Archive for April 26th, 2010

• Day 58: Surviving 12 Hours in Business Class without Dessert

  Date: 2010.04.26 | Category: Uncategorized | Response: 1

  

  Traveling is the hardest time for me to stick with any diet regimen – which in my case of course involves avoiding sweets.

  For years, I used to fly Continental’s first class on frequent business trips from Newark to Los Angeles.  Depending on which direction you were flying, dessert after the main meal was a huge, warm chocolate chip cookie or vanilla Haagen Dazs with your choice of sundae toppings – like chocolate or caramel sauce and whipped cream.

  I was in heaven.  Once I had the temerity to ask the (fat, as I recall, flight attendant) for an second chocolate chip cookie.  I can still remember the look of scorn she gave me as if I were Carnie Wilson, pre-gastric bypass operation.  But hey, she went and got one for me.

  I feared the worst  - dessert-wise – during yesterday’s 12-hour flight from Munich to Singapore.

  I don’t fly to this part of the world often. You can tell because when I get to my incredibly complicated business-class compartment, all those around me (mainly businessmen) are bustling about like efficient little captains putting their tiny command centers in order.

  They turn on their flatscreens effortlessly,  plug in their laptops by flipping open one of about 30 mysterious panels, adjust the six different height levels for the seat that folds into a bed with practiced airs, and switch on one of four different little reading lights. They’re all settled in, special Singapore Airlines blue sleeping booties affixed to their feet, while I’m still trying to find one overhead light.

  I must look like a country mouse who won a business seat ticket in a bake sale raffle.  Where is my Minnie Pearl hat with the ticket hanging off it?

  

  Once I finally did get settled, a geisha-like Singapore Airlines stewardess, slim with a long, close-fitting dress and full, impeccable makeup – offered me a menu. Haagen Dazs vanilla for dessert?  Check.  But it was billed as mixed with a “berry compote.”  Not my thing. Don’t put fruit in my ice cream. Instantly takes a lot of the craving away.  Incredibly, I didn’t see any other desserts offered.

  I had a lot of work to do on the flight, and my flight attendant friend, an ethnic Chinese like many Singaporeans, remarked that I wasn’t watching any movies. True, but figuring that out would have been another 30-minute chore requiring half the flight-staff.

  I wasn’t very hungry on the flight and slept a little bit.  I woke up at one point in search of water and came across the snacks in the business class kitchen.  Again, a relief because they weren’t that tempting.  I got a bottle of water and some chips (Asian ones that were amazing, wish I remembered the brand.)

  I did note some little, beribboned boxes near the chips – containing dark and milk gourmet chocolates with pralines.  Would have killed for some in the moment. But back at my seat, with water, chips and an overpriced Vanity Fair from the Munich airport, I got past the cravings.

  Final note: I tried the strawberry Movenpick yogurt for breakfast just before we landed.  One of the best things I’ve ever tasted!  That’s what it looked like (below) except in mango flavor. Fantastic.

  

  Off to explore the city-state…

  Ta,