Cathay Pacific 841 continued
In true on-demand fashion, I ordered one of the desserts from the lunch menu (the berries and cream), along with the famous hotpot rice (which I was warned would take 20+ minutes to make.)
Berries and cream. The berries were great - but I don't think it should have been plated like this? (Previous TRs has shown this dessert on CX white china.)
2014-04-09 17.41.57 by
jurastudent, on Flickr
Tablecloths were laid out and the hotpot rice and chicken broth were brought over by Sara.
2014-04-09 18.23.36 by
jurastudent, on Flickr
The hotpot rice with chicken and preserved meats. It was good, but not quite like other claypots I've had. I'm a big fan of the crusty, burnt rice that builds at the bottom and this one didn't have any. Oh well, it's a limitation of what can be served on a plane I guess.
2014-04-09 18.23.24 by
jurastudent, on Flickr
Chicken broth. Nothing special about this one.
2014-04-09 18.23.28 by
jurastudent, on Flickr
To finish, I asked for some Ti Guan Yin tea and chocolates from the lunch service.
2014-04-09 18.50.32 by
jurastudent, on Flickr
The tea was very good, but the chocolates were out of this world! A rich dark chocolate truffle, dark chocolate covered almonds and a candied orange peel embedded in dark chocolate. Mmm.
Did I mention that I love dark chocolate? Sara saw how quickly I had scarfed these down, and brought me a second plate, which I was happy to make disappear too.
2014-04-09 18.50.18 by
jurastudent, on Flickr
A few more hours of games on the iPad and some silly HK documentaries/game shows, it was time for breakfast (or lunch for the rest of the cabin) about 2 hours out of HKG. Things got off to a good start with a glass of fresh orange juice and a fresh fruit plate (which actually tasted fresh.) Shame I was still pretty full from the last meal, though I forced myself to have this meal just for the sake of this TR.
2014-04-10 11.26.42 by
jurastudent, on Flickr
2014-04-10 11.26.37 by
jurastudent, on Flickr
Some muesli and yogurt. I was told that it was apricot, but it ended up being blueberry. Oh well.
2014-04-10 11.37.39 by
jurastudent, on Flickr
Freshly scrambled eggs with sausage, bacon, spinach, mushrooms and potatoes. Arrrgh, I thought I had asked earlier for just the eggs and nothing else (this was way back at the first meal order.) I knew I would feel guilty for wasting Alex's effort in preparing this dish, so I tried my best to finish it (and just not need to eat for the rest of the day, or even the next day at the rate I was going.)
2014-04-10 11.45.08 by
jurastudent, on Flickr
Eventually, I finished the eggs only. I couldn't bring myself to eat more than a sliver of the bacon as it was the fattiest piece of meat I've seen in a while (yes, I know bacon is supposed to be fatty, but in a piece like that, it was like eating pure blocks of pork fat.)
2014-04-10 11.47.20 by
jurastudent, on Flickr
Once I was done, we were just about 45 minutes out of HKG, during which I had changed out of my pyjamas and into street clothes. I ordered another glass or two of Krug, having seen how a new bottle was just popped during the lunch service and not wanting to see that bottle go to waste.
We touched down into HKG on time, about 30 minutes ahead of schedule.
2014-04-10 13.38.19 by
jurastudent, on Flickr
It was a short walk from Gate 4 to immigration, which was a nice touch given that I was on the verge of having to be rolled off the plane by both Sara and Alex after the amount of food I had ingested in that 15 hours. Normally, HKG baggage claim is really fast, but it was painfully slow today. It was a good 15 minutes before the first bags had appeared on the belt.
Worst of all, my bag was almost
dead last to appear almost 40 minutes in. Someone on the ground appeared to have torn off the AA Priority tag I received in Toronto, and there was no Cathay Priority tag added.
Next stop was the Arrival and a quick shower before heading to my grandparent's place.
2014-04-10 14.28.43 by
jurastudent, on Flickr
Overall, I'm not sure if it was because I had set too high expectations for Cathay's First Class, but I wasn't quite as "wowed" as I had expected to be. The seat was wide, and 2A was a great seat (though there was more crew traffic than the other row as others have noted before), but the catering and the bed comfort were less than I had expected. The service was hit and miss at times, but both Sara and Alex still did a great job overall. They were both personable and introduced the little extra touches that make a good flight great.
Then when I think about it, considering what I paid for this ticket, it was a steal. First reality check on this trip!