My buddy Susie was free for dinner, so we arranged to go to
Two Quail, right near the train station. This is a rather
self-consciously funky restaurant, with idiosyncratic
knickknacks in little rooms with overstuffed chairs: sort of
like eating in one's grandmother's parlor, if your granny
was wealthy and somewhat deranged. We looked at the regular
menus and discovered to the waitress's chagrin and my
gratification that what we wanted was all on the early bird
special for about half the price. I comforted her with the
information that I'd spend on booze what we saved on food.

The "chef's whim" was the not-very-whimly cream of mushroom
soup, which was plain as plain and less tasty than what
Campbell makes: a bit of salt and pepper helped.

I ordered the pork loin in black pepper and whiskey, which
was three thinnish boneless chops in a sweetish gravy shot
full of onions, sided with a not-very-garlicky garlic mash;
pretty decent.

Susie ordered the eponym two quail, spatchcocked and wrapped
around a stuffing of bread, apricots, and somewhat moldy
cream cheese, either that or cream cheese with gorgonzola
mixed in; also pretty decent. This came with rice.

veg was batons of carrot and zucchini, okay.

The Rosemount Show Cabernet 02 was nice and ripe, just a
hair sweet (good because of the onions and apricots), with
a pleasant tannic bite and some green pepper to make us
know it was a Cab. Come to think of it, I imagine that it
was made from a mixture of slightly overripe and slightly
underripe grapes. The price was high but not bizarre.

For afters: apple cobbler, a huge portion, so we packed
one for Susie's breakfast and split the other. It was
standard, i.e., pleasing but not exciting.

I asked what they had for Cognac. The pleasant but newbie
waitress confessed that she didn't know. Turns out that
all they have is Hardy's XO for $13, not too bad a price.
The Cognac was quite nice, butterscotch and raisin nose,
very smooth, nutty finish, and the bartender, clearly an
amateur, poured me between 5 and 6 oz of it, bringing the
price down below retail.

Kissed Susie goodbye and went on to the gate, where boarding
was just starting, with no biz class preboard and, just as
importantly, no gimp preboard.

2V 198 WAS ISE 2045 2337 13A biz car

There was no preboard for biz or those who need extra time
getting down the jetway, so I am afraid I held up the crowd
a little. This a minor annoyance but no big deal for me;
can't speak for those behind me. The last car said "business
class" on it, but the conductor said that the real biz car
was the farthest one (sigh ... the leg was hurting).

Biz was about 20% full, mostly with people who looked as
though they wouldn't belong there, even giving that the
premium on this train is only something like $35.

We got to Metropark Iselin ten early, which is good as the
elevator was out and I had to hobble down a bunch of steps
to the ticket machine and then back up to the platform.

NJT7876 ISE EWR 2343 0009

Damn train was way late. I hustled off the Amtrak,
limped down the stairs to the ticket machine, and ran
(as best I could) back up to the platform. And waited
half an hour. Interim note: I'm sitting in the Newark
airport, that is Newark NJ not Newark NY, so a fairly
major airport. It is 0226. I arrived here, not fully
willingly, at 0100, when I discovered the cleaning
lady stacking up the chairs on the tables in the food
court. So I dozed until 0200, having had a NEW! Angus
deluxe 1/3 lb burger for dinner (Mickey Dee's being the
only all-night eatery at the airport) along with 100 mL
of Johnnie Walker Black that had with me. So at 0200,
what wakes me up but the clatter of the chairs being
taken off the tables and arranged for the start of the
day, by some guy who must be the shift change. The
stupidity lies not in either of the drones but in the
supervisor who cleverly scheduled these activities.

The burger, btw, was not altogether bad. The bun was
the usual sweetened McDonalds thing, with extra sesame
seeds. The burger build was, bottom bun, burger, slice
of very palatable tomato, leaf of quite good greenleaf
lettuce, not iceberg, large blob of very salty mayo,
tablespoon of fresh not frozen not freeze-dried onion.
The burger had a nice beef flavor and squirted real
beef fat all over my jacket when I bit into it. Just
like the United Airlines deluxe cheeseburger, come to
think of it.

Mr. Chicken appears confused. Some times he says that
checkin is available from 3:30 am to 8 pm; at others he
says one can check in from 5 am to 11 pm; other suggestions
are 4:15 am to 7:30 pm and 4:30 am to 7:30 pm. He allowed
me to get my nice card-stock boarding passes at 3:30.

UA 635 EWR ORD 0600 0719 752 2A Ch9^ Empower

One will not be surprised to know that I dozed through this
flight. I did notice that the fruit plate and breakfast
breads were offered, with hot towels later on. We came in
on time, perhaps a hair early.

UA 243 ORD DEN 0757 0930 777 9A Ch9 Empower^

A schedule change gave me a less-than-comfortable 38 min
connection, but the gates were C9 and C10, so there was
no problem there, and I got to the gate about five min
before they started to board. I wormed my way through the
gate lice, who were waiting at the wrong door anyhow (dual
jetbridge boarding), and when boarding was called, about
half a dozen people got on out of the whole bunch. Actually,
the cabin filled up pretty well eventually: three different
FAs made announcements about the crowdedness of the plane,
referring to the situation as "full," "very full," and
"extremely full." The info board said it was checked in at
239 out of 250-odd.

No Channel 9, and I didn't bother to ask, as there were
random bouts of huge interference on the headset - one of
the weaknesses of the NC headsets is that they tend to make
up for the relative silence with outbursts of ear-splitting
noise, almost as thought they were saving it all up.

BOB. The FA was a bit sheepish when she offered breakfast,
as the product downgrade is noticeable. I did need some
sustenance, so I lost my snack box virginity with the
Right Bite:

Bumble Bee Sensations lemon pepper tuna, 3 oz -
surprisingly, not unpalatable; would perhaps have been
better with a glass of wine, but I was saving myself for
my next flight

Wild Garden hummus, baby-food jar size - very cuminy,
very low fat, fairly tasty;

Stacy's simply naked pita chips - thick and clunky and
mostly shards, but not bad tasting.

Also: Carr's Table Water crackers; Lorna Doones; a square of
Hershey's extra dark.

Somewhere between 400-500 Calories; not totally horrid, but
not exactly a proper meal.

The other snack boxes were available as well, in addition to
a continental breakfast of cheese, fruit, crackers, a
plastic pastry, and some moldy grapes - my poor seatmate
didn't pay attention to what he was eating, and after
popping one of the latter in his mouth, looked frantically
for someplace to deposit the detritus ... it was all I could
do not to laugh and say, serves you right for getting the
"fresh" selection.

The good news was that I had 9A in an XP, one of my favorite
seats on any aircraft.

We landed about 15 late, and I thought I might miss
ripper3785, whom I'd promised to guest in with his lovely
wife Amy. Eventually we found each other, and a satisfactory
outcome was had. ripper gave me a bag of macadamias to snack
on. I went off to try to do some work and read the boards.

By the time I finished reading FT it was time to run, er,
hobble to the gate, where the red carpet had been closed
and they were well into zone 3. I moseyed up and opened the
rope, whereupon the agent said, I would have done that for
you, and I replied, in this world one has to help oneself.
This got a chuckle rather than a scowl, a good omen for the
day.

UA 43 DEN HNL 1203 1525 763 2A Ch9^ Empower

Wow, these seats are cramped by comparison not only to the
international 777 but also the domestic 777. I asked my
seatmate if we were in Economy Plus.

Hot towels, warm nuts, cool Courvoisier.

The FAs were mature (older than I, mostly) but nice.

Ch9 was put on on request.

The meal choices: chicken in thyme gravy or three-cheese
pasta Florentine. I said that it was chicken or nothing,
but if nothing, not to worry, did I look underfed? It was
the chicken, which was sort of okay though salty, with
root vegetables and edamame and something that I thought
was mash but turned out to be polenta. The lagniappe on
the salad was a dried apple slice, a generous handful of
pistachios, and some red pepper. Asian sesame dressing.
Chocolate cake for afters. As I have expressed some
disdain for the Bushman's Gully Shiraz, I chose "whatever
white wine you have," which turned out to be a not too
special Mockingbird Hill Chard from California, with
cantaloupe and citrus notes and a bit of oak.

ripper and Amy were in 21AB, which ripper claimed was the
primo seat on this aircraft. After lunch I wended my way
back to say hi: they were both inert. It does look, btw,
that they had more room than I did in 2A.

ripper and Amy won the Halfway to Hawaii contest, being
off by only 30 seconds. He gave me a can of macadamias
from his winnings.

The second service was pathetic, with the FAs doing
their best with the tablecloths and the pomp and
circumstance. Not much to be done about 2 oz of soapy cheese,
half a dozen sad-looking grapes, and a couple crackers.

Saw Molokai with Haleakala in the distance and the big
island volcanoes beyond that (I take this last on faith,
but that's what they said).

We landed 30 early but waited a few for the tow in - why
there was a tow in I don't know.

It sounds like the flight attendants were friendly enough, but the soft product, or lack thereof, really came though in this TR. Absolutely inexcusable and pathetic.

i agree - its really, really sad.

i can remember when UA had an amazing Hawaiian service to HNL in F.

This sounds like a Coach meal from 20 years ago.

I do feel bad for the FAs - its sooo embarassing..

Yup, it is kind of sad. The FAs had orchids and/or leis as in the olden times,
but it came out that one of them had paid for them out of her own pocket.
There is something positive to be said for staff who have been around long
enough to remember how things should be and used to be. As far as coach
meals, being older than most of the people on this board, I remember the
days when there was medium-rare filet mignon and "Champagne" (Korbel, I
think) with pecan pie for afters.

viloist,

My first flight to HNL was in 1993 on an old DC-10 in first. Yep. Mai Tai's followed by a lei greeting upon arrival.

We're off to LIH on the $272 R/T deal post Election Day. The thought of drinking Korbel in first is enough to make me throw up.

These days, there's a core group that would tell me not to complain about the lack of this and the lack of that. Guess I won't expect much for $272 and 30,000 miles.

Nice report!

Korbel ain't all that bad. I have but two words for you:
Veuve Amiot.

Parted from ripper and Amy to do my e-mail at the RCC, which
now closes for break from something like 4 to 6. Then on the
public bus, marginally more uncomfortable than F on that
767, to the Aqua Waikiki Marina, which is a condo hotel
reasonably close to Waikiki and reasonably close to the
Marina. It receives notably mixed reviews on the Web, but
I decided to give it a flyer because it was offering rooms
at half what other Aqua places were charging - and 1/3 of
what real hotels are trying to get.

Dani, the smiling desk clerk, was dealing with an irate
guest whose car had been wrongfully towed, so I sat there
for a quarter hour while that was being sorted out. There
was no other staff there. Eventually, she helped me out and
I received the keys to what turned out to be a fairly nice
room on the tenth floor, reminding me rather of my old
apartment in Boston, except that Boston had a much nicer
view overlooking the ocean. I unpacked, had a shower, and
tried to get my e-mail. Whoops. The cable modem was on the
fritz, so down I went, and Dani, still pleasantly, gave me
the number of Oceanic Cable, for which I of course was put
on hold for 30 plus minutes. Eventually a nice enough tech
got on the line and, when she determined that I had already
done what the procedures required, said that a tech would
have to make a house call, and it would take at least 24 and
up to 48 hours. Oh, poop. Back down to the desk, where I
impressed on Dani that this wouldn't do, so she gave me a
somewhat smaller, weirder, but still comfortable room where
the cable modem actually worked. At this point it was
getting late, and I was hungry, the thyme-gravied coach
chicken served in first class not really having done the
job. But, miracle of miracles, there's Da Smokehouse, an
iDine restaurant, just a couple blocks up Hobron, so there
I marched - only to find a party, CD release or something,
with lots of gorgeous young people clogging the premises.
So I wandered down to Waikiki, where I figured to stop at
the first place that struck my fancy. Todai Sushi somehow
didn't fill the bill, and I ended up at a place I always
wanted to try, Cheeseburger Waikiki (formerly unrelated to
Cheeseburger in Paradise, which was formerly owned by Jimmy
Buffett, but this operation somehow ended up taking over the
local Cheeseburger in Paradise, along with the rights to
the name, while the rest of the mainland Cheeseburgers in
Paradise remain owned by Jimmy Buffett, something like that).

The staff were nice, the waitresses jolly and a little
flirtatious, the bartender hyper but doing his job well. A
Cheeseburger Blonde was pretty decent, though pricy for a
house draft at about $6. The burger, on the other hand, bit
the big one, rather than being bitten. It was both greasy
(not too bad) and starchy (very bad) at the same time, as
though the commissary had taken one part suet, one of beef,
and a third breadcrumbs or oatmeal or similar adulterant,
mixed them up like meatloaf, salted the heck out of the
patties stamped out of this unholy mixture, and then handed
them over to the restaurant to be grilled over an admittedly
open flame. Big tasteless bun. Shredded lettuce. Their own
patented mixture of Monterey Jack and American cheeses, a
square of mottled yellow and white. Not good, sorry, folks
who work there and are perfectly nice, but there is no way
anyone should eat at this place.

Back to the hotel to do some work and some FTing and then
to bed at 1-odd, which is I believe 7-odd by my clock.

THanks for sharing.

Thanks.

= =

So I was taking my morning constitutional down Waikiki, and
it was pretty temperate out, so I got it into my head to
walk to Diamond Head (not UP Diamond Head, just to it, as I
am not only a gimp but an old gimp). It's longer than the
map seems to indicate. I did a Mapquest and discovered after
the fact that it's 3 1/2 miles each way from the hotel. No
wonder I had to make a rest stop on the way back.

Diamond Head is gorgeous, as is the view out to the ocean.
I stopped as well at a couple of parks along the way, both
quite secluded though surrounded by houses and cars, with
lovely views out across the water. I recommend this,
especially if you have a car. I was passed, though, by an
assortment of pedestrians, joggers, Segwayists, bicyclists,
motorcyclists, scootists, as well as motorists.

On the way back I stopped at Teddy's, mindful of my previous
disappointment in the burger department. And having walked
5 miles in the gathering heat, I decided to splurge and have
a monster double 7, which, when it came, went down like
water. From the bottom up: a greasy sweet roll; two burger
patties, medium; two slices of tomato; a handful of onion
ringlets; a curly-leaf lettuce leaf; a large squirt of
thin yellow sauce that tasted vaguely mustardy, vaguely
sweet, vaguely fruity; the sweet roll top. The meat was
juicy and a bit greasy, with the result that in conjunction
with the sauce, the liquids made the bottom roll fall apart
approximately immediately. The taste was good; honest meat,
just a touch I think of starchy filler. The sauce did no
harm. Interestingly, 14 oz of beef plus assorted carbs
didn't fill me up, so I went to an ABC down the way and
bought a six of Hinano, drinking down two immediately;
Teddy's does not serve alcohol, though there is a bar
directly above. I paid cash so as to get change for an
anticipated series of bus trips. tednugent (NR) subsequently
pointed to me that Teddy's is an iDine place. I pointed out
to him that Indigo is an iDine place, see below.

Walked around Waikiki a bit longer, then back to the hotel,
where I discovered that my game leg had swollen up, the
ankle about 50% bigger than it should have been.

Hinano, as it turns out, is made in Pape'ete from an old
German recipe - it's relatively hoppy but otherwise a clean
and neutral beer, very quenching.
===
Thought about walking to the meeting place, but Mapquest
said that it was 2.9 miles, and my leg was fat and hurting.
Off to the bus stop. Just missed the 19, and it was 20 min
before the 20 came. Watched the girls go by, there goes one
now ... SRO on the 20, except for one seat, which I took.
Mistake, as the guy next to me was not only malodorous but
also was later discovered to be exuding bodily fluids.
tednugent(no relation) and I had talked about the intrinsic
good sense and good citizenship of using public trans, but
this experience made me sort of think and think again.

