Text 30853, 99 rader
Skriven 2012-11-05 23:29:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: leaving dodge 519
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By the way, the Cousins brisket is a little too lean but
is reasonably tender and goes well with Joel Gott Cabernet.

AA61 DFW NRT 1245 1615 777 11B

Only. The seats were not comfy at all - lumpy and
intransigeant and making creaking and squeaking noises when
you tried to do anything to them. Rather like flight
attendants, only on this trip the flight attendants were
actually quite nice, though of a vintage where I suspect
they might make creaking and squeaking noises if I tried
to do anything to them.

The red on offer was the Fabre Montmayou Malbec Reserva,
rather cherryish, a little stemmy not too bad; Chase's
Choice, the supposedly special wine loaded in limited
quantity and made available only to those who ask for it
specially, was a nasty Garnacha that was worth half of the
probably $10 a bottle it goes for. We asked for more of the
Malbec; our attendant approved.

The sparkler on offer was Gosset Brut Excellence, a very
clean, pleasant, but not particularly characterful wine.
The attendant remarked that I would like it. I did.

Mixed nuts: the most notable thing about these was that in
addition to the usual suspects, there were a couple
pistachios thrown in.

Vegetable rice noodles with shrimp: the most notable thing
about these was that the noodles seemed not to be rice
noodles but some kind of bean noodle, but with a soft
texture. The shrimp, big ones, were crisp and better than
United shrimp tend to be.

Fresh seasonal greens had seen better days. I regretted
getting mine dry. The dressings were Asian sesame or
vinaigrette.

Grilled fillet of beef - marinated beef fillet accompanied
by ginger sake sauce, kapakahi mashed potatoes, mushroom
medley and seasonal vegetables: that was their description.
The beef was okay, done mediumish, a little salty; its sauce
was an annoyance only, actually kind of bad tasting. I
merely played with the rest of the stuff. The mushroom
medley was a shiitake and an enoki mushroom.

Ben & Jerry's sweet cream and cookies ice cream topped with
chocolate shavings: I rather like ice cream but don't allow
myself the indulgence very often. The excuse that it came
anyway is convincing only until my stomach starts to churn
as it generally does. Luckily I have been conserving pills,
and I find this batch of Kirkland brand very good.

After a good snooze - though not very comfortable, the
almost lie-flat lumpy bed seat was conducive to sleep, if
you slept on your side - it was lunchtime.

Grilled scallops - grilled chile marinated scallops with a
cucumber and onion salad: these were pretty good tasting,
caramelized on the flat sides though rather overcooked.
The salad was the sweet-and-sour normal thing.

Glazed peaches with sugared puff pastry - the pastry was
okay, but I couldn't tell what the fruit was without a
scorecard, speaking of rubbery.

I drank the Malbec with all of this, as the flight attendant
continued to be enthusiastic about it, and neither the
Albarino nor the Sauvignon Blanc appealed.

More snoozes, and there we were in Narita. A bored customs
agent asked some cursory questions, and we were out in the
abnormally warm and sticky air. We took a while to sort
ourselves out, hit the jackpot with some tens of thousands
of yen out of a machine (note to the wise - when getting
money from the ATM, don't get a round round number, as ten
thousand yen notes are cumbersome), picked up some maps and
information from the handy booths staffed with what looked
like girls not yet out of high school, and rested a bit
before going out into the world.

Thanks to a friendly girl at the ticket counter who sold
us tickets for a local train leaving in five minutes! we
managed to get to our district, Ueno, for only $13 or so
each on a noisy train that reminded me of a New York subway.
This also gave us some vital small bills for later.

When we alit some 70 min later (the twice as fast train is
twice as costly), the choice was: subway with an interline
change, taxi for ten bucks, or walk half a mile. We walked
half a mile, trundling our rollaboards through the rather
rollicking shopping district, where Lilli wanted to linger a
bit, but I made us push on, then through a deserted area
that, as it was Japan, concerned us not at all.

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