2007 SIN Run
 

UA 732 IAD BOS 1125 1254 733 2D Ch9 N (no audio at all!)

I'd been on the 12:30, operated by the hated Mesa, and my
2D had miraculously morphed into 1D, so I got my brother to
take me to the airport a little early so I could stand by
for the previous flight. Went to the D RCC, and the agent
just went ahead and put me into 2D on 732. I did my e-mail
and had a couple cans of grapefruit juice, and then to the
gate, where the incoming was just deplaning. Moseyed around
for 5 minutes and returned to find myself right at the tail
end of boarding, with a multi-striper taking tickets at the
gate. I joked that they were making him do everything on
this trip; he replied "next thing I'll be pumping the gas."

One of the last aboard; the very last was the said officer,
who introduced himself as Captain Tom [something] from
Tyler, Texas and ended his spiel with "We appreciate your
flying United, we need the money" and then mentioned that
any military on active duty report to the nearest FA (only
one did, and of course, was put in 1C, leaving 3 empties in
the front cabin).

The FA doing the safety demonstration p&med that it was
windy, and she had not enjoyed her last few landings, as
they were too bumpy, and she didn't like that one bit. I
wondered almost out loud how she chose that profession.

Courvoisier came ice-cold, but refills were offered by
the cheerful purser. We took off almost half an hour late
but landed about on time, with the purser giving a
humorous but somewhat forced welcome to Logan, reminding
us that even if we got up while the plane was still
taxiing, we would not beat it to the gate.

UA 881 BOS ORD 0900 1042 752 3D Empower N, Ch9 Y
was UA 877 BOS ORD 0800 0944 319 2D

Got the uncomfortable news that my flight was cancelled,
but it turned out I'd automatically been rebooked on the
next one. Despite this, Mr. Easy Chicken refused to cluck,
and I had to check in in person at a station where among
other equipment the passport reader was inop. Luckily I was
an easy case and got out of there in just a few minutes; so
on to security, which looked like a piece of cake; but
appearances can be deceiving. It wasn't just Ma and Pa
Kettle - in front of me were loads of Kettles, from teen-
to middle age. All with jars of jelly in their bags or
cellphones and change in their pockets. Took nearly half
an hour for about 10 people.

To the Club, where I heard a well-dressed fellow complaining
to Lynne about the Espresso machine. He said it had been
down for three months. Josie, the backroom girl, popped out
and said, no, it's been more than three months. Apparently
it was repaired and immediately went out again, and this
time the replacement part was nowhere to be found. The well-
dressed fellow opined that it was a disgrace (agreement all
round) and said that he was going to write to Flyertalk,
because after things get written up on Flyertalk, they get
fixed! After a brief chat with Lynne, I introduced myself to
him - so I met Flyertalker Exceller in person, no yellow
tags required.

Boarded up on time, taxied out, and then watched as a twin
Cessna was cleared - in the middle of rush hour - for an
emergency landing. That being accomplished routinely, we
were eventually cleared quite a bit late for takeoff.

A ham-cheese-egg croissant sandwich was (I am ashamed to
admit it) not at all unpalatable, the croissant really,
really flaky. Perhaps this was a function of their having
been partially heated in one oven and, it being discovered
that that oven would never get to food service temperature,
then transferred to another oven for cooking. The fruit
appie was standard, ice cold. Courvoisier went well.

The crew was pretty solicitous (quite senior and experienced
and not having gotten out of the wrong side of the bed).

Winds being favorable and shortcuts negotiated for, we
landed on time, and I discovered that I had to trek all the
way to the jumbo gates at the end of B.

Drink coupons cheerfully offered at the club, where the
Courvoisier was VS and stale.

UA 895 ORD HKG 1218 1755 744 15B Empower Y, Ch9 Y

For some reason, nobody at res or even at the RCC could
break the journey ORD-HKG-SIN in the record, so I was
(sigh) relegated to 15B even though I KNEW that 15A was
empty; 15A was taken on HKG-SIN by one bseller. Turns out a
late late late pax took the seat (for a long time it was the
only upstairs seat empty except for ...

When I arrived, there was a knot of folks in the row 15 area;
curious, I pushed up and saw legs, horizontal, on the floor.
Thought "uh oh," but then the legs moved; turns out it was a
maintenance guy trying to fix 13B; having failed, he taped
it up and we went with an inop seat. I reflected on the sad
loss of revenue, but then it could have been worse: there
could have been a marshal in the seat, and he would have
consumed food, drink, and fuel at United's expense, with
arguably no enhancement in safety.

Some guy finally showed up for 15A. He was a 1K late upgrade
by the looks of him.

I actually don't care for 15B. With the A and H seats, you
get this nifty extra work space (the bin lid), and it's
much cozier. I'm very much a 15AH person.

[note en route: I have 200 pages of proofs to look at;
on the way back, then. Instead, I'm bowing parts for
Mozart's Exsultate, Jubilate and a Schubert mass.

Warm nuts (seconds offered); warm towels.

to begin
Smoked salmon, pate en croute with pistachio, Wensleydale
cheese and vegetable crudite; Parmesan and pepper sauce

The salmon was okay; the pate was pretty standard; the
cheese was chalkier and sandier than usual; and the
crudite consisted of one baton each of zucchini and
carrot (all dried out) and one tiny asparagus spear.

