Delta Sky Club, SFO

Most of my travel has either been domestic with JetBlue or Virgin America (main cabin or first class), or international with OneWorld partners (like British Airways, Qantas, or Cathay Pacific (business class and first class).  However, this year, when I lost my status, I decided to take this opportunity to explore other airlines and options.

And thus, I flew on Delta for the first time ever, on a quick connection from SFO to LAX (before heading to Sydney on Virgin Australia ... stay tuned!)  Because I was flying international business class, this gave me access to the Delta Sky Club in SFO.

I don't have comparison points with other domestic Sky Clubs, but it was clean, modern, and well designed.  It was also barely occupied, likely because it is member's access only (aka, my First Class domestic ticket would not have given me access).

Setting

Vacant Entry Way.

Check-in for the lounge is located on the same floor as the gates, but the lounge is upstairs.  Once up there, there is another check in desk that wasn't staffed, and lots of vacant open space.  It felt a bit strange walking into such a deserted area.

Window Seating.

The open area along the windows was light filled and quite bright, with standard round tables and more comfortable arm chairs.  I was surprised that very few people choose this area, as it had all the views.

High Tables.

I choose to camp out at a high table so I could just stand (I'd be sitting enough soon!), but there were also individual work stations that seemed to be the most popular seating, which is funny, as this area was relatively dark and not welcoming.

Outlets were plentiful, even built into the high tables.

Local artwork hung on the walls.

Bar.

A fairly long bar has both complimentary basic drinks and a premium menu, plus food you could order (and pay for).

Bathroom.

The bathroom was particularly stunning, with red countertops and Malin + Goetz hand soap and lotion.  Showers were also available, which you could sign up for at the check in desk.  I imagine they were stunning as well, but I didn't investigate.

Food & Drink

The food lineup is buffet style, fairly basic, with some things to nibble on and a handful of hot options.

I wasn't really needing food while I was there, so I only nibbled on a few things, so, unfortunately, I can't tell you much about food quality.

I did appreciate that everything was well labelled and constantly refilled.

Snack mixes: ranch pretzel mix, unlabelled snack mix, roasted tomato popcorn.

Snack mixes are my favorite part of airline lounges, even when they are generally stale and not very good.  You know how much I love snacks!  I'm just a muncher, what can I say?

The ranch pretzel mix was mostly just seasoned assorted shapes of thin pretzels, with a few corn chips.  It was fine, but, I'm not really one for pretzels.

The tomato flavored popcorn tasted like plain popcorn to me, but, at least it wasn't stale.

The final mix was not labelled, and seemed to have all sorts of things in it.  Pretzels, corn chips, almonds, peanuts ...  It was salty and seasoned in some way.  Decent enough I guess, but I didn't find myself getting addicted to it in the way I do with American Airlines Admiral's Club snacks.

Cheese, Salad, Crudite, Dips.

Next up came some little cubes of assorted cheese, base for salad, and some veggies to dip, and hummus, caesar, and ranch dressing.

I didn't try these, but they seemed popular.

 Salads.

Next up was more veggies to dip/make salads with (cherry tomatoes and broccoli), and 3 prepared salads.

The options were Greek chicken and cucumber salad, Mediterranean bulgar and veggie salad, and ramen salad with kale and edamame.

I tried the ramen one.  It was ... ok, the noodles were not too mushy, but there wasn't much flavor to it.

Chicken Pho Base.

A novel unique element of the Delta line up was a Pho station, with bowls ready for the broth to be added.  There were plenty of instructions to ensure that people understood what this was all about.

Chicken pho broth, veggie chili, toppings.

The broth was next to a pot of veggie chili, and both had assorted toppings, like crunchy corn chips and shredded cheese.  And crispy french fried onions, which I was thrilled to see.  I didn't want the soup or chili, I just like fried onions!

Veggie Fried Rice.

 Next up was fried rice, two trays of the same thing.

Dark Chocolate Espresso Brownies.

The first dessert was brownies (using quality Guittard chocolate).

Chocolate Chunk and Triple Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Fruit.

There were also jars of cookies and individually wrapped fruit.

Coffee Station.

The coffee station is Starbucks branded with drip coffee and a machine.  Decaf is offered in both.

I tried the drip decaf and it was only lukewarm.

The toppings were particularly impressive, several types of syrups (including pumpkin spice, because, November), chocolate powder, and mini marshmallows.

Tea.

Tea was from Harvey and Sons, a decent selection, but no rooibos

Assorted sweeteners and honey were on offer.

Infused Water, Iced Tea, Water.

I appreciated the sparkling water tap, except that I wanted a bottle of water to bring out the door with me.  Lemons were provided as well.

Other soft drinks were available at the bar, but, alas, no cans or bottles there either.

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9 Bar

9 Bar is a snack bar manufacturer from the UK, producing bars based on their "super-seed" base, of sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and hemp seeds.  They make 4 different product lines.

The "Original Lift" series I believe is the first line they made, and includes mix-ins like cashews, almonds, brazil nuts, and pumpkin.  Slightly more interesting is the "Carob Hit" line, again with a super-seed base, obviously carob, and other mix-ins like flax, pumpkin, apricots, dates, and chia.  I'm not quite sure what is breakfasty about the "Breakfast Boost" range, but these include dried fruits (apricot, strawberry, raspberry, raisins) and oats in the base.  I guess oats are for breakfast?  The most exciting line is "Cocoa Kick", available in 4 flavors: hazelnut, coconut, raspberry, and cashew, all of which have a super-seed base, cocoa mixed in, and a chocolate layer on top.  I went for the raspberry.

Cocoa Kick: Raspberry.

"The super-seed goodness of sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and hemp combined with indulgent cocoa and tangy raspberry with a delicious chocolate-flavoured topping."

I almost liked this bar.

The layer of chocolate on top was dark chocolate and seemed to be decent quality.  It was thick and generous, and didn't leave me wanting for more.  The seed mix had cocoa mixed in as well, so, this delivered in the chocolately department, I did indeed get my "cocoa kick".

The raspberry flavor went well with the chocolate, but, I really didn't care for the raspberry seeds.  I have this problem with raspberries and blackberries, I just can't stand the seeds when I eat the fruits, and here there was tons of raspberry seeds mixed in.  That was off-putting to me.

But finally, I just didn't like the flavor of the seed mix, predominantly sunflower seeds.  A bit bitter, and just not a taste I like.

So, not the bar for me.  If you like seeds (both sunflower AND raspberry), then perhaps this is the bar for you.

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Travelin' Tuesday: New York

As I've done with most major cities I travel to, such as Paris, Munich, Boston, New Hampshire, Lisbon, Tokyo, Sydney and London, I like to write a master post of my coverage of the city.

My ventures to New York were entirely too brief, so, this isn't a very impressive listing, but I'll add to it over time.

Supermoon Bakehouse.

Bakeries

• Glorious soft serve and cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar.
• Donut Plant donuts.  'nuff said.
• Instragram worthy creations, both sweet and savory, from Supermoon Bakehouse.
• Empire Cake: close to my office, and, I kinda love their cake.
• Yes, I finally got the DKA from Dominique Ansel Kitchen.



Soft Swerve.

Ice Cream / Dessert Shops

• Soft Swerve. ZOMG, the best soft serve ever, and yes they have ube, and yes they have halo halo toppings.  Go now.  *** TOP JULIE PICK ***
• Seriously good soft serve from Big Gay Ice Cream. Worth the hype. *** TOP JULIE PICK ***
• Uninspired at Spot Dessert Bar.

Momofuku Noodle Bar.

Restaurants

• Butter noodles of my dreams, at Momofuku Nishi. *** TOP JULIE PICK ***
• Flavorful, unique, but not amazing dishes from Momofuku Noodle Bar.
• Morimoto ... nothing amazing, but decent enough.

Luke's Lobster

Casual

• Noodles and delicious tea at Xi'an Famous Foods.
• My first, and likely only, visit to a Luke's Lobster.

JetBlue Mint Dining.

Flights

• JetBlue Mint 615, JFK-SFO, May 2017.  In which I was ruined for all future air travel.
• JetBlue Mint 1415, JFK-SFO, June 2018.

Lamb's Club.

Hotels / Hotel Restaurants

• Incredible, truly stunning, breakfast at The Lamb's Club. *** TOP JULIE PICK ***
• Very generous room service breakfast at 11 Howard.
• Renaissance New York Midtown Hotel Concierge Lounge. Mediocre food, the worst coffee ever.

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Salad from Munchery

Munchery continues to pivot and try to find the right balance of offerings to be successful.  I'm honestly fairly impressed at how much the company has transformed over the years.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go read any of my previous Munchery reviews, where I've reviewed everything from an impressive version of Heston Blumenthal's World-Famous Chocolate and Cauliflower Risotto, to their partnership with local Indian restaurant Dosa, to totally amazing stuffed shells I still drool over, to simple comfort foods like fish sticks and bacon wrapped meatloaf, to even a full Thanksgiving dinner, and much, much more.

Since my earlier reviews, Munchery added cooking kits for those who do want to do some prep, but no shopping, they've added children's meals to accommodate whole families (or smaller appetites), they've partnered with local juice shops, they've added better desserts and ceased making them in-house.  They've also really increased their healthy, trendy offerings, with numerous salads, poke bowls, and grain bowls.

