland that I was actually served a meal (a microwaved mini pizza, an iceberg lettuce salad, a bag of potato chips and a package brownie). However, when you fly internationally, food is still part of the travel experience, and can range from terrible to excellent.

Over at Gastronomy, Cathy and her boyfriend, Vernon (aka the Astronomer), have spent the last few months in Vietnam. They did an amazing job of documenting all the amazing things they ate while they were there, and now have even gone so far as to photograph and report back on the meals they were served on EVA Airlines. Cathy requested a high fiber meal and was served an amazing assortment veggies, fruits and whole wheat breads. It seems that selecting high fiber is the way to go when flying EVA.

Unless you travel frequently for business, travel season doesn't usually start until late spring, with spring break, or summer, when many people try to get away from it all for a week. The hardest part about being on vacation is eating right, especially because we tend to tell ourselves that it is ok to indulge - a vacation is from your diet, as well as from your job, right? Indulgence is fine, but even on vacation it's not a great idea for every meal. Forbes Traveler offers up some advice on how to travel and stay thin that will come in handy if you want to stay in shape for swimsuit season

Their basic advice to chose lighter salads and sandwiches, especially in airports or other places where they is a lot of fast food and to avoid fried foods, is good for almost any situation. On the plane, avoid the snack packs, which are usually packed with calories and not much in the way of worthwhile munchies. You can always bring your own snacks.

Once you've landed, order sauces on the side and choose from the "light" menu if you is offered, especially when you're eating at the hotel. Save the splurges for when you get to try some of the local cuisine.

Yesterday, NPR's All Things Considered featured a story about how current restrictions on flying with liquids is affecting Napa Valley tourists and wineries. Obviously, it's common to bring some wine back from the wineries you visit, but not being able to carry those bottles on-board a plane is posing a problem that has many wineries worried. The situation is especially troubling to small wineries that rely on sales directly to visitors, as opposed to distributors. Checking glass of any kind in one's luggage is a scary prospect, of course. So, some wineries are offering styrofoam wine carriers that they hope will protect checked wine. Others are offering free shipping on large enough purchases. The styrofoam box pictured here comes from Uline Shipping Supplies.

We have an in-flight food guide that we posted a couple of weeks ago to help Slashfood readers know what they're in for food-wise on several major airlines this summer. This week, the Wall Street Journal actually took to the skies to taste-test some of the meal options on various airlines. Dubbed the "unfree lunches," since you now almost always have to pay for meals and snacks when you fly.

Many of the "snack" boxes contained little food for the shocking amount of calories they contained, and the exact calorie count could not always be determined, since single-serving "cheeses" were often unlabeled. Overall, you'd do best to pass on the "insultingly skimpy" snack box from ATA ($3), which garnered the "worst snack box" award. United Airlines Right Bite Box ($5), by contrast, was voted the "best snack box" because their selections were "smart," reasonably healthy and stocked with popular brands - including organics. Air Canada was praised for their excellent muffin ($2) and offering of Subway veggie sandwiches ($5). As for the rest? Let's just say that packing your own snack is always a good idea.

Just when it seems that we'll never get any decent food on an airplane again, Southwest Airlines has introduced a special on-board snack. Produced by Nabisco, "golden airplane-shaped crackers" mark the airline's 35th anniversary. The unique crackers come in commemorative packaging.

Since Nabisco makes Ritz crackers, which already come in various non-circular shapes, Southwest's crackers will probably be very similar to them. The last time I flew Southwest, they were serving mini-pretzels, which I quite liked for an airplane snack. I'll be sad to see them go, even though Ritz are tasty, too. I'm just hoping that they decide to go with mini-airplanes, because the only thing sadder than not getting a snack on a plane is getting one lone Ritz cracker.

Michelin-starred chef, Marcus Wareing of the Pétrus restaurant at the Berkeley hotel, in the UK, said that the standards in airline fare were higher than that of the average pub. While many pubs rely on canned soups and old sandwiches with little sign of improvement orver the years, the airlines are constantly trying to "up their game." Wareing takes a rather optimistic view of the recent discontinuation of food service on many airlines, however, seeming to imply that the reason they have done this is because they don't want to serve sub-standard food in an effort to cut costs.

Does anyone agree with this? Granted, some of the airlines do try to serve quality foods, but they know that people will eat just about anything on planes and readily take advantage of that fact. The quality of the food may be better from a freshness and food-safety standpoint, but that doesn't change the taste.

It sounds like Wareing needs to frequent some different pubs.

 

 

MSN has posted a list of the top 10 cities for foodies, as determined by a travel site. The cities chosen are all over the globe, picked for a combination of unique dishes, celebrity chefs and all-around good cuisine. Barcelona, Brussels, Lyon and Rome were lauded for their long standing traditions, while Las Vegas and New York were included for having just about everything. While San Francisco did get a nod for its non-Asian cuisine, it seems to have been selected mainly on the availability of good Chinese food. Asian flavors are what put Tokyo, Vancouver and Hanoi on the list, too.

It appears that the definition of a foodie as someone who is willing (and possibly desperate) to eat anything has been put into play with this list, as along with Asian flair, Hanoi was picked for "unusual delicacies like dog or snake," including "fried snake skin, snake spring rolls, snake soup, and minced snake dumpling." Weird meats are all well and good, but to plan a whole trip around them seems a bit extreme.

Nevertheless, their list includes: