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| Amuse bouche from the Western menu. |
There were two different menus for the first meal service: Japanese Cuisine and Chef's Recommendation. In case you are wondering what Chef's Recommendation is, it's just the Western Cuisine. Not sure why Japan Airlines (JAL) named the Western options this way. Makes you wonder whether it means the Japanese option isn't recommended by the chef then LOL
For the Japanese option, two different types of rice were provided and you could choose to have either or both of them. For the Western option, there were three different appetizers and three different main dishes for you to choose from. JAL allows its First Class passengers to pre-select their meal options. But unfortunately, you can only specify whether you want Japanese or Western. So not very helpful if you want the a specific dish on the Western meal, but would work for sure if you plan to go for the Japanese one instead.
When I fly on JAL in the premium cabin, usually I stick with the Western option because they are more to my liking since I don't eat sashimi and some relatively exotic items on the menu :P Another reason is it is much easier to take pictures of the Western dishes :P So I was sticking to that today, at least for my first First Class meal on JAL because I didn't want to remember this meal because of the wrong reasons ;)
Amuse Bouche
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| Amuse bouche trio from the Western Menu |
Amuse Bouche
Shrimp Canapé
Peppadew Pepper with Salmon Mousse & Mango
Iberico Ham with Parmesan Cheese
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| Amuse bouche - Iberico Ham with Parmesan Cheese |
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| Amuse bouche - Peppadew Pepper with Salmon Mousse & Mango |
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| Amuse bouche - Shrimp Canapé |
The amuse bouche was a trio plated beautifully using the same china used for the condiments. I like the concept of this dish. It was able to hit on all the notes like a symphony orchestra in a single dish. The saltiness of the cheese and ham, spiciness of the pepper and salmon mousse, sweetness of the mango, umami of the shrimp and acidity of the sun-dried tomato are well balanced. It's almost like giving your palates a warm up exercise.
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| Amuse bouche |
I was a bit surprised by the spicy salmon mousse in a good way. Definitely helped stimulate my appetite for the remaining courses :) But if I have to pick a favorite amongst the three, I would go for the shrimp. Visually it's stunning and I couldn't stop taking pictures of it :P. The shrimp was perfectly cooked and the simple seasoning just let the freshness of the shrimp speak for itself. The only disappointment was there's only one per plate. I wanted more of it LOL
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| Bread basket |
Shortly after the senior cabin attendant delivered the amuse bouche, another cabin attendant who had mainly stayed at the galley until now brought out a basket full of fresh bread. When she presented me the basket, I asked if I could take a picture (of the basket). She said definitely and then put down the basket and tong. She thought I want a picture of myself taken LOL. I wouldn't be that obnoxious if I wanted a picture of me taken. At least I would have picked the bread first before asking :P We had a quick laugh and then she presented me the bread basket once again for me to take the above picture :) Now I guess all 3 cabin attendants knew I like to take pictures :D Later during the flight, this same cabin attendant had tried to create more photo taking opportunities for me too :)
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| Fresh bread |
Comparing with the bread on my previous flight on American Airlines (AA), I would give AA an edge, but that's only if you are eating the bread only! Add the butter to the equation, it's a completely different story. The BEURRE Echiré butter is simply divine, the Land O'Lakes on AA simply can't compete against it. But to be fair, it's international First Class vs transcontinental Business Class.
To read other parts of this "Sampling oneworld Premium Services Trip Report", you can find the complete index from the Introduction post. There's also a Trip Report Index page which contains indices to all of my trip reports.
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