Shi Quan Shi Mei on SQ First Class

I'd never flown First Class on SQ before, so I cashed in some miles for an upgrade tonight just to check out the experience. There was some expectedly excess pampering at Changi T3, be it the posh check-in area, the exclusive immigration lines, or even the First Class section of the SilverKris lounge, which featured a notable cheese selection and even some Ipoh hor fun made to order. I wasn't really in the mood to eat in the lounge though - I was waiting for my meal on the plane.



Specifically, I was looking for this set meal from Sam Leong of the Tung Lok group called shi quan shi mei, or "a complete and perfect Chinese culinary experience," as the leather-covered menu put it. This basically featured ten little kaiseki-like dishes: four cold starters, four hot dishes, a soup, and a dessert. Even though it produced major dragon breath, I enjoyed the fresh and light taste of nearly everything, all to be washed down with an impressive selection of loose leaf teas.



Unfortunately, this plane hadn't been upgraded to the new SQ First Class yet, so it was still the old version where seats sat side by side rather than those gigantic palaces that they've been advertising for the long haul flights. In that sense, UA's new Business Class was better than this with its larger screen and standard AC power outlet. But that's not a fair comparison given the generation differences, and this thing arguably beats UA's old school first class, especially with the latter's antiquated 8mm tape system. And yes, even in First Class, one still gets SQ's Raffles Class satay rather than peanuts after takeoff.