SIN DO '09
 

To the do ...
UA 171 BOS SFO 0600 0945 752 2D Ch 9 Y Empower N

It's hard to get to the airport at 5 in the morning without
paying an arm and a leg, so I took one of the last trains in
and camped out in the corridor between terminals B and C
until it got too cold to bear (Logan Radio hasn't penetrated
here, but apparently neither has the heating system) and
then moved to the relatively warm and relatively quiet arm
of C where the barber shop is. One of the Mr. Chickens said
he would open at 0200, but in fact he's on Denver time.
Checked in at 4 and hoped to get through security so I could
mooch on the RCC wireless, but it was employees only until
0430, when security was unfriendly but fast. Used the
T-Mobile until the club opened; said hi to Lynn and Annie;
boarded in the midst of boarding, which meant that I had to
put my rollaboard well behind my seat.

Put on my eyeshades and snoozed an hour; breakfasty smells
roused me. I stayed awake just long enough to chew down a
croissant (flaky but a little tough) and determine that
everyone else was breakfasting on either the famous cheese
omelet with sausage and potatoes or the famous fruit plate
sans yogurt. Then back to my stupor until Wyoming, when I
went forward to ask the cheery male FA (the female one was
grumpy) for a Courvoisier, which came warmed: it was harsh
as VS but fruity as VSOP, and I wondered in what way UA is
cutting corners. Pacing between the forward doors was a
mystery man in coat and tie and bundled up with a scarf,
looking kind of miserable. After I went back to my seat I
watched him for a while, lost interest, and went back to
sleep, lulled by the dulcet tones of Channel 9.

Woke to the pre-landing announcement - it's one of my joys
to listen to the communications between the airplane and
the tower on descent - and was just getting back into
things when I heard "Approach, er, tower, we have a ..."
followed by a swift cut to some inane bubblegum pop channel.
Shortly, we accelerated and took a big rising left turn,
leaving the airport behind, a slightly ominous occurrence
given no announcement until after the fact. Turns out the
flaps hadn't deployed or something (that was the word from
the front), and they had rectified the situation, and we
would be making a normal landing. I sighed. There is some
benefit to normality.

All the same, we came in early enough that there was no one
marshal us to the gate; waited about 5, but still we managed
to deplane 5 early.

Oh, it turns out that Mystery Man must have been some kind
of inspector or something, but his only interaction with us
was serving as headrest sheriff before landing.

The passage to the international terminal is a convenience,
shaving probably 15-20 minutes off. It's about time.

The RCC matron was welcoming enough and provided drink
chits without prodding - she must have been a sub or
something; when I left 30 min later she was gone.

Maker's Mark straight up. I used an old blue coupon and
saved the new gray ones for later.

Problems logging on to the T-Mobile, so I couldn't do FT.

They'd finished preboarding when I showed up, but there
was just room left in one of the minicabin bins for my bag.

UA 837 SFO NRT 1114 1530 777 9J Ch9 N Empower Y

mikew99 in 13J. Turns out later UAX@SFO was in row 26
and wwbgd's+1 was in 8H.

Somewhat perfunctory though not unfriendly service. Warm
nuts with seconds offered. Warm towels.

The hard product, as they say, wasn't special. Though the
seat was comfy as ever, the tray table wouldn't stay flat,
and my window was filthy. Also the entertainment system
kept doing weird things: sometimes it would st-t-t-tutter
like so, sometimes it would go off altogether except for
the magic channel 8. No channel 9, just dead air. And, as
the airline must be planning for the new cabins, the seats
were in a bit of a state, the upholstery so worn and flat
that it was hardly deserving the name. Recline was limited
a bit by the placement of the wall behind.

Piper Brut was just off-brut, pleasantly lemony and with
yeasty characteristics; a surprising whiff of wintergreen.

to begin
Smoked salmon, Genoa salami and vegetable crudite with a
sun-dried tomato dressing

This was just fine, the salmon being almost as good as
ever, flavorful, good texture, not too salty.

Fresh seasonal greens; Classic Caesar or balsamic Dijon
vinaigrette

Also just fine, though the little treat on top that one
got in the old days - a slice of sun-dried tomato, or a
couple shrimp, or a few asparagus tips - was absent.

main course
T Mustard thyme scented chicken; with warm horseradish
potato salad

Braised short rib of beef with red wine demi-glace; potato
pancakes and oven-roasted root vegetables

Washoku zen selection; appetizers of barbecued eel in
layered eggs, grilled scallop, lime-flavored beef
tenderloin, shrimp with vegetable sushi rice, poached tuna
with karashi miso, steamed leeks, buckwheat soba noodles
with marinated Japanese vegetables; a main course of salmon
teriyaki, braised tofu, simmered shiitake mushroom and
daikon, green beans, fresh julienne ginger served with
steamed rice and Japanese pickled vegetables; served with
green tea. Items 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 I didn't care what I got, but that my last
choice, whatever it might be, would be the T selection:
sacrificing any claim a 1KMM would have on the Japanese
meal to the delight of some lesser soul and the benefit
and longevity of the airline.

The short rib (one rectangular solid of chuck, cut from
frozen, about 5 oz, with another irregular piece about half
that size tucked underneath) was okay if a little resilient
and a little burned-tasting on the edges; the promised sides
were replaced by a flan-like thing (very eggy; rather tough)
and a vegetable medley of whatever was left over at the
caterers' - irregularly cut carrots; particularly hideous,
chalky (!) green beans; red pepper strips; and sad mushy
zucchini.

The guy next to me actually asked for the chicken: it looked
like something the cat dragged in, and whatever it was on
the side looked like something the cat barfed up afterwards.
He gave it a decent burial by putting his napkin on top of
it and sending it back.

L de Lyeth was pretty Cabernetty but very unclassic, with
overripe fruit and dried cherries; good tannin, a medium
sort of bright red fruit finish.

dessert
International cheese selection; Kerrygold Vintage Cheddar,
Port-Salut

Eli's caramel tiramisu

The cake bottom layer tasted more burned than coffee-soaked;
the cheesy topping was similar to that on various other
Eli's products. Courvoisier, quite harsh again, went with.

midflight snack: Assorted treats are available through the
flight. Hot noodles are available upon request

prior to arrival
Beef pastrami with baby Swiss on rye; oven-roasted
fingerling potatoes

A fruit appetizer was the usual thing; a hot pastrami and
Swiss was a not bad sandwich - decent bread (though soggy
in spots from reheating) spread with mustard, housing a big
block of bland cheese and a reasonable quantity of cured
beef round. The potatoes, served to my seatmate right on the
plate but to me in the paper warming cup, were inedibly hard
and cardboardlike.

Fresh seasonal fruit plate with creamy yogurt

T item designed especially for United Airlines by Charlie
Trotter

We apologize if occasionally your choice is not available.

1/09 LAX/SEA/SFO-NRT; SFO-KIX/NGO (LD83-S89E-L87)
260C003-3

featured wines

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

Well since no one else seems to want to say it, I will. Nice trip report, if a little oddly written. In particular I liked:

"The guy next to me actually asked for the chicken: it looked
like something the cat dragged in, and whatever it was on
the side looked like something the cat barfed up afterwards.
He gave it a decent burial by putting his napkin on top of
it and sending it back."

Decent burial, too funny.

After lunch, 6 hours of fairly blessed sleep, despite the
hard-as-a-board seat back and headrest and despite the
fairly loud and jolly conversation between 8H and J, an
attractive midwestern-sounding woman and a tall German guy
who was obviously trying to make time with her: I dreamed
my friends and I were dancing to the Isley Bros song Shout!
and afterwards I was hardly able to walk: this no doubt
reflective of the soreness caused by the lack of cushioning.
Woke up for the snack.

Second towel service: the thing was stinging hot.

The second meal was served almost 2 hours before landing.

We touched down half an hour early. There was a big line at
premium security - I think the unmanned entrance had a lot
to do with this - it looked as crowded as the regular line.
The Japanese processed us expeditiously, though, and we
were in to the RCC before 1530. Met up with chchkiwi out
front; chatted a bit and excused myself for the lovely
shower rooms. The amenity kits remain first-rate, and the
facilities, though showing their age, are still quite nice.

Kirin VSOP brandy was a worthy facsimile of Hennessy
VSOP Exclusif, the extra-harsh version offered in Asia.

Mike and I parked ourselves in front at 1620 to look for
jswong's friends; we waited 15 but didn't see them so went
back in to enjoy the fruits of the Amazing Beer Machine;
figured they would page us if they needed to. They didn't.

Returned inside and visited with chchkiwi, who at some point
exclaimed, we're everywhere, pointing at some guy motoring
down the aisle. So I went to catch up with him and cornered
him as he appropriated a nice window seat. Embarrassment.
What ch had seen was not, in fact, a FlyerTalk tag, but a
carryon bag tag. In my apologies for the mistake, it turned
out that the person was, in fact, an FTer, and so we ended
up having a nice chat with 1KfromSNA, during which time
another person came up and said, hey, violist, and it turned
out to be long-time member WindFlyer. So ch is right
after all: we are indeed everywhere, especially the NRT RCC.

They announced our flight a little early, so we hightailed
it to the gate; I delayed us a little, though, and by the
time I got to my seat, my overhead space was gone. The young
guy (40 or so, I guess) in 9H, solicitous of me as though I
were his grandpa, found me overhead space not far away.

0114 UA 803 NRT SIN 1755 0025 777 9J Ch9 Y Empower Y

chchkiwi in 8D, mikew99 in 13J. Turns out later UAX@SFO was
in row 1 and wwbgd's+1 was in the last row of C.

My seat was much comfier than on the last flight. Also, the
recline was not restricted by the closet behind.

The snack was Summer Harvest Selects Premier Snack Mix in a
bag, very unclassy indeed. Mumm Cuvee Napa was clean and
lemony and very unconcentrated - I think it's a mistake for
UA to cater a lesser product on its intra-Asia routes; bad
for the prestige and all.

Pretty, smiling Miss Hashimoto and her colleagues kept up
the well-known high service standard of Asian UA flights.

to begin
Fresh seasonal greens; sliced almonds; Balsamic vinaigrette

This salad was nice mesclun greens touched slightly by frost
in a more herbed vinaigrette (Conway's) than the bulk stuff
offered on the long flight.

main course
TRADER VIC'S sweet and sour braised short ribs; roast garlic
mashed potatoes and glazed carrots and peas

TRADER VIC'S shredded chicken in Thai green curry sauce;
jasmine rice and roasted mushroom and vegetable medley

Salmon topped with chestnut paste; Hanagata rice with white
sesame seeds, grilled eringi mushroom, green beans and
carrot flower

I asked for the beef, with chicken as a second choice; my
seatmate reversed the two. We both got our preferred. His
went down the hatch rapidly, so it couldn't have been too
bad. A FA warned that my plate was very hot; it was, and the
sauce on the short rib (1 piece, 5 oz or so, of chuck) was
in fact boiling when it got to me. It was unrelievedly
sweet, the cook apparently having forgot the sour part; its
accompanying peas and carrot cubes from a freezer bag, the
only glazing the abundant goo from the meat. The subtly
garlicked potatoes were the best part of the meal.

dessert
Eli's cherry frangipane tart

A slice of dense white almond cake thing, with some cherry
pie filling baked in. It was okay.

When I asked, I was told that as there wasn't cheese on
this flight, they hadn't loaded any Port. Courvoisier,
by way of atonement, came as a double. It was the same
acrid stuff as on the other flight.

Today's menu features beef from Australia.

We apologize if occasionally your choice is not available.

1/09 NRT-SIN (LD83)
262C003-1

[wines as above]

Owing to a delay leaving NRT (ascribed to cargo loading
issues), we landed 20 late.

Said a bientot to chchkiwi and mikew99 and made tentative
plans to meet at Banana Leaf Apolo for dinner.

The T3 transit hotel is brand spanking new; though the
corridors are spartan, the rooms are pleasantly if plainly
appointed, and I hardly minded that the curtain in mine
opened onto a blank wall. The air conditioning is noisy but
super effective, and the bathroom is nicely done. The big
minus is that Internet costs $8 an hour, whereas you can
get it for free outside, which is what I did.

Decent night's sleep.

Went shopping for cards and stuff in Terminal 2, where I
know where everything is, and then finally headed out.

The guy at deserted T2 immigration didn't wonder at all
why I was 10 hours late leaving the airport.

The MRT to the city ran smoothly. I got out at Outram
Park and decided to walk the mile to the hotel and find
lunch on the way. I was pleased by what I found.

#3 Crab Delicacy Seafood House, 265 I think Outram Rd.
This place is famous for, as the name would suggest, curry
crab; but as I was alone, I just had a couple interesting
snacks from the menu: fried pigeon was crisp and a little
overcooked but had a hit of ginger in addition to the usual
five-spice. It was served with lime juice mixed with a
little Thai fish sauce (or was it a carryover from the
seafood?). My other course was a small order, two dozen,
steamed whelks of a variety I was unfamilar with. A few
seemed a little bitter, but the rest had that nice almost
clammy taste that good snails have.

From there it was a hop, skip, and jump to the Holiday Inn
Atrium; unfortunately, one of the skips was over the Seng
Poh-Outram-Zion intersection, where there's a ditch around
the roundabout and no safe crossing unless you take a big
detour. I resolved that henceforth I'd drop the 3.60 on a
taxi from the train. Checkin was quick and efficient; thanks
to the intervention of infoworks, I got a nice room on the
24th floor, where I dropped off my bags and showered.

Took a stroll down the river: the upper reaches here (west
of Robertson Quay) have changed quite a lot since I last
walked along them about 8 years ago. In fact, there's
development everywhere. Despite (or because of?) the fact
that 1 in 3 Singaporeans thinks s/he may lose his or her
job (according to the Straits Times of the day before), the
construction biz continues apace. Some of the places I used
to visit are pretty unrecognizable.

Wended my way up to Little India and the Banana Leaf Apolo,
where I rendezvoused with lili and chchkiwi.

The problem with places like this and small groups is that
everything on the menu sounds so good; the inevitable result
- despite our knowing what was going to happen: way too much
food, but less way too much than on other trips.

We ordered a conservative meal, based on the preference of
some of us for milder spicing. For heat I contented myself
with munching on the chiles found buried in the eggplant.

Vegetable samosas were just what you'd expect but better
than usual; fried marinated prawns were cooked somewhat
hard - good for those who, like me, eat the shells and
heads, but not so good for the meat, and coated in a besan
batter heavy on the turmeric - a different treatment that
might go well with a less delicate meat.

Things that come with: excellent papadums; a fine cabbage
curry that this time was less spicy than usual but with
more asafetida; a second curry, in past experience a dal,
but this time zucchini and eggplant in tomato; rice.

lili wanted garlic naan, which is fine, because it's quite
good here, but the waiter tried to upsell us to three. We
compromised on two, but one would have been plenty.

Mutton korma was mild, creamy, and yummy, but the ladies'
enjoyment was dampened by the use of a very bony cut,
despite the menu's claim that filet would be offered.

Chicken in coconut curry was equally yummy but better
received, as boneless tenders were used.

My choice was baingan bharta, of which I am very fond. This
version was shot full of onions in varying states of
cookedness and was quite different from what I am accustomed
to (but good). It brought the table to "way too much food."

The noise level of the restaurant increased as we sat, owing
largely to a big influx of tourists, and after conversation
became difficult and started focusing on an unflattering
characterization of American dining habits, we left and took
a wander through Little India in the dark. I did this for
the chivalry aspect and the exercise aspect but wasn't so
interesting in the shopping aspect, except that I found
Breda Royal Lager (the label implies that it comes from
Holland, but the only actual statement of origin is that
it's from the EU) at the 7-Eleven. I'd never tasted it, so I
got one. Very malty - this tasted rather like non-alcoholic
beer with vodka in it. I'm not sure if I liked it or not.

^ Thanks violist. I always enjoy reading your trip reports.

Cant wait to read the rest of your report!!! They are always the "Cream of the Crop" when recounting SIN DO's!! ;)

Dave

Thanks for the thanks ...

It's a pleasant morning walk along the very spiffed-up
river from the Holiday Inn to the Novotel, where we were to
meet at 10 for our jaunt to Batam, the closest encroachment
of wild Indonesia (Bintan being much tamer, so it's said).

A knot of people was forming at the entrance by the time I
got there: let's see if I can remember everybody:

Baxter&Bessies'Mama
bdesmond
Blank Sheet
chchkiwi
ConditionOne
DLouise37
gvdIAD
karenkay
Kristiaan (I believe KRS)
lili
mikey2007
newself
opushomes
rtarbuck
szg
techgirl
UAX@SFO
violist
wwbgd (+1: the artist to be known as mashg)

A bit of hilarity all around when WWBGD introduced me to his
daughter, whom I immediately recognized as the attractive
young lady in 8H being severely and persistently hit on by
the tall guy in 8J the other day on SFO-NRT.

opus was there to subtly emcee and to hand out sustenance
in the form of Reese's cups and other local delicacies.
He suggested that cabs rather than the MRT would be safer
in a logistic sense, as the ferry terminal is not the most
obvious place in the world, and the cost wouldn't be that
different (it's about twice, actually, 2 bucks a head opposed
to 97c), and as he and others have pointed out numerous
times, keeping FTers together is not unlike herding cats.

The taxi to the ferry terminal took about 10 minutes. We had
some extra time, so I went to the post office to change my
old EZ-Link card for the new kind - apparently, there's some
kind of technology switch (to "CEPAS-compliant," votevver
dot minns). If you have the old card, it's good until Sept.
30, at which time it expires, and the free replacement offer
(at ticket offices or post offices) expires as well. After
then, you can retrieve the value of the old card at ticket
offices but will have to pay $5 for a replacement. The
advantages to the new system: you can store $500 at a
time (this is also an obvious disadvantage); you will be
able to use them at fast-food restaurants, convenience
stores, libraries, swimming pools, SMRT taxis, and, by the
end of the year, hospitals(!). Met everyone with a few
moments to spare, the line having been very long with people
exchanging cards, sending Chinese New Year parcels abroad,
stuff like that.

We ended up taking a faster, more expensive boat than
anticipated, which took us bumpily to the somewhat
redundantly named Harbour Bay, a different port from that
that FTers had entered in previous years and much closer
to the main town, which goes under various names including
Nagoya. It's a small but pretty modern facility with a
somewhat redundant three-stage visa on entry system (you
pay your USD10 at the first booth, and then go to the
second booth, where some guy collects the receipt for the
$10 and gives your passport to a third guy who pastes in
the full-page visa) and a completely totally redundant metal
detector, which wasn't checked even when the alarm went off.
Taxi stand right outside, where opushomes arranged several
to downtown.

The ladies, most of them, split off in search of shopping
(turns out they didn't find much of interest and so went
for massages, $6 for an hour, I don't know if that's US
or Sing).

We regrouped at Harmoni Hotel, one of the classier venues
in town, only to find the bartender off duty and the bar
closed. Well. Some of us went off in search of local color
(didn't find much), and the hungry among us decided to eat
at the hotel restaurant. The hotel promised to roust out
the bartender in the meantime.

It's a pretty nice room for a hotel restaurant out in the
middle of nowhere, and the staff was extremely pleasant.

I had wanted real food - the gourami goreng struck my eye,
but the consensus was that we'd stick with dim summy type
things that went well with pitchers of Bintang beer, which
superficially resembles Tiger but is somewhat sweeter.

mashg ordered us an assortment of curry puffs, samosas,
chicken and shrimp spring rolls, and fried squid (calamari
on the menu), which were all of good quality but pretty
much what you would get at a Thai-style or Malay-style or
Philippine-style nosherie anywhere. Filled us up for not
much money, which is a bit of an advantage. newself was the
maverick here: he ordered French fries, which came out of a
package of course, but were done in fresh oil at the right
temperature - quite good in fact, enjoyed by all at table,
and we had a second order of these. The local bottled
ketchup, ABC, tastes exactly like Heinz chili sauce did the
last time I had it, which was about 1960. There were also
saucers of a not very hot sriracha-like sambal on the table.

After lunch we repaired to the lounge next door, which by
that time had been opened for us and which was gradually
being populated by the others back from their hour of
intrepid exploration. More fried snacks and pitchers, this
time of Tiger. Also very good, Salmonella-free, peanuts.

Several of us had had enough beers and enough of the town
and took an earlier boat back, trading the opportunity to
get down and dirty or up close and personal for that of a
nap before dinner.

There's a big duty-free with fairly crummy prices (SGD
only) and a couple other shops in the terminal. Also a VIP
lounge, which piqued the FT curious, but nobody figured out
how to get in.

The trip back was if anything faster and bumpier.

Huge long line at passport control.

Left the rest of the group at the taxi stand at Harbourfront
and cast a longing eye at the McDonalds Mega Prosperity
Burger; didn't try one, though, and just went to the hotel.

I actually didn't have dinner, instead taking advantage of
2-for-1 (1-for-1 they call it) Tigers and a bowl of free
peanuts. Then a short snooze, a short session on the Web,
and an hour or two of work, not necessarily in that order.

It was well past midnight when I roused myself to find a
taxi (50% surcharge) for the traditional "greet the jet-
lagged UA895/803/AA5836 get-together," this year relocated
from Lau Pa Sat to Newton Food Centre, where most of the
same suspects appeared and were augmented by, let's see,
infoworks, jswong, Lori_Q, melville, mikew99, seanthepilot,
and Starwood Lurker II. Later, AA flyers Mad4Miles and skye1
joined. What I tasted: satay that looked suspiciously dark,
so I asked opus if they were liver; they weren't,
unfortunately; cereal shrimp; various iterations of shrimp
noodles; and char kway teow. These were all leftovers - I'd
arrived quite late - and all I ended up paying for was a
round of Tigers, consumed mostly by other latecomers.

Dragged me slowly out of bed for the trip to the famous zoo.
Allowed an hour by MRT - Tiong Bahru to Choa Chu Kang to
the 927 I think it is bus - and would have been there right
on time but for a motorbike having been smashed by a car
right at the turnoff on Mandai Lake Road (the guy looked
ok - he was walking around but a bit dazed). Showed up ten
late, but our group (bdesmond, BonnieSEA, chchkiwi, gvdIAD,
jswong, lili, restlessinRNO, later joined by upup&away) were
still milling about at the entrance, so I didn't have to
sprint up and down the entire place looking for them.

The zoo is really well planned out, just right for a half
day for the easily bored or a whole day for the easily
amused. I'd done the whole day thing before, and further,
I have mixed feelings about creatures being caged up in
no matter how benign and comfortable captivity; still,
this is a good zoo, and I was happy to spend the time
with friends in a pleasant setting. My favorite spot was
the rainforest habitat, where the animals are given pretty
free rein, rain, and reign in a sizable facsimile of the
wild. The up close and personal encouter this time was
with a particularly bold ringtail who posed obligingly for
numerous shots. Oh, there are photos out there on the Web
of FTers communing with orangutans (men of the woods); the
ones of me, as I am somewhat shy with persons especially of
different species, show me with men of wood instead.

