Sin Do '08
 

0116
UA 305 BWI LAX 0710 0957 752 2D Ch9 Y Empower N

SuperShuttle came at 4, a horrid hour; the driver had the
Classical station on, which was soothing and pleasant,
though at some point the Dvorak Romance went on - a piece
that has a lot of emotional significance to me. On the way
to the airport we picked up two ladies on their way to
Florida. Had a good chat about China and its economic
significance to the US. Checked in with Flip and was on
my way in a matter of seconds.

Wonderful Myra was manning the Club at 5 in the morning. I
guested the two ladies in, and she was as nice to them as
she is to the regulars.

The plane loaded up a hair late but took off on time and
were promised an early arrival.

Hot towels.

The usual choice, fruit plate or omelet. The omelet had an
amazingly scanty mushroom cream filling and was sided with
pork sausage links and sweet and white potato cubes;
everything was pretty overcooked but tasted okay. Tomato
sauce on the side in its foil cup. Fruit appetizer was
quite good - a ripe strawberry, four big sweet green grapes,
a whole kiwi sliced (somewhat underripe), two pineapple
batons (sweet). A croissant was greasy and limp but at
least wasn't the bready nasty thing that I have encountered
recently.

Between the coast and the Mississippi we experienced
moderate to severe turbulence (pilot's characterization
to ATC), which started just after I started breakfast; at
one point a good jolt pushed a piece of cutlery against one
of my front teeth that was hanging from a thread anyway
(it used to be prominent but was forced farther forward
when I was intubated for my surgery in '06 - the surgeon
said that the tooth might have to come out, and I said,
sure, why not; but for some reason they didn't do it).
It's now hanging from half a thread and I expect it to fall
out at any moment [more later on this].

A very good crew but one that showed mild but noticeable
preferential attention for the young fashionably scruffy
black guy next to me, which makes me think that he must be
1. famous; 2. sexy; or 3. a nonrev.

The entertainment was a Jackie Chan movie seemed to pile
stereotype upon stereotype. I glanced up at it only briefly
and at rare intervals.

We landed a little early, and I hurried to the RCC, where
a rather cheerful matron greeted me warmly and on being
asked for a couple drink chits said, of course.

UA 867 LAX HKG 1210 1940 744 15H Ch9 Y Empower Y

Loaded up on time and sat and sat. Eventually lumbered
around to a holding area and sat and sat.

We missed our wheels-up by five minutes, owing to the
controller's reading something wrong (at 28 past he
noticed that our clearance was for 25 past). The plane took
off agonizingly slowly compared to the rocket-like 757
takeoff of the morning.

Good cabin crew. We were served mostly by fairly young
attendants - a Thai woman, a Vietnamese guy, and a cutish
blonde named Kristen, who, apparently entranced by my
seatmate, did most of the service on this flight. The level
of attention was about as much as I am comfortable with,
which is "polite and neither wholly egalitarian nor wholly
obsequious."

to begin
Lemon grass skewered shrimp and Genoa salami; whole grain
mustard sauce

Fresh seasonal greens; Ranch or Asian sesame ginger dressing

main course

Korean barbecue beef with bulgogi sauce; steamed rice and
broccoli

Spice-rubbed chicken with vodka sauce; potato pierogis and
Swiss chard

Pan-fried ginger marinated salmon with garlic black bean
sauce; steamed rice and Chinese broccoli with garlic oyster
sauce

dessert

International cheese selection: Manchego, Rosenborg Noble
Blue

Eli's Caramel Apple Cobbler

midflight snack

Sandwiches, Lay's baked chips, Ghirardelli chocolate,
granola bars and other assorted snacks

Hot noodles are available upon request

prior to arrival

Pesto ciabatta with mesquite turkey; flame-roasted potato
medley

Fresh seasonal fruit plate with creamy yogurt

Champagne
Philipponnat NV Brut Royale Reserve
Pommery Brut Royal NV

White wine
Chateau De Tracy "Mademoiselle De T" 2005 Pouilly Fume
Guy Saget Les Logeres 2006 Pouilly Fume
Estancia Pinnacles Chardonnay 2005 Monterey
Hawk Crest Chardonnay 2006 California

Red wine
Taurus Roble 2004 Toro (Tempranillo)
Capcanes Mas Donis 2005 Montsant (Tempranillo/Garnacha)
Aquinas Merlot 2004 Napa
Pedroncelli Bench Vineyards Merlot 2005 DCV

The appetizer was actually sort of appetizing in an odd
way - the salami and shrimp played off each other amusingly
and in ways no doubt unimagined by the menu planner. Salad
was okay if a little wilted in spots.

The beef was nasty, not tender at all, tasting of Bull-Dog
brown sauce; the rice was dry and crusty but perhaps the
best thing on the tray. The worst broccoli I've ever tasted.
The stench from the tray came back to me some days later in
the mangrove swamps of Pulau Ubin.

I passed on dessert and had half a bottle of Port instead.

The Pedroncelli was uncomplicated, cherryish, a bit too
bright, a bit too sweet. I switched to the Montsant, which
I preferred by a wide margin - it was rich-textured, well
tannined, and quite drinkable indeed.

I also passed on the second service, which was announced by
"Would you like a turkey sandwich or the fruit?"

My seatmate, Mark, and I solved the problems of the world
over gin and tonics (him) and red wine (me), followed by
a bottle of Founder's Reserve, which we pretty much killed
between us. Had a good chat about China and its economic
significance to the US and (as we got drunker) about lady
loves (his is Asian, mine Euro mongrel).

Slept for a good eight hours in the very comfy seat, perhaps
almost as effective for rest as the beds up in the nose.

Thanks to Mark (a former college football player) blocking
for me, I was 2nd out of the plane and 1st at the transfer
security (this took 30 seconds start to finish, pretty
amazing), so I had time for a shower and snacks at the RCC.
The shower rooms are pretty nice if spare, but the amenities
leave a lot to be desired - big bottles labeled "shower gel"
and "shampoo," conveniently placed by the sink, not the
shower. I couldn't get the wi-fi to work. The buffet dishes
this day were e-fu noodles with ground meat and peas sauce
(actually not bad) and bowtie noodles with what the label
called bolognaise sauce but which I think was marinara.
The dim sum machine had the usual (fresh-cooked roast pork
puffs, yum) with the addition of something new and
especially nasty, a ground shrimp and cheese Danish that
might have been one of the most mephitic, nasty things I
ever put in my mouth - I think I got sick from it.

As always, my friend - I look forward with anticipation to your TR!! :D

I am only saddened by the fact that I was not able to solve the same problems, or (alternatively) fall DEAD asleep during our run to SIN!! ;)

Best, Dave

The Château de Tracy is a very drinkable example of its type - good fruit, with quite a zing on the finish. Agree about the Pedroncelli - wouldn't go out of my way to drink that again. SFO-LHR on Sunday, they had both Taurus and Mas Adonis. Unfortunately they opened the Taurus first and then ran out, switching to Mas Adonis. While Mas Adonis is good if you start with that, it pales by comparison with the Taurus.

Have to say that I think Mr Frost is doing a good job for UA in the wine department, given what must be severe budgetary restrictions. Please bring back the Raymond Monterey Chardonnay.....

on to the first event
 

0117
UA 895 HKG SIN 2040 0020 744 15H Ch9 dead air Empower Y

An exemplary cabin crew, what seems to have been an older
aircraft. The side bins were of an older style than on
the other plane, but not so old as the ones I remember
from the early 747s, which looked as though they had been
made in high school shop class.

to begin
Fresh seasonal greens - cucumber, tomatoes and roasted
sunflower seeds; French dressing

main course
Hunan-style chicken with Chin-kiang vinegar sauce; stir-
fried Chinese noodles and sauteed broccoli

Grilled cod with lemon dill butter sauce; Basmati rice with
vegetables, sauteed spinach with enoki mushrooms

dessert
Apricot cheesecake with apricot coulis

quick and lite meal
In lieu of our formal meal presentation,
we offer a complete service for the lighter appetite.

Fresh seasonal fruit

Warm crispy bacon, apple and celery wrap served with
horseradish sauce

Apricot cheesecake with apricot coulis

[Wines same as on the previous flight.]

The salad was okay, but the sunflower seeds were raw and
stale.

The chicken was quite tasty - the ketchup-tinged red sauce
full of garlic and a surprising hit of hot pepper (I found a
bird pepper in my portion), and its accompanying broccoli
perfectly cooked. Unfortunately, the e-fu noodles, quite
nice in themselves, were covered with a brown sauce that
tasted like 80% sugar and 20% vinegar.

Taurus was a decent wine, tannic and big with blackberry
and other dark flavors. Good long finish.

I passed on dessert and had a glass of Port instead.

After some sizable jolts on the descent, we landed a few
minutes early, but as the line was long at T1 Immigration,
I fooled around on the free terminals until the line
seemed manageable.

Then I got in the shortest line, which of course immediately
ground to a halt. Reason: a chubby 40-ish Chinese guy was in
the process of being denied entry. The officer kept looking
at his passport; finally summoned a supervisor, who kicked
the unfortunate out of the line but instead of having him
detained (I've seen this before, and it's heartrending)
shunted him over to the side, where he spent the rest of my
time there shouting into a cell phone. For me, the process
took just long enough for an empty stamp spot to be found
(there was one on p. 18); I immediately resolved to have
pages added at the next opportunity.

Lori_Q likes boutiquey, perhaps even funky hotels, so she
booked us into the Perak Hotel at the edge of Little
India. The room we got wasn't so good, but after a day of
flying I didn't feel like fussing. At least it had free
wireless and a nice firm bed. The deal was I'd use the room
one night, and then she would take it over, thus saving me
the trouble of figuring out where to stow my luggage during
the day while I wandered around, as for the next days I was
to share a suite with infoworks at the Inter-Continental.

After breakfast (ramen with succotash, strange; fruit cup,
good) I wandered off poking into neighborhoods I hadn't been
before; decided to go to the American Embassy to have extra
pages put into my passport. Took a wrong turn on Grange Road
from somewhere or another and found myself back near the
Meritus Mandarin; decided not to leave things to my clearly
compromised sense of direction and took the bus out.

There was no citizen line but a fair queue of hopefuls at
the foreigners door. After two rounds of security I was in
the fortresslike building, which has a little area for
visas and such and an even smaller area for Citizen Services
- I wonder what the rest of that enormous facility houses.
Citizen Services was efficient, and in half an hour I had
an ample supply of new pages sewn into the middle of my
passport.

Wandered randomly back to town and decided to give a much
touted in foodie circles restaurant a try - Bayang, which
serves Bali-style food. It's in the newly fancified Clarke
Quay area and turns out to be quite pricy.

Being sort of brain-dead but not brain-dead enough to
realize there wasn't any smell of spices in the air, I
didn't get anything like the rendang that I had craved but
instead ordered the set meal with crispy duck, jackfruit
curry, and a sort of deconstructed gado-gado - crudites
(green beans, tomatoes, lettuce, red cabbage, carrots,
white cabbage slaw, and parsley) presented Western-style
with a bowl of dark brown and not spicy enough peanut sauce
on the side. The duck was crispy and overdone but, I wonder
why, not dry at all. One wing, a breast half, and part of
the back, hacked into random pieces. The curry was very
tasty but a bit thin. I had avocado cendol for dessert:
odd as the avocado was quite ripe but became hard in
contact with the bed of ice. Other usual suspects: sago
noodles in red, green, and yellow; beans (big red kidneys
this time, instead of the lovely little adzukis); kernel
corn; coconut milk. A 300 mL draft Tiger was $10.50++,
which I thought excessive.

Back to the hotel for some e-mail and rest, and then to
the Meridien bar to meet Flyertalkers for Happy Hour
beers. Luckily on the way I met WWBGD and the lovely
Alexa and got to store my traps in their top-floor
suite. After which it was down for the lobby debauch,
which was made more interesting by the fact that despite
the advertised 2-for-1 happy hour special we were charged
full boat (S$10 for beer).

A truly far-flung group:
Baxter&Bessies'Mama (from Arizona)
seanthepilot (from Thailand and Canada)
opushomes (from Oregon)
rtarbuck (from Minnesota)
Blank Sheet (from Ohio)
karenkay (from Texas)
bschaff1 (from Illinois)
headinclouds (from D.C.)
dedehans (from Florida)
alex0683de (from Germany)
upup&away (from Sweden)
szg (from Austria)
zvezda (from Lithuania) showed up later.

My friend, you are truly REMARKABLE!! :D
I am extraordinarily impressed by your ability to know these types of things.

In fact, I am humbled by the fact that I don't know 1/2 of what you do w/r/t our SIN DO persons! ;)
No matter, I hope that all had a great time and remember:

NEXT YEAR's IS January 17-19!! :D

Best, Dav

Lau Pa Sat and NSB Geylang
 

I retired for a few hours and then rejoined everyone (except
I think dedehans) at Lau Pa Sat. Or more accurately, I
showed up at midnight to find nobody, nada, zilcho. Wandered
around clockwise for a half hour (the pavilion is round of
course) and then saw Blank Sheet and a couple others;
gradually people coalesced, and dinner commenced:

satays - the guy who had collared us worked for the satay
stall at number 3 and 4 or something, and I don't care for
their satay, so I had none of this;

lots of beer - goes without saying. I bought the first three
pitchers (a couple folks chipped in later) and figured that
everyone was on his own;

the other end of the table had a whole bunch of things; I
didn't see any of what was going on.

At length infoworks and Lori_Q arrived to round out the
party. I was especially glad as Lori_Q was my virtual
roommate for the past night and infoworks my real roommate
for the succeeding nights. It was good to connect with
both of them.

Our end of the table had just some crispy squid (Blank
Sheet's choice I think) and chicken wings (infowork's
suggestion), so we got off fairly easy. Lori wanted
noodles, so someone ordered Hokkien mee (wheat and rice
noodles mixed, shrimp buried in the mess) for her - what
came was rather sloppy and distinctly below average, though
still quite edible. infoworks and I reflected on how much
better the food was elsewhere. I reminded him that this was
1 or 2 in the morning, and what can one expect?

infoworks had kindly offered to put a rollaway into his
suite to accommodate me (how else could I afford to buy
all those beers, eh?), and we toddled off to the Inter-
Continental, where we were greeted with an excellent
Shophouse suite overlooking the busy marketplace at Bugis
Junction. With two double beds plus a rollaway. I ended
up with my own double bed, which with its feather duvet
and two gigantic pillows quite luxurious indeed. The only
downside to this was the news from infoworks that I snore,
something that generations of young ladies have never had
the indelicacy to complain about.