As it was rush hour, the 2.9 miles took half an hour. When I
arrived at the Indigo bar, after having missed my stop (the
theBus.org map says there's a stop at Nuuanu, but the real
stop is at Smith, and as has happened several times in the
past, I didn't figure this out until the bus took the turn
away from Chinatown), ripper3785 and his lovely bride were
half through their martinis. I greeted them and immediately
excused myself to the lav to try to wash off some of those
bodily fluids that had been foisted on me. That achieved,
the next order of the day was to pound down a couple Red
Stripes, the beer special. I don't do fancy martinis, for
which Indigo is well known. P.S. At this writing, I find
that some of said fluids had slopped onto my pants, which
are now resident in the trash. It's late in the season to
be wearing white chinos anyhow.

Ted joined us for a round. Amy, a quick and enthusiastic
learner, glommed the bill and paid with a mileage credit
card, which got her a double dip on miles; if someone had
made a reservation, maybe we could have achieved a triple
dip, as Indigo is an OpenTable restaurant as well.

Then it was a four or five block adventure through a seedier
part of Beretania to Legend Seafood Restaurant, which has
apparently seen FT gatherings in the past.

Great detail - thanks.

I leave for Maui right after the election - so I am in major countdown mode....

The place was pleasantly half-full - not empty enough so as
to be ghostly, not full enough to prevent our getting a big
table for the four of us. There's a special menu for 4,
featuring a 1.5-lb lobster and four dishes from the menu
plus soup, $78++. I mentioned this (the list of dishes on
offer were mostly things I like a lot), but Ted pulled a
wry face. I said, $78 for a lobster and four dishes isn't
too much, but it turns out that was not his objection.
He's allergic to many seafoods! One might say that he's
semilergic, but as we weren't going to split hairs on this
one, we ended up with a fairly seafood-free meal at a
seafood restaurant.

Four dishes plus soup and rice was just about perfect.

Started with a rendition of hot-sour soup that for once was
more hot than sour, and which I liked. There was a bit of a
stir when it was found that somehow some unadvertised shrimp
had made their way into this soup. I was eagerly awaiting
Ted to blow up balloonwise, so I could come to the rescue
with the Benadryl I keep in my pocket most times, but he
didn't. Some joking about Epi-Pens and stuff like that, and
I brought up the fact that shiitakes and cloud ears make me
bleed, and hot-sour soup has both. People expressed concern
- a somewhat kinder reaction than mine to Ted's issues. Let
us leave this for the time being and go on to the meal.

As Ted is a strict carnivore, we had two meat main dishes,
both coming on sizzling platters. I pointed out to no avail
that the sizzly comes at a cost of two or three extra bucks,
but I guess sizzling was the order of the day. The proper
greedy restaurateur procedure is to bring a bowl of food and
a red-hot platter, then combine the two in as theatrical
wise as possible, yielding a godawful racket and grease
spattering all over happy round-eyed diners. At Legend, the
plattering is done in the kitchen, with the result that we
were presented with two happily bubbling doses of chicken
with black bean sauce and "tenderloin" with pepper, hoisin,
and oyster sauce. Can't say I didn't warn you guys.

Both dishes were perfectly enjoyable, though, the chicken
nice and black beany but a tad salty, the "tenderloin" -
really I'm sure flank or skirt, marinated in rice wine and
baking soda, then coated in cornstarch - quite tender though
not exceptionally beefy. I kept waiting for Ted to puff up
like a fugu, because of the oyster sauce, but he didn't.
Anyhow, there's not all that much oyster in oyster sauce (in
contradistinction to lobster sauce, which actually has no
lobster in it at all).

Amy had suggested noodles, and I nodded approvingly: the
Chinese wisdom is that eating noodles will help you in
attaining a long, skinny life. Ours were crisp-fried thin
yellow noodles with pork and bean sprouts, pretty good.
Make that long, skinny, suntanned life.

Noting the singular lack of green stuff, I exercised my
prerogative as the oldest at table and ordered the ong choy
with fu ru and hot pepper. What came (this happens when one
orders a relatively unpopular dish) was a mountain, maybe a
pound and half, of goose vegetable/hollow greens/water
convolvulus - one of the most prized of all Southeast Asian
veggies, but somehow one that hasn't caught on so well here.
A bit much fu ru, a bit little hot pepper, lots of stray
unadvertised bits of garlic and shreds of ginger. I enjoyed
this and ate the bulk of the dish, with modest portions to
ripper and Amy, who nodded politely and finished their small
allotments. Ted balked for a while but then acceded to taste
a tiny bite, which he allowed was not so bad as he feared.

