March 12, 2009

"Avoiding Airplane Food"

I arrived in Los Angeles at 10:00am enroute on my flight from Alaska to Switzerland, just in the nic of time to obtain my working visa at the Swiss Embassy, as their doors closed behind me at 12:00 noon.  A good friend had picked me up and raced me across that frantic city to accomplish this last minute mission, and Gabrielle, the not so friendly Swiss Embassy Visa Frau handed me my amended passport back and at last I knew for sure that I was on my way to Switzerland, where I would spend the next three months working on a software migration project for cellular customer service systems at Swisscom in Bern, Switzerland thanks to the efforts of my good friend Urs Wehrli.

The same friend who had picked me up in Los Angeles made sure that I enjoyed one good last meal stateside, dining for lunch at an upscale restaurant in Venice Beach that offered an interesting mix of Sushi, Steaks, and Seafood.  We shared the tastiest tender crunchy calamari I've ever had, with a lemon-curry dipping sauce that was suprisingly complimentary.  That was the highlight.  He opted for the tuna burger on a homemade foccacia roll and I opted for a beef based burger which the waiter claimed was absolutely one of the best in southern California.  I wanted to stay with something safe, so I took his recommendation, also this was one of the least expensive options on this menu which should have been printed in gold.  He was probably right, but what he didn't warn me about was the size of the burger nor the mess I would make trying to wrap my hands around this monstrosity of mango chutney glazed beef on the same foccacia roll with a generous amount of greens and tomato.  Whew.  I was exhausted, but at least I wouldn't have to worry about eating on the plane, even for the ensuing 10 1/2 hour flight to Zurich.

Farewell America, SwissAir Flight for Zurich, now boarding....