Be that as it may, after an excellent night's sleep we went
to Banana Leaf Apolo, meeting Lori_Q, bschaff1, and rtarbuck
for an even more excellent lunch. The schtick of this place
is that you get a banana leaf, upon which they pile rice,
cabbage curry, and some weird red mixed vegetable and dal
thing (I forget exactly what, as I don't eat much of it,
the cabbage curry being so good); then you get your dishes
of real food to add to the mixture. Our real food:

infoworks insisted on the yellow dal, despite my pointing
out that we got some dalish thing anyway; he was right, as
these are some of the best beans I've ever had.

Chicken masala was I don't know whose suggestion, but it
was excellent.

My suggestion was mutton masala, but as someone had already
ordered the above, I compromised with mysore mutton, which
is a spicy rather coarse dish of which I am quite fond. It
was as expected; I think some of us may have found it a bit
too too, but that meant all the more for me.

It is said that fish tikka was ordered, but I don't recall
seeing it. We also had a double order of the excellent
naan bread that they make here.

I had a big young coconut instead of beer, bearing in mind
the potential foie grassiness of my liver and the fact that
we were to run off to Southbank Thai for beer later in the
afternoon. Which we did. Lots of Tiger beer with bseller,
WWBGD, and Alexa. Later on various FlyerTalkers joined us,
and we had a good party. Hi, Blank Sheet!

At length it was time to get our taxi to the main event at
No Signboard (we thought it would be a waste of time, and at
that point we thought time was of the essence, to go to the
Meridien and transfer to the bus that seanthepilot had so
kindly booked). We actually got there early, got our table
set up, and went to town.

Our table: karenkay, dedehans, Mad4Miles, gvdIAD,
Lori_Q, szg, alex, infoworks, myself. I think. also zvezda
and seanthepilot were part-timers. And maybe bschaff1.

The ordering was done largely by infoworks, who is a take-
charge sort of guy, and karenkay, who actually knows a lot
of Mandarin - more than I do, anyhow.

We ended with:

salt and spice pork, quite excellent, what I know as "pepper
and salty style," texture better than usual

fried chicken wings, quite nice

bok choy - the usual, very crisp, very good

butter prawns - the usual; bseller and I have this perennial
discussion of which is better, the butter prawns or his
favorite cereal prawns. The main differences are the butter
ones are skewered straight and coated with some kind of
cereal, whereas the cereal prawns are allowed to curl
naturally and are coated with some other kind of cereal
which is sweeter and with a vanilla note.

chili crab (2) - very good this time, not too sweet

black pepper crab (2) - very good this time, not too harsh.

We also had the dessert soup, which seanthepilot insisted
on and which comes free for the asking.

I also sneaked the head of a cereal prawn from the adjacent
table to see if it was any different from before - it was
just as expected.

Lots of Tiger beer. S$40 each. The table(s) that got the
lobster salad paid maybe $10 more.

The oldsters at the IC - Lori, infoworks, and myself,
pooped out of the drinking party at Boat Quay and went home
to bed. At some point infoworks fielded a call from Alex
I think about raiding minibars. He said to come on down
but promptly fell back asleep.

I spent much of the night fiddling with my tooth, worrying
it loose with the aid of minibar Chivas; eventually, at
around 6 in the morning, it came out, no blood, no pain.

Off to the Hilton to meet gvdIAD and various others for a
jaunt to the Orchid Garden. Meeting time came and went,
and so Lori_Q, gvdIAD, and myself just went on to the
Botanic Gardens and took a leisurely walk through the
grounds, the Ginger Garden, and then the Orchid Garden.
encountering zvezda on the way. Thanks to the miracle of
modern communications technology, it was determined that
karenkay and headinclouds had been waiting at the IC for us!
but were on their way; we met up at the top of the hill and
soon picked up seanthepilot and his lady. A good walk, and
the orchids were in full, gorgeous array,

Lori, headinclouds, karenkay, and I went on to the Battle
Box at Fort Canning. We paid S$8 a head for a rather
inexpert guide and an audio tour that in addition to being
not very informative didn't work very well (karenkay's
headset didn't work at all). Laughable animatronics, proof
positive that Singapore is not (contrary to popular notion)
Disney East. Still, it was worthwhile to commemorate a sad
part of 20th century history.

It was lunchtime, and after a suggestion of the Victoria
Street hawker centre was quashed as Lori was hungry in an
immediate way, we decided to cross through Dhoby Ghaut and
go to the Kopitiam next to the Rendezvous Hotel. But in the
process of threading our way to Dhoby Ghaut, we went past
Park Mall, which we decided to investigate, as it just had
to have a food court. Turns out there was one in the
basement, and we decided to patronize the place with the
longest line. The food was good, the setting chaotic, and
the prices very very favorable - with food and various
soft drinks, none of us spent S$10. karenkay and I got
"sesame oil claypot chicken," a nice deep dark brown
gravy with chopped-up bits of chicken wing in it (S$3);
she got a side of rice, I got a side of fried wontons
(also $3). Lori and headinclouds sprang for the somewhat
more costly but quite festive special noodles, which
included various meats and vegetables. Oh, yes, we were
rescued from the madding crowd by a young restaurant
employee who pounced on a table, took our order, and was
in general helpful. Afterward, we gave him a tip, which
he duly presented to the cashier. We went our separate
ways afterward, which for me meant indexing a chapter,
prowling hopelessly for an e-mail from Jackie, and
having an hour nap.

