UA 804 NRT IAD 1635 1505 772 8C Ch9^

The only problem with this seat is that people in the aisle
turn right from the entrance and bump into your seat, which
at least is sturdy enough to protect your shins from the
impact (this is I believe generally inadvertent); plus then
instead of going through the public area ahead to cut over
to the other side of the plane, some want to use our foot
space, which makes it tough to relax (this I believe is
generally deliberate).

My seatmate was a man of few words, fine with me, and what
words came out seemed well formed and well informed.
However, communication with the cabin crew was in grunts
and hand signals only. I don't know what the staff think
about this, but I was sort of amused.

TO BEGIN

Chilled Appetizer
Vegetable roll and sweet sesame pork with mango-chile sauce

Fresh Seasonal Greens
Carrots, cucumber and croutons
with your choice of creamy wasabi dressing or
shiso vinaigrette

I can't speak for any of this.

MAIN COURSE

Tenderloin of Beef
Mushroom bordelaise sauce, twice-baked potato
and asparagus

Breast of Chicken
Morel mushroom sauce, chive mashed potatoes, green
beans and carrots

Fillet of Striped Bass
Lemon herb sauce, saffron basmati rice and mixed
vegetables

Japanese Selection
Appetizers of braised duck, grilled prawn, salmon and kelp
roll, abalone and yuzu citrus

Actually, it seemed to be grilled duck and braised
prawn, fine with me. The duck, maybe a third of a large
breast half, was insufficiently fatted to my taste but
full of flavor; the shrimp, rather overcooked, still had
a lot of juice and fat in the head, which redeemed it.
The kelp thing turned out to be a mess of assorted
matchstick-shaped scraps, not a roll at all, seaweed,
dried squid, maybe a little salmon: didn't taste bad.
The abalone was a whole little 1/2 oz one in its pretty
brick-red shell; if it wasn't canned it might as well
have been. The yuzu was candied, surprisingly appealing
in texture, surprisingly tasteless.

A main course of braised sea bream with leek, carrot, okra
and tofu, simmered turnip with minced chicken sauce, shrimp,
shiitake mushroom and peas, marinated sugar snap peas,
mushroom and cod roe, vinegared tomato and crab salad, miso
soup with pork and vegetables, steamed rice and Japanese-
style pickles

Other than the fish being way overcooked, this was an
interesting meal. The veggies were very soft (no leek) but
pleasant. The simmered turnip, really tasteless, was topped
by an egg-drop cornstarch sauce with mince, a small chunk of
shrimp, and peas and maybe a sliver of shiitake. Sugar snaps
were marinated in what passes in Japan for mayonnaise (it's
more like Miracle Whip). The crab salad would have been okay
if there had been enough to taste - I guess a tablespoon
mounded up over half a giant tomato. Funny about that soup
- I took a slurp and found that it tasted kind of like tea.
In fact, it must have been loaded onboard dry and then been
reconstituted. After a stir, the stuff tasted almost
recognizable. No vegetables to speak of except for a slice
or two of scallion; no pork except for a Sen-Sen-sized white
unidentifiability. No pickles.

TO FINISH

International Cheese Selection
Grapes and crackers served with Port

Dessert
Ice cream with your choice of toppings

No dessert for me. The Germanish FA tried to test my
resolve but accepted my excuses that the main meal had been
too big, which it actually was. I did accept a glass of
Quinta do Noval LBV 08 Port, which was well balanced, with
the usual menthol, wood, and stone fruit flavors, not too
sticky sweet and of a decent texture.

MID-FLIGHT SNACK
Fruit and light snacks are available at any time following
the menu service. Please help yourself or ask a flight
attendant for today's selection.

PRIOR TO ARRIVAL

Omelette
Potatoes, pork loin and pork sausage

Scallop and Shrimp Yakisoba
Sauteed noodles with scallops, shrimp and vegetables

Cereal and Banana
Served with milk

By this point 10 hours into the flight, the food had
begun to push the boundaries of edibility, the noodles
congealing into gum and the seafood into erasers. I am
usually disappointed with Japanese scallops anyway, far
preferring north Atlantic ones, but these could just as
well have been surimi. At least, if they were surimi, the
manufacturer has gotten the texture close. The shrimp were
of a rather high marine taste but hardly shrimplike. None
of this came as an enormous surprise.

After the main meal I slept nine hours almost solid, waking
up about 3 minutes before breakfast.

I had planned a US Air segment run to anticipatorily protect
my OneWorld Sapphire shininess, but this blizzard thing
intervened, and I lost out on 8 segments for $250. I guess
I'll have to do a bunch of Charleston turnarounds to make
up for this (from Washington, as low as 77 roundtrip, check
it out).

END