Great view of the sunset again once airborne

Soon after reaching cruising altitude, the comforting smell of satay filled the cabin and I started to get hungry. Jasmine came around with the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee that I asked for previously, and the IFS came round with the satay. I always love the Blue Mountain coffee on SQ F – such a creamy, smooth scent and flavour. The satay was great as well - a mixture of chicken and lamb. The two things tells me I am on an SQ flight for sure.



The satay disappeared pretty quickly as I was hungry by then. However, the actual meal service didn’t start for 20 or so minutes since they had to heat and prepare all the meals. Here is the menu for the flight:
dinner FROM LONDON TO SINGAPORE (27 March)

Create your gastronomic experience from our selection of tantalising options




SOUPS
Cream of Jerusalem artichoke soup with procuitto ham and chives

Double-boiled chicken soup with ginseng


SALAD
Caesar salad
Romaine lettuce with bacon, Parmesan cheese, croutons and anchovy-garlic dressing


MAIN COURSES
* Pan roasted lamb saddle, rosemary jus, provencal style courgettes, gratinated potato

Stir-fried beef in hot bean sauce served with asparagus, gingko nut, lotus root and fried rice

Indian style chicken tikka in masala spices with braised lentils, okra and cumin rice

Pan fried pancetta wrapped monkfish served with light mustard sauce, artichoke puree, roasted baby carrots

** Roasted vegetables and ricotta cheese lasagne with tomato coulis and arugula salad


DESSERTS
Wwarm apricot frangipane in chocolate tart with vanilla ice cream and raspberry coulis


CHEESES
Camembert, blackstick blue, st. nectaire washed rind and mullkintyre cheddar served with quince paste, grapes, nuts and cracker


FRUITS
Fresh fruits in season


FINALE
A selection of gourmet coffees & fine teas served with pralines

* Exclusively created by Gordon Ramsay, London
** Specially prepared meatless selection


CHAMPAGNE
Krug Grande Cuvee
Dom Perignon 2000

WHITE WINES
Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2007 Marlborough, New Zealand
Beaune du Chateau Premier Cru 2006 Bouchard Pere et Fils

RED WINES
Chateau Cos d’Estournel 1999 Saint-Estephe
Mr Riggs The Gaffer Shiraz 2005 McLaren Vale, Australia

PORT
Dow’s 20 Year Old Tawny Port, Portugal

Another veritable feast in the air. As I normally prefer on SQ, I chose both the Caviar and the crayfish, skipped the salad and the soup, chose the lamb for the main, plus the dessert, but not fruits or cheese. If I ate every single course I would just pop – I don’t know how some people manage to finish every course! Anyway, the photos:


The table setting for the meal. Notice the new tableware that is used on the 77W and Suites and now progressively introduced to the rest of the fleet.


Then the IFS brought the crayfish starter, which I took with a glass of the Burgundy White. I had the caviar as well (which was great, but no cream with the other condiments! Also, I prefer blinis over melba toast) but forgot to take a picture before I wolfed it down. The crayfish was very chunky and had a great texture. Avocado and gazpacho both worked together well with the crayfish. Quite a rich flavour but still felt light in the mouth. The white wine was fantastic.

After the plate was cleared, I asked for a glass of the Cos d’Estournel for the lamb dish that was coming shortly. It needed plenty of time to open up but once it did, the wine lived up to the hype – quite wonderful.


The lamb arrived soon after and – wow. Must be something about SQ and lamb dishes! The lamb was cooked through yet still extremely tender. The flavour was just right, and there was the perfect amount of fat around the meat for my liking. The accompanying potato was great (though probably difficult to make a hack job of gratinated potato!) and the vegetables were also good. It all worked very well together. Previously I’ve tried the Rack of Lamb twice on SQ F and each time it was stunning as well.

After the lamb was finished, I had to take a break as I was beginning to feel like the Michelin man. So, for 20 minutes I just had some wine and waited for my stomach to settle a bit before continuing with the dessert. We were flying towards Warsaw by this point





I didn’t realise it at the time, but when I looked at the photo afterwards I realised that the dessert was plated to look like a smiley face! Although I must say, it looks a bit scary with the raspberry coulis being red – like a clown gone horribly wrong. Anyway the thought was there!

As expected, the quality of the dessert didn’t quite match the rest of the meal – it’s usually too simple, and almost always comes with vanilla ice cream which is fine, but I would really expect something a bit more special considering the high standards for the other courses. The tart was good, although the apricots were a little too sweet - and it did go nicely with the ice cream. But I do wish it was a more elaborate affair such as a proper cake.

Having finished the meal and feeling stuffed like the Christmas turkey, there was only one thing to do – sleep! As seat 3D was free (well, more than half the cabin was free in reality) I asked Jasmine to turn 3D into a bed. Meanwhile, Kelvin came and asked me for my camera – before door close, I asked him whether it would be possible for me to go to the cockpit to take a few photos, and he told me I can’t do that but he will ask the Captain’s permission to take my camera up and take photos for me. However, the 3 days of non-sleeping caught up with me again and before Kelvin came back, I promptly fell asleep in the bed – I hope Kelvin didn’t think I was being rude!

I woke up roughly 4 ½ hours later, and found my camera in my seat complete with some nice pictures from the cockpit: