The Menu
Lunch from Singapore to Seoul
Canapes
Satay
With onion, cucumber and spicy peanut sauce
Appetisers
Oven-baked warm oyster with tomato salsa and coriander cheese sauce in half shell
Terrine of crabmeat and avocado with tomato confit
Green Sauce
Soups
Cream of chanterelle mushroom and ceps with chicken
Clear Oriental broth with bamboo piths and Yunnan ham
Salad
Butter lettuce heart with baby cress and cherry tomato
Sesame soya dressing
Singapore dressing infused in shallot oil with sambal, lime and honey
Main Courses
Pan seared beef fillet served with green peppercorn sauce, sautéed wild mushrooms and baby spinach
Korean style chicken with spicy sauce, jap chae and steamed rice
With soup and kimchi on the side
Seafood and rice vermicelli soup
Rice vermicelli with prawns, fish and vegetables in broth
Rack of lamb in red wine jus with roasted vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes
Salad of oven-dried romatomato with mozzarella cheese, couscous and rocket
Basil pesto and balsamic dressing
Desserts
Black and white chocolate cake with passion fruit coulis
Cheeses
Selection of emmenthal, caprice des dieux, rambol walnut and boursault vache cheeses served with garnishes
Fruits
Fresh fruits in season
- Exclusively created by Georges Blanc, Vonnas
- Specially prepared meatless selection
I didn’t have all the courses because I knew I would just burst – especially since I seemingly never stopped eating ever since the first meal on the SQ317 before this flight. I had the crabmeat terrine which was fairly ordinary save for the fact that it went so well with the small potato pieces. Then the salad – the freshness and flavour of the lettuce was just amazing and it went so well with the dressing. It was like I’ve re-discovered the humble lettuce. Then there was the “chef’s surprise” which seemed to be some sort of a fruit-flavoured soup. I think LSS told me but I can’t recall exactly. Then the rack of lamb…
It was good. No, it was amazing. I don’t know whether I was particularly hungry by that point or what other reason there is, but I enjoyed it so much that the bones were almost polished clean. By now I had switched to a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 Napa Valley) which worked very well with the lamb as well as being a very good bottle overall.
By this point, I really couldn’t breathe due to eating too much, so I asked to have a small break before continuing with the dessert. Naturally, the LSS answered with a bright smile and asked me to let her know. Then, the First Officer came out of the flight deck and was hanging around in the galley so I realised it was my chance to ask him to do me a favour; no, not divert the plane to somewhere that involves flying for an extra 6 hours (although that would have been nice!), but to ask him to take a picture of the cockpit with my camera (since passengers are not allowed in during the flight anymore). He seemed happy enough to grant me my wish, so I gave him my camera and waited.
After a few minutes, I thought I can handle some more food, so when I saw the LSS again I asked her for the dessert. My camera came back as well
with a very good photo of the cockpit both with flash and without flash – the windows were completely white from the light, however. The cake was a strange dome shape which I suppose was somewhat lacking in terms of presentation, but the cake itself was great. I had to really restrain myself to only eat half of it so that I don’t burst. Needless to say, when the LS came around to offer me cheese and fruit, I had to wave a white flag and tell him I can’t really eat anything else.
To finish the meal, I asked for another cup of the Jamaican Blue Mountain.
After that was done and dusted, I decided to try out the bed position with about 3h30m flight time remaining. Of course, it was done instantly with a smile. I thought it would make more sense to ask her to convert 2C into the bed so that I can just switch back and forth.
I was really surprised at just how comfortable it was. Granted, it wasn’t a completely flat mattress like it is in the Suites (presumably), but if there were any bumps or gaps that were enough to detract from a good sleep, I certainly didn’t notice it. I could sleep on my back, on my side, or probably even on my front (though I didn’t try that one). After listening to seat 1A seemingly finish every single item in the galley for a bit (he was
still eating 3h30m into the flight and I think he even had an extra helping of the appetizer as well as all 8 courses on the menu!), I fell asleep and had a decent sleep. Well, I was seemingly caught between extreme tiredness and being kept artificially awake by the excitement of the First Class
because I woke up with about 1h30m flight time remaining rather than being woken up by the LSS roughly T-1h as I asked her to. I had around 1h30m of sleep on the incredible bed and it was amazingly relaxing.
No sooner than when I had moved to my original seat, the LS magically appeared and passed me a small bottle of Evian and asked me whether I wanted anything to drink. I asked for an orange juice as it tasted so great. Armed with a refreshing glass, I explored the 23-inch screen KrisWorld for a while, playing around with a film and also some music. The high resolution of the 23-inch screen was apparent in the menus and the flight map, but the actual video material was different. On feature films (I watched Lions and Lambs for a bit), the resolution was not too bad although the MPEG artefacts were too easy to see. On things like Friends (which seat 1A was watching), the quality couldn’t have been more than a very poor SD. I guess they import the material at different resolutions, but the HDTV resolution of the screen seemed somewhat wasted on the poor quality video.