Fresh seasonal greens; Buttermilk ranch or balsamic
Dijon vinaigrette

Out of a Dole package, but with the addition of a purple
olive and a slice of roasted yellow pepper.

main course
Braised beef short ribs with port wine sauce; twice baked
cheddar potato and green beans with pepper and marjoram

Sesame chicken with peppers; braised E-fu noodles and
sugar snap peas with sliced carrots

Pan-fried sea bass with royal ginger oyster sauce;
steamed rice and asparagus with red peppers

Please advise the flight attendant if you prefer to have
sauce served on the side

I told the agreeable South Asian FA that I'd prefer the
short ribs but if there was a run on them I'd take anything.
I heard everyone around me order the short ribs, so I said
to myself, fish, here I come. Imagine my surprise: short
ribs. And, unlike last time (when they were tough and
tasteless and almost certainly from the round), they were
actually from the chuck: three chunks of 3 oz each, one
somewhat tough but tasty, one tender but somewhat tasteless,
one tender and good, with a little vein of fat. The sauce
was almost hoisin sweet. The beans were just past al dente
and quite nice, but the potato was a gluey mess (didn't
taste bad, but the texture was tongue-coating mucilaginous).

dessert
International cheese selection; Kerrygold Vintage Cheddar,
Port Salut

Eli's Creme Caramel cheesecake

I had one slice of pretty good well aged Cheddar that had
begun to go crystalline. Noted that nobody seemed to be
interested in the cheesecake.

midflight snack
A variety of assorted sandwiches and treats
Hot noodles are available on request

prior to arrival
Asparagus and Asiago puff pastry with pomodoro sauce,
Black Forest ham and sauteed zucchini with basil

or

Fresh seasonal fruit plate with creamy yogurt

The "puff pastry" was actually a quichelike substance with
the crust soggy and almost like an "impossible pie" bottom.
The filling was onion, cheese, and fatty ham; on the side
lots of rather nice asparagus spears in mock Hollandaise
and a couple strips of bacon.

The wines:

Domaine Vincent Sauvestre 2004 Chablis - okay, slightly
thin, surprising stone fruit (pear, peach) nose and a
pleasant acidity with a pear-citrus aspect.

Kenwood Sauvignon Blanc 2005 (Sonoma) - I just had to try
this, because of the discussion of it on the boards. Well,
it's your typical slightly acidy gooseberryish citric SB,
with nothing notable about it at all. I think it might even
have undergone a touch of malolactic, as it was a little
softer than I feared.

Pedroncelli Three Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon
2003 DCV - didn't try

Clos du Bois Zinfandel 2003 (North Coast) - this was
almost stereotypically zinny, with plums and chocolate
giving way to raspberries and chocolate after a spicy,
plummy nose. It went nicely with the meat (a little
residual sugar in the wine), but with the cheese it
became just like a berry milkshake.

This flight came about as close to the Pole as I've gotten:
we crossed 80N 118W as I listened, and the next waypoint
was supposed to be 83N, but I was asleep by the time that
happened.

I slept quite a lot on the flight; at one point I woke up
and flagged down the rather agreeable FA and asked asked
for a Courvoisier as sleep aid. It came a double and warmed
to about the temperature of coffee. After I let it settle
down a bit it was not too damaged by the heat treatment,
and I slept for five hours at one go without other
pharmaceutical intervention.

A decent flight, pretty good crew, decent food.

There was a long list for showers at the TG lounge; I made
my way to the RCC (near gate 60; unfortunately, United
now flies from gates 46-50, quite a distance away), had a
refreshing shower, and had some mostly unpalatable snacks -
the hot dishes were vegetarian fried rice and bowtie pasta
with ground beef and raw peas; the dim sums were soggy
vegetarian spring rolls, very sweet pork buns, something
supposedly with prawns but that looked like surimi, and a
chicken pastry that was so nasty that I took a bite and
dumped the rest in the bin provided, making an emphatic
disrecommendation to the gent behind me who was considering
taking one.

UA 895 HKG SIN 2000 2345 744 15B Empower Y, Ch9 ?

An oddity. There is a hand search as you go into the gate
area, which is not particularly odd given these modern-day
security concerns; but after the 1L/2L split there is a
second hand search - for economy passengers only.

bseller was in 15A, and we had a very entertaining pretty
much flight-long conversation; if you're a Flyertalker and
didn't get mentioned at least in passing, I guess you're
nobody. I never even bothered to find out whether there
was Channel 9.

to begin
Fresh seasonal greens, sliced almonds, French dressing

These were okay greens, okay but soggy almonds presented on
cucumber slices, and vinaigrette.

main course
Grilled cod fish with clam tomato sauce; herbed basmati
rice, broccoli florets and red pepper batonnets

Sauteed Asian-style chicken with garlic; egg noodles with
vegetables, Chinese seasonal greens and Chinese chicken
sauce

Please advise the flight attendant if you prefer to have
sauce served on the side

The chicken was not unpalatable, but whoever cooked it has a
profound misunderstanding of how to use cornstarch and broth
- the dish looked rather like chicken pudding. Noodles were
okay, The greens were one slice, perhaps a third, of a baby
bok choy.

dessert
Panna cotta with passion fruit coulis - quite palatable, the
pudding very vanillary, the coulis very passion fruity.

bseller kept sluicing down the Pol Roger Brut, that being
his substitute for dinner - saving himself for Lau Pa Sat,
he said - and it was probably better than my meal, with
which I had the Laboure-Roi Cotes du Rhone 2004: "Without
the heat of 2003, the 2004 Cotes du Rhone, such as Laboure-
Roi's version, are far more drinkable and friendly to food"
- this of course means that it's lowish in alcohol, quite
unnotable in taste, and softish. It was pleasant enough,
with whiffs of plums and pepper but so muted as to be nearly
unnoticeable. A couple glasses later, the flavor was not
improved. And then with dessert, Courvoisier, of course.

We landed about 15 early. I went to try to find info about
the 803 flight so as maybe to hook up with Sweet Willie,
Lori_Q, and gvdIAD, but by the time I found out what their
gate was (nobody manning info booths, nobody answering the
info phone line, so I logged into united.com, which took
a huge long time to come up), they were gone. I waited at
the gate until the captain came out. I asked if he was the
last out, and he said, there were a couple others. What
about passengers? All left, he said. So I went on.

Immigration as always was a breeze, but as usual I saw a
couple sheepish people being led away (passport or visa
violations?). The interesting thing about this is that
contrary to the usual case, both people - two separate
incidents - were white folks, one a respectable-looking
woman, the other a hippyish-looking guy.

On to Lau Pa Sat - the cab bill was $20.80, and the guy
gave me $30 change of a 50, which meant that I gave him
a negative tip, and he smiled and bowed me out of the
taxi anyway.

There were about a dozen hearties for the midnight meal.
Forgive me if I was too woozy and boozy to remember
exactly who was there.

By the time I arrived the first round of food and beer
had been consumed, except for some cockles, which nobody
could open (I using my superior finger strength ate some
of these, and you know what, I think they were unhappy
cockles), and some dim sum of which Lori_Q and I split a
dump (spelled dump, pronounced doong), a sticky rice
ball with pork, mushrooms, and dried shrimp, wrapped up
into a tetrahedron in lotus or palm leaf and tasting
primarily of leaf.

(I was the first of the UA crowd to show - afterward
came seanthepilot, Lori_Q, and bseller.)

I got a pitcher of beer, some fried chicken wings, and
dried fried squid in sweet-hot sauce, all good.

Eventually bseller showed up, having checked in at the
Sheraton. He ordered char kway teow and popiah and some
fried variation of popiah and more beer, and in fact we
had tons of food.

Turns out there'd been issues with some of our colleagues'
flights. Sweet Willie missed his connection (and in fact
he never showed up); and WWBGD had a passport issue that
couldn't be resolved instantaneously, so he was scheduled
on UA 895 the next day.

Off to the Keong Saik Hotel, where I had a rather small
but pleasant and clean room - and as Lori_Q points out
(this being a reason she chose the place) the windows
open, so you don't get this feeling of being stuck in a
sterile rabbit warren. The amenities are spartan (no
Kleenex!), but you get what you pay for. The a/c works
fine if you need it. Lori paid $10 more a night for her
superior room; I took a look - it was a little bigger
and a little nicer, but not by much.

P.S. I spoke too soon! I tried to reposition the shower
head, and the whole apparatus fell to the floor - it had
been hanging by a thread. Okay, I went down to the front
desk and reported that issue and then returned to get some
shuteye ... to find that the bedside lights did not turn
off at all. The solution offered by the charming girl at
the front desk: unscrew the bulbs. What can I say, it
ain't the Mandarin.

the main events Saturday
 

Saturday I I got up about 7:30 and did a bit of work; then
met with Lori_Q around 10, and headed northward by
degrees: started off buying a few sheets of new year's
jerky, then finding a Japanese bookstore, then walking
around Fort Canning, then north to Little India, arriving
at Muthu's at exactly noon to find bseller sitting there
and nobody else. Waited for half an hour and decided
the heck with everyone, we'll have a good time anyhow.

The three of us ordered somewhat too much food.

A small fish head curry at $20 was an enormous bowl
with a big ugly fish head in it - sort of Mafioso fish
soup. I'm not quite sure what the species was - probably
some kind of perch or snapper or something. The broth was
tangily flavored with tomato and cumin and was quite yummy.
By itself it would have been enough for the three of us.
Mutton curry was standard but very tasty, as was butter
chicken. We were upsold from one to three garlic naan by
the waiter (good idea) and an appetizer (bad idea: tandoori
mushrooms, which were nice enough but too much food).
Various lassi things and a pitcher of Tiger rounded
things out. A good meal, but it would have been better if
others were there to share the fun with us - but I hear that
after breakfast nobody else was willing to compromise their
stomach space for the main event.

We had a drink at the Raffles courtyard bar - bseller
had a special Raffles cuvee from Hardy's - Colombard,
Chenin Blanc, and something else, a Portuguese variety,
Malvasia or something - tasted as if it were designed to
taste like Pinot Grigio at half the price. Lori_Q had a
strawberry daiquiri, and as bseller said he was taking
the round, I ordered the Million Dollar Cocktail, which
cost a paltry $19.80.

--mm
Million Dollar Cocktail
categories: booze, historical
servings: 1

30 mL gin
7 1/2 mL sweet vermouth
7 1/2 mL dry vermouth
120 mL pineapple juice
1 ds egg white
1 ds Angostura bitters

Shake with ice, strain.

All it takes to relive the intrigue of the old East is
your first sip of a Million Dollar Cocktail at Raffles
Hotel's Bar & Billiard Room.

Once as popular as the Singapore Sling, the Million
Dollar Cocktail was, like the Singapore Sling, an
invention of Raffles Hotel bartender, Mr Ngiam Tong
Boon, around the early 1900s.

The Million Dollar Cocktail gained considerable
notoriety - and considerable sales for Raffles Hotel -
when it featured in one of Somerset Maugham's most
famous barside tales, "The Letter".

Raffles Hotel has immortalised one of Maugham's great
stories by continuing to serve the tangy, bittersweet
creation at the Bar & Billiard Room.

Source: Raffles Hotel recipe card

M's note: despite the pineapple juice being the most
prominent ingredient, the drink is notable for
tasting primarily (though hazily) of gin and vermouth.
---

A medium size group assembled for miles4all's city walking
tour, which this year featured churches and temples.

We started off at Chijmes and saw the Armenian church, the
Shinto, Tamil Muslim, and Taoist temples; I think there may
have been more, but I bailed out early, as the tail end of
the tour was in Chinatown, near the hotel.

A shower and nap were most welcome for an old fart such as
I; up in time to take the taxi to Esplanade and walk around
for a while before dinner. Lori wanted to check out the
new Makansutra food court, which actually looks kind of
promising. And there is now a stringed instrument store in
the building, filling a long-felt want. We bumped into
miles4all again and made our way to the Esplanade branch of
No Signboard. Okay, it was perfectly palatable food, but it
was nothing compared to the Geylang branch. Furthermore,
here the waitstaff were the rather common chip-on-the-
shoulder why-am-I-serving-you-instead-of-the-other-way-round
types that you get in the big cities: they were grudging and
unavailable although somewhat more literate than their
Geylang colleagues, who for dinners past had been attentive
and helpful. Next year in Geylang was the consensus,
although one local flyertalker named Michael (handle
forgotten) made a strong case for Gold Coast.

We had three tables reserved, but owing to certain
unfortunate circumstances involving missed connections
and/or passport shenanigans only 2.5 were filled. I
ended up ordering for the table I originally sat at and
also for the last one, where I ended up dining with newself,
stimpy, madformiles, and eventually fly4free, who cabbed in
town during a shortish layover.

Our half table had a smaller selection of things, though we
ate and drank sufficiently, especially the latter.

Yangchow fried rice was pretty standard, but our fried rice
people were pleased enough. Sauteed kangkong were limp and
not very interesting, although they'd been saltily, fishily,
and hot-pepperily sauced. The crab (we had white pepper)
were moderately fresh but not very sweet; the sauce was
decent. I asked for steamed man tou; the waitress said they
didn't have steamed, only fried, and anyway you never eat
man tou with pepper crab. I said give us some anyway (the
"idiot biotch" was perhaps apparent from my glare at her if
not in my words). Fried really means baked. They were fine,
and in fact needed given the dearth of napkins. We also had
prawns in a yam nest, a quite nice dish.

Those who had the chilli crab reported that it was much
different than at Geylang - rather underspiced here was the
consensus. Michael said it was less sweet, which he didn't
like (but which I wouldn't have an objection to - I like
moderation in sweetness if not much else); I tasted just a
fingerful of sauce and found it less sweet, less hot, less
garlicky, and in fact less everything (which I DO mind).

For many of us the meal was made by many pitchers of Tiger.

Afterward, a dozen or so of us trekked to some Indian place
on Boat Quay for a round or two of brewskis for dessert.

dim sum day
 

Got up early; pounded on Lori_Q's door to see if she wanted
to find breakfast (yes) - decided that maybe the Chinatown
Center food court would have more variety than, say, the
local Hainan chicken rice store. We however didn't factor
in that it was Sunday morning, so we were left pretty high
and dry. Almost decided to go back in the direction of the
hotel, as there were some storefronts open nearby, but then
we noticed a pastry shop on New Bridge Road called Pau Dian,
out of which were coming some nice smells.

A pork dump was porkier than usual, with the sticky rice
saturated with a soy-based gravy. I asked for a pork bao;
what came was a minced chicken with salted egg bao, very
tasty but not what my tastebuds had asked me for. A couple
minced BBQ in pastry things - bakkwa pie and "cha siew soh"
were similar but not identical pork fillings in respectively
tartlet and cigar shapes, both with an impossibly flaky
pastry. I always enjoy the so-called "carrot cake," which is
really a thick white block made of rice flour and turnips;
Lori looked a bit put off by it and declined a taste; she
also didn't care for the egg tart, finding it heavy and
eggy - I thought it was perfect, but I am accustomed to and
appreciate nondairy egg tarts. She much preferred the
peanut-filled fried sticky rice ball, deeming it superior
to the ones we'd had at Lau Pa Sat earlier, as these were
fresh off the press, if you will. The peanut filling here
was smooth, quite unlike the usual crumbly one of chopped
peanuts and sugar grains. This feast cost all of $7.10 and
fortified us nicely for the rest of the morning. Lori went
back to the Botanic Garden, I think, while I went along the
waterside drawn inexorably to the violin shop in the Durian.
It was closed when I checked at 10, 11, and 12, so I spent
the rest of the time poking about the Marina area. The plan
had been to meet at the Marriott at 1, I thought for lunch,
so I walked down through the rabbit warrens to City Hall,
planning a leisurely walk down Orchard Road; but when I
surfaced at City Hall, it was raining cats and dogs, so
motorized transport was the order of the day. Took one of
the SMRT buses that went down behind Doby Ghaut and thence
down to Orchard Turn. Got to Tang's at about half past and
met Lori there. While she looked for a necklace for herself,
I idly looked for one for Carol, but the only one I even
vaguely thought attractive turned out by Kenneth Cole, so,
you know, why bother.

We landed at the Marriott right at noon, but no other FTer
was there. What the heck, I found a regular bargain on the
drink list - Glenmorangie at $12, albeit for a shortish
about 25 mL pour; this at a place where a pint of draft beer
is 17 and change and a bottle of Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay
is something like $65. Even Lori's mango juice was close to
that in price. After a few minutes, seanthepilot and newself
arrived, and we chatted for a while before deciding to pull
up stakes and find a bite to eat. Just as we were thinking
of packing up, bseller arrived with WWBGD in tow.

WW had managed to finagle his way into (and, as it turns
out, out of) town in C but sadly was unable to convince
his wife to show up - she had taken the passport snafu as a
sign from higher powers that the trip was not to be.

After a chat in the lobby, I suggested Din Tai Fung, the
Taiwanese dim sum place that is within about 4 blocks of the
Marriott, down at Paragon Center. WW and bseller begged off,
having eaten recently, and WW doesn't like dim sum anyhow.

So it was down to Lori_Q, newself, seanthepilot, and myself.

I ordered slightly too little food, so Lori suggested
doubling a couple of the orders, and so we ended up with
slightly too much food. We should probably have varied the
menu a bit, but hindsight is useless.

Soups are death to appetites, and we got two, a large pork
noodle soup with pork chop and a small chicken soup. The
former is your standard broth with lots of wheat noodles
and a cut-up katsu-like thing on top. Quite good. Chicken
soup is a bowl of chicken parts with soup - also very good,
the chicken boiled for a heck of a long time but the scrawny
and flavorful real chickens that you get in Asia.

Fried rice with fried pork cutlet (two orders) was a reprise
of the same tune, with yangchow rice instead of noodles.

I ordered an order each of glutinous rice and pork dumplings
and shrimp and pork dumplings. On consultation with newself
and Lori, I changed this to two orders each. Mistake, The
glutinous rice dumplings, which I love, are filled with this
dried pork stuff and maybe some dried shrimp, mingled with
sticky rice to cut the intensity of flavor. It's a poor
people's version of dumplings and has a spot in my heart.
But two orders is too much, Especially as Lori had had a
dump (pronounced doong) for breakfast, and the filling of
these dumplings is pretty much the same as that of the dump.
The shrimp and pork dumplings taste pretty similar to the
xiao long bao for which this place is famous, only they have
whole shrimp and are in a regular dumpling shape.
Nonetheless, they have the same broth squirting out at you
as you bite them, and I think they are a better buy than the
xiao long bao. What happened. Two orders of the glutinous
rice dumplings came out but only one of the shrimp and pork
ones. So we had the second order cancelled, which caused a
big kerfuffle in the end; the waiter kept trying to convince
us (in his very mediocre English, so I'm not sure if this
is quite right) to get the second order to go, but we tried
to get him to understand we wanted to delete it from the
order. Eventually he came by with a revised bill.

An order of spinach and garlic was delicious and assuaged
our guilt at eating all that food.

We made the mistake of hanging around maybe 15-20 minutes
too long, as we (stuffed as a dumpling) finished the
remnants. What happened was ... the missing order of
dumplings showed up as we were packing up to go. Much
gesticulation all round before they quit trying to put the
basket on our table.

newself wanted to try Taiwan beer. It's not so good as
Tiger, which he was getting tired of.

After this we split up - myself going back to the hotel
for an hour nap, the others I think shopping or something.

We'd arranged to meet up again with the intrepid few -
newself, bseller, and WWBGD at a Thai place on Boat Quay
that we had patronized during a previous Do and that
offered pitchers for $18. We drank lots of Tigers and a
bottle of rather neutral Chenin Blanc called something
like African Sunrise. An order of mixed satays in a peanut
sauce that was authentically fishy but not authentically
spicy served for dinner, and we filled up mostly with beer
and pleasant conversation. I don't think anything came of a
suggestion for the Night Safari - the whole weekend after
all had been overcast and quite moist. So early to bed and
early to rise and so to the airport by 5 am.

