As Lilli was flying on American and I on Lufthansa, we said goodbye
at the CDGVAL shuttle, and I was off through security (2 min) and to
the Senator Lounge, where a glass of a harmless Bordeaux, Moulin de
Labordes 16, awaited me.

LH2229 CDG MUC 1215 1340 320 2F

This is fake business class, coach seating with the middle blocked
off and not sold. Real food, though, on the hour flight scheduled
at about an hour and half. Grilled chicken breast with pear and
mango salsas and chimichurri was in fact real if not good. Various
breads were offered, and for afters there was a tangy panna cotta
with whipped cream and cherry sauce. I think the flavor was some
kind of tropical fruit, but I'm not sure which.

I had tea throughout the flight, saving my booze allowance for
better things later.

In his prepare for landing announcement the first officer wished
us a pleasant visit to the beer garden this evening.

Exit formalities took moments despite the various automated lanes
being out of service. I told the guard that the stamp was on page
12 (zwolf), and he replied, you're on the right track.

The new shuttle train, much touted by the airport, is pretty
much like any such, but it's fast and quiet (rubber tires).

I don't care for the new lounge, not least because the main course
on offer was Leberkaese. Some lady in a headscarf headed in that
direction, and while I was trying to formulate a proper warning in
German, saw the Spamoid and recoiled in horror. The place has an
alcohol-free aspect, with no taps and Kaliber in the cooler, but
there is a bar in the far corner with a cute bartender and Darroze
Cognac (among other things).

On second thought, maybe the lady was recoiling at the food in
general, which was kind of lame.

There is a table in the middle with creamy desserts, though.
Headscarf lady seemed pleased by this, as well she might be.
The coconut mousse had unadvertised pineapple in it so with
the Cognac became a sort of reconstructed pina colada. Dark
chocolate mousse was out. There were Kaiserschmarrn, though,
be still my beating heart, no I didn't mean that.

LH 424 MUC BOS 1550 1825 346 6C

Dr. Auer, on his way to give a speech at a conference in
Cambridge, was an amusing seatmate, full of ideas and good
cheer. I committed a bit of a faux pas by assuming he was
my age by referring to things that occurred in our single
years. I thought I was being nice, as he looked to be more
Lilli's age than mine. It turns out he's younger than I by
about as much as Lilli is older.

I had a glass of Duval-Leroy brut reserve, citrusy with a
touch of stone fruit, for my welcome drink.

We animatedly discussed a lot of stuff, and I must have
impressed my flight attendant enough so that for the rest of
the flight it was Doktor und Doktor this, and Doktor und Doktor
that, which started out being kind of funny but ended up as
embarrassing as the time my name was recognized on the manifest
by a United crew as being that of a vice-president for finance
of a major computer company, which earned me a lot of points,
advice requests (given), and a bag of booze minis for afters.

The meals are not so imaginative as they used to be. The
airline makes up for this by Germanically sizable portions.

After takeoff
Appetizers
Cottage ham and mountain farmer's ham with grape ragout, pearl
onions and cornichons

Tartare of smoked trout with apple and horseradish salad, quinoa
and dill oil

Pickled Belgian endive with orange salad, harissa cream cheese
and figs

I was undecided, all sounding kind of good, except the quinoa,
so the flight attendant said that I would especially enjoy the
ham, so that's what I got. It was good, a slice each of cooked
and cold-smoked. Grape ragout was a red, a black, and a green
grape, halved and in a tangy-sweet dressing. Cornichons consisted
of one bigger-than-usual gherkin sliced artistically. The onions
were sweet-but-not-too-sweet pickled.

Salad
Fresh mixed leaf lettuce with macadamia dressing

I didn't read about the macadamia dressing, which I would have
liked to taste, until looking at the menu in order to type it
right now. I had my salad dry.

Main courses
Fried breast of guinea fowl with ginger sauce, grilled vegetables
and polenta

Cod with orange and cilantro stock, vegetable julienne and mixed
rice

Ricotta and basil tortellini with Gorgonzola sauce

My decision was made by the word fried. I should have consulted
the German menu, where the description was gebraten, which
variously can mean braised, roast, or baked, but not fried. What
came was a salty brined half breast that had been baked in a
slightly spicy sauce, sided with carrots, red peppers, and a
vegetable that I wouldn't eat if I'd been paid to do so.
Polenta was very buttery, so I ate most of that.

With this, Ch. Gravat 15 (Medoc) was your Cab-Merlot blend, a
bit tannic and stemmy and went pretty well.

Cheese and dessert
Blue Burgond, Lenggenwil cheese, cambazola, French goat soft
cheese with date, sesame and honey chutney

Almond pudding with berry compote and amarettini crumble

Fresh fruit

The almond pudding was jiggly and almondy, the so-called berry
compote actually being a more appropriate cherry sauce.

Before landing
Soup & salad
Button mushroom and shiitake soup with cream and herbs

This was okay but very salty with a touch of blue cheese
pungency. I called for a glass of Montes Alpha Chardonnay
17 (Aconcagua), which stood up well and cleared away the salt
nicely, becoming almost sweet with the pairing.

Fresh mixed leaf lettuce with marinated shrimp, cucumber, tomato
and basil dressing

About 2 oz of the little pink shrimp, pretty nice though some
of them had been in liquid long enough to have become mushy.
The dressing was like the pesto I used to make when I was off
cheese. Pretty fresh greenery.

Dessert
Plum crumble cake with cinnamon cream

Sour unripe Italian prune plums that had been lightly syruped,
which made the taste balanced and not too sweet or sour, but
the crunchiness couldn't be disguised.

I spent most of the flight trying to get the audio to work and
the rest of it listening to a neo-Brahms Swiss composer called
Fritz Brun, who I had never heard of before. A rather alluring
Teutonic but not too Teutonic lass kept flirting with me and
filling my glass with strange alcoholic potions. Maybe it was
all a dream, but the Darroze Cognac (apparently Lufthansa's
house pour) was very real.
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Fido Since 1991 | QWK by Web | BBS.FIDOSYSOP.ORG (1:123/140)