snackdown! - 2.19.10

it's official, world. it's been a world-class week ever since they lit up the doobie-inspired olympic flame in vancouver last friday. personally, i haven't watched a single minute of the games but from what i hear, we've already had triumph & heartbreak & even death. throughout it all, we've had copious mcdonald's commercials advertising their "sweet chili sauce," the very same duck saucesque sauce eaten by olympians in the olympic village! the same sauce eaten by all those world-class athletes who've decided to wait until the week of competition to say "fuck all" to the strict diets they've been adhering to during their years of training & start wolfing down athlete-sized portions of chicken mcnuggets. maybe the curlers are able to get away with eating mcdonalds, but i'm even skeptical of that. regardless...world-class week.

• last friday, as part of little debbie's 50th anniversary celebration event, airtran unveiled the "little debbie 1," a boeing 717 jet with little debbie's smiling face plastered onto the side of it. in addition to introducing the plane, airtran & little debbie be cross-promotin', giving away fifty vacation packages to lucky customers. at the event, they also announced the winner of their little debbie look-a-like contest, tennessee seven-year old rhea lynne connor. i don't know. she sorta looks like little debbie. since she won, her face is going to be featured on boxes of little debbie for a limited time. too bad she doesn't get it on the side of a plane. (seattle post-intelligencer)


• in the category of "that's bloody disgusting," starting today chessington world of adventures, a u.k. theme park, will be giving away free sample bags of edible insects to guests. theme park general manager david smith has given the insect treats a test & gives them the thumbs up, but he's general manager of a theme park with an area called "beanoland," so you sort of have to take his opinion with a grain of salt. if it turns out that people actually enjoy the bags of edible insects, they plan to start selling them in "wild asia," the new asian-themed area of the park. what can we learn from this? asian people are synonymous with eating bugs. (the telegraph)


• are you obsessively following the olympics? does anyone even do that anymore? if you are olympic-obsessed, you're probably the type of person who would get a kick out of making your very own olympic-themed snacks. luckily, the philly inquirer has offered up a recipe for nanaimo bars, a british columbia coffee shop staple. the treats, which are named for a town on vancouver island, are made up of three layers, "a chocolate-graham cracker base embedded with coconut and nuts; a buttercream middle enriched with vanilla custard; and a smooth dark chocolate top." if you're fancy, you can even top them with icing in the shape of the olympic rings. they're apparently pretty fattening, but what do you care? it's not like you're competing in the olympics or anything. (philadelphia inquirer)


• i don't know what's up with nicolas sarkozy's conservative-republican party, but they seem to have issues with the french muslim population. first they go & ban burqas & headscarves & now that quickburger (a local chain) has started serving burgers made with beef slaughtered according to sharia law, they've got their panties in a bunch again. apparently they're extremely concerned that the existence of sharia meat will lead to cultural isolation. um, yeah. the best way to promote cultural harmony is to take issue with a certain section of the population's religious-based dietary habits. that makes perfect sense. keep up the good work, france! (ynetnews)


• cnn, the cable news channel known for seamlessly blending disaster stories, celebrity breakdowns & political scandal into award-winning news programs, has jumped on the snack bandwagon with their "snack nation" column, a part of their tokyo-based "cnn go" coverage. the column, which provides coverage of different japanese snacks, has in the past taken a look at items such as "chocolate sparkling soda" & "pepsi azuki" (a red bean-based beverage). this week, they reviewed kirin's "espresso tea," a black tea product. according to the review, it actually tastes more like a cafe au lait than espresso, but what did you expect? after all, it's a tea leaf-based canned beverage. from what i can tell, there's not a lick of "espresso" in it...crazy japanese. (cnn go)

nosh nook #94 - thursday, july 23, 2009

united airlines expands choice menu meal, snack options (link)
07.22.09 - pr newswise

over the last week, i've had three opportunities to fly the wicked awesome skies of united airlines. only once did i have the opportunity to sample their food/drink service. the OJ with ice was nice & all, but there wasn't even an offer of food. granted, one leg only had fifty people or so (& a cute dog! right in the seat in front of me!), but i didn't even get a bag of crappy peanuts thrown my way. apparently under three hours = bev service only.

according to a press release issued yesterday, on august 1st, travelers on most united flights over two hours will be treated to the airline's new line of four "choice menu" snackboxes. the four choice menu choices--"active," "classic," "luxe" & "organic"-- replace the current "smartpack," "minimeal," "quickpick" & "rightbite" options. wow. thatsa lotta branding.

the press release doesn't really get into what these vague terms mean, but there are mentions of a blueberry muffin, gourmet deli plate & continental breakfast in the morn, roast beef, turkey & caprese sandwiches, a cheese tray & mediterranean, southwestern & chicken caesar salads the rest of the time. you can always get mixed berry yogurt parfaits, a la carte items & premium beverages including strawberry smoothies.

maybe if they'd hooked me up with some of that awesomeness, i wouldn't have cared about being delayed or canceled on every single leg of my journey. shit, they could've made me happy with 15-20 peanuts.

nosh nook #70 - friday, june 19, 2009

the worst airline food (link)
06.18.09 - chicago tribune - by phil vettel

a few years back, mostly during that pre-9/11 era, i used to fly all the time, as i travelled around the country for both work & play. i'm no longer a travelling salesman, so i no longer travel for work nor do i make the kind of scratch that allows me to travel as often for play. as a result, i've been sort of sheltered from all the craziness that the airlines have been experiencing over the last few years, most notably the addition of baggage fees & the subtraction of free in-flight meals.

as far as those in-flight meals go, phil vettel, a food critic for chicago tribune, well...he just ain't having em. as he notes, according to a survey from seatguru.com (not "duh! magazine"), if you want to get a good in-flight meal, you've got to go with international carriers--singapore airlines & air france--who have the best quality. the worst quality in-flight meals come from american airlines, united & us airways. since vettel's a food critic, i respect his opinion when he says, "your dog gets better snacks at a sidewalk-cafe brunch in chicago than you can expect flying economy on most u.s. carriers." oh snap! you just got served, u.s. air carriers!...except for continental. they're the only u.s. carrier included among the airlines with the best food.

i'll be flying united in july for the first time in as long as i can remember (not that i can even remember what i had for breakfast on monday, but still), so i'm looking forward to experiencing first hand just how crappy their in-flight food is, although it's only a three hour flight, so there's a good chance there won't even be an in-flight meal. lucky for me, the survey also honors united as one of the u.s. carriers that has "the least comfortable economy-class seats and the rudest flight attendants."  since that's the case, i probably won't even miss the in-flight meal, as i'll be too occupied with shifting in my seat every five minutes & trying to avoid getting yelled at by the flight attendants...friendly skies indeed.