violist

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.

violist

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.

violist

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).

violist

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.

violist

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.

violist

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.

gaobest

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!

violist

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.

violist

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.

violist

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.

violist

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]

Bretteee

United are still serving cookies for desert.

This is one reason I avoid US airlines on long haul trips.

violist

But I like the cookies.

miamiflyer8

Photos?

violist

Being visually impaired, I'm not very into photos, and most
of the ones I take are not great.