violist

I decided to take an early Expres and check out
how the airport has changed, as it always does
between visits. The changes are as I can see
minimal this time, except that whoever was in charge
of doing the signage has made a proper mess of things.

Based on poor reviews of the Plaza Premium Lounge
and the Silver Kris, I took the Royal Silk for a
whirl. Last time, the place was kind of nice, with
Thai food and TG staff - now the thing is run by
Plaza Premium, and I was informed that if I wanted
breakfast, I'd have to go there. I said that I
didn't need breakfast, and the Plaza was too
crowded. It took fifteen minutes to get in,
during which time I saw a half dozen people being
turned away (from what I overheard, several were
deserving of being turned away) and nobody admitted.

Pyrrhic victory, as not only was there no breakfast,
the only alcohol on offer was Heineken. I had a
Seasons Nutri Soy, which was utterly nasty.

It was a snap getting to the plane once I figured
out that the sign saying Gates 1-31 meant Gates
1-31 except 21-27.

NH 816 KUL NRT 0810 1550 788 14H

My seatmate had 4 carryons.

Breakfast was salmon flake and hard-scrambled egg
congee, which I figure you had to grow up with,
either that or have been on the edge of starvation,
to appreciate. Luckily the noodles, this time
green, were much better than on the flight out.

On the side assorted weird things, plum pickle,
cold omelet, and the like, with a slice of papaya
and some kind of tasteless melon for dessert.
Also Yakult orange-flavored yogurt liquid, which is
supposed to promote healthy intestinal flora.

Featured on the entertainment was a show called
World Explore or something like that featuring
sites and sights from around the world; I was
pleased to have taken lili to about half of them
over the last decade, including the top few, and
missing mostly horridly fascinating things like
going to the Antarctic to watch killer whales
eating seals and stuff like that.

90 minutes before landing we got an ice-cold
pain au chocolat and choice of juice - I had yuzu
lemonade, very intense but a little oversweetened.

We came in 15 or 20 late, to a bus gate, which
meant deplaning by stairs, so my seatmate had her
hands full. I helped her with her heaviest bag.

I hurried off to the subterranean ANA lounge,
which was reasonably close to my gate, and
presented myself at the noodle station, which
in due time emitted a respectable but very
salty tonkotsu ramen topped with way too much
way too old ginger (it was bitter). The kitchen
had also cheated and enriched the broth with a
dash of milk, which saddened my intestines.

Kanazawa meatballs are like what you'd get out
of a can but with mirin added.

I was glad to spy more of that potato salad with
pork, this tray with extra cracklings on top.

Paid the obligatory visit to the Amazing Beer
Machine and decided instead to sample the Camus
Ile de Re Cognac, which was as it turns out
substantially nasty - though of decent aroma,
it was harsh and strange tasting. Ech.

I finished with an intermediate-strength liquor
called Arawaza, made with and somewhat scented
of sweet potatoes. Okay plus.

There were fruit candies to clean the palate
with; I got one with a bizarrely true to life
peach flavor.

All too soon it was time to put myself in the
hands of United Airlines.

violist

I was in no hurry to board so sauntered up
right at the end of Group 1. The guy at the
end of Group 1 motioned me to go ahead. I saw
his boarding pass - Group 2. So he finagled
into being the very first Group 2 to board.
Clever. It's sad when boarding an airplane
requires this kind of cleverness.

United actually accepted the NH boarding pass.

UA 838 NRT SFO 1820 1140 744 15B

To begin
Chilled appetizer - California sushi roll and
smoked duck with pineapple-chili sauce

Fresh seasonal greens - cucumber, tomatoes and
croutons with your choice of creamy garlic
dressing or sesame vinaigrette

Usually in the past they'd served the appetizer
and salad even to those who had ordered the
Japanese meal ... or maybe it was because I
always looked a little hungry. This time, no,
or maybe I seemed more dyspeptic than usual;
so I can't report.

Main course
Tenderloin of beef - red wine sauce, roasted
potatoes, mushrooms, and green beans

Breast of chicken - tomato sauce, egg fried rice,
spinach and bell pepper

Hawaiian-style fillet of sea bass - seafood jus,
shiitake mushroom and leek topping, steamed rice
and carrots

Japanese selection
United is excited to offer menus created and
inspired by Chef Yosuke Tanaka of Hiroshima,
Japan. Today we are pleased to offer:

Appetizers of a simmered dish of tofu, fried
ginkgo nut and shishito green pepper and
grilled chestnut with dashi jelly, leek and
barbecue grilled chicken skewer, sea bream with
leek chive, daikon radish and ponzu jelly

The first tray was quite good on the whole,
interesting contrasts of flavor and color,
slight bias toward the sweet. The fish was
dried up and dreadful, though. There were
also some unadvertised lagniappes - a
gorgeous finger of Asian eggplant braised
in miso, one of the best things I've ever
eaten on a plane; too bad it was only maybe
half an ounce; also some crunchy pickled
roots, unidentifiable but tasty; and a
little pile of mushrooms.

