Best Short Haul Airline Snack of 2023
From the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, I used to fly the Eastern Airlines Shuttle and then the Pan Am and Delta Shuttle quite often between New York and DC. It was remarkably cheap -- as student I was able to buy a book of 10 tickets to be used at any time (no reservation needed) for under 400 bucks. Even though the flight was less than an hour wheels up to the landing gate, at some point post-1992, the Shuttle du jour offered a snack of chicken fingers. And by that I mean not one or two little breaded nubs, but seven or eight full-sized fingers, with a side of honey mustard for dipping, enough for a hungry boy to make into a meal. It also came with a free beer, usually a Sam Adams.
When my brother started flying the shuttle, he must've taken mostly morning flights, because he became convinced that my tales of glorious poultry snacks were made up. He never got them. Then one day he called me more excited than I'd ever heard him -- he'd gotten the chicken fingers.
Alas, since that time snacks and meals on just about all short domestic flights have gone to crap. Indeed, the shuttles' generosity may have been a contributing factor in why they went belly up. Omnipresent allergies killed the small bag of peanuts. The pretzels are not only the size of your pinky nail, but tend to be stale, too -- and making it worse, the portions are small (Borsht Belt humor at its finest). Have you ever tried to eat a hard granola bar? Just look at one funny and it dissolves into crumbs that disperse everywhere. Occasionally you get a Stroopwafel, and even though it's far from filling or exceptional, you're glad you did just because it's better than the alternative.
That's why I was thrilled by the snack that we received on our short Aleutian Airways hop from Anchorage to King Salmon, Alaska, back in July. Frankly, it was a bare bones plane, half empty and the flight itself was only 30 minutes or so, so I didn't expect much, but when I seized upon the choice of a Rice Krispie treat I was glad that I did, because the stewardess produced a more-than-fist-sized brick of perfection. Frankly, even one half that size would've been acceptable, but they outkicked expectations. Moreover, it was perfect in every way, not so hard that you couldn't rip off a chunk easily, not so soft that the gooey marshmallow residue got stuck to your hands. The flight itself was otherwise uneventful (which I suppose is generally a good thing), but they get major props for their attention to snacking, the perfect bridge between lunch in Girdwood and dinner at Bear Trail Lodge.