The canteen is about as good as you can hope for. I had a
roast chicken rice that would be the pride of any stall
in the city, the chicken white meat (they sell the legs
separately in bbq sauce for a premium) admirably tender
and chickeny, its skin deeply brown, the rice just the
right texture and saltiness and with a tiny sheen of
chicken fat. Baby bok choy were the usual, as was a
cup of thin broth. I also got an order of crystal
dumplings, which were just a bit softer and wetter than
ideal. jswong made a comment on the originality of my
choices: I looked over, and he had ordered the same things
(but with shumai instead, but the steamers looked the same).
His appetite seems to have been bigger than mine, as he
stepped out with lili for an afters of Ben & Jerry's,
returning with an enormous cookie sundae, which we all had
bites of. I believe there are pictures of this extravaganza
on the Web as well.

After we'd had our fill of zoo, we split up to freshen up,
go swimming, or as in the case of upup&away and myself,
to Boat Quay and the annual beer DO. Being relatively
cheap and adventurous, we took the MRT and didn't get there
(there being a Chinese restaurant, instead of the Thai one
we used to go to) until pretty late. newself greeted us
with the news that bseller had just left, but if I ran I
could catch up and say hi. So I did, encountering Downunder
Girl as well. The roster, as I recall, but blurred by a
number of Tigers, included (question marks are people I
talked to this day, but I'm not sure whether here or at
the dinner)
anaggie
blanksheet
bschaff
KRS?
Moomba?
mikey2007?
newself
rtarbuck?
steady-EDI?
upup&away

There are two Jumbos within a few blocks of each other.
Ours, as upup&away and I determined on our trek, was the
modern-looking one, so we were confident where to go.
Surprisingly, it appears that no FTer was led astray, and
we all showed up in a reasonably timely fashion at the
right one. This one has a private room, which is jolly but
got extremely noisy when filled to its capacity of about
40 (my impression is that we were a bit over).

My notes indicate that the following were at my table:

blanksheet
BonnieSEA
infoworks
karenkay
upup&away
Where2Next and PlusOne
me

I'm not sure about the other two, but don't be offended,
please, I blame it on the beer.

What we had:

chilli crab - good, not too sweet, very fresh crab;

black pepper crab - quite peppery, ditto on the crab;
I really liked this;

cereal prawns - the standard, from what I recall;

drunken prawns in a rather medicinal-tasting soup;

and for veggies broccoli and baby bok choy, both excellent.

I'd been pretty beered out by this time but did suck down
a few mugs of Tiger, which made me not fully appreciate
the short get-together afterwards at which opushomes
showed off his top-floor suite at the Novotel. Fading fast,
I decided not to try for any kind of IC minibar raid.

Saw Lori_Q off to the MRT and had a quick and easy walk back
to the Holiday Inn.

What a great trip report ^.

You must keep very good notes to recall so many FTer names - WOW :-:. I am impressed.

I cant wait to book in for SIN DO 2010 :D.

Fantastic report!

Looking forward to reading about your return...

Thanks for the kind words. I get off on kind words.


karenkay describes it (in a non-pejorative sense - she also tries as much
as possible to do the names-faces-handles thing) as a parlor trick.

I have tried to cultivate such activities as exercise especially after
my brain surgery a couple years ago, when I discovered my memory
in general getting hazy unless I kept working on it.

I too am looking forward to book SIN DO '10.

I'd slept pretty well but not enough before doing a tad of
work and logging in to FT to see what was what.

At 9, the fire alarm went off. I immediately started packing
the briefcase with things I'd rather not live without, such
as the passport and the laptop. Shortly a PA came on asking
us to remain calm (nothing like such a statement to prevent
people from being calm) and await further announcements; a
few minutes later it turned out the alarm had been false. As
I've said elsewhere, there can be some benefit to normality.

Decided to carpe diem it and not risk getting burned up by
a false false alarm so went off on a quick food court tour.