=

Our evening meal was at a homely but good place next door
to where infoworks used to have an office, back in the
day when Keong Saik Road was known for its sub rosa
activities. infoworks had us in stitches with a story about
how he used to taxi to his office, telling the driver that
he was about to pick up two young ladies (omitting to the
driver the fact that the ladies were his employees, not the
employees of the brothel right down the way).

Kok Sen Coffee House is quite unprepossessing but clearly
well known, as it was very busy when we arrived, and they
had to set up a table in the back alley for us. Over the
course of the evening several such tables were set up and
occupied. What we had:

Tofu, eggplant, and green pepper stuffed with fish paste -
an enjoyable dish, quite plebeian but festive at the same
time, as the preparation was pretty standard and with cheap
ingredients, but there were three different kinds of, er,
taste experiences in one dish. Unfortunately, eggplant is
my favorite vegetable, and I didn't get any of it, as it
seems other people preferred it to tofu and the peppers,
which had been burned black and looked like strange
creatures floating in the sauce.

Sweet-sour fish filets are an old favorite of infoworks',
and the piece I got was excellent, the sweet and sour and
fishy and fruity all in balance.

Black pepper beef was a bit more problematic, as it appeared
they'd emptied a tin of pepper into one serving. It was of a
blow-your-brains-out level of unsubtlety, but I liked it,
being an unsubtle type of guy.

Stinky tofu marinated fried chicken didn't seem to have many
adherents except for infoworks and myself. Interestingly,
the last time we'd eaten at NSB Geylang the fried chicken
had been treated this way, though a bit more delicately, and
everyone liked it.

Bok choy was fresh as fresh and crisp-tender and yummy.

zvezda doesn't eat red meat, so we got an extra veggie dish,
spicy ong choy, but it turns out that along with fish and
hot pepper, the dish as done here also has bits of crisp-
fried ground pork. I acted as taster and gave him the sad
news.

Tiger beer for Lori_Q and myself, chrysanthemum tea for
everyone else. Total tab: S$15 a head.

We walked up through Chinatown, the New Year lights just
having been lit this weekend, and then peeled off in various
directions, zvezda and Lori_Q to the Night Safari (which had
been seanthepilot's idea, only he ended up with other things
to do), the rest of us to Boat Quay or our hotels.

Again the oldsters didn't do the late party thing.

I got to my bed and found a red New Year money envelope.
Opened it to find a two-dollar bill (the standard gift)
and a note: "With best wishes from the tooth fairy!"
Steve found me howling with laughter. Then off to the
land of nod.

At some point I fielded a call from someone, perhaps
bschaff1, about raiding minibars. I begged off, saying
that we'd been asleep (we were) as we had early plans for
the next day.

Good grief! I was present for many of the events detailed by Violist, but it's all just a pleasant hazy memory of swell folks and mass consumption! Violist, your ability with detail is amazing. If ever I need a witness (assuming I'm innocent, of course!), I want you on the stand.

Thanks so much for making me realize that I had an even more glutionous and fantastic time than I had recalled!

violist, excellent trip report! Also, when we were unable to raid your mini-bar this is what forced rtarbuck to move on to the infamous Gin and Coke.

Pulau Ubin followed by Italian food!
 

In the morning, Lori_Q, headinclouds, and I went to Changi
Jetty for the ferry to Pulau Ubin, the last undeveloped area
of Singapore. You sit around until there are at least 10
hopeful passengers, and each person shells out S$2 to the
bumboat operator, and you sail off happily for the 15-minute
ride to the island. Either that or you can charter a boat
for $24 if you're impatient.

It's a lovely little ride, really letting you know that you
are in the tropics and that civilization hasn't homogenized
everything.

The pier has a big welcome sign, and there are bike rental
places in the little town next to it, but otherwise you
might be in any town in Indonesia or Malaysia. A couple
miles of paved road lead you past some relatively modern-
looking buildings, but I believe there isn't electricity
(unless from gasoline generators) or running water anywhere
on the island. Our destination was Chek Jawa, the beach on
the east side, where the British territorial surveyor had
built a holiday home, which has been turned into a park
visitor center. We traipsed 4 km out on largely dirt roads,
looking at the flora and fauna (Lori got some pictures of
the very spectacular fruit of the nipa palm, and we were
enthralled by the teeming colonies of hermit crabs on the
beach); took the boardwalk walk off the shore (there is a
shelter half way along the walk that is a spectacular site
for spotting takeoffs from SIN) and through the mangrove
swamp, small but authentically smelly. Climbed the
observation tower (puff puff) for spectacular views, and
then it was back to civilization by degrees.

