Singapore Airlines Trip Report MEL-xSIN-PVG-xSIN-MEL

[anchew]

The question I have, did you know what to do with the prosperity salad?

LOL... My background is Singaporean so I am personally well acquainted with the prosperity salad, but it seemed a little wired serving it as a meal for an individual as it lacked the atmosphere of having all of your family and friends tossing the salad together. I did think to myself that I had to ask my colleagues (anglo background) what they thought of it as it has a unique taste, but I've forgot. I'll ask them when I get when I get a chance. @Carlous Moochous - what did you think?

 

[anat0l]

Fa Chai Yu Sheng (Prosperity New Year Salad with salmon)

Several things wrong with the serving here:

• As mentioned by dajop and yourself, the cultural significance of how this dish is to be served (i.e. tossed by those present) was not explained or carried out. At the very least, why can't the FAs help each passenger toss it as they serve it? Perhaps a corny gesture and confusing to the uninitiated, but at least it would preserve a bit of the tradition. Another idea is to have a larger salad bowl of Yu Sheng, which each passenger helps toss as it is served to their individual plates. (Though there's sure to be a few people criticising the use of a "communal" bowl to serve many people in Business Class). As it stands, it's just another boring salad, really....
• That dish would make tossing the Yu Sheng really difficult without spilling. Especially if one were to use a fork rather than chopsticks.

Overall, not the best approach taken by SQ. Hope it was at least offset by a tasty salad.

Singapore Chicken Rice (from book the cook)

How did this taste?

The photo you attached doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence, although at least that's a big piece of chicken. I think I'll stick with the hawker stores and leave the sky food to something more interesting.....

Lemon grass sea jelly with salad of mango, strawberry, sago and pomelo

How did this taste? Lemon grass sea jelly is definitely not for everyone......

Depends on the route. SQ make announcements in English plus language of destination (or for SIN bound flights, the origin). IIRC, flights to CAN are made in English, Cantonese & Mandarin.

I flew SQ last year SIN-FRA and announcements were made in English and German (albeit very much accented German! Perhaps still better than a tape recording...). Menus were also presented in both English and German.

 

[anchew]

The flight crew on this flight was AMAZING! Their service was very personable and I was address by name by all the flight attendants. I found them to be very friendly and attentive. A part of the DYKWIA in me suspects that the crew on my first flight informed them of my TR plans as the reason for the extra attention. But realistically, it was probably just the usual SQ service.

However, after the flight, I had a chat to my colleagues about the flight and they didn't have such positive views. Amenity kits (or lack thereof) was an issue, and they certainly have a point. I always look forward to the amenity kits as I like handing them out to my family like a little bit of the J experience that I can share with them.

They also mentioned the lack of mid-flight snacks - most other airlines have a list of mid-flight snacks that you could order from, and KE also serves freshly baked cookies mid-flight that are to die for. Heck, even on JQ you could order any snacks from the menu at any time. But SQ didn't seem to offer anything as such. I though, didn't really care as I don't think I could have eaten anymore than what was served.

They also found the service to be ordinary, and the 'Singapore Girl' to be nothing special. So I wonder if it was indeed me with my DYKWIA status ?

 

[anchew]

Singapore Chicken Rice (from book the cook)

How did this taste?

The photo you attached doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence, although at least that's a big piece of chicken. I think I'll stick with the hawker stores and leave the sky food to something more interesting.....

LOL... I was considering including a comment about your disapproval regarding my selection . What I did was poured all the chilli, ginger and soya sauce over the chicken and rice. Yum... I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. I have to admit though, that Hainanese Chicken Rice (which is the real name of the dish) is one of my favorite meals. So even though one could get the same dish for $4 at a hawker centre in Singapore, I wouldn't swap it for any other meal... well, I would have to think twice if they had freshly made roti prata with chicken curry. Just imagine if they made roti up in the air?

How did this taste? Lemon grass sea jelly is definitely not for everyone.......

Although I do like grass jelly, I didn't find the dessert all that. There was nothing wrong with it, it tasted ok. But I guess by this time I was extremely full which didn't help stinutate my taste buds.

 

[anchew]

So unfortunately here is where my SQ TR must abruptly end.

Apparently all flights to PVG has been cancelled due to bad weather. So instead of over nighting in Dalian (DLC), we made a frantic call to CWT and we've been re-routed via ICN on KE.

 

[anat0l]

So unfortunately here is where my SQ TR must abruptly end.

Apparently all flights to PVG has been cancelled due to bad weather. So instead of over nighting in Dalian (DLC), we made a frantic call to CWT and we've been re-routed via ICN on KE.

Does that mean the rest of your itinerary (including coming home) will be on KE?

That all sucks. Suppose there's not a lot you can do about it - weather happens. Never been on KE but would be interesting to see the experience nonetheless.

 

[anchew]

Does that mean the rest of your itinerary (including coming home) will be on KE?

That all sucks. Suppose there's not a lot you can do about it - weather happens. Never been on KE but would be interesting to see the experience nonetheless.

Yep, that's right. From ICN we flew direct to MEL. I didn't to a TR as I only did one on KE a few months ago: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....trip-photos/korean-air-trip-report-34639.html