OUR SPECIAL PARIS COMMUNITY NETWORK NEWS & VIEWS

"My Inspiration of Japan"

By Juliet Lac
July 17, 2010

 

Western menu.

After the welcome drink, a flight attendant came to take order for my first meal.  I was offered a "My Style A La Carte Menu" where I can creatively putting together my own menu. Since it was my first time seating in Business-class, I was intimidated by being surrounded in this upper class environment.  So to be quick and easy, I ordered the Japanese menu which includes:

  • appetizer: trio of seasonal Japanese delicacies
  • main course: sake-steamed sablefish with Japanese plum sauce
  • assortments: freshly-steamed Chiba Takomai rice, miso soup and pickles
  • dessert: vanilla and strawberry ice cream duo

When I had finished my first meal, it was already 3 hours flight time. At this time, I've consumed three full glasses of white wine which made me a bit drowsy.  I then completed my meal with a cup of dark green tea served with Japanese sweet, which blended together perfectly!

I quickly grabbed a bottle of water, then looked around finding a way to unfold my monitor. Somehow, it got stuck! I had no choice but to stop a flight attendant for help. She managed to pull it up for me. After about 5 minutes of touching all the control panels and pushing all the buttons, I still could not turn on the monitor. I faked an innocent smile on my face, turned to the Japanese woman sitting next to me and asked if she could show me how to make it work. She politely pointed out the remote control which affixed to the side of the hand- rest bar, at a position where it almost completely hidden from my eyesight.  OK, at least the problem is solved! Now I can sit back, relax and enjoy the in-flight entertainment. 

Remember that I was feeling a bit drowsy after the meal, but for some strange reasons, I could not close my eyes to sleep at all during the entire flight.  I ended up watching two movies; From Paris with Love and Alice in Wonderland.

After the movies, a flight attendant came to take order for my second meal. This time, I chose the ANA select menu and Sake:

  • Fried chicken with aromatic Welsh onion sauce

  • Seasonal delicacy rice, miso soup and assorted pickles

  • KEN Junmai Ginjo Fukuro-Shibori, KATSUYAMA

  • GEN Ambrosia Sake Genroku-Shikokmi, KATSUYAMA

  • AKATSUKI Junmai Daiginjo Enshin-Shibori, KATSUYAMA

There were so much food that I did not have enough room in my stomach to taste them all. This made me remember the times when I was traveling with my son in the crowded Economy-class. We barely had enough to eat and the flight time was seemed like a century when we did not have much free space to stretch our legs or move our arms.  I sat there pondering my memories without realizing that our plane has landed and the business-class passengers disembarked briskly.


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