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10.230 Seared Humpty Doo Barramundi

10.230

23 (Fri) August 2019

Seared Humpty Doo Barramundi

(with tamarind sauce, kailan, jasmine rice)

2.25

on board Qantas Airways – QF 117 

-Sydney en route to Hong Kong-

solo

Mission to Fiji, Day 14.

In transit.  On my way home after wrapping the Fifth Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentarian Forum on Global Health, which was held in Nadi from August 20 to 22 (yesterday).  Having spent 40 days in/to/from Fiji over the past year across 5 missions to prepare for the meeting (see most recently 10.192 Rourou Moci), then another 3 days to execute the meeting itself, I need just 1.5 more days of travel to get home and be done with it.

Fiji Airways Premier Lounge

For the first time since Fiji Airways opened its new business class lounge, I had an opportunity to experience its service in the evening.  Prior occasions were always early in the morning, with breakfast fare only.

Couscous Salad (3.0) + Mixed Cabbage, Carrot and Sesame Slaw (3.0) + Valley Fresh Ota, Corn and Tomato Salad (3.0) + Hummus (2.5) + Babaganoush (2.5) + Caesar Salad (3.0)
Eggplant Moussaka (2.5)
Orange and Thyme Chicken (3.25)
Creamy Mash Potatoes (3.25)

The food was very good.  Not an extravagant spread but a few solid main dishes and a range of respectable salads – more than enough goodies to justify additional helpings.

With that, the lounge settles in at the #16 spot.

As always, I am grateful for and respectful of the opportunity to travel, especially via business class, including lounge access.  Any comments here, even the negative ones, are simply relative to other business class experiences, not complaints per se.

QF 244 (Nadi to Sydney)

When I saw this, it looked so wonderfully comfortable – even though I’d been staying in a luxury resort for the past week – that I nearly broke down into tears of gratitude.
Smoked Salmon with Cole Slaw and Aioli Dressing (1.5) aioli = warmish mayonnaise; sloppy presentation made it seem even worse.
Barramundi with Roast Potatoes (1.5): wondering if a sauce was left out, because everything on the plate was unbearably dry and bland.

QF 117 (Sydney to Hong Kong)

Yeehaw!

Due to the late departure from Nadi, we arrived in Sydney within minutes of catching the connecting flight to Hong Kong, met upon arrival and shuttled gate to gate, thus no time to check out the Qantas lounge at night (see for comparison Day 1, supra).

Flexible mix-and-match options.

So exhausted, so full, so apathetic by this point, I was still eager to partake of the offerings on the flight, if only to generate content for GMTD.

I couldn’t resist ordering a dish with “Humpty Doo” in the title.  Humpty Doo is a town in Australia – famous for its unusual name – though unknown what relation it has to the dish.

Both the mains that I ordered – appreciating that I was allowed 2 meals – were classically Australian in their Asian-fusionistic sense, creative, well constructed, and comprised of quality ingredients, but generally kinda blah.

This sourdough was the best bread that I’ve ever experienced in flight.
Braised Beef (2.5): with black bean and chili sauce, roast pumpkin, pak choy, and steamed rice.
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