Saturday, May 26, 2007

No more amenity kits -- Singapore Airlines -- Business Class

One of the nice little comforts of business class travel is the amenity kit. Waiting on your seat in a sealed bag, this little gift provides you with toothpaste, eyeshades, lip balm, and other little in-flight necessities.

I use these bags to carry around my electronic toys. I suppose that if I were a true road-warrior on long-distance flights every week, I would quickly tire of these novelties, but I fly rarely enough that I still get a kick out of them. (Actually my dirty little secret is that I have a sad habit of collecting them, and I have even been known to buy these things on e-bay.)

Funnily enough, Singapore Airlines, the airline that seems to lead the way in making customers happy, seems to have abandoned the practice of handing out these little bags. Although, according to their website, they provide a "range of branded toiletries such as eau de cologne, aftershave, and moisturising lotion" in the lavatories, the individual bag handed to you at your seat seems to be a thing of the past.

I would have thought these days, with liquids being a cause for suspicion, these little goodie bags would be even more important to the traveler seeking comfort in the air!

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Friday, May 25, 2007

Cafe de Paris, Columbia, MD

Cafe de Paris
8088 Center Park Drive
Columbia, MD

410 997 3904

www.cafedepariscolumbia.com


This restaurant used to be in a rather dreary shopping mall in Laurel, and I have always liked it. Last night I went mostly because I had heard that the chef, Marc Dixon, at one of my favorite restaurants, The Iron Bridge, had moved here.

Three of us had dinner. Two of us started with the excellent foie gras that was accompanied by a superb salad. Tony declared that his starter, the smoked salmon, was good but not excellent.

For our main courses, Clayton and I had the lamb chops, which I like very much although they were a little over done for my taste, and we were never asked how we would like them. Tony had a "special" of grouper, which he liked very much.

The desserts were outstanding, particularly the tarte tatin and the profiteroles.

As for wine, we had the Menage a Trois from Folie a Deux. This wine is an interesting blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet Saugignon, and Merlot.

The bill was about $71 each, including tax, two bottles of the Menage a Trois ($26), and coffee, but not the tip.

An excellent meal that was well served!

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