Britt, that was a great DO. We ate at East Coast Jumbo, which
was later nixed as too hard to get to and inferior to No Signboard
(both of these are open to some debate). I think you were at our
table? That was one of the DOs I attended with my friend Bennie,
who has retired and is not to be found. In fact, there are a few
people I thought would become regulars, whom I haven't seen
around. chemist661 for example. Later on on this trip, I encountered
FTers ws8n and dlouise37, whom I may not have seen since that
time either.

That was a fun time. I remember everyone piling into the van to go to East Coast Jumbo for dinner. Great food. I took a few pictures at dinner, and one has Bennie in it! I had planned to go back to SIN the next year, but other trips kept getting in the way.

My favorite memory of the trip, besides dinner, was how I kept my body clock on EST so that I wouldn't get jet-lagged. As a result, I spent mornings and nights exploring SIN while I slept in the afternoons. I still got a lot done, including a cruise to Batam, a trip to Jahor Bahru, and shopping for silk on Arab Street.

I think I just talked myself into joining the 2010 DO!

It'll be good to see you at the '10 DO!

There's now construction blocking the secret stairs to
Keong Saik Road from opposite Outram Park. We made a
short detour to the right before we came to the famed
Kok Sen Coffee House, infoworks' inspired contribution to
the Do. They set up two tables for us, shortly expanded to
three and then back down to two-with-extensions. infoworks
with his knowledge of the place and karenkay with her
expert Mandarin ordered, as before. I believe all tables
got the same dishes except for the omelet, a concession to
a member who lives with numerous kinds of food allergy
including to peanuts and soy (how can one survive in
Singapore with these?).

Beef with ginger and hot pepper - a good standard that one
can get anywhere, but a fine child's introduction to Asian
fare, and the ginger itself was of a higher order than
anything we can get in the States;

sweet-sour fish - this was so fried that I had a hard time
even guessing the species, but I have my suspicion that I
did get my gourami goreng after all - a nice crunchy dorsal
fin gives me an indication; the flesh was tender and sweet,
the outside crisp. I had but a morsel of meat and ate a lot
of the fins and (crisp) bony parts. Some people are really
grossed out by what I eat, but too tough for them!;

Cantonese fried chicken - excellent, but not so heavily
marinated as last time, so more appealing to most but less
so to me;

baby bok choy - fresh and yummers;

ong choy in XO sauce - with the inspired addition of diced
crisp-fried pork crackling;

tofu, peppers, and eggplant stuffed with fish paste - good
soothing Teochow I think fare;

and a very good shrimp omelet.

Many Tigers accompanied.

Gave my regrets to the assembled company ready to tour
Chinatown in all its pre-New Year glory and went walking
with Lori_Q; it must have looked like I was steppin' out
with her, but I want to assure Doug that we were merely
solving the problems of the world, most of which fell at
the Moon Bar, a slightly creepy though upscale place not
far from where we had eaten. When asked the price of a shot
of Chivas, the cute bartender said "sirteee"; we debated on
whether this meant $13 or 30 and came to the conclusion that
we could afford a round in either case. Turned out to be the
former, a regular bargain by Singapore booze standards, even
though this works out to US$230 a bottle.

Got a bus from Outram Park back to the hotel. Had a short
snooze before having to rouse myself.

Five o'clock came way too soon. Groped my way down, paid
the bill, and was shortly taxiing to the airport. A bit of
sticker shock - paid just over S$30 - the last couple times
I'd been here I'd either stayed in the north part of the
city or traveled at non-surcharge times; there's also been
a rate increase.

At the UA door at T3, kluau88 and ws8n were just hanging out
greeting the FT contingent as we came in. Chatted a bit with
them and went on to check in, which took a minute or two, as
did passport control.

I passed up the *G lounge for the Silver Kris, where I
figured the UA804 minicabin crew would be hanging out, and I
was right. The staff was particularly welcoming, I thought,
this visit. I guess SQ too needs every dollar it can get.

E-fu noodles, green bean buns, and pork buns made a nice
breakfast washed down with the rather harsh but tasty
Otard XO. I sent bseller in its direction, but somehow he
failed to locate it. "Pay no attention to that bar behind
the curtain."

chchkiwi went off shopping by herself. At some point someone
decided that it would be better to wait breathlessly at the
gate for mashg's pending upgrade, so we got there somewhat
before boarding, with mashg and her dad alternately bugging
the gate staff. The upgrade finally came through, but she
was unsuccessful in getting into the minicabin, so WWBGD
gave up his spot to sit with her in row 15. So we ended up
having only 4/10 in the minicabin, down from 7/10 in '07,
but beating '08, when I was the only FTer on the flight.

violist - great trip report. I enjoyed reading your research regarding Raffles Hotel cocktails. :)

UA 804 SIN NRT 0720 1450 777 9J Ch9^ Empower ^

The good news: this was an XP, and 9J has infinite legroom.
The bad news: none.

chchkiwi in 9D, newself in 9F, bseller in 9H,
WWBGD in 15A, mashg in 15B

Service was exemplary. A very attractive and pleasant
Indian FA. She was happy that her husband was working this
flight, especially with all those greedy FTer eyes on her.

My IFE was kind of wonky, but I made do.

bseller's footrest didn't stay put, so after a flurry of
attention and various failed attempts to fix it, the
solution arrived at was to stack two glass-caddies under
his footrest plus give him a compensation form!

Warm nuts, hot towels.

to begin

Your selected entree will be accompanied by fresh fruit
and breakfast breads

A not bad croissant. I thought of trying the pecan muffin,
but it didn't look sticky enough to woo me. bseller had a
Danish, which he made some offhand comment about; it didn't
look too bad.

main course

Poached eggs on beef tenderloin with Hollandaise sauce;
oven-roasted new potatoes with herbs, buttered asparagus
and carrots

Braised minced chicken with preserved fish and egg noodles,
Taiwanese cabbage and Chinese mushrooms in oyster sauce

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

bseller commented that these didn't sound particularly
appetizing; newself agreed: they had the continental. I went
out on a limb and had the noodle thing, which was about like
what you'd get for S$3 at a hawker center, only the noodles
were mushier and there was about 1/2 as much food. Taiwanese
cabbage was your ordinary bok choy in salt water and
cornstarch. I wonder what SATS or whoever is responsible
charges for catering this meal.

prior to arrival

Focaccia sandwich with sun-dried tomato, roasted eggplant,
peppers and mozzarella; pesto mayonnaise

Today's menu features beef from Australia or New Zealand

1/09
SIN-NRT (B85-S89)
262C119-2

I passed on the snack.

Champagne
Piper-Heidsieck Brut NV Champagne

Mumm Cuvee Napa Brut NV Napa Valley

White wine
Laboure-Roi Abbaye de Fontenay 2007 Montagny (Chardonnay)

Lockwood Vineyard Chardonnay 2007 Monterey

Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc 2006 California

Red wine
Jaboulet Le Paradou 2006 Beaumes-de-Venise (Grenache)

Firestone Vineyards Select Merlot 2005 Central Coast

L de Lyeth Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 Sonoma

Sake
Gekkeikan Sake is available on flights to and from Japan

Beverages
Sandeman Founders Reserve Porto will be offered during the
main meal's dessert

Starbucks coffee will be available throughout the flight


The bubbly was again the Cuvee Napa.

We landed a bit early, but that extra time was chewed up by
the huge line at transit security, where United's feeble
attempt to make life easy by putting up a GS/1K/FC sign was
thwarted by there being nobody to police this line, so it
ended up being if anything slower than the other line.

Had an hour at the NH lounge, which was its usual excellent
self. newself and chchkiwi excused themselves for their LAX
flight, and we went to the sake bar:

Shochu kaeda is a distilled sweet potato liqueur that tasted
for all the world like cheap moonshine - raw nuts on the
nose, fire on the palate, an odd starchy aftertaste. bseller
didn't like it; I thought it was okay.

Chomeisen ginjo karakuchi was pretty much what you expect,
pleasantly fruity, slightly sweet.

There was a third, which had no alphabetic identification -
flavors of melon and citrus, fairly nice but not as good as
that second.

After a few kanpais it was time to say goodbye to the
Chicago Three; I went back to the RCC to wait for
CanadianPie's brother, but his plane was delayed, and I had
to run off to the gate, where my boarding pass was rejected
by the reader!

Michael
 

This report caused this report to be resurrected.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...nt-xiamen.html

I for one really enjoy your descriptions despite not enjoying some of the things that you eat. But then again do you like kishka, gefilte fish or tongue on rye served with pickled tomatos?? Perhaps even a Costco Polish with unlimited soft drink refills for $1.50?

Bintang translates to "Red Star" as I found out after my first Indonesia trip. The Red Star being the Heineken star from the Dutch who once occupied the country. Who knew? I personally like Bintang better than Heineken - although I have never had the chance for a side-by-side comparison, I share your observation that its a wee bit on the sweet side. In any case, I drink a lot of it every time I go to Bali. :)

UA 838 NRT SFO 1710 0915 777 11A was 9J Ch9^^ Empower^

The good news: this was an XP, and 9J has infinite legroom.
The bad news: it was being used for crew rest.

Back in the olden days, when I was young and handsome and
paid real fares, this would have signified 1A for sure, but
it was not to be. The boarding pass that came out said 11A;
I sort of rolled my eyes but went on board; complained to
one of the FAs on embarking.

The guy in 11B with the canonic dark pants and blue-striped
shirt asked me to change seats to accommodate his friend; I
went ballistic on him, telling him that UA had jerked me
around enough; turns out he wasn't ground staff at all but
just some fellow with defective taste; I enlightened him on
how not to dress like a United person and said that his
friend would no doubt have good luck switching seats, and
so it was. My new seatmate was unbelievably polite and kind;
we had a pleasant chat, and it turns out we knew people in
common, as he got his master's the same year as I had my
A.B., from the same red institution.

The duty manager came on board and knelt before me; he was
comically insincere, fluttering his eyelids and doing his
best to resemble a condemned criminal begging for his neck
before the mediaeval warlord, in a way that I have seen
before only in movies. I accepted his apology, laughing
inside at the silliness. No 1A for me! Later, a FA tried to
explain, saying something about how in this configuration
the former crew rest area was used for something else, and
so they had to take row 9 away from the customers. Whatever.

The FAs were perfectly nice, though not in their first
youth, which didn't bother me, as I'm not either.

Warm nuts with seconds; hot towels.

to begin

Smoked salmon rose, sweet sesame pork; vegetable sushi and
pickled ginger

I got a salmon rose, which was good, but something else
unidentifiable instead of the other things. Unmemorable.

Fresh seasonal greens; blue cheese or sesame vinaigrette

Okay.

main course

Pan-seared filet mignon with balsamic onion demi-glace;
baked stuffed potato with chives and asparagus

Key lime and honey chicken breast with mango lime sauce;
jambalaya rice and green beans with macadamia nuts

Washoku zen selection; appetizers of snapper sushi, simmered
shrimp, lightly salted flounder wrapped in seaweed, chicken
in cod egg roll, baby bamboo with dried fish flakes, beef
sirloin with Japanese dressing, maitake mushroom and cha-
soba noodles topped with simmered shimeji mushroom; a main
course of salmon topped with chestnut paste and grilled
eringi mushroom, chestnut, green beans and carrot flower;
served with steamed rice and Japanese pickled vegetables;
served with green tea. Itens in this meal may contain
traces of MSG. When making reservations on future flights
to and from Japan, you may secure the Japanese meal by
pre-ordering

I told the FA taking orders that I didn't care what I got.
Later, someone else asked me again to make sure I got my
first choice meal, as I hadn't gotten my first choice seat.
I reiterated that I didn't care. I ended up with the beef,
which was tender if stewed in its sweet-and-sweet onion
sauce. Asparagus was surprisingly fine. I didn't like the
looks of the potato so didn't eat it.

Got to see the Washoku Zen meal next to me; it appeared to
be a mishmosh of small malodorous things followed by a piece
of a fish that had met its maker weeks, perhaps months
before, and then had been held at a high temperature for
many of the intervening days. Not what I'd expect of
catering out of Tokyo. Nor from the reputation of the meal.

Thank you for that, Mike.

No (too starchy), yes, yes, no (but my friend Lynn introduced me to Chicken
Bakes last time we were at Costco, and they were okay).

Well, Heinie is more heavily hopped, which I like, though in the tropics that
(and apparently the green bottle) means that it tends to go skunky quicker.

We should raise a few Bintangs together sometime ... but in the next
context, maybe Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout would be more in order?

I really enjoyed reading each installment of your report. I'm especially impressed with your ability to remember everyone's FT handle!

As is always the case, THIS has been a true masterpiece!!! Someone really needs to catalogue the violist SIN DO trip report series!!!! If I had the tech saavy search skills, I do it myself!!

In any case, THANK YOU violist for your attention to detail, your great SOH, and your fun to read trip report!!!
^
Best wishes, Dave

Vanity, thy name is violist, and anyhow I don't have anything to do for another hour.

2004
2005
2006
continuation of 2006
2007
2008

could there be some confusion
 

Still entertained by your report, but . . . really ;);) expecting us to read all these.

Michael,

I think that you may be confused.

Kishka = stuffed derma

http://www.recipezaar.com/Stuffed-Ki...ed-Derma-92273

vs.

Kasha = buckwheat groats

http://www.aboutkasha.com/
http://homecooking.about.com/od/past...r/blpasta3.htm

I find neither particularly starchy. Actually they are high in carb and fat content.

Now more particularly to you taste might be Nieren Suppe from Rhine-Hessia
Or
Tete de veau: found in the restaurant on the main road across from the church in Mont Mort, Champagne not far from Reims. Be sure to have them pluck off the excess whiskers.

Yes, we will definitely have a few pints this coming weekend in London. :)