We'd asked the front desk to call a cab for us, and the
helpful young clerk suggested that we should just hail one
in the morning, as there were a lot of them cruising around,
and that way we would save the prebooking fee. In fact, we
stood outside for less than a minute before a taxi came by.

violist - Thank you for your delightful trip report. :)

Thanks for reading, r'n'R!

As usual, my friend, another outstanding! Trip Report!!
Hope to read another one in the first few weeks of 2008. :D

Best, Dave

UA 804 SIN NRT 0730 1455 777 9J

We got to the airport really early, way before 5, but the
desks were open! Perfecto. Got our seating squared away so
had plenty of time at the Silver Kris. The Raffles side of
the SKL doesn't have quite so interesting a food selection
as the F side but beats the SATS lounge by a good country
mile.

The hot buffet had cheese omelets, baked beans, e-fu
noodles, and curry guck with rice cakes. Didn't feel like
booze, but they were pouring standard middle-of-the-road
stuff like Canadian Club and Johnny Walker Black.

The e-fu noodles were bland, but the coconut sambal and
the saus prik both helped. The curry guck was okay and
vegetarian (if that makes a difference to anyone).

Did my e-mail on the incredibly slow computers and had the
honor of giving bseller and WW the good news that the Bears
had somehow managed to down the Seahawks in OT.

Took the tram back to T1 just after it started at 6:00. We
appeared at the gate ten minutes before it opened; this was
fine as as we were hanging around waiting, we encountered
FTer tealeaf99, who was also on the flight.

Security took a couple minutes tops, even with loonies with
liquids in front of us and your favorite "please turn on
your laptop" routine.

FT had 7 of the 10 seats in the minicabin - 8D, tealeaf99;
8F, newself; 9AB, WWBGD and bseller; 9D, restlessinRNO;
9HJ, Lori_Q and violist. The other three unfortunates, two
white guys and an Asian, looked bewildered at the level of
familiarity among the denizens of the cabin.

Also: kluau88 was discovered to be in row 12.

Deferential crew; good service.

Orange juice from a carton was pretty good, Pol Roger brut
was clean and lemony but actually a hair sweeter than I
remembered.

to begin
Your selected entree will be served with fresh fruits,
breakfast breads, butter and fruit preserves - the fruit
appetizer was less good than one would expect considering
that the catering must have been done in Singapore -
starfruit, watermelon, muskmelon, seedy red grapes, and
papaya, all rather hard and mediocre. Chocolate and
regular croissants were offered; the chocolate was
excellent, and Lori_Q indicated that the regular was
nice and flaky (not unlike us, I guess).

main course
Spanish omelette with Mornay sauce; grilled bacon, roasted
paprika potatoes and green asparagus

Singapore-style fried Hokkien noodles with shrimp; fish
cake and baby chye sim - the FA apologized because the
oven had been too hot, and the dish looked pretty awful,
but it turned out fairly tasty - gloopy overdone noodles,
gray-green vegetables, fish cake that had petrified edges,
and three nice shrimp on top. All these things actually
were palatable enough, and I wonder how they managed to
get shrimp that could stand up to that level of heating.
Champagne went pretty well.

Continental breakfast; breakfast pastries, fruit, yogurt
and cereal

prior to arrival
Smoked salmon, roasted chicken and pineapple-raisin
coleslaw; capers and Bel Paese cheese

or

International cheese selection with fresh fruit: Brie,
Kikorangi and Port Wine Cheddar cheese

dessert
Apple frangipane with vanilla sauce

I missed these services, being deep in slumberland.

The line at transit security was huge, and some of us didn't
have much time to enjoy the offerings of Narita, and Lori
can vouch for my getting slightly agitated, mostly (I claim)
for the benefit of those who had tight connections. There
was a very small person holding a sign not high enough for
anyone to see - it said first class and UGS, as it turns
out. Flyertalker investigators discovered that 1Ks could use
the line. So we did, and newself had plenty of time to get
to Starbucks and find out that they were out of Tokyo mugs.

The rest of us went on to the fabled ANA lounge where we
were sort of welcomed after an initial suggestion by the
rather polite gatekeeper that we use the RCC instead.

The ANA lounge is quite nice. The sushi is rather odd,
a California-ish thing and inarizushi wrapped in plastic:
I had two of the latter, the first being quite nice and
the second seeming as though the rice cooker had had a
short circuit in the middle of the cooking cycle - a very
un-Japanese thing.

An assortment of Western beverages, all normal, plus

Grace Rouge Kayagatake 05 - aroma of gamay; rather sour
but with a candied aftertaste; it did the job but not more

Grace Koshu 05 - good acid, somewhat SBish or Cheninish; a
little aroma of stone fruit, rather puckery. Not awful

Yamazaki 12-year-old single malt - coffee and malt aroma,
very clean and nice. Slight sweetness.

And there is the Sake bar - which is the very far end of
the lounge - go in, make a hard left, down past the rest
rooms to the end and another left, and there it is. As I
had limited time, I tried three drinks that I would not
have met otherwise, all sweet-potato spirits. I do not
know the manufacturers or any details, and have no clue
about these beverages, as I don't read Japanese, and my
taste buds went rapidly into overload, anyhow ...

