Dinner at Keo's.

Present: Traveloguy, studio76, lili, KLC, SeeYa, moi.

SeeYa's flight had been late, and she had had some kind of
issue with the taxi driver, so we were ready for our second
round of drinks and were on just getting ready to order
starters when she arrived.

A typical assortment. Spring rolls and summer rolls were
good, the usual, good ingredients, expertly done. I always
lobby for mee krob when I see it - it's puffed noodles in a
sweetish sauce with or without ground meat, commonly eaten
in lettuce wraps. I enjoyed the dish but didn't see too many
others partaking. Stuffed chicken wings were not so good -
they're pretty labor intensive, and clearly these must be
made in big batches and frozen. There was the distinctive
taste of old chicken, sort of reminding you of the Banquet
fried chicken you had as a poverty-stricken kid. The
stuffing was okay if underseasoned - glass noodles and
pork, mostly, not enough spice and not enough fish sauce.
The technique is a bit of a tour de force, as you can see.

The appies were filling: it's good we got only four main
dishes, all of which were tasty but of very mild heat; our
end of the table got some chile flakes to spice things up.

Beef masaman was browner and more stewlike than I'm
accustomed to - I guess the kitchen must have been out of
turmeric or something. Otherwise it was fine.

Evil jungle prince with chicken was a winner, which is only
right, as Keo invented this name for the dish if not the
dish itself. I thought it a bit light on the basil and on
the heat, but it was a very good version.

I forget what the beef and mushrooms in coconut curry was
called on the menu. It tasted good, garlicky as heck, but
the beef was quite tough.

Turns out Traveloguy and I really enjoy eggplant, so that
was our request: it comes with fish, beef, or chicken, but
we asked for it to come with none of the above, as there was
plenty of animal protein already. It was plain but very nice.

Rice, more umbrella drinks for the ladies, beers for the
other guys, and Bourbon for me rounded out the meal.

Said my goodbyes, envying the plans of the others for the
following days; a taxi to the airport was not an impossible
indulgence, and the extra half hour of conversation and
friendship was worth the price.

Check-in and security took a minimal amount of time, and
I was to the gate half an hour before boarding. It was
pretty crowded, so I made my way to the already quite long
red lane line. The guy behind me marveled at the even longer
regular line and said to the guy next to him, this is why
we're 1K. They preboarded some wheelchairs and a couple
families with small children. And then off to the races.
No surprise when I got to my seat that row 1 had taken my
overhead bin, so I glommed the one over 2 center, which
disappointed the guy in the seat belonging to that spot
(directly after me, being Mr. why we're 1K). I wasn't so
kind as to move my bag for him but did point out that
there was still just enough space for his bag above 4
window, if he hustled. Of course, much of the bin space
was eaten up with purses and briefcases ... but on this
aircraft, one fights for as much legroom as possible, so
then one fights for bin space. Not too great first class
product, eh.

The guy in 1B got the person in 1A to switch with his wife,
who was in the hated 6H or J. As 1A walked back, someone
told her she had been nice to trade. "Too nice," she
muttered. I said that it would have been more sensible to
make 1B to move back to row 6. This was the first of 3
iniquitous trades I saw on this return trip.