More people in the U.S. travel around Thanksgiving than during any other time of the year, all in the pursuit of a home cooked turkey dinner with family and friends. Unfortunately, that journey home typically takes the traveler past a number of dining options that aren't nearly as tasty as the Thanksgiving meal.
PlanetEye has put together a list of the best airport food options in the world, all in the hopes that they might spare a few lucky travelers the pain of having to eat a lousy sandwich or a pale, lifeless salad. Some of the domestic airports with tasty food include Boston's Logan Airport (you're never far from a Legal Seafood), McCarran in Las Vegas (try Moe's at Gate A) and O'Hare in Chicago, home to an outpost of Billy Goat Tavern (in Terminal 1) which was made famous in SNL's Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger sketch.
How do you handle food when you're traveling? Do you eat at the airport, bring a sandwich with you or do without?
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.
Some might already be aware of the blog that Baier has been keeping for the past few months. In the Men's Health piece, Baier's battle is chronicled, but there are a ton of tips and tricks in there too for people who want to get into shape, especially busy travelers like Baier. Some of the "tips from the road:" Forget about the menu (decide what you want before you see all the options), invite a new client to dinner (studies show we eat less in front of strangers), and make sure you check out your hotel and the area to see where the best gyms are.
He says it's hard to eat well when the food on Air Force One is so good, but he's had success. He lost 20 pounds in 8 weeks.
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.
The newest issue of Cooking Light, which is their 20th anniversary issue, has the magazine's choices for the top 20 cities in the US, based on 15 criteria that they feel embody their "Eat Smart, Be Fit, and Live Well" philosophy. They looked at fitness, health and exercise data from the Centers for Disease Control, the number of parks and recreation areas (and how often they're used) from the Trust for Public Land, restaurant ratings from the Zagat Survey and James Beard Foundation, and the USDA's farmers markets listings. Everything was evened out on a per capita basis and the cities with the most of everything made the top cut.
One of the top ten cities will be featured each month in the magazine this year, so readers will have access to information about all the things that got the city their ranking.
1. Seattle, WA 2. Portland, Ore. 3. Washington, D.C. 4. Minneapolis, MN 5. San Francisco, CA 6. Boston, MA 7. Denver, CO 8. Milwaukee, WI 9. Philadelphia, PA 10. Tucson, AZ
Airlines are all over the map in terms of what food they will offer, if any, on flights. Some lines stick to small packages of peanuts or pretzels, while others offer snack packs (that usually have to be purchased) or, in a few cases, full meals. The Diet Detective did a little investigating and found out, from a nutritional standpoint, which airlines are giving out food worth eating and on which flights you're better off bringing a snack from home.
United - offers variety and healthy choices in four different meal types, Smartpack, 895 cal; Minimeal, 560 cal; Quickpick, 655 cal; Ritebite, 625 cal. The Smartpack and Ritebite are your most balanced options.
Continental Airlines - doesn't have all the options that United does, but the meals are definitely health-oriented with pretzels and sandwiches made with low-fat mayo. Turkey, 285 cal; Ham, 316 cal.
JetBlue - has a number of individually packaged, portion-controlled snacks, including Nabisco 100 calorie packs, Doritos Munchies Mix, Mrs. GoodCookie Jungle Crackers, All Nuts Jumbo Cashew Halves.
American Airlines - skip the breakfast muffin, but the meat, nuts, raisins and cheese in the 710-calorie snack pack are filling.
US Airways - offers a fairly low calorie snack pack (470 cal), but lacks any real nutritional punch. Try the fruit/nut mix and skip the rest
Delta Air Lines - again, the fruit and nuts are worth eating in Delta's snack pack, but the rest of the 766 cal meal can easily be skipped.
Jane and Michael Stern, the pair behind the Roadfood website and Roadfood, the ultimate in-car food resource, have just released Two for the Road. It's part cookbook, part culinary travel guide and all great storytelling. The book chronicles their adventures - most of which happen over food, of course - all across the country, traveling more than 3 million miles across tiny dirt roads and busy highways. They have a fantastic eye for detail, from the tie of the man who sold them their first car to the mouthwatering perfection of hash browns at a diner in a town that is a speck on a pastel-colored state map. On top of the wonderful, fun-to-read text, ending each of the chapters are recipes that they have collected on their travels, so you can make some of the best "road foods" at home after you read about them - if you're not in the car and on the road yourself before you finish the book.
Planning on doing some traveling this summer? Looking for a list of the dining hot spots that you should stop
by for a memorable meal? Start with the go list from Food and
Wine magazine, which picks out 376 restaurants chosen by "plugged in correspondents" from 50 cities around
the world. They have the goods on restaurants like Michael Mina in San Francisco, Rockpool in Sydney, Ferran Adria's
Fast Good in Madrid and Felix in Hong Kong, including a picks at both the high and lower ends of the price range.
Now, it's not possible that a list like this, even such a large one, would have all the great eats of any given
city, but you aren't likely to have a bad meal by picking any of their choices. If you're traveling somewhere a little
off the beaten path that isn't on the "go list," or are looking for something specific, it might be best to
turn to another source of restaurant information. And the best resource, in my opinion, when traveling and looking for
good eats is still Chowhound. Take some time to browse through their archives and
look for recommendations, or pose a question on their message board if you're looking for something specific - like the
best mexican food in Boise, ID.
That's the word from Fox News Channel Chief White House Correpsondent Bret Baier, who 
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 
The newest issue of 
Airlines are all over the map in terms of what 
Planning on doing some traveling this summer? Looking for a list of the dining hot spots that you should stop
by for a memorable meal? Start with 
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