Salads aren't usually that interesting to me, but, for some reason, I went through a phase of craving salads on weekend evenings.  Don't get me wrong, I wasn't really on a health kick, I also wanted a big slice of cheesecake and a chunk of cornbread with honey butter alongside, and I started my days with weekend brunch of pancakes, waffles, and the like, but, I kept finding myself strangely wanting salads in the evenings.

Luckily for me, Munchery was able to satisfy these cravings with numerous salads to pick from, both entree sized and side salads, nearly every day.  Oh, and they have fantastic desserts too (more on that soon), so, I could satisfy all my needs.  If you'd like to try it yourself, just use my referral code and get $20 off your first order!

Standard Munchery Packaging.

So finally I caved and ordered a salad from Munchery, not really sure what to expect in terms of quality for something where freshness and quality produce matter.  I was drawn in by a caesar (always a favorite of mine) that came with all sorts of interesting "Mexican" ingredients.

It came in standard Munchery packaging: compostable base, plastic lid, colorful labeling with instructions ("Pour dressing and croutons over salad and mix"), ingredients, and nutritional information (470 calories) clearly presented.

Munchery Photo.

The stock photo looked like a well rounded salad, and, actually, what I received it was decently represented, sans nice plating of course.  My salad had the same number of shrimp, although far, far fewer croutons and cherry tomatoes.  And, uh, my corn was green and seasoned.  But, not too far off?

Mexican Shrimp Caesar Salad: corn / cojita / tomatoes / pepitas / croutons. $12.95.

"A modern, south-of-the-border twist on the traditional Caesar salad. We put citrus-marinated shrimp over shredded romaine lettuce with corn, tomatoes, and diced red peppers. Add our ciabatta croutons, crumbled cotija cheese, toasted peptias, and chipotle-Caesar dressing for the final step and you're ready to dig into one fantastic salad."

The packaging was done thoughtfully.  Croutons were in their own little container so as not to get soggy, and the dressing too was on the side separately.  The other elements were arranged on top of the lettuce in different sections: roasted red peppers over in one corner, seasoned corn in another. shrimp in another, cojita and pepitas in the middle, etc.  For the most part, this worked well (the pepitas weren't crunchy anymore though, there weren't nearly enough croutons in that tiny container, and the shrimp were kinda slimy).

The lettuce was the ingredient I was most worried about, and it was fine.  Fresh, crisp, not browned, not soggy.  Just standard romaine (not shredded as the menu said, but, regular chunks), and not quite enough of it (the ratio was just off here), but, the lettuce was fine.

I appreciated the concept behind the slew of toppings: little cubes of roasted red peppers, cherry tomatoes, and seasoned corn, plus pepitas, cotija cheese, and of course, the croutons, but, in practice none worked out great.  I don't really like roasted red peppers, and the flavor of the corn was horrible.  I have no idea what the seasoning was that coated it, and in the photo online it showed regular, vibrant, yellow corn but mine was covered in something green.  This made me sad, since, I do love roasted corn.

The cotija was fine, a good cheese choice, and a nice amount of it.  I love pepitas and looked forward to the crunch they would add, but, they had softened considerably inside the salad, and didn't seem toasted as described.  Maybe they too should have been on the side?  The croutons were actually awesome, really crispy, really flavorful.  The menu description said they were "ciabatta croutons" but the ingredients listed "batard bread", so, uh, someone needs to at least figure out what country invented the bread they used.  The problem?  I had only 4 croutons.  The tiny little container that kept them separate fit exactly 4 croutons.  I wanted more.  Many more.  They were awesome.

The other little container contained the chipotle-caesar dressing, and it was pretty good.  Creamy, good amount of parmesan, and it actually had anchovy in it.  It also had some kick, presumably from the chipotle, and this is what helped make the salad "mexican".  I liked the dressing, and the amount provided was about right.

The shrimp I feared would be rubbery, slimy, not cleaned, fishy, or all of the above.  And ... the shrimp were fine.  My salad contained 7, just like the photo.  They were a little slimy, but, besides that, actually fine, cooked well, not fishy, and marinated nicely.

My salad also came with a lime wedge to drizzle over, a nice touch.

So, overall, it was fine, but it sounded better than it actually was.  Still, kudos for fresh lettuce, not nasty shrimp, and very good croutons.

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Bite Box Snacks, Germany

I'm a snacker.  I prefer to just munch on things continuously throughout the day, rather than eat big meals.  Or even if I do eat meals like a normal person, I still like to snack all evening.  Granted, this is probably a bad habit I should get out of sooner rather than later, but, alas, it provides me lots of material for review, as I'm constantly trying new snacks, particularly when I travel.

When I was in Munich visiting my office there, I of course did what I always do - I explored the snacks.  Their little microkitchens were stocked with products from Bite Box, a company that seems to specialize in individually packaged snack foods for offices.

