The five hours passed uneventfully as the 767 cruised smoothly over the Pacific. The flight was crowded, but with a hot meal, no turbulence, and a reasonably priced ticket ($500 round trip), early 21st-century mass air travel doesn’t get much better than this. I can see why Hawaiian Air is making inroads against the majors; the airline has come out of bankruptcy with a popular mix of pricing and amenities.
My ride picked me up at the baggage claim and insisted on taking me out to lunch, ignoring my protestations that I had just eaten. We stopped at a hole-in-the-wall Korean restaurant on South King Street.
The produce boxes were piled high at the entrance. My ride bantered with the waitress; this was one of his regular haunts. I ordered the lunch special, a great value—three meat portions plus vegetables--for seven dollars.
The lady in our party ordered a large bowl of soup. After twenty minutes, when we were mostly done, she asked me to identify a small black object floating near the bottom of her bowl. It was a (dead) baby cockroach. We speculated that it was the result of not washing the vegetables thoroughly. Regardless of the reason, our appetite was gone and we really were done.This is a reminder that, even or especially when you’re on vacation, you have to watch what you eat. © 2006 Stephen Yuen
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