The bumboat filled up over the course of a quarter hour
or so, and back to Changi Village we went. Thought about
lunching at the well-reputed hawker center nearby, but
infoworks has a special sweet shop - he calls it "my gula
melaka lady" - Dessert Mouse, right by the Simei MRT stop,
in the East Point Mall. So we decided to visit it. We
introduced ourselves as friends of his, and the proprietress
smilingly pulled out a photo of infoworks and his son posing
with the shop staff.

We had the touted sago melaka (two orders, very nice), an
order of Thai sago (Lori was entranced by the picture
posted on the counter)(less nice, the texture being quite
stiff and weird), and a durian cendol (of which headinclouds
had one bite and Lori two: both of them complained afterward
of durian burps; I had the remainder and, as my system may
be more inured to the fruit, didn't get the burps but rather
suffered in another more private way later). Chris, the
proprietress, suggested we try her special mee siem, so we
said okay, despite our having had dessert already, and the
dessert having been quite filling. The noodles came in a
lovely deep-flavored tart broth with a nice hot pepper kick.
I wonder whether the workers were expecting us to dance
about in agony from the spiciness, but in fact among us we
drained the huge bowl to the last drops. Oh, by the way,
when Chris asked where we were from, and we said "United
States," there was a momentary furrowing of the brow of the
workers behind the counter; but all was soon well. The total
cost to us for this feast was S$11.

The MRT stop is just a few steps down, and so we took it
home to Bugis, a 25-minute ride for a buck or two each,
The trains are certainly well patronized.

It was deemed time for a change (I'd have been happy with
another Asian meal), so we walked to Trattoria Lafiandra
near the Rendezvous. Apparently there was this Italian guy
who married a Singapore native, and they settled in and
started this restaurant, which, though the staff who waited
on us and cooked our food looked largely Indian, presents
some fairly authentic Tuscan food.

We started with the Prosecco Bortolotti Valdobbiadene, which
was palatable; though no Dom, it was drier and better than
the Drappier Gouttes d'Or ("golden showers" I call it) that
United often serves as its predeparture Biz class bubbly.

A Montepulciano d'Abbruzzo (Farina) 06 was pretty nice for
our main courses - a respectable house wine.

Started with a quite spare pizza bianca, the perfect appie
considering that we had just three hours before had a big
dessert followed by lunch.

As I wished to respect the redness of the wine, I ordered
the grigliata mista, which was huge and nicely done, two
probably Australian lamb chops, two boneless pork loin
chops, two pieces of chicken, I'd say totalling a half
breast, and an about 6 or so oz ribeye steak. I asked for
the meats to be done on the rare side, including the
pork, I said, and they came on the rare side, just cooked
and nicely pink inside. Lori had ricotta ravioli in a
mushroom cream (I think) sauce, quite nice and al dente;
infoworks and headinclouds had the same red-sauce-meat
pasta dish, which they polished off, so I guess things
were satisfactory to all.

Off to the coffee shop next to the IC, where I had a
minted lychee soda that was very refreshing. And so to
an early retiring, as I wanted to get to the airport
early to do my e-mail.

Violist! Great TR you have here.. would have loved to meet up with you guys, but I couldn't make it for the SIN DO.. oops.

Are you still in SIN?

Missed you, k**2! No, I'm back in Arkansas, hanging around the concert
hall waiting to go on for the Bartok concerto for orchestra in a few hours.

end o' adventure
 

0122 UA 804 SIN NRT 0720 1450 777 9H Ch 9 Y Empower Y

There was one cabbie at the hotel, obviously on the prowl
for an airport fare. Judicious questioning revealed that
he did this every day, with between 2 and 9 fares a day
between 4 and 9 am. He's probably considerably richer than
I'll ever be.

Checkin took moments, and off I was to Terminal 3 and the
Silver Kris Lounge, where I was turned away and sent off to
the rather cramped Krisflyer Gold Lounge, where again the
concierge tried to send me packing, but a modicum of
persistence caused her to call a supervisor; during the
course of that brief conversation her face fell noticeably,
and, after appropriate apologies, I was admitted.

The hot offerings were abbreviated but good: mee sua was at
least as good as you'd expect from your local Kopitiam -
soy-flavored but not too salty noodles with lovely cabbage
and other vegetables, garnished with scallions, fried
onion, and slices of hot pepper.

Duck congee was surprisingly meat-filled and quite ducky.

To go with, a very cold draft Tiger in a very frosted mug.

The Cognac was the respectable Otard XO, very vanillary with
a touch of raisins and a big afterburn, probably a result of
being formulated for the ganbei market. There was only a
tiny bit left, and I finished it. It wasn't replaced in the
time I was there.

After doing the FT mail I got bored with the place (no
Appetite magazine!) and went back homeward.

The Skytrain takes you from gate B10 to B1, not a long
distance.

Went to the TG lounge, where the concierge confiscated my
SATS invitation, telling me that I could use the Orchid or
the SATS but not both. I was fine with that.

