Junk Food Nation, let me start out this hump day by mentioning that on Monday I wondered who the heck hasn’t used e-mail in this day-and-age. And then the commenters let me know – old people, with some exceptions, REALLY haven’t used e-mail at ALL. Forgot Twitter or Facebook. Some people offline told me they have to help their grandparents turn on their computers.  So, I stand corrected and apologize to all older folks. I guess it’s more common than I thought. Still bizarre to me.

Moving on: So next week, I’ll be traveling to Vegas for the first round of March Madness. I can’t help it – the gambling / sports degenerate in me comes out to play once a year and NEEDS TO BE FED. Fed with many rounds of over/unders and “First-to-15” bets. (I just learned about these yesterday. HOLY HELL HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THESE SOONER. Dangerous.)

Anyways, I’ll be flying out there next Wednesday, but don’t you worry – I’ve still got posts lined up for your enjoyment. My question for today is: do you ever bring snacks on a plane? Sure, on a plane, you might get plenty of liquid snacks (something I am quite looking forward to) and if you’re lucky and fly JetBlue or the like, you might get more than a tiny bag of pretzels thrown at you…but otherwise, what is your GO-TO food/snack when you fly long trips?

Here at Dulles Airport, there is a Chipotle RIGHT outside the Virgin gate I typically travel out of, so it became sort of a habit for me to grab a burrito for mid-flight. Yes, I am that passenger who breaks out a full smelly burrito right next to you when you’re just trying to read a book. HEY, IT DOESN’T SMELL THAT MUCH DEAL WITH IT THIS CARNE ASADA IS DELISH. But when I fly out of any other gate, I unfortunately usually revert to buying some of those random snack mixes from a Hudson News. You know, the ones where it’s like “dried fruit” or “Asian rice cracker mix” and the prices are something absurd like “2 for $9!” Yet, strangely, that’s STILL cheaper than anything else in the store. Grumble. Just give me those peach rings, ok?

Those generic snack mixes are never satisfying. I went through a phase where I’d pack peanut butter and jelly for flights, but felt weird asking the flight attendant for napkins randomly. I remember one flight where I brought a Costco size box of Cheezits from home. It was glorious. I haven’t planned that well in a long time.

I’ve seen people bring pita chips and big ass tank of hummus on a flight, dipping away happily. I’ve seen people disassemble whole grapefruits with plastic spoons with no regard for their neighbors. I’ve seen someone eat a small sack of cherries, spitting pits the ENTIRE TIME INTO THE CLEAR PLASTIC DRINK CUP NOOOOOOOOO.

But what about YOU, JFNation? What’s YOUR go-to food on a flight? Let me know in the comments below.

Today’s junk food: AirHeads Xtremes Fruitiest Fruit Ditz Ice Cream!!

I spotted these AirHeads Xtremes Fruitiest Fruit Ditz Ice Cream at my local grocery store and posted it on Instagram to surprising fanfare. Give the people what they want, right? Well, here you go. I myself have been a fan of Dippin’ Dots in the past, although the last time I had them was probably…three, four years ago? All I remembered was that the super frozen pellets were SO COLD they’d stick to all parts of my tongue. Which is fun…sort of. Then they’d eventually melt and turn into a runny ice cream, and I’d feel like I need to eat like eight cups of these little buggers to form a proper ice cream serving.

Hmmm. Maybe I’m NOT that much of a fan of Dippin’ Dots.

AirHeads Xtremes Fruitiest Fruit Ditz Ice Cream is not the only flavor in their new line of Dippin’ Dots-like frozen treats…they also come in Mixed Berry flavor. I went for the XTREEEEEME one because I wanted to see what super sour Dippin’ Dots would taste like.

Plus…these are called DITZ? Which are described as “mini bitz of ice cream prone to awesome”? I don’t even know where to begin…so why don’t YOU do it for me in the comments below.

AirHeads Xtremes Fruitiest Fruit Ditz Ice Cream are sweetly sour…

…and come in three flavors: blue = blue raspberry, green = green apple, and orange = well, orange.

AirHeads Xtremes Fruitiest Fruit Ditz Ice Cream contain not too many calories, and lots of natural and artificial flavors. Per usual.

AirHeads Xtremes Fruitiest Fruit Ditz Ice Cream came in boxes of four little tubs, which when flipped over…

…revealed the pellets inside!  I have to say – AirHeads Xtremes Fruitiest Fruit Ditz Ice Cream gets points for fun factor. The colors ARE somewhat vibrant, and when I shook the package, they did rattle like beads – the integrity of each little ice cream ball was solid; no partial melting.  Good execution structure-wise, AirHeads.

Unfortunately, that’s where the fun stopped. To be fair, this AirHeads Xtremes Fruitiest Fruit Ditz Ice Cream wasn’t BAD – it just didn’t live up to what I wanted. The pellets were NOT as cold as Dippin’ Dots and melted SLIGHTLY easier than Dippin’ Dots. That said, there was no partial melting until I got almost to the very end of the bowl. So, not QUITE as liquid-nitrogen frozen as DD, but still pretty good. Did not achieve that weird stick-to-my-tongue effect.

But the main strike against these is the flavor. NOT sour; BARELY sweet!  I mean, I was shocked at how muted the flavors were OVERALL. Yeah, I tasted the color pellets separately, and I could taste a TINY bit of orange, maybe imagine tasting some apple, etc. But mainly, I just tasted a general REALLY muted fruit flavor, such that the resultant melted ice cream flavor was more of just a super creamy rainbow sherbet flavor. And that was IT. These weren’t bold at ALL, and they certainly weren’t XTREEEEMMMME.

I wouldn’t buy these again, unfortunately. The structure is fun, but not enough to make up for the lack of flavor. Again, they didn’t taste bad – but they didn’t live up to my expectation.

PURCHASED AT: Giant Grocery, Van Ness, DC

COST: $5.79!!! (OUCH)

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy