UA
Ch9 = y on IAD-MUC, not on FRA-IAD
salt and pepper shakers = y
Airshow = y
Empower = n (haven't had it all year)

LH short-hauls
none of the above: no audio or video or food at all

UA 962 IAD MUC 1730 0730 9J
777. Really nice cabin crew. Purser was an energetic
little Greek (I presume; his family had a place in the
Greek islands) guy named Tony; the rest of the staff
were pretty senior, Germanic women: as I said, very
nice, and one of them was a pretty blonde. The one I
liked best was a Hausfrau type who kept making sure
I had enough to eat and chided me when I didn't take
a chocolate (I relented). We chatted later, just before
landing, and she and other FAs showed a strong interest
in and real knowledge of French wines.

To begin
Asian soba noodles with citrus-cured smoked salmon
Ginger soy hijiki sauce

My choice. United does well with smoked things,
especially trout and salmon. This was moist and good.

(or) Fresh mozzarella and Roma tomatoes
Aged balsamic vinegar and rosemary oil

Seasonal salad leaves
Javanese or classic Caesar dressing

Javanese apparently means sweetened soy vinaigrette
with ginger. The staff on this flight seemed to
think the name was "Japanese," which would be more
plausible anyway. The FA serving this gave me
about 5 tablespoons of it, which was okay, but
I had to shake each forkful to get dressing off it.

Main course
Roasted pork loin with bourbon whipped sweet potatoes
Haricots verts with shallots and spicy pecans

I've had this before; it had been decent but not so
good that I needed to order it again.

Veal loin steak with Marsala cream and red peppercorns
Rhubarb saute and butternut squash

Delicious. A smallish portion done medium-well, the
Marsala cream being really a brown sauce (good for me),
lots of red peppercorns. Rhubarb saute was very very
sour but interesting. The main problem was that the
"veal loin steak" was really a pork chop. Perhaps the
roasted pork was really veal, I didn't see. I had a
decent Chablis with the meal. The other white choice
was a California (Geyser Peak, I think) Chard. Also
available were some bourgeois-cru Medoc and the oaky
but tasty Eshcol Cabernet.

Wild mushroom, ginger and garlic wontons
Ocean seaweed salad and miso egg drop broth

My seatmate, a roving manager of a multinational,
very interesting to talk to, had this and (in contrast
to what I'd seen on other flights) ate every bit. We
talked a bit about Munich, his home, and his plan for
my stay was to spend one week at the Old Art Gallery
and two weeks at the New Art Gallery. He takes (I think
he said) 4 international trips a month and hates flying
(but enjoys visiting cultural attractions in China,
India, wherever).

Dessert
Regional cheese plate
Maytag Blue and Wisconsin Gouda

Eli's Caramel Brownie Fudge tart

I had this latter, eating around the cheesecake heart.
It was extraordinarily sweet but otherwise okay. One
thing I enjoyed was that it was topped with bits of
toffee (the kind I used to love in Butter Brickle
ice cream, back when I could eat ice cream, and would
save out all the little "brickles" for last).

Godiva chocolates

I said no, but the attendant made a moue, so I said
okay, just one, and she brightened up. I had a chocolate
cream that was somewhat better than I remembered.

Prior to arrival

Seasonal fresh fruit appetizer, your choice of
fruit yogurt, cold cereal and breakfast breads

Bistro eggs with bacon and tomatoes
Smoked Gouda cream sauce

Slept through this. I would like to have tried the eggs
again just to see if they were as horrible as I recall.
Woke up after the breakfast service and was served a
glass of Dom as a consolation prize (was offered seconds
but didn't take more).


LH 2447 MUC TXL 1945 2055 18A
735. The Business Lounge was empty, but I was invited
to the crowded noisy Senator Lounge, where there was a
pretty generous buffet and tons of soberly-dressed
Bavarians (and not a few Americans). There were Tucher
Hefeweizen and Lowenbrau Pilsener on draft; it's not
self-service here, you call over one of the staff, who
does a better job of pulling a beer than I would. On
the board were egg and tuna and something unidentifiable
salads, fresh fruit (excellent kiwis), fruit yogurt,
leberwurst (ok), hamburger patties (very oniony), curried
tuna patties (good with beer), tomato salad (very popular
and so I missed out). All sorts of baked goods. All sorts
of candies, including chocolate bars and gummis - I saw
more than one macroscopically mature businessman putting
big scoopsful of gummis and jelly berries on his plate!

Somehow United Connection didn't successfully talk to
the Lufthansa one, so my confirmed paid biz class seat
evaporated and I was relegated to the middle of the
plane, no great tragedy, as it was that fake biz class
that you get in Europe, and the flight was only an hour,
and I'd eaten all sorts of bad-for-you things at the
lounge anyway. So there I was in Row 18, the farthest
back I've ever been on a 737. Had an empty next to me,
one of the few on the aircraft. Snoozed the whole way.
There was a beverage service; nothing else, I think.
Interesting things. On the wing where on domestic
planes is stenciled "NO STEP" there reads "Do not
walk outside this area." Are German mechanics more
literate in English than their US counterparts?
Also, on both LH legs, the announcement was made in
English only: "Cabin attendants prepare for landing."

LH 1765 TXL FRA 1120 1235 36A
Headed to the lounge area (on a mezzanine a few
steps above and opposite the mezzanine that has the
BA lounge) where the concierge pointed me to the FTL
lounge. I pulled out the white card and was thereupon
invited to the other lounge, which as it was midday
was not grossly overcrowded. Had just time to look
it over approvingly and go off to the gate. TXL is
a circular terminal, which is interesting. Service
to Frankfurt goes out from 8 and 9, as far from the
club area as possible. A very officious agent helped
me; he noted rather rudely that I'd changed my
itinerary, which should incur a fee: I pointed out
that the flight I'd originally been booked on didn't
exist, and anyhow it was United that had made
the change. So he reluctantly called the ticketing
office and after receiving whatever information he
needed was quite a bit more polite (though never warm).

A300-600. A fat, ungainly-looking plane. Got me
there in one piece, albeit in the wayback just
before the thing narrows, and as usual I slept
most of the flight. Woke up as the plane picked
up the Main and followed it into town. I'd been
scheduled on a later trip, but LH changed its
schedule a couple weeks earlier, so I had the
choice between a later or an earlier flight.
Figured that I'd maybe go into town and hit a
Bierstube or two, but ended up lounge-hopping
and duty-freeing instead. Went first to the
Business Lounge in A, where the concierge said,
you're welcome here, but your flight is in B and
the lounge there is bigger and nicer. I had a
Henninger Pils on tap (hoppier than the offers
in the other lounges) and a small glass of a
1999 Ortenberger Spaetburgunder; it disappointed
me as it was as sweet as soda pop, and the night
before my friends Hans-Erich and Christiane had
served me the 1997 Meyer Nakel Blaueschiefer
Spaetburgunder, which made me completely rethink
my attitude toward German red wines. Checked my
e-mail and read a little Flyertalk on the terminal
(first minute free, then 7 something DM for 6
min; but it doesn't cut you off until 7 minutes
have passed) and moseyed around the rest of the
terminal. Snacks at the Business lounge both here
and in B were about on a par with Red Carpet Clubs'.
Moseyed to the RCC, which is in a part of the
terminal for which the word "godforsaken" was
coined. Nice little spot, pretty quiet as it's in
C, and neither UA nor LH was running anything out
of that wing. Snacks were slightly subpar for an
international club - pretzels and very greasy
peanuts; also bread and butter and jam and
croissants. After a while they put out a tray of
chocolate-chip-orange cake (dry but tasty) and
these smore-like things (a marshmallow atop a
wafer cookie, all covered in chocolate). The
red wine was Ch. Ardolot (Corbieres) 1999, a
revoltingly grassy, somewhat too sweet Bordeaux-
style wine; the sparkler was Henkel Trocken, but
it was flat; the white was Mussbacher Eselhaut
Riesling Kabinett Trocken - very fresh, amazing
floral nose with ripe tropical fruits and good
acid, a surprisingly decent wine. In addition to
the usual liquors, there was the Moskovskaya
Osobaya vodka, which was somewhat sweet but
otherwise pretty normal. The beer today was
Krombacher Pils (reasonable), with Warsteiner
and Lowenbrau available in bottle. Oddity: the
flight magazine they offered was neither United's
nor Lufthansa's: it was Skylife, from Turkish Air.

After a pleasant short stay, off to the post to
post postcards and off to do a bit of shopping.
The booze places had some amazingly good and
amazingly bad prices on brand-name things; the
selection of German wines, however, especially
the BAs, TBAs, and Eisweins, included mostly
estates and even grapes! that I didn't know
anything about, so I passed. I bought mostly
a selection of chocolates by Neuhaus, Leysieffer,
and Niederegger (whose marzipans are similar to
the famous Mozartkugeln but are fresher and I
think somewhat better). Wasn't tempted by most
of the merchandise (the caviar prices were
absolutely unconscionable: maybe a lot of sheiks
come by). Senator Lounge in B follows the model
I saw in Munich: overcrowded and unattractive
but with food. The wines were better than the
Business ones - a choice of Chilean Cab or Merlot;
the sparkler was Oppmann Chardonnay Brut nv, which
I kind of like as it is very clean, moderately
fruity, and goes well with a variety of foods. I
had a bacon-mayonnaise-tomato sandwich, which was
good if you like cold fatty bacon (I don't mind it)
and are not worried for your heart. Likewise they
served little pork sausages that were cold, fatty,
and soft: reminded me of partially uncured salami.
I had a few of these and made up for my sins with
a rather mushy overripe kiwi. Didn't try the salmon
and cream cheese sandwiches or the cheesecake, but
both these items seemed reasonably popular. It was
getting on toward boarding time, so I headed to B46
and noticed few people there, so one more lounge,
another Business one, this one huge (the concierge
at A was right about that at least) but rather
crowded and very smoky. Had a Radeberger Pils
(mild, no great character) and then headed back to
the gate for boarding.

UA 977 FRA IAD 1700 2010 9J
777. Not a notable flight. The crew was merely ok.
The movies and things were the same as on the
outbound; I asked for Ch 9 and was told that they
never have Ch 9 in Europe. I pointed out that both
into and out of CDG and LHR I often get it, so the
FA said, well, maybe it's just Germany. I wasn't
getting anywhere with this but did note that it had
been available the whole flight into Munich. It was
good that Flashbacks had a whole segment on the
Supremes; Grand Performance featured a piece that
I'd learned by having been hired to play in the back
of the second violin section when the Moscow Ballet
was here in the US, during one of the thaws in the
Cold War (great nostalgia value); the Jazz channel
had derangements of Broadway hits; and the feature
movie was Bedazzled (Elizabeth Hurley has the most
incredibly sexy voice, and she's no hardship to look
at either). My seatmate was a cultured and thoughtful
Tuebinginer who was heading to Germantown to consult
with, I think, some kind of hardware company. So I
had a pleasant enough time until naptime, which was
about halfway through the flight, after supper:

To begin
Salad Nicoise with sea bass filet
Anchovy dressing

This was one of the ugliest things I've ever had
the misfortune of putting in my mouth. The fish
was stiff and hard and covered in congealed grease.
The salad was ancient. There was another film of
congealed fat on the dressing. I had a bite of
each thing just to see if it was as bad as it
looked (answer: affirmative) and sent it back. The
FA didn't ask why or ask if I wanted to try the
alternative, which actually looked pretty good.
C was probably full, so maybe no alternative was
easily available. At any rate, it wasn't the most
responsive cabin crew I've seen in my life.

(or) Sliced Parma prosciutto with cantaloupe melon
Mustard fruits

Seasonal salad leaves
French vinaigrette or blue cheese dressing

I asked for vinaigrette and got the blue cheese.

Main course
Marinated loin of lamb with natural jus
Mushroom artichoke ragout and basil mashed potatoes

A huge portion, half a pound or more. Gray on the
outside but miraculously pinkish within. The
accompaniments were tasty, but the artichoke stuff
warred with the wine (the Eshcol Cabernet) and the
basil warred with everything.

Herb and pine nut crusted salmon with red bell pepper sauce
Linguine, carrots with tourne zucchini and turnips

This was also a big portion and looked quite nice.

Chilled deli plate with cream of mushroom soup
Smoked ham, turkey breast, peppered salami, pastrami
and Gouda cheese

Dessert

The world's finest cheeses with fresh fruit and
Sandeman's Porto

German apple cake with strawberry sauce

Surprisingly, as I usually am frugal with my lactase
pills, I had the cheeses. "World's finest" is a bit
of an overstatement. There were two cheeses: a very
underripe Tomme de Savoie (the FA when asked what
they were said he didn't know but thought they were
"Emmenthaler and Swiss") and another thing that I
didn't recognize: it has the appearance of a young
Munster but was flecked with fragments of green things
which turned out to be minced green onions. The flavor
and texture were of butter.

Lindt chocolates

Big blue paper packages with one medium-sized candy -
a crunchy nougaty sort of thing.

Prior to arrival
Philly cheese steak sandwich with caramelized onions
Parslied potato wedges

Cheese plate with seasonal fresh fruit
Goat, Cheddar and Port-Salut

I'd had enough cheese so had the sandwich when offered.
It was rather fatty beef, a good portion of it, in a
brown gravy with maybe a touch of process cheese food.
A brown wholegrain roll with sunflower, flax, and other
seeds. The potatoes were mushy but tasted okay. On the
side was another roll (white) and a big pat of butter.

[Postscriptum:] Today's menu features beef imported
from Argentina and Brazil

Arrived at Dulles in the evening, right on time.

The only real meal I had in Munich. Also street food
- inexpensive and tasty although not at all notable.

Nuernberger Bratwurstgloeckl am Dom, opposite the SE corner
of the Frauenkirche. About a block north of the Marienplatz
subway stop. No credit cards.

A traditional but not ancient beer-and-snacky place, with
a huge menu of munchies (mostly meat and potatoes) at 10-12
DM and a huge menu of meals at maybe twice that. Beers are
5.80 for a half liter. I discovered to my chagrin that a
half liter isn't what it used to be.

The waitress was reasonably patient with my horrible
German but took pity on me with a multilingual menu
(German-English-French-Italian-Japanese): after perusing
it carefully and wondering about the glories of the
whole pork knuckle and the Bavarian beef sirloin steak
(the menu was a little old, or maybe the Americans and
Italians and Japanese haven't heard about the BSE
flap), I chose the house mixed platter.

Nuernberger-wurst is a beefy sausage, coarsely ground,
rather burgerish, with onions chopped into it. It's good.

Knockwurst is exactly as it is in the US. Is this
gratifying or disappointing? I'm not sure.

The big treat, which my friend who couldn't accompany
me told me I absolutely had to try, was the Bratwurst,
which is little and shriveled and charcoaly-meaty
tasting and in fact altogether delicious (you get,
thankfully, 4 on the platter).

As I was flying out in the evening, I decided to have
potato salad (yellow and eggy and quite tart) instead
of sauerkraut. I figured even Lufthansa passengers
might not appreciate second-hand cabbage.

I drank a bunch of Koenig Ludwig Dunkel, which goes
down mighty easy, and had a pretzel (very pretzel-
like) from the bread basket on the table.

- - -

What I did in Munich.

Walked around town looking at the old buildings and
the sausages. Bought a couple (sausages, not buildings).

Spent about 4 hours in the Alte Pinakotek, which is
really amazing. Rows of Rembrandts, rooms of Rubenses.
Tons of Titians, Tintorettos, and Tiepolos. Plus:
a Fra Angelico tryptich I'd never even seen pictures
of before (Cosmas and Damian), the original Breughel
Land of Cocaigne (many Breughels, mostly Jan the Elder),
a haunting horrid Bosch Hell scene (and many other Hell
scenes - there's something dark in the religion of
Bavaria), ... . A good Durer collection, again including
several I've never seen before. I could easily spend
4 more hours there. Next time I go to Munich I'll get
one of those 2-day tickets and spend all day both days
here; then I'll get another one and spend all day both
days in the Neue Pinakotek. And I'm told there are a
dozen other museums. Disappointments here. 1. The
building itself is gross. 2. During all my time there,
the ground floor Old German galleries were polluted
with a pizza-like smell that emanated from the
restaurant. 3. The museum guides, well, the photos
of the huge Titians and Rubenses don't do justice to
the paintings, but a lot of the bigger works (the less
interesting ones are hung way high) can't really be
seen properly, especially with the lighting being so
funny. 4. I was told there would be a Venus exhibition
there. Nah, it starts on February 1.

Dining in Berlin

Vinum, Danckelmannstrasse 29, near the Sophie-Charlotte
subway stop.

A pleasant, simple meal: a dozen exceedingly fresh, briny
Fines Claires with aromatic brown bread and excellent
butter, 2.50 the piece. The wines:

Ch. Doisy-Daene Sec 1996 and 1998 (17 DM each per 8 oz
glass, which I rectified by taking some empty glasses
from the tasting table and making 4 4-oz glasses instead).
This is the dry sister of one of the top Barsacs. The 1996
is muted, with nice mild citrus flavors, medium acidity,
and what I think might be a bit of a Semillon character
coming out. The 1998, on the other hand, is unabashedly
Sauvignon Blanc, huge citrus and that characteristic that
is often likened to feline urine. Big acidity, big flavor,
long (not all pleasant) finish. The kid at Vinum said that
Andreas the boss had said that the 1996 had been equally
aggressive on release two years ago but had mellowed nicely.
I agree. With my oysters the flavor of the 1996 went well
but I'd have preferred the acidity of the 1998. The wines
are available at the store for 29 DM a bottle.

- - -

Hardtke, Hubertusallee 48, corner of Warmbrunner Strasse,
about 1 km south of the western end of the Ku'damm.
Bus 110, 129, 210.

My friend Paul had said, meet me at Hardtke on
Meineckestrasse, so I went there a little early and
discovered an empty building. Oops. Called him up,
and he was appropriately contrite. I'll be over and
pick you up, and we'll go to the other Hardtke, which
is in one of the nice older suburbs. It was the regular
Sunday dinner place of the Friedrich family and so it
was kind of appropriate. It's just what you'd expect
of an old German restaurant, beery and sauerkrauty
smelling with dark wood all over the place. The ancient
wood chairs do have cushions, though. Paul had the
"deftige Kohlroulade" (17.50), a big cabbage leaf
stuffed generously with a meatloaf mixture, baked,
many slices of bacon draped over, served with salt
potatoes and a dark brown gravy: tasty but not my
style, as I prefer the sweet-sour cabbage rolls of
German-Jewish cuisine or Hungarian cuisine. I chose
the mixed platter (24.50), big leber- and blutwursts
sided by a little eisbein, a tiny leberknoedel,
sauerkraut, and salt potatoes. The leberwurst was
appropriately livery, more like a boudin blanc,
though, than the solid red-brown thing that I've
grown to know as liverwurst; the blutwurst was just
like a boudin noir, not a big surprise. The eisbein
was mild, small, and fatty: just the thing to go
with the kraut and potatoes. I had the Schultheiss
regular Pils (not the Berliner Weisse) for an
extremely calorific but satisfying meal. Paul had
"Rote Gruetze" (10.50) for dessert - redcurrants
cooked in sugar and made into a sort of trifle with
a big dose of cream: I tried a bite, and it was just as
advertised. I don't know why Paul was as enthusiastic
as a small child about it, though. Oh, yes, I almost
forgot, my own infantile indulgence came included in
my Grosse Schlachteplatte: a sizable dollop of mashed
peas, with a tablespoon each of bacon bits and bacon
fat on top. I could live on that stuff. I'd also
weigh 400 lbs if I did.

- - -

Vau, Jaegerstrasse 54/55, between the Stadtmitte,
Franzoesische Strasse, and Mohrenstrasse subway stops,
near the Gendarmen-Markt and the French and German
Cathedrals

This is one of the fashionable restaurants in town,
open late, decorated in the glass and chrome modern
international style, with multilingual French-German-
English staff and French-inflected food. Paul had
said that this was his favorite restaurant (the deal
was he paid for music, I paid for food - the advantage
for him was that I spent more than he did; the advantage
for me was I got to sit in the best seats in the house
at sold-out events).

Started out with freebies. House-made baguette and
multigrain with butter, of course, chickpea puree
with calamari (exsquidsite, as one might say), and
"tuna rillettes," which were okay.

Paul started with Jerusalem artichoke and lobster
soup, which tasted like lobster bisque with a
vegetable coloration that was very subtle and almost
impossible to decipher; I had the risotto alla
Milanese (not called that on the menu) - a delicious
but recherche version with thin strips of the veal
shank draped over a perfectly cooked yellow risotto,
giant shavings of well-aged Parmesan on top.

Then came a dish of veal loin, very tasty, with an
imaginative pairing of artichokes and fennel; my
main course was half a pigeon with celeriac julienne
and truffles. I hadn't ordered this. I'd wanted the
quail, but Paul spoke rapidly to the waiter in German
when I wasn't paying attention, and I didn't catch his
misprision of my wishes. Not a problem, except that
the truffles elevated the price of the dish to over
twice what my choice would have cost (this tidbit came
to 78 DM by itself), and I have a horror of truffles
except within shouting distance of the Perigord. Be
that as it may, I found myself savoring the best piece
of bird I've ever tasted - the breast meat of the
pigeon done medium-rare and arranged over a most savory
celery-root preparation. The leg of the bird was there
too, but nice though it was, it was a real anticlimax.
The truffles added nothing; they never do. Except near
their origin: they lose their charm when they leave
home more quickly than an ice-cream cone out in the
summer sun.

Had the Lagrange (Pomerol) 1996 with this.

Dessert: well, Paul had this lime tart thing that was
perfectly okay, but I didn't see anything I wanted on
the carte: so I had a bowl of that lobster soup, which
really did me well, as it was 0C out and rather raw.

Afterwards, in honor of our spending $200, they gave
us a petit-fours tray: bread with citron (interesting),
beechnut cake (very interesting), plain cheesecake
(well done but not interesting at all), and a refined
version of a Quetch-dumpling, a pastry about the size
of your thumb, filled with a smear of very wonderful
plum puree.

- - -

Ganymed, corner of Schiffbauerdamm and Bertolt-Brecht
Platz, next to the Berliner Ensemble, across the canal
from the Friedrichstrasse subway and train station.

Appetizer: a mixed platter that contained a delicious
carpaccio of red deer, oversalty but fresh magret fume
de canard, a Liptauer spread wrapped in a crepe, some
pates - one standard one en croute, one standard one
with pistachios, a liver one whipped with cream cheese.

Main: One of those giant Wienerschnitzels that is bigger
than the plate, with a golden crust that almost self-
destructs when you put your fork into it. The obligatory
lemon (artistically cut and without rind, which made it
hard to squeeze onto the meat) and the obligatory anchovy
and the obligatory caper (half a caperberry; okay, as the
caperberries are as good as the real thing, and with this
kind of accent, less is more). Delicious potatoes fried
in bacon fat with slivers of bacon and onion. A small salad
dressed with a sweet-sour dressing.

For drink: Koestritzer Schwartzbier. Tasted just like
Prior Double Dark, which used to be made in Philadelphia.

For dessert: pignoli ice cream (absolutely delicious) on
a bed of sliced kiwi and strawberries.

A glass of the Etter Himbeergeist, which was smooth and
one of the better fruit eaux-de-vie I've had.

A few wines tasted in Germany

Ch. d'Oupia (Minervois) 1999 - one of the best $6 wines
I've found. Smooth and soft (a touch too much so) but
with good structure, balanced, good fruit, longish finish.
I'd consider buying it for 50% more here in the US. Tasted
at Vinum, often noted as Berlin's best wine store/cafe.

Meyer Nakel Blaueschiefer Spatburgunder 1997 - my friends
Hans-Erich and Christiane have been to this vineyard, which
is notable for the slate on which the terroir is based. There
is in fact a mineralliness to the wine, but Hans-Erich's
claim that it reminds him of writing on the blackboard in
elementary school might be taken with a grain of salt. It is
an impressive wine, though, uncompromising in dryness but
with an almost French level of oak. Long, long finish. Ready
to drink but would benefit from several years.

Domaine St.-Andrieu L'Yeuse Noir (Coteaux de Languedoc) 1996
- a likable, not too complex wine. I'd asked the young man
minding the store about what Hans-Erich would like, and so
he called the owner on his cellphone at the wine expo and got
this as one of several suggestions (most of them being wines
from the Sud-Ouest as Hans-Erich vacations there). Asked the
young fellow what he knew about it, and he admitted he didn't
have much experience with the "higher priced" wines (this one
was all of 29 or 39 DM!); I said that the experience would
come, and I trusted his boss. Turns out to be a softish but
stemmy wine with almost overripe fruit (not offensively so).
Medium finish. Also ready to drink but close to peak now.

Chateau Lagrange (Pomerol) 1996. Had this at Vau, a Michelin-
starred restaurant in East Berlin near the Gendarmen-Markt.
Velvety texture, deep purple, ripe grapes, stone fruit, some
mineralliness, no vegetality. Good example of Merlot, quite
ready to drink (had a 1/2 bottle; 70 DM), longish fruit finish.

Asian delights in DC area: Thai (Chinese), Chinese,
and Viet (Chinese).

So I find myself back for a brief visit to
the area. What's there to do but eat?

Rabieng, Leesburg Pike right near Duangrat,
Arlington. Present: sister, brother-in-law,
Carol and Jon Fisher

This is the sister restaurant to Duangrat, which
Naxos and her husband had said was better and
more authentic (but not so festive). My own sister
had not been thrilled when she'd gone many years
ago, but that was back in the days that people
smoked in restaurants, and here had been very
smoky. My friend B likes it; I tried calling her
on the pay phone outside the door; the phone
didn't work but ate all my change. I gave it a
good hard kick, which dislodged a dime, nothing
more. Turns out B would have been able to go.

Wild boar - chunks of boar rather than the thin
slices you get at Duangrat in the moo pah. Also
no green peppercorns. Quite salty, pleasantly
spiced. I'd asked for it to be quite hot, and it
wasn't quite hot. Some bamboo shoot flavor, good
basil flavor.

Northeast spicy chicken - this was a green
curry type affair, and they made it quite hot.
This was the good part. A very strong bamboo
shoot flavor and a lot of weedy, stemmy pieces
of basil made it a bit peculiar for me.

Pork in Kaffir lime sauce - well, it turns out
that this was a typical coconut-peanut concoction
with a pleasant but too-mild Kaffir lime flavor.

Esan chicken - marinated in a sweet soy dressing
and then cooked so the meat was just done through
and the skin was flabby. Nobody else ate the
skin. So I got the whole thing. A very Chinese
preparation.

Crispy cod on bed of watercress - a universally
liked dish, the fish in a hot-sweet soy sauce and
served on sauteed cress so delicious my sister
and I fought over the last scraps. Another one.

The food was better spiced than next door, but
some of my favorite dishes there aren't available
here; however, a lot of dishes are found here that
aren't found there. I find it marginally better;
I think my sister now agrees.

Desserts are limited here. Our table had a dish
or two of mung bean mousse.

Beer: Singha

- - -

Meiwah, right near Blackie's House of Beef in NW,
I think someone said New Hampshire Avenue?
Present: sister, brother-in-law, Ellis Rubenstein

Snow peas in ginger sauce - exactly as expected,
only there was a touch of sweetness in the ginger
sauce that was beyond that exuded by the vegetable.
The sauce was light brown: soy, broth, ginger, sugar.

Duck in garlic sauce - slivered bits in a salty
slightly sweet brown soy-based sauce. Bits of
mushroom and water chestnut chopped into the same
size and shape, pretty amusing. Not a generous amount
of duck.

Crispy beef - the classic as originally served at
City Lights of China (this restaurant was founded by
the guy who founded City Lights after he sold it).
I am not super fond of the dish, but it's universally
popular among wei guo ren. Very crispy, very sweet.
Pretty garlicky. Not enormously hot; in fact, not hot
at all at either place, despite the presence of
handfuls of dried red peppers.

Szechwan green beans - ordinary stir-fried beans, a
little fat and tough, topped with minced pickled
vegetable (you know, the one that looks like a green
brain lobe). I enjoyed it; nobody else did, including
the one who suggested it.

Spinach tofu - as advertised; everyone except maybe
Ellis liked it.

Beer: Double Diamond

- - -

Huong Que (Four Sisters), Eden Center, Arlington.
Present: sister, brother-in-law, B

In the southwest corner, almost, I think it is,
of a big Asian marketplace that looks like a
shopping mall: sis and b-i-l found it better than
the pho place next door (which they liked pretty
well). There are an assortment of restaurants and
stores in this complex. South of this place there's
a Chinese restaurant that serves all kinds of
innards and fatty stuff: very authentic, think I; got
to try it sometime, but who can be convinced to go?

Also, on the north side of the center is a cool
well-stocked Asian grocery with about nine zillion
kinds of fish, many meats (pig uteri turned even me
off a bit, although if someone else prepared them
I'd try them) and several kinds of produce that are
hard to come by elsewhere, including durian. My
sister gets her rice here in 25-lb bags. We went on
a short field trip before eating

Mussels in garlic sauce - big green-lips inviting
in their iridescent shells, a bit of oyster sauce
and garlic and scallions topping each. Delicious.
A very Chinese-style dish. A dish of minced tiny
very hot hot peppers came for this; I didn't see
anyone use it but me; the rest of the peppers came
in handy in spicing up the rest of the meal.

Clams with black bean sauce - very much the usual
thing, the black bean sauce pretty mild and a little
sweet. Nice little clams.

Seafood combination soup - squid, shrimp, white
fish in a tasty broth with lots of vegetables
(carrot, broccoli, pea pods, mushrooms, whatnot).
Others found it spicy. I didn't and so added some
hot stuff, which made it a little salty.

Caramel catfish in clay pot - the only really
unchinese dish of the lot. Usually this dish is
way sweet, but this version was delicate and
tasty, the caramel being really caramelly but
the sweetness mostly burned off.

Squid with mixed vegetables - all the vegetables
in the seafood soup, plus a couple more, bok choys
and stuff like that. Nice, tender squid, perfect
veggies.

Salt-pepper shrimp - quick-fried whole in oil
after having been dredged in cornstarch. This is a
great dish if the oil is almost dangerously hot
when the shrimp are thrown in: in such a case, the
shell becomes very crispy and easy to eat. Here,
a little timidity with the heat kept this from being
a truly exceptional dish. Instead, it was just very
good. I ate the heads off my two shrimp as well as
any others proffered. You're supposed to dip the
shrimp in this dish of salt and pepper, but it
wasn't a significant improvement - the beauty of
the dish lies in its simplicity.

Banana tapioca - the house dessert. A bit of cooked
banana, a cup of watery sweetened tapioca. Real Asian
desserts, many of them including this one will turn
off non-Asians. I found it inconsequential but soothing.

Beer: Michelob

Unfancy but good food south of Seattle

The Keg, Burien. I was sort of hungry for beef, as in
Europe the Mad Cow thing has made restaurants take
beef off the menu or at least make it harder to find.
So I corraled a bunch of my friends and we headed here
for a steak. It's a nice family restaurant that seems
to have grown out of a tavern. Steaks were tasty: my
baseball sirloin (a cut I'd never heard of before but
which seems to be a round piece hewn out of the rear
end of the sirloin) was nicely rare and juicy, fairly
beefy, with a good crust. Others (the guys) liked their
steaks or (the gals) halibut in cheese sauce or chicken
penne or (the kids) ribs, which I tasted and found too
sweet. Notes: the sirloin strip is too small; the
regular sirloin appears to be just like the baseball
sirloin only not quite as big.

Red Robin, Southcenter Blvd., near SEA. One of my
buddies had been a regular customer and pal of the
owner of the first Red Robin, down near League Bush, I
mean You Dub; in homage to the memory of those good old
days, we went to a Red Robin for some burgers. Pretty
good, at least the meat was real. Unlimited fries come
with. Everyone had burgers (an assortment of cheese
ones, BBQ ones, and bacon ones) except for Hap Hap Quite
Contrary, who had a Cobb salad, which he pronounced good.

East-West Cafe, Tacoma. Near the Tacoma Mall, this
little converted house has some of the best food in
Tacoma. We went shortly before noon, and the place
was already packed. We had a 15-minute wait for a table
for three; while waiting, we ordered our meals (good for
us, good for the restaurant). Fresh spring rolls were
a nice example of the genre: rice vermicelli rolled
inside soft rice wraps, flavored with roast pork,
shrimp, and mint: a hoisin-peanut dipping sauce was
served on the side. Hap had the pho, a big bowl of broth
with ample servings of beef, noodles, and vegetables,
flavored with basil. He doctored this delicate dish
shamelessly with large doses of nuoc mam, hoisin, and
sriracha. Speaking of which, do you know why you should
brush your teeth with fish sauce? "Nuoc mam, no cavities."
That's a joke. George had a nice serving of bulgogi with
a side of spiced cabbage (he pronounced it good). I had
the Malaysian noodles extra hot: stir-fried rice noodles
with soy and scallions and hot oil and Chinese sausage,
topped with beef. I needed to ladle on a bit of hot sauce,
but otherwise I was well satisfied.

The ostensible justification for my being there.

A memorial service for Prof. Goetz Friedrich at the
Deutsche Oper. Performers: Michaela Kaune, Wolfgang
Brendel, Matti Salminen, Dame Gwyneth Jones, Peter
Seiffert, Hildegard Behrens, Daniel Barenboim, the
chorus, soloists, and orchestra of the Deutsche Oper
conducted by Jiri Kout.

Friedrich was a major cultural presence with many
productions at the Komische Oper and then the Deutsche
Oper, where he was Intendant and chief stage director
for twenty years. His most famous productions included
the Ring at Covent Garden and later at the Deutsche
Oper and a number of Wagner works at Bayreuth. His
death at age 70 on December 12 was considered premature
and a great loss.

As my friends had wanted me to breakfast with them,
I got to the Oper at about 10:55; no time even to
check my wrap - I'd no sooner scrambled into my
seat and dropped my Bean jacket on the floor (I
later discovered this is a major nono, and I had
just sullied an august occasion with my faux pas)
than the orchestra began to tune up.

The backdrop was Friedrich's Time Tunnel that was
the trademark of his 1984-1986 Ring (I saw it in
one of the newsmagazines back then; it looked silly
there but was remarkable close up).

The occasion began with the harrowing last scene of
Janacek's Katya Kabanova, rather anticlimactically
followed by a greeting by the company director
Andre Schmitz.

Then Michaela Kaune gave a luminous, memorable
rendition of Richard Strauss's September - I thought
this the musical gem of the day; but Wolfgang Brendel's
performance of the Evening Star song got the most
applause (well, not applause, which was forbidden by
the occasion: people coughed instead). I thought that
Brendel was not as impressive as Kaune; but I guess
tenors get more than their share of adulation!

There were other speeches and tributes, including
one by the head mayor of Berlin, but most notably
by Friedrich's widow Karan Armstrong, who gave
what was represented to me as a strong and literate
speech (in real life she speaks not a significant
amount of German, apparently); there was big
trouble recently when Christian Thielemann, the
music director, sensing Friedrich's waning of power,
refused to let Armstrong sing Sieglinde for him,
saying "there is no room for THAT WOMAN in MY opera
house." Friedrich is said to have told a friend,
"he is attacking me in my most vulnerable place -
my wife." Thielemann was noticeable by his absence
from the proceedings; he was not even in the
audience, and a subconductor (a celebrated one,
but still) did the honors of directing the orchestra.

Interspersed were these musical selections:

O Isis und Osiris, from Mozart's Magic Flute, sung
with great power by Matti Salminen.

Beim Schlafengehen of Richard Strauss, sung by one
of my great favorites from when I was growing up,
Gwyneth Jones. Unfortunately, she's older than I am,
and her voice has lost much of its luster, but the
depth of musicality continues to impress.

The Almighty Father song from Rienzi, sung by
Peter Seiffert, another local favorite but one
whom I can't warm to.

Mild und leise from Tristan und Isolde, done by
Hildegard Behrens, until recently a great diva
(right word for a Wagnerian soprano?) but who
has lost tone, control, and intonation, although
her high notes are still there, a little screechy.
She also wore an eccentric outfit and looked not
a little dotty.

The slow movement of the Schubert Sonata in Bb,
played by Daniel Barenboim, who had been given
his first conducting job by Friedrich in the 1960s
(I think). Much pathos, and he's finally learned
to achieve clarity with the left hand. The New
York Steinway piano helped.

And the final fugue from Verdi's Falstaff, another
work with which Friedrich had been long associated
(he directed the first Dutch performance in 1972
followed by a film in 1980).

- - -

After the memorial, there was a reception at which
I met Karan Armstrong's mother and various other
people who spoke English, including a refugee from
Chelsea (the town just south of the one I nominally
live in).

Lunch after the memorial was catered by the Hotel
Inter-Continental and consisted of luxurious
buffet things (I had several salmon sandwiches)
and lots of beer (Berliner-Kindl Jubilaums-Pilsner
- a decent brew but not the most appropriate, I
think, given its name, for the occasion). After
that all I wandered off to look at the sights.
Went to the Brandenburg Gate and discovered that
it had been enscaffolded and wrapped for renovation
and now looks like a Christo construction but with
big ads for t-online.de - I could hardly believe
my eyes when I saw it; walked around the Reichstag
(lots of tourists, most French or American) and
the huge construction projects nearby (bear in
mind that it's a new capital as well as an old
one, and it's only recently had to absorb Bonn's
governmental functions, and bureaucrats need
their space).

- -

Public transportation is excellent, with S- and
U-bahn trains, trams (in former East Berlin), and
buses offering a comprehensive network. A car isn't
needed at all in the city, and the system is clean,
safe, and works like clockwork. There are several
kinds of tickets including the timed 2-hour ticket,
which costs 2 or 3 bucks and is good for unlimited
travel within the time period and zones designated,
or the zoned day passes, which cost $4-5 depending
on whether travel includes just the city proper,
just the suburbs, or both.

Two of the most tourist-friendly buses are the
100 and 200 (both enclosed double deckers, as are
most buses; the upper deck is a little short (short
enough for me to bump my head, so probably 5' 8" or
less) but provides nice views.

(Looking at the Berlin in Fahrt brochures)

The 100 begins near the zoo and passes numerous
sightseeing destinations: the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial
Church; the Zoo; the Bauhaus Archive; the Victory
Column; Schloss Bellevue, the German White House;
the World Culture Center; the Reichstag and the Platz
der Republik; the Brandenburg Gate; Humboldt University;
the Staatsoper; the Cathedral; the Lustgarten; the
TV tower; Alexanderplatz.

The 200 also passes many of these landmarks (not the
Bauhaus Archive, Victory Column, or Schloss Bellevue)
and also circles the Potsdamer Platz, the symbol of
the city's renaissance and in my opinion one of the
ugliest things I've ever seen.

- -

Another feature of this city is the ease and cheapness
with which one can go between the various airports and
the city proper. The Schoenefeld Airport is right at
the end of one of the S-bahn lines; Tempelhof is on
the U6; and Tegel is a 1 1/2 mile express bus ride
from the Jakob-Kaiser-Platz station on the U7.

The Komische Oper production of Rimsky's whimsical
Legend of the Tsar Saltan is one of the most amusing
theatrical productions I've ever seen. The singing
and the orchestra playing are generally good, but
the singing is tremendous; also the sets, lighting,
costumes, dancing, direction, all the production
values, are wonderful. Even in the old days, this
and the Staatsoper were two of the crown jewels in
East Germany's cultural life, and both of their
productions were renowned throughout the world.
And now, with western-level funding, you can guess
as to the lavishness and professionalism of the
performances.

The story of Saltan goes like this. There are these
3 sisters living with their aunt. The two older ones
are ugly; the third is beautiful. Sound familiar?
So the king goes looking for the most beautiful girl
in the land and falls for, guess who. Sound familiar?
OK, so they hold the wedding, and the rest of the
family, instead of being happy for the great good
fortune of one of its members, engages in a plot to
discredit the Cinderella sister, which has something
to do with questioning the legitimacy of the royal
firstborn. Anyway, the son and the queen get nailed
up into a barrel that is then dumped into the ocean.
Somehow, they manage to survive living in this barrel
for a number of years, until the son comes of age.
The barrel gets washed up on the shore of some magical
kingdom, where the son is greeted as the new ruler
and an enchanted swan helps the son get revenge by
transforming him into a bee (the famous Flight of the
Bumblebee comes from here, and believe me, the
orchestra has to be pretty good to play the piece)
who then flies to Saltan's land and stings the
bejabbers out of the three villainesses. Then by some
deus ex machina, Saltan ends up traveling to the
kingdom ruled by his son, whereupon the son reveals
himself, the old queen makes her appearance (joyous
reunion - sort of "gee, I guess I made a mistake
nailing you into a barrel and trying to drown you"),
and the swan turns out to be a princess in disguise,
then marrying the son and making everyone live happily
ever after. At the end, even the ugly sisters and
the wicked aunt seem happy.

A lavish spectacle, suitable for children of all
ages. The best thing is that it's in repertory at
the Komische Oper and is revived periodically.

- - -

There's currently a Walter Felsenstein festival at
the Urania. Every Sunday for 5 weeks the theater is
showing a film of Felsenstein's Komische Oper
productions. The one I saw was Verdi's Otello: the
term "comic" is kind of stretchable, it seems - the
next Komische Oper production coming up is Strauss's
Elektra, a dark and despondent piece indeed.

This film is considered a classic, and many celebrated
musicians appear in it (a young Kurt Masur is the music
director). I found it a bit overacted - of course, this
is operatic acting and not camera acting, and the camera
can be a bit unkind at times, but the singing was
first rate, and the film gives a taste of the creativity
of the stage production. Its screening was a felicitous
dovetailing with the ongoing Verdi festival (I missed
all of it, despite my promises to the contrary, including
a performance of Nabucco that I could have seen).

- -

Gisela May is the grande dame of Berlin cabaret. She has
been likened to Lotte Lenya, but I found her halfway
between Lenya and Carol Channing, with a voice as bad as
either of them but musicianship superior to either of them.
On January 14 (to be repeated January 26) she gave a reprise
of the 100th birthday Weill-Abend, singing most of the
famous Weill tunes including Alabama-Song (made famous by
the Doors to a completely crossover audience) and Moritat.
As her voice is pretty shot, she interspersed this with
lengthy disquisitions on the history of the Brecht-Weill
collaboration and readings from their letters. All in
German, which means that I understood at most 20 percent.
The Germans do like their lectures (after Otello some
official of the Komische Oper gave a talk, which I walked
out on after about fifteen uncomprehending minutes). It was
a fine thing to be sitting in the house where Brecht and
Weill had written many works and had their premieres,
listening to a woman who - although she didn't know the
creators personally - was well known by and approved of by
their widows. Afterwards: encores, standing ovations,
smitten elderly Prussians of all sexes striding or waddling
up to her with bouquets. Quite fascinating indeed.

The Berggruen Collection, recently acquired by
the Prussian State Museums, is one of the finer
compendia of early 20th century art.

The art dealer Heinz Berggruen had a good eye;
an early friendship with Picasso didn't hurt
either. In a funny circular building at
1 Schlossstrasse, right near the Charlottenburg
castle, can be found some of the greatest
pieces not only by Picasso (good and not-quite-
so-good works of all periods), but Klee and
Cezanne as well. I'd allow an hour and half
unless you're a real devotee (I took two).

- -

Right near the Philharmonie, off Herbert von
Karajan Strasse, is the Kulturforum, a complex
of buildings I can't stand but whose contents
are world-important. I had time only for the
Gemaeldegalerie, the museum of old European
paintings, but there is also a musical instrument
museum, the National Gallery (modern art), and
the Arts and Crafts museum. Actually, I had time
for about 4 rooms of the Gemaeldegalerie. You
could spend an hour in each room, but I spent
less than half that. Most of my time I spent
with the Rembrandts (some atypical examples,
such as the Moses, as well as some perfect
specimens, including Samson and His Father-in-Law
(which I think is a self-portrait)). Also looked
with amazement at the proto-realism of some of
the early Renaissance Italians, whose use of
perspective and shading far predates what is
described in all the art history books.

- -

Monday is relache for most museums, so I went
to Potsdam (about 1/2 hr from the Zoo by S-bahn).
Walked much of the day through the Sans Souci Park.
Of course the palaces were closed, but I did walk
around the Schloss and the Neu Schloss and took a
quick look at the Orangerie. Saw a white-tailed
deer running through the park and reflected on
that it really was a charmed location after all.

The buildings are in various stages of disrepair -
not just because it's low season, but there are
signs of real deterioration. The two very impressive
buildings and their joining covered walkway just to
the west of the Neu Schloss are totally crumbling:
pretty depressing to see.

Walking through the town itself one sees that the
entire neighborhood is in decay. There's a lot of
history there, and I could see that a good sprucing
up might make the place once again as prestigious as
it was in the days of Frederick the Great.

The Dutch Quarter, part of the old town, isn't quite
so wretched; it's at least a bit prosperous-looking,
but not particularly clean or tidy. I tried to go to
Juliette for lunch, but it was closed.

Walked back through some kind of ugly projects cheek
by jowl with eighteenth-century buildings, then past
the town offices (notable by the relative absence of
graffiti) and then across the bridge to the train
station. Not going to visit there again soon.

After a pleasant first meeting with Punki (every bit
as charming in person as on the board) and her employee
Brendan or Brandon, whom she had come to the airport
to fetch, I was off to Spokane.

As with Oakland, "there's no there there" in the
words of Gertrude Stein. Nonetheless, it might be
a good location for a FT gathering: it really is
a pretty little city; the natives are friendly
(and inordinately proud of their home), and the
lack of distraction might focus things and make
it a very cohesive party.

There is a Spokane wine tour, which people
might be interested in - I went to Caterina,
which is right near Riverfront Park and
easily accessible by foot or 25c shuttle trolley.
The Chardonnay I'd tried before: quite fruity
and rather gently oaked. Concentrated on their
three reds: the 1997 Cab, which despite a touch
of that cedar austerity was a quite accessible
drink. Surprisingly the Merlot of that year was
a big wine, not yet ready to drink: good fruit
and a lot of acid promised a few years' good
aging potential, though. The Rosso (about half
and half Cab and Merlot) is a really big, rather
dumb wine, nowhere near ready but with a lot of
potential - ready in three to five, I'd say.
The late-harvest Riesling was a disappointment -
flowery and with that pineapple-Rieslingy taste
but not very high in concentration and with only
7.something percent residual sugar. I told the
young woman behind the counter that I thought it
borderline for a dessert wine, and she allowed
that most customers bought it as a sweet table
wine (cf. Rhine Garten, for those of you above
forty or so). The tasting room doubles as a
foodie boutique, so you can get high-end
specialty foods and stuff at fairly high-end
prices: some good merchandise - Sharon O'Connor's
cookbook-classical CD combos and the excellent
Stonewall Kitchens jams and preserves among them.

A report on the front-runners in Spokane.

Clinkerdagger's, 621 W Mallon, in the Flour Mill
complex. A pleasant restaurant in the yuppie trough
vein - wood and plants and a solarium overlooking
the falls. Good staff, friendly, efficient, not too
hard on the sell. I had the applewood-smoked coriander
crusted pork loin - two sizable chops, one on the
bone, not very smoky, thoroughly cooked but still
juicy. They came with flavorful creamy redskin smashed
potatoes and a molasses-currant sauce (I think that
the menu mentioned a game demi-glaze, but that was
undetectable). A tangle of slivers of lemon zest
complicated the flavors a bit much, I thought, but
it was pretty good food nonetheless. The Jacob's
Creek Merlot (1998 I think) accompanied unobtrusively.
For afters: the special pecan pie, which was good
but not in any way special ($5.95 a moderate-size
slice); perhaps the signature "burnt cream" would
have been a better choice.


Longhorn Barbecue, 7611 W Sunset Hwy. Good staff,
friendly, fairly efficient, not too hard on the sell.
Setting is your stereotypical good ole chow hall, hard
chairs, lighting that manages to be harsh and somehow
not quite adequate at the same time. Beers the usual
dreck with a few ringers (Alaska Amber, Northern Lights
Amber), 10 oz $1.75, 23 oz $3, 34 oz $4.50, and so on.
Go for a couple 23 ozers. The food is wholesome but not
on the whole exceptional. German sausage was fatty and
a bit pasty, the texture more bangerlike than I would
have hoped. Ribs although with a smoked taste reminded
me of Chinese restaurant ribs with their sweet glaze.
The BBQ sauce here, by the way, is way sweet. The chili,
described on the menu with the oxymoronic juxtaposition
"Texas recipe" and "beans," was surprisingly Texas-like,
the beans not mushily cooked into the stew but folded
in later in the cooking. Mostly chuck beef (some gristly
bits, which I like) and decent chili powder with some
heat. I'd have gone for cooking onions in, but at least
they offer the option of chopped onions for on top. Odd
things: the men's room has old Sunday comics tacked up
on the wall; the sign out front reads "barbecue," but
when the neon lights up, the neon reads "barbeque."

[My colleague C. reported vaguely that she'd had an
exceptional kung pao chicken at a restaurant in
Airways Heights "called La La or Lu Lu or something."
A quick check of the phone directory yielded
"Lai Lai, 13008 W Sunset Hwy" ... I didn't have the
time or inclination to verify her report, though.]

Excellent. Now that was one thorough trip report

Domestic C is a lot different from domestic eco on LH, you are served much better, bet Champagne (not sparkling wine), something to eat and magazines, and they try only to seat
the people 2 and 2 in the 3 and 3 rows.

English is the official air traffic language, that is why the wing is painted in english (the planes fly in Europe too anyhow) and why
the annoucements for the FAs was made in English too.