Delicious Reads for All Types of Travelers

Mexico: Land of one thousand bus rides.

By Mollie Chen
I just got back from a four-day trip to Mexico where I fell in love with corn fungus (more on that later) and the "first class" national bus system. Fung Wah and Greyhound, take note: Mexican buses offer complimentary snack packs and eclectic movie selections, ranging from director Yimou Zhang's soaring Chinese epic House of Flying Daggers to the low-budget 80s heartwarmer The Slugger's Wife. Between approximately twenty hours of flights and driving, I had ample time to catch up on my reading. For your own late summer jaunts, our latest issue has 86 must-reads; in addition, here are some of my most recent food-themed favorites.

Snack Dispatch

By Mollie Chen
If you're like me, you are always on the hunt for the next great in-flight snack (you also keep two desk drawers stocked with granola, chocolate, nuts, and animal crackers). Even if you're not like me, you should still know about the best thing to happen to chips since sour cream and cheddar. The minute I logged onto Pop Chips website, I knew I had found my people. "We're snack fanatics," the founders began. "We think there aren't enough meals in the day." (There is also a Snackers' Credo, which I whole-heartedly identify with.) This California-based company has created a next-generation chip that is (yep, you guessed it) popped instead of baked or fried. They currently have nine varieties, ranging from sea salt rice chips to salsa corn chips, plus a classic potato version. Thicker than your average Lays and made from either potatoes, corn, or rice, these next-generation snacks are all-natural and (honestly) all-around delicious. In a scientific taste taste, editors were lukewarm on wasabi and parmesan garlic flavors but fought over the sea salt corn and barbeque. As for the original potato flavor, well, I snagged that bag for myself.
P.S. They're healthy too.

If you give a girl a cookie...

By Mollie Chen

She is likely to agree to a meeting-even if it involves airplane food at ten a.m. I recently had a deskside (magazine-speak for when very nice press people come to visit you at your embarassingly messy desk, usually bearing sample products, press kits, and, sometimes, food) tasting with the folks from Midwest Airlines. Then again, I am on the never-ending quest for the perfect in-flight meal. I was intrigued by their tales of restaurant-quality food 20,000 miles up. Plus I had heard that they bake chocolate-chip cookies in air.