The atmosphere is nice and quiet, the seats better than the
SKL, the KGL, or the SATS; unfortunately the food offerings
were scanty - breakfast pastries and bowl o'noodles only.
The pastries (I had an almond custard croissant and a raisin
Danish) were soggy.

Martell VSOP Medallion had vanilla and hazelnut notes and
was very smooth, I think a bit nicer than the Otard XO.

Canned beers available: Tiger, Singha, and I think Heineken.

After my first visit to the groaning board, various
sandwiches came out: Cheddar and chicken didn't appeal,
nor did mozzarella and tomato; but I tried guacamole and
eggplant, fairly okay, and chicken tikka with mango chutney
and lettuce, which was excellent.

Soon it was time to hoof it to the gate, which was C1 - the
gate I associate with the Jeddah flights. Security was
efficient and took just a couple minutes; whizzed through
and boarded immediately. The plane was quite full.

Very attentive crew (Singapore-based, said the
announcement); the preflight Champers was the same
as the inflight: Pommery. The flight looked full.

to begin
Your selected entree will be accompanied by fresh fruits
and breakfast breads

main course

Herb omelette with grilled chicken sausage; Lyonnaise
potatoes and oven-baked tomato with Parmesan cheese

Braised beef brisket with egg noodles; Chinese black
mushrooms, choy sum and spring onions

Continental breakfast; selection of fresh seasonal fruits,
cereal and yogurt

They loaded 25 omelettes, 10 Chinese meals, and a LFML.

prior to arrival
Fettuccine with dill cream sauce; grilled zucchini, fresh
mushrooms and chopped tomatoes with herbs

or

Chicken Caesar salad; pan-seared chicken strips,
romaine lettuce, fresh tomato wedges, croutons and
Caesar dressing

dessert
Apple cake with vanilla sauce

A fruit appetizer was quite nice - watermelon, honeydew,
orange, grapes, and pineapple. A croissant was mediocre
but better than recent ones. Also on offer were raisin
Danish and some kind of nut muffin.

My seatmate, flipping the pages of her newspaper, knocked
a glass of OJ on my legs. I just dabbed it up with a bunch
of napkins - the pants had to be washed anyway. Other than
that (she remained oblivious to this) she was fine, waiting
until I was up to go to the bathroom, that sort of thing.

I had the Chinese breakfast: the beef was tough though
tasty, and its dark sauce made the pallid vegetable and
the nasty noodles at least sort of edible. Washed this
down with decent OJ out of a carton. Then settled down,
did some work, called for a Courvoisier, and sacked out.
My row 9 seat had full, maybe greater than normal, recline.

Stupid boy. I woke from my nap and saw on the
Airshow that we were headed toward Manila. What was the
meaning of this? It took me quite a few seconds to realize
that in fact I had booked to Tokyo, not Hong Kong.

We landed a bit ahead of schedule.

I tried to get on 838, but despite the fact there was seat
availability, it would cost me $200, which I might have gone
for, but there was nothing available upstairs, much less my
favorite seats, so I decided to stay stuck in the club and
do Flyertalk and stuff. Maybe in an hour or two go to the
ANA lounge, but I was lazy today. The Kirin VSOP brandy
here, by the way, is okay - not much grape character, rather
a smooth nutty opening, chocolaty vanillary palate, and then
the roof falls in from the fire. Long rather woody finish.

There were inarizushi (sushi rice stuffed into sweetened
fried tofu pockets) for snacks; I am fond of these.

The red wine is some weird stuff from the Vaucluse or
somesuch place - I didn't dare try it.

Gave up on plans to wander about and instead had a shower
and drank more beer and brandy.

UA 852 NRT SFO 1900 1124 777 9H Ch 9 Y Empower Y

A very light load on this one, 1 or 2 in F, 7 in the
minicabin, and the big C cabin looked largely empty -
perhaps everyone had gotten on 838, which leaves just a
couple hours before. Now I understand why people say that
row 9 lacks recline - I tried to put my seat back, and
shortly after halfway the (down positioned) headrest smacked
into a wall (which wasn't there, or at least wasn't nearby,
on the previous plane). A pretty good crew; I did wander up
front to see if I could find any FT tags (only a couple pax,
so easy to check), but the purser shooed me away promptly.

A very good crew, mostly Japanese ethnic by the look of
them. Hot towels and hot nuts.

