UA 804 SIN NRT 0720 1450 777 9J Ch9^ Empower ^

The good news: this was an XP, and 9J has infinite legroom.
The bad news: none.

chchkiwi in 9D, newself in 9F, bseller in 9H,
WWBGD in 15A, mashg in 15B

Service was exemplary. A very attractive and pleasant
Indian FA. She was happy that her husband was working this
flight, especially with all those greedy FTer eyes on her.

My IFE was kind of wonky, but I made do.

bseller's footrest didn't stay put, so after a flurry of
attention and various failed attempts to fix it, the
solution arrived at was to stack two glass-caddies under
his footrest plus give him a compensation form!

Warm nuts, hot towels.

to begin

Your selected entree will be accompanied by fresh fruit
and breakfast breads

A not bad croissant. I thought of trying the pecan muffin,
but it didn't look sticky enough to woo me. bseller had a
Danish, which he made some offhand comment about; it didn't
look too bad.

main course

Poached eggs on beef tenderloin with Hollandaise sauce;
oven-roasted new potatoes with herbs, buttered asparagus
and carrots

Braised minced chicken with preserved fish and egg noodles,
Taiwanese cabbage and Chinese mushrooms in oyster sauce

Continental breakfast; selection of fresh seasonal fruits,
cereal and yogurt

bseller commented that these didn't sound particularly
appetizing; newself agreed: they had the continental. I went
out on a limb and had the noodle thing, which was about like
what you'd get for S$3 at a hawker center, only the noodles
were mushier and there was about 1/2 as much food. Taiwanese
cabbage was your ordinary bok choy in salt water and
cornstarch. I wonder what SATS or whoever is responsible
charges for catering this meal.

prior to arrival

Focaccia sandwich with sun-dried tomato, roasted eggplant,
peppers and mozzarella; pesto mayonnaise

Today's menu features beef from Australia or New Zealand

1/09
SIN-NRT (B85-S89)
262C119-2

I passed on the snack.

Champagne
Piper-Heidsieck Brut NV Champagne

Mumm Cuvee Napa Brut NV Napa Valley

White wine
Laboure-Roi Abbaye de Fontenay 2007 Montagny (Chardonnay)

Lockwood Vineyard Chardonnay 2007 Monterey

Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc 2006 California

Red wine
Jaboulet Le Paradou 2006 Beaumes-de-Venise (Grenache)

Firestone Vineyards Select Merlot 2005 Central Coast

L de Lyeth Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 Sonoma

Sake
Gekkeikan Sake is available on flights to and from Japan

Beverages
Sandeman Founders Reserve Porto will be offered during the
main meal's dessert

Starbucks coffee will be available throughout the flight


The bubbly was again the Cuvee Napa.

We landed a bit early, but that extra time was chewed up by
the huge line at transit security, where United's feeble
attempt to make life easy by putting up a GS/1K/FC sign was
thwarted by there being nobody to police this line, so it
ended up being if anything slower than the other line.

Had an hour at the NH lounge, which was its usual excellent
self. newself and chchkiwi excused themselves for their LAX
flight, and we went to the sake bar:

Shochu kaeda is a distilled sweet potato liqueur that tasted
for all the world like cheap moonshine - raw nuts on the
nose, fire on the palate, an odd starchy aftertaste. bseller
didn't like it; I thought it was okay.

Chomeisen ginjo karakuchi was pretty much what you expect,
pleasantly fruity, slightly sweet.

There was a third, which had no alphabetic identification -
flavors of melon and citrus, fairly nice but not as good as
that second.

After a few kanpais it was time to say goodbye to the
Chicago Three; I went back to the RCC to wait for
CanadianPie's brother, but his plane was delayed, and I had
to run off to the gate, where my boarding pass was rejected
by the reader!