Their product line is huge, ranging from sweet to savory, healthy to decadent, fruity to chocolatey, and everything in between.  This include all sorts of dried fruits, coated nuts, and trail mixes, savory crackers, sweet cookies, and chocolate coated nibbles.  The products names are an amusing mix of English and non-English, like "Mac Daddy" (macadamia nuts), "Coffee To Go" (dark chocolate covered espresso beans and cappuccino almonds), and "Waasssup?!" (wasabi peanut), alongside "Asien Rundfahrt" (Asian rice cracker mix), "Holzfäller" (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts), and "Kolbenresser"(corn nuts).

Since I didn't have Google translate built into my brain, for most of these, I tried them without knowing what they were, and only looked them up later.

I enjoyed my adventures into the unknown, and found a few I really liked.

Tasty Mixes

This category was called "Tasty Mixes", which, the best I could tell, just meant it was the least healthy and most sweet items, mostly made up of assorted types of cookies (ranging from biscotti to stoopwafels), and chocolate coated items.

Coffee to Go.

On my first day in Munich, I discovered these.  The English name gave me a clue that this might be caffeinated, which sounded good to me.

Given my jetlag, this was a welcome first find, dark chocolate covered espresso beans and white chocolate cappuccino covered almonds, both of which gave me a bit of uplift.

I really loved the almonds, the creamy coating was quite enjoyable, and they had a nice crunch.  The chocolate covered espresso beans were pretty standard, crunchy, bitter, fine.  A handful of each was a nice mix, but, I really preferred the cappuccino almonds on their own.

My favorite of everything I tried.

Ka Rammel.

These were adorable little mini stroopwafels.  Except, I don't really like stroopwafels, like the locally made ones I totally failed at using properly by Rip Van Wafels or the "Award Winning" version by Lady Walton.  But, I still tried these, hoping I'd finally find a stroopwafel I liked, as everyone else loves these things.

And?  Yup, just stroopwafels.  The cookie was sorta like a chewy graham cracker, and the filling was chewy caramel.  Nothing particularly interesting here.

Kokosnasen.

"Coconut Biscuits with Spelt Flour."

"Kokosnasen", aka, "Coconuts", were small little hard style coconut cookies.  I liked them far more than I expected, given that they were 1) cookies 2) made with spelt flour.  They were crunchy, but the coconut flavor was good, and I didn't taste spelt.  I didn't really want to eat them plain, but I made mini ice cream sandwiches out of them with some snickerdoodle ice cream, and they were great that way.

Ojan also almost liked them, but proclaimed that they were "like coconut macaroons, but, not as good".

Dried Fruit

The dried fruit category includes everything from single dried fruits (mango, apricots, pineapple) to mixes (strawberry and pineapple, apple and cranberry, raisins and bananas).  Some of these were quite tasty.

Strandperlen.

Many of the mixes had English names, but, alas, this one did not.  What was it?  I had no clue, besides that it seemed to be dehydrated fruits.

I easily identified the big chunks of dehydrated pineapple, and little chunks of apple, but I had no idea what the other objects were.  I kinda thought they were dehydrated figs, but, that didn't seem quite right.

When I looked it up online after, the ingredients said "Physalis".  That still didn't help me.  A few internet searches later, and I learned that I know them as Cape gooseberries, you know, the little yellow-orange tomato things with the strange wrapper around them?

Anyway, the apple chunks I didn't care for since I don't like apple, and I wished they didn't make up 50% of the mix.  I liked the size of the pineapple chunks, and they were pretty sweet.  But I loved the physalis.  Super crunchy, just the right amount of sweet.  I'd gladly just eat a big box of those.

Overall, a decent mix for fruit, and, the dehydration was nicely done, more enjoyable that standard dried fruit.

Pure Lime - Kiwischeiben.

Dried kiwi ... with lime?

I didn't like this.

The kiwi was super chewy, more like jerky than crunchy dried fruit.  That was fine actually, but what wasn't fine was the lime.  The result was crazy tart, way too tart for my liking.

Hearty

Bite Box dubs this category "Hearty", but I didn't think they were especially hearty, just, that they are savory.  Included in this range is asian rice cracker mixes, coated corn nuts, wasabi peanuts, and veggie chips, among a few others.  I tried several of the asian mixes, when I was looking for something not sweet.

Black Pepper.

Next I went for something savory, rice crackers, coated in soy sauce and black pepper.
The crackers were pretty standard rice crackers, crunchy, good to snack on.  The soy sauce was also pretty standard for asian style rice crackers.  But the black pepper gave it some kick.  I'm not sure I wanted that kind of kick, but, it was interesting at least.

Overall though, uh, a bit too peppery for me, not quite the flavor I was looking for.

Asien Rundfahrt.