I had a glass of Chateau de Tracy Madamoiselle de T
Pouilly Fume 05, which had all the standard Sauvignon Blanc
characteristics and tasted like passion fruit and cat pee.
There was magic between cashews in the nut mix and the cat
pee - the resultant flavor was very like durian. I was
amused.

to begin
Grilled smoked salmon, prosciutto bruschetta;
vegetable sushi and pickled ginger

Fresh seasonal greens; Creamy Caesar or soy vinaigrette

main course
Pan-seared filet mignon with Madeira sauce; baked potato
wedges and herbs with green beans, carrot, pepper saute

Chicken Florentine with smoked Gouda and tomato basil sauce;
mushroom risotto and asparagus saute

Washoku zen selection
Appetizers of salmon sushi with fish eggs, roasted lime-
flavor beef with miso, quick-blanched tuna, broiled salmon,
sansho-flavored sweet smelt, seaweed-flavored flounder and
somen noodles topped with sweet egg
A main course of barbecued eel kabayaki, shrimp and
scallop flavored with sake and seaweed, marinated broiled
sea bass, steamed tofu and assorted vegetables served with
steamed rice and Japanese pickled vegetables
Served with green tea
Items in this meal may contain traces of MSG

dessert

International cheese selection: Red Cheddar, Coulommiers

Eli's praline cheesecake

prior to arrival

Scrambled egg and Red Cheddar crepe with mushroom cream
sauce; Canadian bacon

Fresh seasonal fruit plate with creamy yogurt

Today's menu features beef from Australia.

When making reservations on future flights to and from
Japan, you may secure the Japanese meal by preordering.

We apologize if occasionally your choice is not available.

[wines same as on previous Pacific flights noted here]

The Japanese meal was mostly acceptable, especially the
appetizers. The salmon and tuna were of high quality and
not messed around with. The beef was a little ripe, as if
it were halfway to pastrami - not unpleasant for that. The
smelt was whole and stared at me until I wolfed it down. Was
its brief life and ignominious end worth it? Perhaps. The
flounder was of an insignificance; the noodles were pallid
and tasteless, even dipped in dashi broth.

The main courses were way overcooked but tasted decent.
The eel was quite tasty but overcooked mushy; shrimp (2)
and scallops (3 pieces) fairly tasty but overcooked hard.
The other ingredients sort of mushed together and stuck to
the bottom of the dish. The tofu, what I could pry off the
bottom, was quite nice. Also on the plate, lightly pickled
cucumber, celery, and red plum. An entertainment: a cherry
blossom tinted pink and white, apparently made of surimi. I
tasted it in the interests of science: turned out to be
mochi.

The rice was hard on the outside and sticky in the middle.
I tried to mine down into the middle but gave up after
making a slight mess.

Green tea was of a lowish standard; I had a bottle of
Gekkeikan Petit Moon instead: it was clean, characterless,
and rather like milky pear juice but went nicely.

=

I had a bite of the Red Cheddar to see what it was like.
It was not red and was way underaged - sort of like what
the American public has been duped into thinking is "sharp
Cheddar cheese," probably a few weeks or months aged.

The Port was sort of corked and unpleasant; I drank just
enough of it to wash down the cheese and the apple cake,
which was decent: I liked the vanilla sauce, which was
like a packaged custard - a little grainy, not too sweet,
amusingly, luridly yellow.

Had a nice nap, after figuring out how to get comfy in
this seat (plus the footrest didn't stay up) and was
wakened an hour and half before landing by the lights
going up and the swish of tray tablecloths.

A nicer than usual fruit appetizer - ripe strawberry,
ripe melon, very nice slice of apple, pineapple.

The scrambled eggs turned out to be an omelet wrapped in
a tough shell, which strangely enough kept the eggs fluffy
and tasty despite an obvious overheating, which turned the
fairly palatable mushroom sauce into a thick pudding and
made the bacon (really chop-cut loin rather than eye, so
perhaps Scottish or Irish-style and not so much Canadian)
almost uncuttable even with the aid of the two real metal
knives. A croissant was vanilla scented and awful.

We landed a touch early; the friendly flight attendant
waved us up to the front door only to find that they were
opening 2L! So we had to reverse direction and deplane
with the polloi.

Immigration, a big old hike down the hall, was uneventful,
except that the agent gave me the hard sell about my
passport not scanning and how I should renew a couple years
early to take advantage of the wonderful new security
technology. I didn't say much, refraining from pointing out
that my having just had new pages sewn in should be
indicative of my attachment to the thing.

A sizable line at domestic security, so I traipsed to the
priority lane, where a lot of people who clearly weren't
frequent flyers had managed to infiltrate (one granny and
her grandkids kept the lane clogged for five minutes).

At the RCC I did the RCC_meetings walk a few times, flapping
my FlyerTalk tag in front of me. No recognition.

Got to the gate at boarding time to find a batch of TSA
personnel looming and the plane not arrived yet. Presently
the plane came up (from Chicago), and (oddly) the TSA
people left. I thought it was perhaps a return to the
"random" gate checking, but as I wasn't pulled over, that
must not have been the case - unless the TSA returned later
to play games with the coach pax.

UA 294 SFO BWI 1518 2323 320 2A Ch9 Y Empower Y

Hot towels, hot nuts. Nice crew,

The offerings were the famed pasta trio or a pan-roasted
chicken breast with potatoes and seasonal succotash. I
passed so cannot report.

The red wine was Washington Hills Merlot 05, which I made
the mistake of asking for. The jovial FA kept it coming.

We landed 20 early.

Great report.

Thank you for the great report:D And while I was unable to attend this years festivities in person, your report makes for a great visual !! (Hopefully, I'll be there for SIN DO 09