Tea was weak but decent; the guys each also had beer, each
according to his nature. Tab was $68++, counting beer, so we
saved 10-15 bucks by not getting a lobster.

As we finished our meal, I felt a nosebleed coming on, and I
strode proudly, head up, chin out, making no eye contact, to
the restroom, where the red sea opened up. After I cleaned
myself up, I presented me to the table with only a faintest
trace of gore on my maw.

Time to say goodbye; Ted gave me a lift to the hotel, which
meant 5 minutes instead of 25, for which I was thankful.

Back in solitude, I came to the ugly realization that I'd
sat in part of this smelly old guy's detritus. Took a long
careful shower, and, as I said before, the trousers went in
the bin.

Welcome.

Depending, I might want to leave for parts unknown right after the election.

if he were a fish. Actually, I would avoid dinner with your friend. With you it is another thing, perhap's we can do LurkerII's seafood hawker center on Sunday in Singapore.

Actually your description of Ted reminds me of the clown I met in Honolulu in 1968 while returning from Okinawa. He was, as recollection serves, from Indiana and was loudly complaining about being unable to get a decent steak the night before at this awful restaurant that only served seafood. Is Ted the son of a middle-American from Indiana by chance?

I'd be happy to dine with you any time, Michael, but not all my friends
are chosen based on the adventuresomeness of their palates!

Did my morning walk before it got too hot.

My original plan was to mosey down to one of the violin
shops downtown and try to borrow an instrument, as it has
been a while since I've touched one, and I have some fairly
interesting music and some fairly interesting decisions to
make about said music to deal with, with the conductor
bugging me from thousands of miles away by e-mail and stuff.

Okay, my walking path took me past Ala Moana Center and out
by the Ward complex, so I decided to look in on a couple
stalls in the Farmers' Market that were recommended to me:

Haili's Hawaiian Foods sells traditional fare: pipikaula,
many kinds of poke, squid luau, poi, laulau, and so on. A
definite fish orientation - three grades of dried skipjack,
for example, and opihi, which I haven't had in years but am
fond of: these were $9 for a puny half-pint, with shells,
so that may be why I haven't had any in years. Most
important for me is that they sell pig - kalua, roast,
soy sauce knuckles, guisantes. The roast looked good, so I
asked for a box of it and a serving of haupia. A nice little
breakfast - I took a bite of the pork: crispy skin, a good
mix of fat and lean, but really salty; but there were some
beers in the fridge in the hotel, right? Plus I'd gone past
the Poke Bowl, so I stopped in on the way back and got a
box (half a pound, plus) of spicy shoyu ahi poke.

Oh, why hadn't I gotten any of Haili's poke? It looked kind
of yesterday, a bit too wet, not shiny enough, the onions
and things dark stained and a bit wilted. And the Poke Bowl
is supposed to be really good.

So that meant that I had to hot-foot it back to the hotel,
and it was getting kind of muggy, and I didn't need to
borrow a violin anyhow.

The roast had suffered a bit from twenty minutes in a stuffy
box - the skin had turned soggy, and the hard shrivelled
pieces had gone from a crunchy tooth-defying exercise to a
tough jaw-breaking experience. There was a good 12 oz of
streaky, though, which was still just fine. These things all
went excellently with beer, as did the poke, which was one
of the best I recall from recent memory.

The haupia was underwhelming; the flavor was good, the
sweetness understated; but the texture was wrong - as though
the bottom part had been allowed to harden and then the top
part poured on top: there were distinct layers of texture,
and the bottom was actually rather tough. Can't win 'em all.

There was work to be done and sun to be basked in, so I
decided definitely not to bother with violins or anything
silly like that.

Decided that (as half the poke was still in the fridge) I
was peckish after all, so made a ressie for a party of one
at Chef Mavro down on S. King. I wouldn't impose this kind
of expenditure on my friends and tend to go alone to these
sorts of places unless they volunteer a willingness without
my prompting.