United Club | Yummy Lummy

The other night on twitter I came across this link. I thought it was hilarious. Given I’m “guilty” of many of the examples used in the parody I could see a lot of myself in it, especially the food images. I expect if I owned a cat or a dog I’d post a picture of them every day too.

Click here for the Instagram parody

On Wednesday I went to dinner with my colleagues to the Lightfoot Restaurant in Leesburg. It is a renovated bank and the men’s room has the vault door as a feature wall opposite the urinals and stalls.

Google map http://goo.gl/maps/Dymtk

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Lightfoot Dinner menu | Lightfoot Dessert menu
The restaurant has won awards and is regarded by locals as a pretty fancy place to eat.

For an entrée (or starter for my American friends) I asked for “The Plank”. This is a dish served on a plank of wood. It contains a small cube of salmon, a seared scallop and a couple of pieces of chorizo on a skewer. These lovely meats are served alongside a plentiful amount of bacon. As far as entrées goes, it was good but too much.

Sorry it was a room with very poor lighting. My iPhone 4 doesn’t capture images well in low light.

For my main dish I was excited that gumbo was a special. I’ve never had gumbo and I’ve always wanted to try it. This one was extra special because it contained hush puppies, fried oysters, prawns and a fillet of catfish. A few months ago I watched a video from Hilah about hush puppies and I thought then I’d like to try it. I’m also sure I’ve seen Hilah cook catfish too. The gumbo was good. It was heavier than I thought it would be but then I did eat a very large entrée.

Remarkably I did not ask for a dessert. I’ve been eating enough dessert on aeroplanes and at the National Conference Center.

The bank vault as seen in the men’s rest room.

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The meeting I have been participating in has gone well and on Thursday afternoon as soon as we broke up I began the journey home.

To recap though, on Wednesday for breakfast I asked the egg cooking lady for a cheese and mushroom omelet. I also asked for some bacon pieces but she didn’t understand what I was saying. I said bacon three times but to no avail. I then put on what I thought was an American accent and she understood me. This is not the first time, quite often flight attendants don’t have a clue what I’m saying.

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I discovered on Wednesday that the NCC also does hamburgers for lunch. I found some beetroot from the salad bar and shared with my colleagues from the US, Canada and the UK that a hamburger should have beetroot. It would have been improved with a pineapple ring and a fried egg but they weren’t available.

The NCC also has soft serve ice cream with various flavoured sauces and cherries and nuts.

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For Thursday morning, I seriously contemplated an egg white omelet however, I discovered the waffle maker How could I pass up a waffle with some bacon and sausage plus some sugared strawberries, cream and this thing called breakfast syrup.

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Thursday lunch had to be another hamburger plus some flank steak and scallops.

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When the meeting finished on Thursday afternoon I caught the shuttle to Dulles (IAD) as soon as I could. I didn’t want to miss my flight UA647 to San Francisco (SFO).

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The dinner on UA647 was a choice between chicken and pasta. Given my experience on flight UA525 from SFO to IAD I chose pasta. It was okay. I wouldn’t want it again. The passenger next to me had the chicken. It was a plain looking piece of breast. It looked dry. My neighbour didn’t finish it. Enough said.

The flight from IAD to SFO took six hours. When we landed in SFO I had enough time to access wifi in the United Club to send through the meeting report I wrote on the flight UA647. I also had a biscuit.

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I boarded UA863 and soon after takeoff we had dinner.

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I was again facing backwards.

This is the menu choice. I asked for the short rib of beef and if that wasn’t available the salmon and crab.

Fortunately the short rib of beef was available and it was one of the nicest airline meals I’ve enjoyed. Almost on a par with the Red wine braised beef with soft polenta roasted shallots and salsa verde I enjoyed when I travelled on Virgin Australia to Mexico in 2011. http://garydavidlum.com/2011/11/20/lax-to-syd-dinner-on-vaustralia/

For en entrée we were served a salad and a salmon wrapped prawn.

The main had the short rib of beef with mash, beans and baby carrots.

This was followed with the ubiquitous ice cream sundae with walnuts, caramel sauce, cream and cherries.

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While asleep I had this nightmare that the aeroplane lost power and we plummeted to our deaths. I woke up with a start as well as a sore throat. I think I’m developing a head cold.

Breakfast was an omelet

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It was a relief to get into Sydney and prepare for the last flight of the day.

On the flight between Sydney and Canberra, Qantas mishandled my bag so it didn’t arrive with me. The good thing was I ended up sitting next to a friend who used to work in the department. She’s just returned from a work trip to Samoa.

My bag arrived in the afternoon. It gave me enough time to buy some groceries.

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I’ve been watching series 2 of The Walking Dead this afternoon.

For dinner I made a salad from leaves, red onion, celery and some Australian feta along with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I also cooked a piece of salmon and a piece of bread.

Dulles Airport IAD

Google map http://goo.gl/maps/rAKYp

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San Francisco International Airport SFO
Google map http://goo.gl/maps/GzJKY

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It’s Summer time and the season for tropical fruit. Here’s a YouTube video from Hilah giving advice on how to cut a pineapple.

Hilah cutting a pineapple
It’s Summer so what better time to experience some tropical fruit.