Text 33206, 78 rader
Skriven 2015-11-16 08:54:06 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: toward Hap's 478
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UA3999 PVD IAD 1017 1145 CR7 2A

I was dozing and came to as they announced group 2, so I scampered
up there and stood around waiting to merge in, and some guy asked
if I was in group 2, and I said, actually, I'm in group 1, and all
these silly Rhode Islanders made way for me to get in front, which
I refused, entering line after them. I got one of the thrones on this
aircraft, the only one that doesn't have a disadvantage attached
to it. 1A doesn't have underseat storage, and the row 7 seats,
though they have great legroom, are in coach.

Our FA, an attractive South Asian, perhaps Malaysian Chinese, not
in her first youth, was on her first day, very nervous. She was
supervised by a smiley black woman in a mainline uniform. They
made no bones about this being a training session, and it was
pretty amusing all in all.

Several iterations of the safety announcements, drink service,
and the snack basket, each one perfecting on the mistakes of the
previous.

I had Madi K's whole natural nonpareil almonds, which were a bit
stale but at least unsalted and not rancid. The staleness was
manifested only by the texture.

"Popcorn, Indiana" kettle corn was oversweet and had little flavor
but was moreish in the way that sweet-salty things are.

There were also brownie chips, oatmeal cookies, and something else
that I didn't see.

The flight took barely an hour. On the way out I told the trainee
that she would end up doing fine and the supervisor that she was 
a good coach.

Next gate was way off in the D terminal, and I had the choice of
going left to the restaurants or right to the club. I did both.

After a tentative stop to look at the menu at Bistro Atelier, 
where I once had a respectable steak frites, I decided to cheap 
it across the corridor at Bar Symon, which has a simpler and somewhat
more modest menu.

There are several varieties of burger, of which I chose the Fat 
Doug, a patty covered in pastrami, Swiss, and cole slaw. I asked
for it as rare as they could make it. Which turned out to be
medium-well. From top to botton: a brown roll with a crunchy top;
slaw; cheese; pastrami; burger. That was also the order of 
goodness of the ingredients as well. The bun was yeasty but had
this really intriguing hard shattering crust - I think it had been
painted with an egg and milk wash to get this effect in a similar
way to that in which a pretzel roll is painted with alkali. The
slaw was standard with mayo but fresh and crisp. Swiss cheese is
Swiss cheese. The pastrami, thin-sliced plate, would have been a
ton better if it hadn't been frizzled like bacon, thus vitiating
the pastraminess. The burger was a kneaded, salty meatloafy thing,
and though the order had been put in for "pink" (I verified this
later with the waiter) was pretty gray throughout - it probably
would not have been significantly better done rarer, though. 
There was also a sauce built in; mustard based, I thought it was 
boring and called it so-so sauce. The apparent real name is Sa-sa 
sauce. It was maybe a C burger and if the meat were better would 
have made B- or so. It was only $11 something, but then there was 
only 1/3 lb or so of not-of-the-best burger, counting filler.

There are two sauces on the table, apparently inventions of the
chef. Coffee BBQ at first taste was one of the worst things I'd
ever tried - sweet and putrefied-tasting. I gave it a second
chance with the burger and discovered some flavors not all of
which were terrible. At first I figured Michael Symon should
be fed to the lions. On second taste I figured he should just
have his dominant hand cut off. At first F; second try D.

Lola ketchup is slightly less objectionable, as it has a
distinct sour component. Here the Indianish corander and other
curry spices come out, and I kind of liked that. I give it a B-/C+.
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