The "Asien Rundfahrt", "Asian Tour", was another asian inspired rice cracker mix, this time with coated peanuts and seaweed elements mixed in.

It was a pretty standard mix of Asian rice crackers, most with a slightly sweet soy sauce coating.  I liked the coated peanuts the best, but, my "Tour" only included 2 in the box.

Overall, fine to munch on, but not particularly exciting.

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JetBlue Flight 615, JFK-SFO, Mint

As you read last week, I flew JetBlue Mint class for the first time from San Francisco to Boston, and I was ruined.  It was so amazing that I booked it again a few months later when I traveled home for the holidays.  You can read those two reviews here first.

For my return flight to San Francisco, from New York (yes, I flew to Boston, but returned from New York), I got to experience JetBlue Mint for the second time.  And this time, in an even better way.  I had seat 2A, one of the single suites.  I thought the experience was great the first time, but this was even more insane.  I'm really, really ruined for all domestic air travel now.

My flight was a daytime flight again, this time departing at 11:50am, so lunch was the main service.  Crew were friendly as always on JetBlue.

The Seat and Amenities

The cabin is 3 rows of pairs, plus 2 rows of single "suites", all of which sell first-come, first-serve.

My Seat, 2A.

This time, I was able to snag one of the coveted single suites

As you can see, it had ample space on either side, which I'll get more into in a moment ...

Right Side.

The right hand side of my seat was the same as before, with a power outlet (with USB), a light, a bottle of water waiting for me, a remote control for TV, and a perfect little pocket for my phone.

Extra Storage and Bigger Side Tray.

But the suites also have an additional area on the right, with another net area to fit little things, a much bigger storage compartment (which fit my purse and additional beverages I brought on board), and a much bigger area for drinks and other things to set down.

The paired seat I had on the first flight was fine, but these are clearly enhancements, particularly having the extra space for all my drinks, and not needing to share with a neighbor.

Door!

The singles not only don't have someone next to them, but they also come with a private door (!!!), which I could close once I was underway.  Necessary?  Nah.  But wow, it really was private.  I haven't even had that experience in international Business or First Class, much less domestic!

Large Side Area with more plugs.

Along the window was a huge area next to the seat to place more things, like my laptop when my tray table was out.  It reminded me of the extra space next to upper deck seats of a 747, but even more usable since it was actually flat and intended for things to be set on it.  The downside however is that it isn't an additional storage area inside, not that it was really needed.

This area also had 2 more outlets, with power and USB.  So yes, my seat had 3 full outlets and an incredible amount of space to set down basically anything.

Hayward Amenity Kit.

Once underway, our amenity kits were distributed.  I flew on Nov 2, the second day of the new partnership with Hayward, rather than BirchBox.

While less exciting, this selection made a lot more sense for being on an airplane.  It had an eye mask, ear plugs, little scented towelette, a mint, lip balm, a cloth to wipe my screen, and a card describing the curated contents.  Like I said, not nearly as interesting as the BirchBox, but more relevant, particularly for an overnight flight.

Also at our seats were the large blankets and pillows, and I was able to ask for headphones, this time they got delivered before we even took off.

Food & Drinks

Pre-departure

As on my previous flight, as I settled into my seat the FA stopped by to introduce me to the seat, this time only telling me about the additional features in my single suite, since I had flown on Mint before.  She also offered the signature cocktail, and provided me the menu.

RefreshMint (with Vodka).

I gladly accepted the signature drink, with vodka.  Just like before, I really liked it.  Refreshing and really so much better than standard sparkling wine.

Menu

As before, the menu was available online on JetBlue's website (the menu changes monthly).   I appreciated this, as if I really didn't like the selections on the main menu, I could pre-order a special one if I choose (which I didn't).

Food Menu.

The wine and other drinks did not change, and the format was the same as my past flight: appetizer, choice of 3 "delish dishes" out of 5, and ice cream and fruit for dessert.

The full menu:

Welcome Taste

It’s app-y hour!

Caramelized eggplant tartare with roasted red pepper & toast points.

Delish Dishes

Step up to the plate(s) & choose three. Please note: The first two dishes listed below are chilled. 

• Grilled ahi tuna with quinoa salad, pickled fennel, pickled red onions & cherry tomatoes
• Grilled escarole salad with baby gem, sourdough croutons, parmesan cheese & garlic aioli dressing 
• Asparagus & artichoke risotto with salsa verde, goat cheese & fresh parsley
• Pumpkin soup with confit chicken, caramelized apples & amaretto biscuits
• Braised beef stew & black bean rice with olives, capers, roasted peppers & stewed tomatoes 

Sweet Bites

Don’t desert dessert—enjoy both options, along with a hot espresso drink.

• Seasonal fruit salad
• Organic ice cream: Blue Marble Ice Cream, Brooklyn, New York
• Cappuccino & espresso: Brooklyn Roasting Company, Brooklyn, New York

When You Re-Treat

An edible parting gift – worth the wait!

Freshly made confections: Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery | A Colicchio Discovery, New York, New York

It was again easy for me to pick two of my options (the grilled ahi salad and the escarole salad), and the third was a bit harder.  Since I don't like goat cheese I ruled out the otherwise decent sounding risotto, and since I don't really like rice and beans I ruled out the beef stew, so the pumpkin soup was sorta all that was left, which sounded good, minus the chicken of course.

Welcome Taste: It’s app-y hour!

The "Welcome Taste" was delivered with our drinks.  As before, no option here, besides if you wanted it or not.

Failla Pinot Noir, 2014, Sonoma Coast.

"Ehren Jordan makes some of California’s most sought-after Pinot Noirs, including this blend from some of the most exclusive vineyards on Sonoma’s far coast. The quintessence of modern Pinot Noir, with subtle berry fruit, a tea-like spice and a cool, piney tinge reminiscent of the coastal forest."

The wine was ... fine.  It was a bit acidic, a bit harsh for my tastes though.

Caramelized eggplant tartare with roasted red pepper & toast points.

This was shockingly good.  I didn't like the eggplant mousse from last time and only liked the taro chips, so I didn't expect to like this at all.  I was sad that the taro chips had been replaced with toast points, and had little hope for the eggplant element.

But ... the eggplant tartare was delicious!  Chunks of eggplant, mixed with pine nuts (which I don't normally like), really well seasoned and flavored with perhaps some citrus?  It was very oily, the eggplant was slimy, and I don't normally like pine nuts or citrus, but ... yeah, for some reason I really enjoyed it.

The toast points were better than I expected.  They were cold, dry pieces of toast, but, they reminded me of some toast crackers I used to eat.  Certainly not great, and I greatly preferred the taro chips, but these weren't awful.

My favorite dish of the flight.

Delish Dishes

And as before, lunch service is designed as small plates.  The menu again had 5 options: 2 cold, 3 hot, two vegetarian, one chicken, one seafood, one beef.  I could pick up to 3.  Which of course, I did. 

Grilled Ahi, Grilled Escarole Salad, Pumpkin Soup, Bread, Oil, Salt & Pepper.

All were served together, along with the same bread and oil as last time.  The bread was again not very good, cold, stale.

Grilled ahi tuna with quinoa salad, pickled fennel, pickled red onions & cherry tomatoes.

This had 3 very large slices of grilled ahi on top, with a few chunks of each of the promised veggies, over chilled quinoa.

The pickled red onions were much like those from the cauliflower salad I had on my last flight, tart, fine.  I liked the pickled fennel even more, a fairly unique element.  The cherry tomatoes weren't particularly ripe.

I didn't care for the multicolor quinoa salad, chilled, mushy, with some golden raisins mixed in.

The tuna itself was ... fine.  I'm not really one for seared/grilled ahi though.

My least favorite of my savories.

Grilled escarole salad with baby gem, sourdough croutons, parmesan cheese & garlic aioli dressing.

This reminded me of the baby gem caesar from my previous flight, although I liked it less.

The baby gems were about the same, fresh, crispy, but just lettuce.  The large shreds of Parmesan were also the same.

This time, the breadcrumbs were replaced by more standard croutons.  The menu said sourdough, but, luckily, as I don't like it, I didn't taste sourdough.  They were fantastically garlicky though, and nice and crunchy, my favorite part of the salad.

The grilled escarole was interesting.  It had a nice smoky nature, but, it was relatively slimy, and kinda looked like wilted, brown lettuce.  I liked it, but, it certainly wasn't appealing.

And finally, the dressing.  I didn't taste the garlic in here, and it wasn't really like an aioli to me.  The dressing was thin and kinda just flavorless, but there was plenty of it (the salad wasn't overdressed necessarily, but, lots of dressing).  

I like the cute little 3 small plates serving style, but this was a bit difficult to eat inside the small container.

My second to least favorite of the savories.

Pumpkin soup with confit chicken, caramelized apples & amaretto biscuits.

And finally, the soup, the item I kinda randomly picked.  It was certainly different from what I was expecting.

On top were 3 chunks that looked like croutons, but were the amaretto biscuits.  They were sweet and yup, basically a amaretto cookie.  The flavor did go well with the soup but they quickly got soggy.

The soup itself was kinda bland, but to be fair, I didn't eat the sliced apples or little bits of confit chicken, since I don't like those things, but they probably added quite a bit to it.

Overall, a warm, comforting, light option, with the interesting elements of apples and amaretto.  My favorite of the main small plates, second favorite savory overall.

Sweet Bites

As before, we were offered ice cream and fruit salad, and I skipped the fruit due to melon.  I do love the ice cream on the flight, but I wish they would mix it up in some way, perhaps offering a topping of the month?

Pumpkin Blue Marble Ice Cream.

"Celebrate the holiday season with some Blue Marble Pumpkin. This sweet and spicy treat is packed with real pumpkin and a warm blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and cloves."

I loved the sea salt ice cream last time, and was worried I'd get only vanilla or chocolate this time.  But ... seasonally appropriate, we had pumpkin.  Now, I'm not really one for "pumpkin spice all the things!", but, pumpkin sounded much better than the more plain vanilla/chocolate options.

It was served very hard, so it took a lot of willpower to let it melt, but I knew I'd enjoy it much more once it was more melted.

The ice cream was good, but, again, I'm not a huge pumpkin fan.  The spicing was aggressive but not bad, all the spices were balanced, and it didn't suffer from too much nutmeg, resulting in a soapy taste which can happen with pumpkin spice too often.

Overall, good, but, I preferred the salted caramel.

Dunkin' Donuts Decaf Coffee.

The coffee was ... fine.  Not remarkable in any way, although I did appreciate the mug.

When You Re-Treat

My parting gift was the exact same as my previous flight, a packaged blondie and cookie from Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery.

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The Bagel Bakery

The Bagel Bakery is a totally nondescript bagel shop/cafe located on a random street in SOMA.  It is open only Monday - Friday, only for breakfast and lunch, and is closed for all holidays.  I normally eat those meals at my office, so, I passed by this little place, without a second glance, for years.

The first time I ventured there was because I was on a mission to find a good bagel for someone.  Yelpers claim The Bagel Bakery is the only authentic NY style bagels (aka, boiled then baked) on the West Coast.  It averages 4 stars.  People rave about the bagels, the egg and cheese breakfast bagels in the morning, and the bagel sandwiches at lunch.

When I stopped in to procure the bagel, I got a bagel for myself as well (I mean, I had to try one if they are the best, even if I'm not a bagel person, right?), and a muffin ... cuz I couldn't resist, and a mocha.  I figured it would be my only visit, so I needed to try a bunch of stuff!  I did end up returning a few more times to get more bagels for said bagel-lover, and tried a few more baked goods.  The baked goods are clearly not their specialty, but, the bagels are pretty good, if you are in the market for an authentic bagel.

Setting

Bagels, cookies, scones, hamentoshen.

Inside is not large, with only a few small tables to sit, a counter displaying the bagels and baked goods, and a self-serve coffee station on the side.

On all my visits, it was fairly busy, a steady stream of folks grabbing their breakfast items to go.  The patrons were a funny assortment of constructor workers wearing reflective vests and carrying hard hats, techies in hoodies, and business folks in suits.  Reflective of the neighborhood, I suppose.

Service was friendly enough and efficient, clearly used to moving the line along.

Bagels

Bagels are the specialty, and occupy most of the counter space.  They are available with a large variety of spreads (including tons of housemade flavored cream cheese), but most folks, at least in the morning, were going for the bagel omelets: bagels toasted, buttered, and stuffed with huge fluffy omelets, choice of cheese, and meats.

The bagel selection is extensive: plain, egg, whole wheat, rye, pumperknickle, onion, garlic, poppy, sesame, all-in-one, multiseed, sundried tomato, cinnamon raisin, chocolate chip, and probably others I just didn't see.

All-in-One Bagel.  $1 plain/$3.25 with flavored cream cheese.

Since I was picking one bagel, there was only one choice - the all-in-one!

I thought it was interesting that they also offered "everything seed", which had the same poppy and sesame seeds, but no salt, garlic, or onion.  I suppose, those are the polarizing things on most everything bagels, so, it kinda makes sense.

The bagel had a decent distribution of toppings.  It had a soft interior, and a flexible exterior, just a slight crust.  It seemed legit to me.

A bagel itself is just $1, which seems fine, but if you want flavored cream cheese, the price skyrockets to $3.25 (plain cream cheese was $2.95).  That seemed ... steep.

Date and Walnut Cream Cheese (extra $2.25 with a bagel).

The cream cheese lineup was as extensive as the bagels, and it was hard to pick one.  I settled on the date and walnut.

It was really delicious.  The highlight of anything I got from The Bagel Bakery, actually.  Sweet from the dates, bit of crunch from the walnuts, rich and creamy.  I could eat it by the spoonful and pretend it was cheesecake.

The cream cheese is available on a bagel, or in tubs to bring home.  I'm not sure of the price of this in a large tub, but with a bagel (usually on it), it adds $2.25 to the price, which seems high for a single serving of cream cheese.

Other Pastries

The other pastries are not their specialty, but, baked goods are much more my thing, so I had to try them anyway.  The Bagel Bakery confirmed that do bake them off fresh every day at the store, but, are made from mixes from a wholesale supplier.

Muffins

I started with a muffin.  The full lineup includes blueberry, lemon crumble, apple cinnamon, banana walnut, chocolate, and almond poppyseed.  They were large and fresh looking, fairly tempting, actually.

Lemon Crumble Muffin. $1.95.

The astute reader will recall that I don't really like lemon flavored things.  Yet I picked a lemon muffin.  My other choices that day were just were banana walnut, almond poppyseed, or chocolate, none of which are my favorites.

But I'll be honest - the real draw for this one was the sugar topping.  When I ordered my muffin, I didn't just ask for a lemon one, I asked for THIS lemon one, as it had the most generous topping!

The muffin was ... ok.  It looked much better than it tasted.  Not particularly moist, but not exactly dry either.  Nice lemon tang (yes, I said it).  Crisp top, loaded up with sugar.  I was hoping the topping was going to have more to it than just sugar, but, white granulated sugar is all it was.  Which is fine, but ... not exciting.

The muffin was also HUGE.  Think Costco muffin size.  I'm sure if it were a packaged product, it would say serving size: 2 or more.  $1.95 was a great price for a muffin, but I wouldn't get this flavor again.

Banana Walnut Muffin. $1.95.

On my next visit, I went for a different flavor, hoping it would be better.  Sadly, they still didn't have most of the varieties I wanted to try, and the other muffins all looked a bit dry, so I went for banana nut, even though I'm not generally a fan of banana muffins either.

It was pretty much exactly the same as the lemon muffin: highly mediocre.  It wasn't moist, but it wasn't dry.  It wasn't burnt.  It wasn't stale.  It had just the right number of bits of walnut strewn throughout.  Some banana flavor.  And not much else.  No other spicing to make it interesting in any way.  No crispy top, moist or dough interior, or any interesting texture.  It just was.

It was also again massive, although it is hard to see in this photo.  I felt a lump in my gut after eating only half, I can't imagine what it would do to you if you ate the whole thing.  I think the oil content in particular was quite high.

I would not get this again, and dodn't bother trying any more of their muffin varieties after this second strike.

Scones

So what's a baked goods loving girl to do?  Move on to scones.  The scone lineup was more limited, just blueberry, raspberry, and pumpkin (seasonal special).  These too are baked off at the shop in the morning, but come from a mix.

Pumpkin Scone. $2.25.

Now, I wasn't excited about the pumpkin aspect of this, but, much like the sugar crumble topping on the muffin, you can probably guess what drew me in: the icing!  The other scones did not have any icing.

The white icing layer was very crusty, solid, quite sweet.  On top of that was an additional icing drizzle, spiced with standard pumpkin pie spices.  Well, I wanted sweet sugar topping, so, I got it.

The scone itself was pumpkin flavored.  Also spiced with classic pumpkin spicing.  It was a bit dry, but not burnt.

Just like the muffin, there was nothing really wrong with this scone, it was just ... boring.  There was nothing to fault exactly, it just wasn't awesome.  And, just like the muffin, it was pretty huge.  2 servings for sure.

$2.25 price was pretty standard for a scone.

Beverages

Along the wall is a cooler with bottled cold drinks, but most folks were going for coffee in the morning.  I'm pretty sure every person I saw had a coffee cup in hand, either simple brewed coffee, or espresso beverages.  I couldn't resist on my first visit, and joined in.

Self-Serve Coffee.

The Bagel Bakery offers 3-4 varieties of pre-brewed drip coffee (no decaf), along with a great condiment station complete with a slew of varieties of sweetener, half and half or milk, plus cinnamon and cocoa.  I always appreciate the addition of spices to top off my coffee.

Decaf Skim White Chocolate Mocha. $2.XX.

Since it was a rather cold day, I was looking for a warm, sweet treat to cheer me up, so I ordered a White Chocolate Mocha, not a drink I get often.  I most commonly drink regular coffee, or na americano, and generally black.  I only add milk to my coffee when I dislike the taste, and never go for drinks like lattes (so much milk!), so a white chocolate mocha was certainly out of character.  But it was what was I craving.

It was well made.  A generous amount of well prepared foam.  It was sweet, milky, creamy, pretty much exactly what I wanted in this strange mood.  I didn't really taste the espresso, but that was kinda the point.

Strange craving satisfied, and if the mood ever struck me again, I'd get another.  More likely, I'd try a regular cappuccino, since the foaming skill of the barista was obvious in this drink, so I trust she'd do that well too.

The sub-$3 price tag was shocking for a made to order espresso drink, with additional flavoring.  This place really is quite reasonable price wise, except that cream cheese ....

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