Junk Food Nation, please enjoy your last Football-free Sunday until February.  I know I’m going to.  Because from here on out, it is football-your-eyes-out time.  Also, two days left in the Brownie Brittle contest so keep those tweets and re-tweets going!

When I flew to Ireland, I took a combo of JetBlue and AerLingus from the states to the British Isles.  And on the way there and back, on the just the plane alone, there was room for foodie adventures!

It’d been a LONG while since I’ve had airplane food.  I don’t know if that’s good, because airplane food is notoriously subpar, or bad, because it means I have a boring life and haven’t flown far enough to warrant an in-flight meal.  I’m still deciding.

I will say this about the first airplane meal I had, going towards Ireland – besides being halfway decent (the chicken was not bad), it was LAVA BOILING HOT.  I guess they want to make sure you know its cooked. Don’t worry, I almost melted my fork trying to eat this.

On the way back, my in-flight meal was…meh.  If that pool of beef stew looks odd, well, you and me have a mind meld.  It didn’t TASTE that bad, but it certainly wasn’t the MOST appealing food in the world.  It did the job, I guess – stuck to my ribs and stomach lining and digested slowly so that my blood sugar levels were pretty normal through the whole trip home.  Ooof.

Certainly, the highlight of food and flying came from flying JetBlue, which seems to pride themselves on loading you up with so many snacks you forget you’re hurdling through the air in a metal cylinder at hundreds of miles per hour.  On the short leg from DC to Logan in Boston, I got chips, cookies, and a tiny drink…all for a 1.5 hour flight.  Score!

The hallmark of the JetBlue line is certainly their Terra Blues – blue potato chips that are the official snack of the airline.  Honestly, I think potato chips are the perfect airplane food – starch and salt always prevents nausea for me, and they’re damn tasty too.

Made from naturally blue/purple potatoes, these Terra Blues taste like normal potato chips but were thicker cut and crunched very nicely.  They were a coarse cut which helped add to the feeling I was eating something “natural.”

Another option on JetBlue was to get this bag of Linden’s Chocolate Chippers Bite Size Cookies.  When the steward or stewardess comes down the aisle and asks, “Chips or Cookies?” the answer is CLEARLY, “BOTH PLEASE.”  Luckily, the people of JetBlue are super cool and are find giving you both, and even seconds …if you’re a pig….like….me…. *cough*

The actual Linden’s cookies didn’t have as many chocolate chips are displayed on the bag, but that’s fine.  These were standard dry crunchy bite size cookies.  Decent chocolate flavor, and a lot of bleached flour.  Did the trick; not my favorite cookies in the world.

I picked up these King’s Fancy Nut Mix somewhere along the way too.  A premium blend of Almonds, Cashews, and Honey Roasted Sticks is a far cry from the traditional airplane peanut.  And there’s a tree on the front of the package so you KNOW these are good, right?  Right?

You know, these WERE pretty good.  Just fresh nuts covered in salt and sesame sticks covered in honey… the whole thing was like a sweet/salty kettle corn-like nut mix.  This actually might’ve been the best snack of the flight trip – despite it’s plain looking package.

Oh, Walkers Shortbread.  We meet again old friend. Your sweet buttery ways, I’ve not forgotten. Nor your artery clogging caloric count.

Still, despite the fact that you’re not the healthiest snack in the world, how can you not love Walkers Shortbread? Crunchy and OH SO BUTTERY.  They might as well be called buttersticks flavored with sugar, salt, and flour.  Walkers Shortbread is so decadent that imagining them dipped in chocolate or ice cream almost ruins it for me…they need to be eaten alone, and savored.

Of course, a flight isn’t a flight without some Bloody Mary Mix and Worcester Sauce Nuggets.  Wait, what??

The only reference I can find to Penn State as a snack food company comes from a small review of Penn State Worcester Sauce Mini Pretzels.  These flavour nuggets are a whole new ballgame.  And worcester sauce flavored???  My stomach’s churning.

I’ve reviewed Chex Mix a bunch of times on this blog, and I’ve consistently said the same thing: the bread nuggets are the WORST.  You want them to be light and crunchy and full of flavor, but for the most part they are crunchy and light and DEVOID of flavor.  The flavor slides right off!

Well, these Worcester Sauce nuggets were a LITTLE better than that.  Indeed light and crunchy, these nuggets packed a wallop of worcester sauce, smoky and tangy, flavor.  Tasty PRETTY much spot on in terms of the flavor profile, but…I only like worcester sauce on meat, so this was a weird snack for me.

Airplane junk foods have clearly stepped up their game; gone are the days of only peanuts or pretzels. Airline companies like JetBlue are making snacks more available and for that, I salute them.  I know you’re all wondering: Have I saved snacks from almost four months ago just to review now?  Junk Food Nation – you don’t even WANT to know about how long some of the stuff I’ve been saving has been around…

Thoughts? Please comment below (I always reply) or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. Also, you can always email me at junkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com. Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy