6/2016 UA Inaugural SFO-SIN in coach, etc.
UA 560 IAD SFO 1452 1750 739 3A
was 1594 DCA IAH 1223 1454 73G 2A 1594 IAH SFO 1604 1825 320 2A I got to experience clubs both at DCA and IAD, in this wise: so everything was hunky-dory until boarding time for 1594, when at the gate we got the news that owing to a malfunction in the radar system we were going to be boarding, the gate agent estimated, 15 minutes late. He had already boarded a wheelchair passenger, but as one eagle-eyed person in our line pointed out, he'd then gone ahead and deboarded the person. Okay, my spider sense said go to the RCC and change my ticket; the helpful agent put me on the IAD nonstop, a loss of 400 qualifying miles, not that I need these, and gave me a voucher for taxi fare. Out back on the economy, where I found a pleasant Ethiopian guy who accepted the $77 voucher for an $85 fare (he got a decent tip). We spent a pleasant hour gabbing about the role of China in the African and American economies, and pretty soon I was back inside security with half an hour to taste the club's garden vegetable soup (based on a pretty tasty tomato broth) and an interesting new soybean and corn salad in a very garlicky Italian dressing. I wonder why the occasional United flight is stuck way far off from all its sister flights. Anyhow, that's the way it was, and by the time I'd limped over to D21, boarding was half done or more. Situated myself in my semi-comfy seat and tried to stay awake so I'd be sufficiently fatigued to sleep in coach on my longhaul. Warm nuts, mostly salty cashew shards and a few squeaky almonds. A salad with edamame and dried tomatoes, not bad. The meal. Shanghai noodles with vegetable pot stickers - the noodles were dreadful, gummy, sweet-salty, tasting of somewhat over the hill mixed veg. The dumplings, filled with cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, and tofu, were better but ruined by a sweet metallic sauce. The other choices werre chicken with garlic polenta and salmon with rice. I neither saw nor smelled these, which meant that they couldn't have been worse than what I had attempted to eat. A cookie for afters. Service was very agreeable, and there were several opportunities for Courvoisier, some of which I took. The club at the 60s gates was very crowded. Soups were loaded baked potato and mushroom brie, both of which I've had suboptimal encounters with before. A tray of cheese cubes and another of mortadella and a kind of chorizo that was quite paprikaful and a bit putrid but in a good way. |
Over to the international departures, where I learned
that there was going to be a party starting around 9. The club at the 90s gates offered the usual run of cheeses, prosciutto, and some genoalike substance, along with loaded potato and mushroom brie soups, which I'd had previous run-ins with and so didn't bother rousing. I found a nice desk to hang out in next to some guy dovening in the corner, quietly at least. There were these pie things: I had a half piece of pecan, which was pretty decent. The others appeared to be Key lime, apple, and some chocolate stroozly substance. Time to go to the gate to see what was what. There was already a sizable crowd, largely much better dressed than I and with a dignitarylike aspect (I figured that's why the front cabin had been zeroed out since the flight came up for sale in January.) Festive snacks: curry puffs, which I overheard the server telling someone was vegetarian; I found a nice big piece of chicken skin in mine, good for me, perhaps not so for vegetarians; and surprisingly juicy chicken satays with a peanut sauce that had been unadvertisedly zinged up with mustard. Desserts included green tea cake and mango pudding, the former not charming enough for me to try, the latter undone by tiny perfect dice of crunchy underripe fruit. Many speeches - dignitaries included the consul general of Singapore, the ambassador of Singapore, the mayor's office director of tourism, and various United and airport officials. I didn't pay any attention to any of these. We boarded up around five minutes early, each of us being issueed a United/Star Alliance billfold for the occasion. UA 1 SFO SIN 2325 0645 789 27C +2 This was the inaugural trip of the longest 787 flight, the longest passenger flight by an American-flag carrier, the second longest ever flight by an American-flag carrier (Delta had Mumbai to Atlanta, 64 miles more, for a while), the third longest flight period, and the seventh longest flight in history. And with me in coach. At least it was reputed to be a good coach seat. At each seat: a colorful certificate that congratulated us for being passengers on the historic trip, adorned with Oscar's grainy scanned signature. My seatmates were a Chinese kid and this middle-aged 6'9 guy who spilled out of his seat in every direction - I felt kind of sorry for him, as he admitted that uncomfy as this appeared to be, it was the best seat for him, even business class beds being sheer torture for him. For me, the seat was perfectly okay, though I kept being bumped (mostly accidentally I think) by people in the aisle going past. There were moments when I wished I'd chosen the window seat, and next time I'm in coach on this kind of aircraft, maybe I'll do that. The first row of Economy Plus on the aisle might be a good choice as well from the look of it. I didn't take the proffered meal, which was announced in the usual curt way, "chicken or pasta," instead settling for three glasses of red plonk, after which I slept for a good long time, totalling 10 out of the 16 hour flight. Breakfast came all too soon: noodles or eggs. I chose wrong; probably anything I chose would have been wrong. The noodles tasted like dirt smells and were topped by undercooked frozen succotash and a few edamame put there probably because the dietician in charge reminded the caterers that some protein was necessary. A roll whose toughness could be felt through its plastic wrap and a fairly standard almond cookie, which was undoubtedly the best thing on the tray and provided most of my calories. In general the service was nothing to complain about - the crew did their job efficiently and with good humor. They seemed to give a modestly preferential treatment to old people, and I did get my three glasses (a cup each, so a whole bottle total) of wine. We landed about on time, got a water salute, and parked halfway down the F50-60 pier I think it was. There to greet us were assorted local officials, a person prancing around in a dragon suit, and an animated Max airplane (I didn't get close enough to see if it was an animatronic or a human in a costume. |
There was no point going in town, as I had
noplace to go for a good long time, so I had the choice of waiting until noon (5 hours - but this is not a bad airport to wait) for the Cocktail Festival to start up at the Duty-Free in Terminal 3 or go early to the hotel, where from experience I knew that they'd let me use the lounge before checkin (and after checkout as well), but my room wouldn't be ready until 3 or 4. The Cocktail Festival it was. I snoozed (the quiet area was not totally full) and did the e-mail and dreamed of trying Veuve Cliquot Rich, the sponsor of this day. So around quarter past 12 I moseyed up to the Long Bar, where the cocktail tasting was supposed to be, only to find that there was nobody there. A not-too-friendly sales agent told me that the people hadn't arrived yet and probably wouldn't be there until evening! Well, I thought, might as well go downtown and find someplace for lunch and then take advantage of the Conrad lounge, where, as I recalled, wine flowed free day and night. So off to Ippudo, see below, and then to the hotel, which has long been a favorite of mine, despite something going peculiarly (but amusingly and fixably) wrong almost every time. This time, nothing went wrong. My room, a corner on the second-to-top floor, wasn't ready, so I settled for relatively modest digs 6 floors below, because I really needed to crash. Okay, it was an American-size room. quite big by Asian or European standards, nothing to complain about at all, with a nice view of the Fountain of Wealth (they seem to think I'm a businessman and usually give me a room on this side of the hotel, though last time with lili I'd got one on the Pan Pacific side, maybe because the rooms on the businessman side have only one bed). Oh, yeah, though the rubber ducky is still the same, the Conrad bear has gone from being that cute robust cuddly toy to a sad skinny fabric one. Sad news about the executive lounge for my alcoholic friends. It's no longer free booze on demand. You get free-flow alcohol only between 5:30 and 8. Nonetheless, they gave me my obligatory Tiger beer on check-in, though they giggled nervously and acted as if I were being extremely bold and iconoclastic. I've since compared notes with various other travelers, and the consensus is that in the last year or two both Singapore and Malaysia have become substantially more puritanical, perhaps Islamist. Oscar's breakfast. I had originally been given the erroneous news by a young concierge that breakfast was to be at the executive lounge, rather than the way it used to be, with a choice among three locations - the lounge, Oscar's, or at the pool level. Further inquiry yielded that the same options are still available, but as it cost more for them to do the more elaborate spread at Oscar's, they were not telling anyone about it. The lounge breakfast is pretty basic - one or two kinds of dim sum, one kind of eggs (though I am told you can special order other egg dishes, and they'll be brought up from downstairs), chicken sausage, bacon, baked beans, a fairly good assortment of pastries and fruit. At Oscar's you get all of these plus Indian and Chinese breakfasts, lots more kinds of fruit and fruit juices, plus the famous waffles and pancakes and ice cream. I will admit that once I took advantaage of this last with a scoop each of Swiss chocolate (pretty good, what in the states we call chocolate chocolate chip) and espresso croquant. Notes: the Indian things are pretty decent - I've written about how Indian food tends to be a good bet on buffets, because it reheats really well, and the yellow dal makhni I think it was was almost sufficiently spicy. I turnip my nose at the Chinese stuff; the one time I had the turnip cake it was bland beyond bland. The best things I had were smoked salmon (an ugly and careless presentation compared to years past), a bland but extremely high quality braised tofu in soy, and pink grapefruit juice. The worst, chicken sausage, chicken siu mai, and gummy vegetarian noodles (not as bad as United Airlines coach or domestic first noodles, but worse than United Airlines business noodles). |
Things eaten in Singapore. Aside from the hotel
food, which was abundant, accessible, and free (so I had the majority of my calories there), I ate at chains about once a day to keep the Singapore economy going but not so much. Here are three that I hit - all Asian chains, the first two having in the range of 50-100 outlets, the third I'm not so sure, because its Website is hacked and the location link takes me to a lonely hearts site, but it's not quite so big. Also, all the meals I had had a pasta base, as I was cheap, having splurged on the Conrad for $125 + 25000 points a night (essentially $250 a night, but I'm relatively points rich and dollars poor); and for protein I relied on the breakfast at Oscar's and evening hors d'oeuvres at the executive lounge. Tai Hing [Changi] is a pretty well thought of Hong Kong chain, known for its roast meats and noodly things. Accordingly I had noodle soup with a side of roast duck. The soup tasted like dishwater, but the noodles were though I think from frozen pretty decent. The duck, a quarter less maybe a couple slices for the cook, was inexpertly cut, raggedy, limp-skinned, but extremely good tasting, almost competing with Yan Toh Heen in Hong Kong last month. I seem to recall reading that there are 85 locations. I'd probably go back, because I got very tasty poultry for a moderate price. Ippudo Ramen - a Japanese-based chain with 65 restaurants in Japan and a bunch elsewhere, including Sydney, New York, San Fran, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and here. Their standard is a pork-bone broth in the Hakata style. I discovered that here chashu costs extra - what's ramen without roast pork? so I got a serving, 4 smallish slices of pork belly (the equivalent of 2 thick-cut slices of bacon) for $2 extra. The ramen was done hard, but the soup was really hot, so by the end of the bowl, the noodles were just right. The broth had a lot of MSG in it so tasted pretty good and cried out for beer, which is kind of expensive in Singapore, so I got a Coke (also expensive - $2 for a maybe 250 ml can). The chashu was decent, nothing to write home about, not enough of a fatty layer and a little on the fibrous side; it did taste good and was necessary to the bowl's integrity. Speaking of which, I was going to add a shake of sesame seeds to the bowl but discovered that the cook had had it his way - premixed in were scallions, pickled ginger, pickled vegetable, and way too many sesame seeds. If I went back, I'd specify what I did and didn't want for mix-ins. |
Tim Ho Wan is said to be the cheapest Michelin-
starred restaurant in the world [note - as of July 2016, that's not so anymore]. It's for sure cheap, but Michelin-starred, that is up for discussion. For one thing, the stars get given and taken away with some regularity - the three Hong Kong locations have had a checkered history. The original got a star. Then a second opened, and it got a star. Then a third opened and got its star, but the second one lost its. Then the original went out of business (the landlord wanted to renegotiate the lease at apparently exorbitant rates). Then the little chain started to expand, and now it is represented in 10 or more countries (SF and NYC in the US) with multiple locations in some cities. I went to the most convenient one for me, accessible even in foul weather without going outside through a half-mile of mazy over- and underground passages. This one is really unprepossessing, being in a strip mall that lines the corridor connecting two subway stations, Esplanade and City Hall. When I saw it I thought of chickening out and taking the tube to another location, but I stuck it out and was glad I did. There are about 25 items on the menu, plus half a dozen drinks, plus beer, which costs more than at the hotel. Four of the dishes, pork liver vermicelli roll, steamed egg cake, turnip cake, and pork buns, are given the monicker Big Four Heavenly Kings, which to me translates as Big Four Heavenly Profits; nonetheless, who can resist pork liver vermicelli roll? So I got an order - three medium-size blobs of the usual sort with a much more delicate wrapper than I am used to, filled with all these little maybe half inch bits of liver, each cooked perfectly medium rare like little tiny steaks - truly artfully done. The sauce was an extremely savory soy-and- broth-based thing. I could live on this; it was one of the most amazing things I've ever eaten; and to think it was found in a corridor between two train stations. Spinach dumplings with shrimp sounded good; when they came, the wrappers were also extraordinarily delicate, almost too delicate, as their stickiness made it hard to separate them from the paper lining of the steamer. Inside - odd bits of ground protein that I couldn't figure out but decided were tofu, pretty delicious steamed spinach, in a largish mass, lots and lots of garlic, and a small shrimp or perhaps a piece of a larger shrimp. Incredible texture and substantial satisfyingness. One of the specials of the month was lychee custard puff: I was expecting maybe a riff on the Hong Kong egg tart with bits of lychee or maybe just lychee flavoring. What came - fresh lychees with the stones replaced by egg custard, the whole coated in a very light batter and deep-fried. The first, piping hot, was a revelation. The second, now that I knew what to expect, merely very good. The last, having started to cool off, pretty decent. I recommend ordering this only if you have a party of three! Sadly, I discovered later that each city has a different set of specials of the month. As beer was quite expensive, I had the homemade longan drink, which tasted like diluted prune juice but was not bad for that. It was dark like prune juice, so it must have been made either from overripe longans or dried ones. I was going to hit Din Tai Fung (there are 19 of these in Singapore) but was too cheap and figured I could get my fix in Kuala Lumpur for half the price, and the Tim Ho Wan experience was too good to forget, and I thought that that even the biggest name in dim sum wouldn't be able to come close. |
From the hotel to the airport by MRT
is 45 minutes and a couple bucks. I think the bus is about the same price. The taxi, marginally faster at best, costs 10 times as much. MH 614 SIN KUL 1105 1250 738 2A The Malaysia counters were chockablock; there's a bank of check-in machines by them; wondering why nobody was using them, I wandered over the 6 feet to see what was what. Turns out that despite the Singapore desks being in another aisle altogether, the only machine check-in possibilities were Singapore or SilkAir. While I was puzzling over this Singaporean silliness, speaking of which, some SATS guy came up and asked me what airline I was flying. I answered in my most clear enunciation, Ma-lay-see-an, in the Malaysian way. He went, what, what, I didn't understand you. So I repeated myself. So he repeated himself louder. Eventually I said, MH, and he sneered, oh, Malayshan (in the Singaporean way) and pointed me to the business counter, where I waited five for the girl to serve a couple of relatively confused customers and then received my boarding pass in moments. I think he was disappointed that I didn't get kicked out of that line, and when I went back to "thank" him, he hung his head and wouldn't look at me. It was amusing but almost irritating enough to complain to SATS about. Makes me wonder what other shibboleths I am ignorant of, not that I should really care. Emigration: two minutes flat counting the line. One turns right at the shuttered Golden Lounge to get to its replacement, the SATS lounge. I was kind of sad, but in truth it's a perfectly respectable facility. The red wine on offer was Pierre-Jean Cabernet- Merlot (Vallee de l'Aude) 15 - it tasted rather cheap, and the best I can say for it is that it went nicely with Coke. Luckily on my next trip, I thought, I will have access to the Silver Kris, where the wine might be a tad better. With my laksa, below, I tried Michel Torino Chardonnay (Calchaqui Valley) 15, which despite being over-tropical-fruited was pleasantly crisp and went pretty well. The signature laksa smelled like sotong busuk, but I gave it a try. It tasted pretty good, ginger, lime leaves, garlic, a whole lot of chile. "Indian delights sambar," tamarind lentil soup, was also pretty spicy, a little sour, decent. As I had allowed only two hours or so between the hotel and the flight, I didn't spend an enormous amount of time, and soon I had to hustle to the gate, where by the time I got there, the security line was pretty long but was quick enough. The cabin was half full - 6 of 12 (or 16?). On the flight, pleasant service, attentive but not too attentive. Seats, pretty standard - I remember back in the olden days when these planes had footstools; the built-in mechanical ones nowadays don't have that charm but I guess must be deemed safer. The seats themselves are fine, and the entertainment system, well, I'd thought my headphones had gone defective when I'd tried to use them on United, but they were fine here. The snack was chicken satay, tender but with a baking sodaed texture, served with quite good peanut sauce that I lapped up rapidly. No alcohol, so I had guava juice, which was almost as good. |
Great TR - fun for the inaugural flight. But bummer that you didn't get to enjoy the cocktail party in SIN.
Don't know how the 6'9" pax can fly. Ouch on height! |
As we'd come in on time, there was again no
reason to hurry, so I spent a whopping MYR10 ($2.50) for the hour bus ride to Sentral instead of MYR60 or so for the 40-min train trip to the same place. An easy transfer to the #5 Gombak light rail line (MYR 2.70, 67c more), and in about 20 I was at Ampang Park (Google overestimates the time by double or so), where I followed the sign for the Doubletree. Guess what? It points in the wrong direction, and I had to ask at a stall how to get there. They are apparently used to this question. The Doubletree Kuala Lumpur is the gem of the Intermark shopping center, whose construction is probably the final nail in the coffin for the Ampang Park shopping center, which is more a collection of little mom and pop shops, each of which now sports a pathetic sign that says "PLEASE SAVE AMPANG PARK." Kind of sad. It calls itself a five-star hotel, and though I was a little sceptical, experience says to me, four at least, not quite at the level of the big guns in town or around the world, but very nice. Plus with the buy four get one free on miles you can get five nights at an undeniably superior place for the price of one night at, say, the Hampton Inn Logan Airport. As I type, I have only a few hours left here, but I'll certainly be back. I was invited to check in at the lounge on 34; the pleasant desk agent escorted me up there and handed me over to a very suave young lady who after some checking said that my room was not ready owing to a late checkout, so I hung around the lounge a couple hours! drinking them out of Schweppes bitter lemon, alcohol not being available until 5:30. Was the room worth the wait? I guess. Smaller than the one at the Conrad but more modernly and perhaps more nicely appointed and 1/6 the price in points. And, as the concierge pointed out, only 100 feet from breakfast and cocktails. I was settling in when some guy knocked to offer a fruit plate and a pastry plate. The fruit - two apples, an orange, and an Asian pear - were like rocks and remained inedible for at least two and in some cases three days. The pastries included a relatively salty and unsweet banana cake with 38 layers, I counted them. I can see 32 or maybe 36, but why 38? It was densely spongy, like one of those miracle wipers that is thin thin until you wet it, and then it puffs up according to how much water you add. This was maybe half watered. Star anise cookies in the shape of a butterfly were also salty and unsweetish and tasted like a Chinese grocery store smells. There was also a strange coconut digestive biscuit that I actually liked. After resting and freshening up I toddled over for the last half of happy hour. The place was chockablock, and it was a while before I found a place to sit, near an amusing couple, Allan and Mary, Midlanders relocated to India or somesuch place. I had my fill of red wine, Roberts Rock South African Cabernet-Merlot, which I stuck with for the week as it was inoffensive and the kind of thing one gets used to. |
Over the days I investigated, various snacks,
some rather odd, that kept changing: prawn paste fried in shredded wheat, okay; sort of mystery meat in mystery pastry, okay minus; other Chinese-influenced but modest-tasting dim-summy fried or baked pastries, okay to good; very dense beef meatballs in a brownish sauce with some interesting name, but the taste was not particularly, okay minus; various kinds of samosas, good; bao with kaya, quite good and a counterexample to my hypothesis that there wasn't a steamer upstairs; "beef bolognese lasagne" in a cup - quite good, actually; various kinds of chicken wings, on one occasion what appeared to be plain fried, on another "barbecued," actually very good and reminiscent of the sauce I had at some place in Wheaton Plaza, Maryland in the late 1950s or early 1960s, on yet anoter something with a fancy Malay name but tasted like plain fried; some fishy things, one a day, all of which smelled bad to me; fruits, of which the watermelon was excellent; I was hoping for something more typical, but the most native I could find was papaya that wasn't as smelly as it should have been; lots of rather too hard melon; finger sandwiches, not for me; various tofu preparations cuted up in Chinese spoons - I had one on the first day and found it okay but not going well with the wine; beef rendang pie, of which I took one and on a flyer decided to open up and look at: three chunks, two of a good though underspiced chuck beef stew, the third a piece of purest white suet. I ate the fat. Also sweets of native and European styles, which I resisted fairly easily, though the wild berry panna cotta and the classic tiramisu, their words, were tempting, and I might have tried one of each if they hadn't run out of dessert spoons. Not everything every day; though, except on Saturday night, when the place was overrun by lots of families with lots of hungry children, there was plenty of choice and plenty of food. Some days I didn't partake, depending on the timing of my heavy meal out. For the first day of Ramadan, an assortment of dried fruit, including three kinds of dates - one small and round, gooey sweet, very freestone; one medium-size, more elongated, a little starchy, freestone; and the third large and boxy-shaped, gooey, less freestone. On my last day: pandan pudding, nicely scented with that vanilla-like fragrance, topped with tiny tapioca balls, and a creme caramel that was weirdly bitter with crunchy bits of grass jelly-like substance on top but eggy enough for that to be forgiven. No spoons, so I was forward this time and asked one of the actually quite accommodating attendants for one. Booze: Captain Morgan alternating with Havana Club, various white spirits including I think Beefeater, and Ballantine's alternating with Jack black. Tiger beer and the aforementioned Roberts Rock. |
Breakfast could be had either at the
lounge just a hundred feet from my room or down at the famed Makan Kitchen on the 11th floor. I chose downstairs every time because of the variety, and the stuff upstairs had no doubt been dumbwaitered up from there anyway. Stations: Malay, healthy, European, cereal, pastry, yogurt, cheese and cold cuts, noodle, omelette, soup, cured meat, Indian, and Chinese. Focusing on the first day, subsequent things mostly the same, and I'll mention them as I think of them. From the Malay offerings there was a fish and chile sambal, very strong and salty and just the thing to liven up a diet of rice upon rice, and a chicken rendang that was scrumptious, though light on the coconut and on the chile. Coconut rice. From the healthy station, some nice ripe smelly papaya (there are varieties that exude a durianlike odor) and a juice bar (orange, apple, guava, and something else). Other fruits that I never got around to trying. The cheese and cold cut station had only one set of tongs for the whole thing, so when I tried the duck ham, it ended up smelling of but not tasting of blue cheese, not my favorite thing. This obtained every day, so I avoided it since. Beef ham from the sausage and cured meat section was ok but not to be repeated. There were also chicken and veal bangers; I didn't bother. As people never tire of saying in their Internet reviews, the Indian chef is the best of the lot. I believe actually that he is the head chef. Recurring: tomato chutney, very good. Coconut chutney, even more good. Pappadums in the shape of Fritos, very good. Spiced uttapams, a bit lumpen and starchy, also cold; nonetheless, very good slathered with the chutneys. The one-off coconut drop doughnuts, I don't know what they're called, were pretty good. The first day there was a weird spaghetti with tomato fish sauce that the jury's still out on. It didn't reappear. Each day a potato dish, the first masala-ed, probably the best I've ever had, but a little salty. Later some goopy underseasoned things I didn't bother with or didn't note; and a varuval that was pretty nice. Sambar, quite good, very lentilly and not so sour; I remained unconvinced by the big chunks of al dente carrots, green pepper, and - horrors - luffa. Chicken curry - very good, very spicy. A fish curry that smelled unpromising. The Chinese section, which is in another room altogether, didn't look all that interesting except for the carrot cake that was offered on the first day. I figured that as it's cheap and easy to make, I'd try it another time, having gorged myself on the Malay and Indian food before finding the Chinese department. Wrong choice - it was a one-off. At the counter there was a sign advertising roast duck, but there wasn't any - the sign must have been leftover from dinner. Congee with interesting additives - I did try some of these, a mixed pickled vegetable, a thin-stemmed kind of cabbage, or so the sign said, what was characterized as olive leaves, and a pickled parsnip-like root. These were salty, very salty, exceedingly salty, and sweet and salty respectively. I figure they're offered because of some putative medicinal value rather than flavor. More starches - a fried rice and a noodle dish, changing daily, none particularly appetizing. On one day a silken tofu with chicken mince and scallions - very good. |