Zion Riverside, one of the oldest and seediest in town, is
a quarter mile north of the hotel, so I went there only to
find just a couple soup stalls and a dessert stall open.
The famous fish tofu stall didn't open until noon.

Tiong Bahru Market, one of the most freshly renovated in
town and said to have some of the best food, is a quarter
mile south of the hotel, so I backtracked there (would have
taken the bus, but Zion is one way the wrong way) and ate
well and copiously. Soon, though, it was about time to
head to Newton and see what FTers I might encounter: well,
I found more on the way than at the food court, which is a
pity, as there are better food courts in the world and given
my druthers I'd have been elsewhere. Waited an enormous time
for the #5 bus, which takes one right to the Sheraton, and
gave up for some lesser bus that dropped me off by the
Marriott. The walk did me good anyhow.

About halfway up Scotts Rd, I encountered bseller, who was
on his way to a buffet lunch with WWBGD+1; I sent my
regrets, for two reasons: first, my belly was pretty full
from hawker treats and so not really up for a buffet, and,
further, I'd said I'd be at Newton at 1.

12:50. I saw these crazy waiguoren running in front of
traffic; even with my poor eyesight I recognized Spiff and
techgirl in the median. Greeted them and dodged a few cars
to have a little chat there, whereafter they proceeded
presumably to a pool party and I to the hawker center.

The only FTers (and almost the only customers) there were
Where2next and her PlusOne, seeking sustenance before
their jaunt to Bali. They kindly shared their plates of
mutton satay and char siu noodles with me, and I had a
big Tiger, which I offered to share, but they declined.

Quick trip on the 700A bus to Raffles, where at the Long Bar
I found Lori_Q, melville, and restlessinRNO sipping their
Slings ($22). Pulled up a chair and by way of contrariness
had a Million dollar cocktail, a relative bargain at $21.
We were soon joined by chchkiwi and lili for more Slings,
and then bdesmond. I promised people the quick and dirty
tour of the hotel (not so detailed nor so good as that
formerly provided by miles4all), but as we headed out,
we ran into newself, WWBGD, and mashg, who were chilling
at the courtyard bar. So we joined them for another round,
(mine the Raffles Revelry, apparently cooperatively invented
by the bartenders in honor of the hotel's 120th anniverary)
and by this time, I guess the opportunity for a dramatic
recitation of the tiger in the lobby story had past.

--mm
THE SINGAPORE SLING
cat: booze, approximate, airline
servings: 1

1 oz Plymouth Gin
1/2 oz Cherry Heering
1 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz Cointreau
1 chunk of pineapple, crushed
Splash of Benedictine
Ginger ale

Shake all ingredients except the ginger ale
with ice in a shaker and strain over fresh ice in a
sling glass. Top with the ginger ale. Garnish with a
fresh cherry and a lemon butterfly. Invented at Raffles
Hotel, Singapore, by Ngiam Tong Boom in 1915.

Bill Marsano, Hemispheres magazine 5-06
---
--mm
Singapore Sling
cat: booze, authentic
servings: 1

1 oz gin
1 Tb cherry brandy
4 oz pineapple juice
1 Tb lime juice
1/2 Tb Cointreau
1/2 Tb Benedictine
2 ts grenadine
1 ds Angostura bitters

Shake, strain into collins glass, garnish with
cherry and pineapple wedge.

P.S. The Long Bar that you see now is in fact
a replica of the original one, which used to
be in what is now the hotel lobby check-in area.
It is said that the guests one day were rather
shocked to find a tiger prowling through the
Long Bar. A rifle was fetched, and the manager
shot the gatecrasher, contributing to legend
and to the endangerment of the species.

Source: Raffles Hotel recipe card
---
--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.
---

+1

And I know people love it when you remember their names--or FT handles at least!

Great trip report, violist (as always!). Your accounts of SIN brought back great memories of the 2004 DO, so I went back and read your 2004 trip report. It's hard to believe that was 5 years ago. I need some pepper crabs!