Benikomachi - quite firewatery, with a flavor that reminds
me of home distillates of random unknown things despite its
being I believe made of 100% sweet potato

Kuriiko - this I believe is a mixture of sweet potato and
something else, maybe rice - it's smoother than the above

Beniiko - I tried this last; it's got more of an aroma
than Benikomachi, but it still has that back of the throat
burn. I think all three were in the 40-50 proof range.

I was having so good a time that I was tempted to miss my
flight and see if I could get onto the later one; but
reality called, and I hiked back to the United area, where
they were boarding seatings 3 and 4 by the time I got there.

Excelltent report M., but I must report one rather obvious error...the bier at Boat Quay were only $15.00 because Bseller negotiated a better deal in your honor...but who is counting anyway...It was a fun although somewhat abbreviated trip...It was good to see you again.

Sorry for the mixed connection. If I'd know you were looking for us, Lori_Q and I would have waited to meet up with you.

Return across the ocean alone
 

UA 838 NRT SFO 1725 0920 744 15A Empower Y (sort of) Ch9 Y

Very good crew headed by a middle-aged fairly tall and
slim black guy.

There was a guy seated behind me who (to my defective eyes)
looked sort of like wireless - I tried to catch his eye, but
I guess he wasn't he.

to begin
Crabmeat salad on endive leaf, prosciutto ham with papaya,
vegetable sushi; balsamic vinaigrette

Fresh seasonal greens; creamy Caesar or soy vinaigrette

main course
Pan-seared filet mignon with Merlot sauce; new potato
wedges with herbs and green beans almondine

Chicken marinated with basil and chives with fire-roasted
red pepper sauce; lemon-scented rice pilaf and chunky
vegetable medley

Please advise the flight attendant if you prefer to have
sauce served on the side

Japanese Obento selection: An appetizer of sake-flavored
chicken with seaweed salad, sesame honey pork, scallop and
walnuts mixed with tofu, simmered sweet potato, plum-
flavored jelly fish and buckwheat noodles with braised
herring kanro-ni

A main course of salmon and shrimp with dengaku miso sauce,
taro potato and shiitake mushroom served with crabmeat,
eggplant, steamed rice and Japanese pickles. Served with
green tea. Items in this meal may contain traces of MSG.

The Obento was not so nice as I'd hoped (given that it was
out of Tokyo) but not nearly so nasty as last time I had it
(out of I think SFO).

Chicken: watery and tasteless, a largish serving considering
the magnitude of the meal. The salad had no seaweed in it
but was slivers of ordinary terrestrial vegetables.

Sesame honey pork was dry and tasteless, the serving the
size and perhaps the texture of a pair of i486 chips, if you
remember those.

The scallop-walnut thing was interesting: a hollowed-out
cherry tomato stuffed with blenderized tofu with a couple
walnut meats stirred in, topped with half a good, sweet
scallop and a tiny ingot of smoked salmon. Very nice.

The sweet potato tasted like honey and lemon and was very,
jarringly, sweet.

Plum-flavored jelly fish: a mess of preserved plum jam
with a strand or two of jellyfish. More texture than
taste I'd say.

Buckwheat noodles with braised herring kanro-ni were
surprisingly edible considering that I don't care for soba
and I don't care for herring. The noodles were a little too
wet, and the herring was a little too dry (and sweet), but
together they sort of went.

The salmon and shrimp were overdone almost to a crisp; I
think the ingredients had once been okay, and maybe (but I
doubt) they had been okay when they were boarded. About
3 oz of salmon and two 2-bite shrimp. The dengaku miso
sauce, which I've never had before, was like hoisin, only
not as fruity in taste - it was generously supplied and
lent its huge sweetness and not so huge personality to
everything in the compartment, including the "taro potato,"
which was made to taste just like a chestnut, the shiitake,
most of which I didn't eat as I was on the verge of another
nosebleed, and some stray vegetables - baby green beans
and a carrot coin, both woefully overcooked.

Crabmeat was represented in the form of one piece of leg
meat; okay, not exceptionally tasty.

The eggplant had been peeled and then slow-cooked to almost
a mush; it was fascinating. It also came with two pieces of
boiled okra that streamed mucus when picked up; also quite
interesting but perhaps not so appetizing.

Rice, wrapped in a bit of banana leaf or similar, was good,
especially when we took a few bumps and the stuff tried to
jump off my chopsticks.

Japanese pickles: eggplant, somewhat nasty (I don't know
how they managed to make eggplant into something I don't
like - it was acrid and bitter, almost as though they had
miraculously turned raw Japanese eggplant into raw American
eggplant); celery, somewhat nastier (I don't care for the
stuff except in small quantities as a flavoring); and
cucumber, impossible to eat.

There was another unadvertised compartment that contained
lotus root in soy and sugar - fair.

dessert
International cheese selection: Red Cheddar, Coulommiers

Eli's praline cheesecake

I passed on dessert (there's no Japanese dessert) and went
directly to sleep, do not pass go.

prior to arrival
Scrambled eggs, ham and cheese on waffle; Boursin cream
sauce

or

Fresh seasonal fruit plate with creamy yogurt

Surprisingly, I was roused by a whiff of garlic and had
breakfast. Surprisingly, it was exactly as described on the
menu. Surprisingly, it was decent although rather ugly in
appearance, a blob of soft-looking things on a waffle.

