UA 838 NRT SFO 1725 0920 744 15A Ch9

Old-style gate security with all bags opened and pawed.
Otherwise no big deal.

to begin
smoked salmon rose, sweet sesame pork
vegetable sushi and pickled ginger

This consisted of blandish salmon, the least good I've had
on UA in a while, but still decent; very dry pork; and
a sweet fat roll that tasted sort of like an inarizushi.

fresh seasonal greens
Blue Cheese or Sesame Vinaigrette

main course
pan-seared filet mignon with balsamic onion demi-glace
Baked stuffed potato with chives and asparagus

Key lime and honey chicken breast with mango lime sauce
Jambalaya rice and green beans with macadamia nuts

washoku zen selection
Appetizers of snapper sushi, simmered shrimp, lightly salted
flounder wrapped in seaweed, chicken in cod egg role, baby
bamboo with dried fish flakes, beef sirloin with Japanese
dressing, maitake mushroom and cha-soba noodles topped with
simmered shimeji mushroom

A main course of salmon topped with chestnut paste and
grilled eringi mushroom, chestnut, green beans and carrot
flower served with steamed rice and Japanese pickled
vegetables. Served with green tea.

I usually order the beef as first choice and the Japanese
second, and almost always I get the beef and make some 1P
happy. This ranges from total hockey puck gross to pretty
acceptable. This time, surprisingly, my filet was large,
blood-rare, and of near restaurant quality. Its sauce was
nasty though onion scented: I scraped it off and had an
excellent piece of meat. Very good baby asparagus,
artistically arranged as a picket fence next to the steak.
The potato looked suspiciously cheesy and mealy and not
worth the carbs.

My seatmate, who looked like Alton Brown, the jerky
commentator on Iron Chef America, had the chicken; he ate
most of it, which indicates to me that he probably wasn't.

dessert
international cheese selection
Colby, Jack, Camembert

Eli's cherry frangipane tart
With creme anglaise and pistachio

I passed on these, having experienced Colby, Jack, Camembert
and Eli's cherry frangipane tart before.

prior to arrival
vegetable frittata with oven-roasted tomato sauce
Pork link sausage

fresh seasonal fruit plate
With creamy yogurt

The frittata was an "unclear on the concept" mishmosh
of chopped leftover broccoli and bok choy and unidentified
other things in a loose custard; its sauce was and tasted
bright red - sort of like canned stewed tomatoes. The
sausage was a Li'l Smoky and welcome.

Today's menu features beef from Australia

For this flight I merely dozed, being mostly enthralled
by the offerings on the AVOD. Actually, no, the Classical
selection is pretty bare (you know that something is wrong
when the best things are the Andre Previn guitar concerto
and his wheezy bitonal version of Mack the Knife), and
XM Radio is an abomination. Plus I don't watch movies much.
Actually, I don't know why I didn't get more sleep on the
flight. The service was fine, by a very senior crew.

Though I was fat at the Do, I was blowing up like a
balloon even more on the plane.