Text 19676, 101 rader
Skriven 2014-11-21 10:33:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: end Asia trip 330
=========================
QR  51 DOH IAD 0810 1445 773 2AB

The bus to the plane was nicer, with actual seats and
curtains and such. A welcoming crew.

I passed on breakfast except for orange juice and some
Bollinger rose, separately of course. When I woke, it was
snack time again.

The king crab tacos (a Nobu creation) were disappointingly
small and scanty and with not much crab.

Seasonal fresh fruits in Qatar were just like seasonal
fresh fruits anyplace else.

Califlower soup, creme fraiche and spiced cheese straws,
pretty good.

And then a full meal.

Pea and mint soup; creme fraiche - pretty tasteless stuff.

An individual buffet of crab cake with saffron, cured
salmon and kippered hammour - nice presentation, not very
distinctive but pleasant enough. One wonders where they
got the crab for the crab cake - not from the ocean, to
be sure.

Classic Arabic mezze: hummus, tabouleh and baba ghanoush
served with Arabic bread - the standard. I liked the bread.

Grilled Irani prawns with coriander and lemon sauce; basmati
rice, wilted spinach with chickpeas and artichoke side salad
- big glorious prawns, firm and tasty. The rice was a bit
pebbly but okay. Spinach needed salt.

Fruit was fruit.

Zeltinger Sonnenuhr spatlese 09 (Selbach-Oster) was pleasant
if a little unconcentrated; it went with the seafoods pretty
well, though. Lilli partook of Le Bon Pasteur again, which
was excellent again.

They ran out of the very nice Bollinger rose, whose
outrageous berry quality kept me amused for a while, and
substituted a nonalcoholic bubbly that was mostly Muscat.

Immigration was a snap.

UA 240 IAD SAN 1758 2026 752 2AB

There was a choice of peppercorn beef or pasta in tomato
sauce. No, thank you.

The Hampton SAN/Sea World gave me a corner room that was
clean and nice, and despite my having whiled away a lot
of time asleep on various aircraft I still had a pleasant
snooze.

But first a slog down the street in the rain to In'n'Out,
where I had a 2x meat, animal style, protein style. I don't
see the big deal about these burgers, which are decent and
inexpensive, but you too can make them without thinking too
hard.

AA 852 SAN DFW 1105 1555 738 16D was 18C

On this aircraft I discovered that in rows 16 and 17 the
middle seats were blocked, with a drink table installed over
the cushions. I have inquired various places, and even the
veteran AA flyers don't know: of course, the veteran flyers
don't apparently set foot behind the curtain of mystery.
Later it turned out that the FA contract requires a certain
staffing for a certain number of seats, and the easiest way
to save personnel was to block off a few seats.

Dallas has Cousins bbq in another terminal; the best that
weak sister terminal C has is Dickey's. I ordered a half
pound off the fatty end; this came off the fatty end, but
the well-meaning attendant trimmed off the surface fat; so
I asked for that as well, and she had to ask the supervisor
to come in and actually perform the task. It was decent,
mildly smoked with almost no rub.

AA1704 DFW BWI 1700 2055 M80 10B

An excessively jolly flight attendant kept me in ginger ale
through the flight, and though I was in coach, it didn't
feel quite like coach (of course, it didn't feel like first
class, either).

I didn't want to face the world just yet and got a very nice
room on the club floor at the Sheraton BWI (this trip being
before my falling out with Starwood), where the only
complaint I have is that breakfast in the lounge was
advertised but not delivered, owing no doubt to it being a
weekend.

___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Check Out Doc's QWK Mail  Via Web BBS > DocsPlace.org  (1:123/140)