Text 34071, 123 rader
Skriven 2015-12-07 15:51:16 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: end of trip part 1 626
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I was in no hurry to board so sauntered up right at the
end of Group 1. The guy at the end of Group 1 motioned 
me to go ahead. I saw his boarding pass - Group 2. So
he finagled into being the very first Group 2 to board.
Clever. It's sad when boarding an airplane requires this
kind of cleverness.

United actually accepted the NH boarding pass.

UA 838 NRT SFO 1820 1140 744 15B

To begin
Chilled appetizer - California sushi roll and smoked duck with
pineapple-chili sauce

Fresh seasonal greens - cucumber, tomatoes an croutons with your
choice of creamy garlic dressing or sesame vinaigrette

 Usually in the past they'd served the appetizer and salad even
 to those who had ordered the Japanese meal ... or maybe it was
 because I always looked a little hungry. This time, no, or
 maybe I seemed more dyspeptic than usual; so I can't report.

Main course
Tenderloin of beef - red wine sauce, roasted potatoes, mushrooms,
and green beans

Breast of chicken - tomato sauce, egg fried rice, spinach and
bell pepper

Hawaiian-style fillet of sea bass - seafood jus, shiitake mushroom
and leek topping, steamed rice and carrots

Japanese selection
United is excited to offer menus created and inspired by Chef
Yosuke Tanaka of Hiroshima, Japan. Today we are pleased to offer:

Appetizers of a simmered dish of tofu, fried ginkgo nut and
shishito green pepper and grilled chestnut with dashi jelly,
leek and barbecue grilled chicken skewer, sea bream with leek
chive, daikon radish and ponzu jelly

 The first tray was quite good on the whole, interesting
 contrasts of flavor and color, slight bias toward the sweet.
 The fish was dried up and dreadful, though. There were also
 some unadvertised lagniappes - a gorgeous finger of Asian
 eggplant braised in miso, one of the best things I've ever
 eaten on a plane; too bad it was only maybe half an ounce;
 also some crunchy pickled roots, unidentifiable but tasty;
 and a little pile of mushrooms.

A main course of mebaru saikyo-style fish with lotus root,
sweet potato and shishito green pepper, miso soup with shimeji
mushrooms and simmered burdock, seasoned rice with chicken and
pickled vegetables

 This was in general a horrid mess. I ate the various
 vegetables and just picked at the rest. The fish seemed as
 if it had been dried out in the sun and partially putrefied
 before being baked.

Sake and green tea are available.

 The sake was Gekkeikan's ordinary issue, as usual.

To finish
international cheese selection - grapes and crackers served with Port

Dessert - ice cream with your choice of toppings

 This time I skipped straight to the Courvoisier, but one of
 the FAs offered me ice cream; I accepted a dish and requested
 two cherries. She said, would three be okay? and served three.

Mid-flight snack
Fruit and light snacks are available at any time following the meal
service. Please help yourself or ask a flight attendant for today's
selection

Prior to arrival
Herbed omelette - chunky tomato sauce, potatoes and pork loin

Chicken teriyaki - steamed rice, braised burdock and konnyaku,
green beans and egg roll

Cereal and banana - served with milk.

Fresh fruit appetizer, yogurt or savory salad and breakfast breads.

 I asked to be served just the appetizer. The same pleasant but 
 slightly overenthusiastic FA served me two fruit appetizers
 and two yogurts. I passed the yogurts on to my seatmate.

Landing was fine. Immigration was fine, though there was a line
for picking up of the automated system forms that delayed me
perhaps 3 minutes.

I had to check on my onward flight, for which I was not given
a boarding pass by ANA, and the United machine refused to do
so as well. Hey, wait a second. I'm confirmed in first (via
that systemwide upgrade), but the computer can't find me?
Human time. After ten minutes of typing the customer service
person discovered that I'd been offloaded from the Baltimore
flight and sent to Houston instead. What th'? Typing. Now, 
back to Baltimore; but I was not in first and not even on the 
upgrade list. More typing. Now I was #1 on the list, with one 
seat available. I'd heard that story before and started plotting 
my revenge against United. But hark, the SamTrans bus downtown 
beckoned, so tump tump tump down the stairs to the stop, where 
I arrived two minutes after scheduled departure. Luckily the 
thing was another ten minutes late.

Lots of small delays on this trip. People without the right
change, people who didn't know where they were going, people
getting on the wrong bus, people without sufficient funds,
and people with bicycles who didn't know how the bike racks
worked. At one point the driver started whining that all
these special circumstances were making him late. In reality,
he'd been late from the very beginning, but who's counting.
Eventually I got to Mission and 5th and walked toward my
rendezvous with my friends Rob and her husband Bob.
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