From the top down: a slice of green pepper lent a very
odd aroma and taste to the dish; the sauce and slice of
yellow cheese had sort of melted together; then there was
an unadvertised slice of tomato that actually tasted okay;
then your usual machine-made ham; then a slightly vanilla-
scented waffle, still crisp despite the weight of gooey
things on top of it. Peculiar but not really bad.

bseller had lent me a copy of March of the Penguins for the
flight, but unfortunately my Empower was wonky, so I relied
on battery power to draft this report instead (I think I
could not have gotten through the movie with the battery).

Drink service continued until about 15 minutes before
landing. At last call I asked for the names of the crew
for a letter to the 1K feedback line (does anyone know if
these letters go through?). Got charming handwritten notes
from both of them before landing; they must have some
practice in writing thank-you notes if they can dash them
off in 10 minutes while collecting cups and junk and making
sure everyone's seat belts were fastened, and so on.

It was pretty much how I would like C class to be: friendly
but neither obtrusive nor obsequious service; comfy seats
(I can hardly imagine seats that suit my back and my bum
better than UA's). It was in the food department that I
feel the offering fell down, even the Japanese meal trying
to make quantity up for quality.

Immigration and customs took about 10 minutes; then the
so-called elite security into SFO domestic, into which
the checkers were allowing all and sundry, was clogged
but only took maybe another 10 or 15. So I was in the RCC
to do my mail shortly after scheduled landing time.

UA 176 SFO BOS 1105 1937 752 2D Empower N Ch9 Y

Completely full flight. They were urgently soliciting
volunteers, but the offer was for the redeye arriving the
next morning at 8, and people didn't seem eager.

Decent though rather unfriendly crew (not just by contrast;
they biotched and moaned about certain of the pax within
hearing of the other pax).

A fairly bumpy ride coast-to-coast, but I was in a state
of somnolence from Courvoisier and whatever red rotgut they
were pitching, so I felt little or no pain.

The dinner offerings -

"Small pasta shells stuffed with cheese or short ribs."

The latter was a 6-oz slab of chuck pot roast in a
tomato-onion sauce - fairly tender, quite tasty, although
salty as anything. The sides were the mixed sweet and
regular potato thing that has become common and green beans
almondine. The sides had suffered from having been heated
in a too-hot oven: the potatoes tasted of scorched marjoram
and the beans were limp and soggy.

Also offered (no comments on these) -

Salad with buttermilk ranch or Asian sesame dressing

Sourdough or regular roll

Ice cream (vanilla and chocolate) with a cookie

Despite being put into the Gardner hold for a few turns we
landed on time.

UA 823 BOS IAD 1340 1527 733 1A

I was having trouble with the telephone service so went to
the airport a hair early to catch my e-mail. Shortish line
at security, but even so, they put me into the priority
line. Immediately a captain pushed past (not a big deal),
but three crew queued up obediently behind me. I said, you
guys go on ahead (one guy and two gals, all around my age);
the guy said thank you and forged ahead, and the others hung
back. I said, I'm using guys in the generic sense, whereupon
one of them chuckled and made a slightly witty remark and
went on ahead, the third continuing to hang back. It was
not a meaningful exercise, as the lane was cleared in like
five minutes. After a pleasant chat with the front desk
people at the club I had more than ample time for the e-mail
but was somehow unable to log into Flyertalk or my bank
website. Enhanced snacks at the RCC: Ruffles, Jelly Bellys,
Brach's fruit juice snacks, Piroulines, fresh fruit.

As I was in the dread row 1 I left early to snag
an overhead space; still, the F cabin was mostly full by
the time I got there, but there was still enough room.

The crew manning the plane turned out to be the ones I let
ahead at security, so that should be a practical lesson for
those who would exercise their elite passengerly powers
against uniformed intruders in the security line.

Asked for a Courvoisier - there wasn't any, and the lead FA
said she'd call to see if there was any in back. Negative.
As I was finishing my substitute (juice) she came back with
a nip. They lied, she said. So I got my drinkie after all.

Quite bumpy flight - apparently the winds were quite fierce.
The FAs were all pretty cheery, and the service - not just
to me - was attentive; matronly in the positive sense.

We landed within the on-time parameters despite heavy
headwinds.

Carol met me at New Carrollton, and we went to Duclaw's
for a burger and a beer. After a lot of seafood, rice, and
dumplings, a burger is a good thing.

Another series of fantastic violist trip reports.

thanks for the great reading!!

A good read as always violist. Seems like you had fun :D

Pity I couldn't make it for this year's Do! Maybe next year.

Chili Crab
 

The chlli crab at Top Spot, booth 25 in Kuching is worth the trip. The chili crab at PortView in Kota Kinabalu is excellent, but more expensive. 1kg for a single dinner is the appropriate amount. Tonight I'll try the chili crab in Sandakan

Michael

Thanks for the good words and good company.
I hope to see you all next year - you, too, w2f and k**2.
And thanks, Michael, for the chilli crab expertise.