There are two restaurants in Ampang Park with
similar names - Cozy Corner and Cozy House - apparently it's the old story - two brothers don't see eye to eye, they split, their restaurants have similar names and are down the block from each other, people get confused. I was vaguely interested in this little drama and to see what the results were, so I went to the Ampang Park Shopping Center (across the pedestrian walkway from the Intermark) and poked my head into both. Sad to say, the smells and the atmosphere at either did not encourage me to stay, though the air conditioning was working at one of them, I forget which. Some say New Shanghai Legend has some of the best dim sum around, so my original plan to check out the KL branches of Din Tai Fung and Tim Ho Wan were put on hold. It was Sunday noon, a time when the places in my experience are filled with happy families, but this restaurant was totally empty, a bad sign. I walked past it two or three times and wondered if I should instead eat spag Bol at the place down the way, but I decided to stick to my plan. The hostess who eagerly accosted me on my last pass through spoke decent English with a charming accent, which clinched the deal. Inside it was a little musty and had a touch of that sour mildewy smell that you got before the advent of air conditioning, even though the dining room was cool enough. I ordered four of my favorites. They let you order the oatmeal prawn by the each (just over US$1), so I got one to see what it would be like. Turned out to be a fried croquette whose flavor was between a cereal prawn and that famous weird Hong Kong dish fried shrimp with mayonnaise and fruit cocktail. The croquette had about 4 or 5 small shrimp in a creamy sauce with a crunchy cereal coating. My first bite was heaven, but the rich whiteness dictated that it palled quickly. There were also white and red cubes in there as well, and I thought that they had cleverly incorporated the fruit cocktail into the croquette, but when I actually tasted them, it turned out they were surimi, a sizable disappointment. Not what I had envisioned, which would have been a riff on the Singaporean cereal prawn - a whole creature rolled in the cereal of the day and cooked in a hot wok; if it's made with butter, it's called (duh) butter prawn. Here an order of xiao long bao comes as a measly two, and they are relatively expensive. They are steamed in Chinese spoons, a cute idea, and you eat each one right off the spoon (hothothot) and slurp the juice. Well. For starters, it's a good thing there were those spoons, because one of them was pre-busted, so it might as well have been wonton in soup. The juice was okay, not very rich, the filling rather coarse, without enough fat, and underseasoned. Not the best rendition ever, despite what the Internet says. This came with a spoon of ginger slivers and soy sauce. Har gow had a stronger than usual sesame scent but were otherwise standard, which is to say pretty good. The shrimp inside were fresh and crisp, the dough translucent enough but bordering on the too firm. I'd have liked a drop or two of soy for this, too, but no. And there was none at table, either. A fried taro ball was unlike the usual - of course I am used to it being filled with a tablespoon of ground pork in a sauce flavored with anise; this was of course filled with little dice of stewed beef round in soy, which was fine. The coating was pretty standard, which is to say very good. This all came to just over RM30; a Tiger beer added RM15 plus tax, so my final outlay came to just over US$12. Maybe I should have had another beer. Ramadan is coming up (Google says it's starting right in an hour or two; other sources say tomorrow). [contemporarily written report] |
United are still serving cookies for desert.
This is one reason I avoid US airlines on long haul trips. |
But I like the cookies.
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Photos?
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Being visually impaired, I'm not very into photos, and most
of the ones I take are not great. |
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