A main course of mebaru saikyo-style fish with
lotus root, sweet potato and shishito green
pepper, miso soup with shimeji mushrooms and
simmered burdock, seasoned rice with chicken
and pickled vegetables

This was in general a horrid mess. I ate
the various vegetables and just picked at
the rest. The fish seemed as if it had been
dried out in the sun and partially putrefied
before being baked.

Sake and green tea are available.

The sake was Gekkeikan's ordinary issue, as usual.

To finish
international cheese selection - grapes and
crackers served with Port

Dessert - ice cream with your choice of toppings

This time I skipped straight to the Courvoisier,
but one of the FAs offered me ice cream; I
accepted a dish and requested two cherries.
She said, would three be okay? and served three.

Mid-flight snack
Fruit and light snacks are available at any time
following the meal service. Please help yourself
or ask a flight attendant for today's selection

Prior to arrival
Herbed omelette - chunky tomato sauce, potatoes
and pork loin

Chicken teriyaki - steamed rice, braised burdock
and konnyaku, green beans and egg roll

Cereal and banana - served with milk.

Fresh fruit appetizer, yogurt or savory salad
and breakfast breads.

I asked to be served just the appetizer. The
same pleasant but slightly overenthusiastic FA
served me two fruit appetizers and two yogurts.
I passed the yogurts on to my seatmate, a hungry
young serviceman on orders.

Landing was fine. Immigration was fine, though
there was a line for picking up of the automated
system forms that delayed me perhaps 3 minutes.

I had to check on my onward flight, for which I
was not given a boarding pass by ANA, and the
United machine refused to do so as well. Hey,
wait a second. I'm confirmed in first (via that
systemwide upgrade), but the computer can't find me?
Human time. After ten minutes of typing the customer
service person discovered that I'd been offloaded
from the Baltimore flight and sent to Houston
instead. What th'? Typing. Now, back to Baltimore;
but I was not in first and not even on the upgrade
list. More typing. Now I was #1 on the list, with
one seat available. I'd heard that story before
and started plotting my revenge against United.
But hark, the SamTrans bus downtown beckoned, so
tump tump tump down the stairs to the stop, where
I arrived two minutes after scheduled departure.
Luckily the thing was another ten minutes late.

Lots of small delays on this trip. People without
the right change, people who didn't know where they
were going, people getting on the wrong bus, people
without sufficient funds, and people with bicycles
who didn't know how the bike racks worked. At one
point the driver started whining that all these
special circumstances were making him late. In reality,
he'd been late from the very beginning, but who's
counting. Eventually I got to Mission and 5th and
walked toward my rendezvous with my squeakr and Bob.

violist

We met at Cafe Nordstrom, a fashionable upper-middle
haunt that was a surprise choice for a pair of
countercultural lefties, but that didn't disturb
me, as minor inconsistencies are some of the best
flavors of life. The special of the day was
flavored lemonades, of which I had blackberry,
augmented with a shot of gin (Bombay Sapphire is
the house brand). And then another. And ...

I forget what we talked about. But it tided me over
until almost time to head south; I walked at a
measured pace into the Mission, where I discovered
that my measured pace wasn't measured enough to get
me to my next destination on time; in fact I was
quite early to Gracias Madre, having broken a
sweat, so I sat at the bar and got a horchata,
pretty okay, sweetened with some natural substance
that didn't sweeten enough and didn't add any
texture to the drink. And $6.

This was a rendezvous with some old flyer friends:
VPescado, letoile+1, and KathyWdrf.

There still was time to waste, so I got a bottle of
Filus Malbec and took it outside to our reserved
table. It tasted a bit TCAed, but I have plenty of
friends who would guzzle it down without thinking,
so I waited until everyone else was there to take
a vote on it; the tally was three to one in favor
sending it back, so back it went.

It's a vegan place, with all that entails. Things
like cashew cream and cheese and coconut bacon pay
lip service to appeasing the more compromised among
us - these facsimile products are of mixed quality.
If you're committed that kind of thing I suppose
they will please you. I found the food underseasoned
and too heavily dependent on tomatoes, but I
find that true of California food in general.

We started with a fried cauliflower appetizer, which
I thought not fried enough and thus too cauliflowery.
The true vegetable appreciators liked it, though.

Guacamole was fine, but I thought there were too
many extraneous ingredients. This was the only dish in
the meal that had an appropriate pique of spice, though.

Various main dishes in a Cal-Mex style. I got an
empanada over a poblanolike mole. The crust was
rather lumpen, on which I blame too many whole grains,
and the filling was really quite sweet. Sauce was
good if rather gently seasoned.

Do not get the coconut bacon. It was tough chewy
somewhat smoked coconut with a little salt; even the
committed vegans at table didn't take more than a bite.

We didn't linger too long, and left as the space
filled up noisily, as I had a plane to catch.

UA294 SFO BWI 2330 0734 320 3A was 21D

I did get the upgrade.

The flight boarded half an hour late and landed
around on time. My seat was fairly comfortable and
conducive to sleeping. To the best of my knowledge
there was no food service, and the Courvoisier
was exceptionally harsh (was it VS from coach?
I didn't notice the label).