Tag Archives: Virgin Australia

On the way home | Travelling continued

16 Replies

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


View Larger Map

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.

Entrée "The Plank" scallop salmon chorizo and bacon salad

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.

Main Gunbo with hush puppies, fried oysters, prawns, catfish, okra and rice. Hey @hilahcooking this is the first gumbo for me and my first hush puppies 😃😃😃

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.

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

———-

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.

Cheese and mushroom omelet.

———-

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.

Lunch. I found beet root to put on it too.

Lunch. Make your own sundae.

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

———-

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.

Breakfast waffle with bacon and sausage.

———

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

Lunch. Flank steak, scallops and a hamburger.

———-

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).

The National Conference Center

UA647 homeward bound. Currently in Dulles

———-

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.

Dinner UA647 pasta

Dessert sundae UA647

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.

Boarding soon

———-

I boarded UA863 and soon after takeoff we had dinner.

UA863 nuts and ginger ale

———-

I was again facing backwards.

My view on board facing backwards UA863

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

The menu

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.

UA863 salmon wrapped prawn

UA863 salad

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

UA863 short rib of beef. This was superb.

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

UA863 my last caramel sundae

———-

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

UA863 breakfast omelet

———-

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

QF1471 last flight

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.

———-

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

Salad for dinner. Australian feta with tomatoes celery and salad leaves. Yes that is a lump of salmon 😃

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


View Larger Map

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


View Larger Map

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.

Hilah making hush puppies

Hilah making fried catfish

Related articles

Flying with United Airways

11 Replies

Last year I flew with Vaustralia (now known as Virgin Australia) for a work meeting. I flew SYD to LAX and return with them. After the trip I blogged about the LAX to SYD dinner on Vaustralia.

For this recent trip I flew United. It was my first time. A Twitter friend, viz., @TinyTheCabbie asked me to write about my experience. I had never flown with United before. Friends who have told me to expect a below par experience. I went aboard after looking at the website and hoped I was boarding one of the refurbished jumbo jets. Indeed I did and I wasn’t disappointed. The business class cabin was modern and reasonably appointed. The entertainment facilities were as good as any other I’ve seen and the movie and television selection was very reasonable. The seats themselves were comfortable. The didn’t feel as spacious as Qantas seats but like most fleets now, they were flat bed seats so a decent sleep was possible. The headphones were noise cancelling and the jacks also accepted standard plugs. The power outputs accepted US, UK and AUS plugs too. There was a lack of in seat storage compartments. There was nowhere convenient to place my passport wallet and mobile telephones like Qantas and Virgin Australia seats.

In terms of service, the United attendants were more like Qantas attendants. Pretty friendly, helpful, courteous and matter of fact. They were all very mature and experienced. Well seasoned. When they weren’t doing a meal run, they kept to themselves in the galley areas. This can be contrasted with flight attendants from Virgin Australia who were all young, vivacious, and friendly; they smiled and without being ‘in your face’ were always around just when you wanted something. They also seemed to maintain the lavatories more regularly too.

For me the other difference was the food quality. I was pleasantly surprised by both experiences. The Virgin flight because it was exceptionally good and the United because I was led to expect a lot worse.

Smoked salmon entrée on the way to Los Angeles

The salad with a Caesar dressing on the way to Los Angeles

The steak on the way to Los Angeles. It was tough and dry.

The cheese "selection" on the way to Los Angeles

Poached eggs breakfast descending into Los Angeles. The yolks were firm to hard and dry.

A noodle roll and dipping sauce out of Los Angeles to Sydney

Garlic laden Caesar dressing with a little salad on the flight to Sydney.

Steak and potato cake flying back to Sydney. The meat was very tender.

Chocolate shell around pink ice cream. This was pretty nice. Not as good as the sundae on the domestic routes though. Before I fell asleep on the way back to Sydney.

Cheddar cheese omelet with corn fritter and sausage patty. Breakfast as we descend into Sydney.

I suggest you compare these meals to my description from my Vaustralia flight LAX to SYD.

Related articles