Review of Singapore Airlines flight from Taipei to Singapore in Business

More food pics of some of the stuff we ate!
Everyone's crazy over this fresh-baked cheesecake stall in Tamshui!

The most famous Tamshui eatery serving Ah Ge (beancurd stuffed with vermicelli), meatballs and fishball soup. Nice!

Our favourite braised pork with rice eatery in the Ximending area, opposite the Red House.

Trying out the newly opened Muji Café.

More street food, this time at Shilin night market.

And my last meal in Taipei before departure.

Finally the day of departure home. We took a taxi to Taoyuan Terminal 2 and arrived for check-in slightly less than 2hrs before departure. Business Class check-in counters were empty and we were checked in immediately.

However there was a snaking queue for economy class check-in. But Economy class ended only around 60% full while Business Class was 25/30.

After immigration and security, which did not take too long a wait, it was to the Silver Kris Lounge for some bites. SQ operates its own lounge in TPE even though it operates only 2x daily flights. Guess they could have just utilized BR's lounge since BR is also a Star-Alliance member.

Was warmly welcomed into the decent-sized lounge and it was still rather empty. However, the lounge gradually filled up later on. Not sure if any other airlines' passengers are using the lounge as well. It was also my second time to this lounge. Not spectacular in anyway (TK's Istanbul Business Lounge has raised the bar too high) but served its practical purposes of offering some refreshments, business and shower facilities.

Bakery, sandwiches and fruits area.

An oriental-style porkrib soup, a western-style soup and a hot dessert.

Hot dishes selection. Not too many choices, but most (except the curry puff)were of rather good quality.

Cakes and cookies.

Cold fridge selection of beverages, salads, cut fruit and yoghurt.

Time for bites!

Desserts of black glutunious rice and cheesecake, wrapping up with a cappuccino.

We decided to leave the lounge early and explored the terminal. Interestingly, Taoyuan Airport has a number of themed boarding gates!
Gate C7 is of postal service theme.

Gate C5 is of an e-Library theme.

Gate C4 is of some oriental art design theme.

And the oh-so-famous Gate C3, the Hello Kitty gate!

Complete with Hello Kitty themed wall designs and seats.

And even a children's play area!

Hello Kitty collectibles shop just beside gate C3.

After seeing what the fuss is about the Hello Kitty themed gate and shop, we proceeded across the terminal to the D gates where our flight has just commenced boarding. Out the windows, there were mainly BR 77Ws spotted only at the tarmac around the C gates.

13 January 2015
Singapore Airlines
SQ 879
Taipei Taoyuan (TPE) - Singapore (SIN)
A330-300
9V-STD
Business Class
Our flight would be departing from Gate D6, which is a Hakka-themed gate. Boarding has just commenced and we were required to go down one level to board the aircraft.

9V-STD would be operating the flight.

Boarded the aircraft and was warmly welcomed with the usual SQ pleasantries. SQ's A330s are fitted with the regional Business Class seat and have been reviewed countless times, so I shall not dwell too much on its functions.
Picture of our seats 14A/C, taken just before disembarkation.

Settled into my seat.

Welcome drinks were offered shortly after we got settled down and I chose the Tattinger champagne. Hot towels and selection of newspapers and magazines were also offered.

The J-Class cabin gradually filled up and soon boarding was completed. Our Book-The-Cook options were also confirmed by the Inflight Supervisor, who also introduced himself. Expecting the high Business Class loads today to be a chore for the usual 3 cabin crew, I was surprised that there were actually 5 cabin crew assigned to serve in Business Class today! Apparently, as I found out later, there were extra trainee cabin crew on this flight.
The month's Silver Kris, KrisShop and Krisworld magazines.

Doors were closed and armed, and we actually pushed back earlier than our scheduled departure time. Safety video was played.

CI B77W taxied by.

Had a rather short taxi to Rwy05L and without much wait, we departed right on schedule to Singapore. Flight time was a rather long 4h35m, but ended up slightly longer due to lower flying speeds with the turbulence encountered enroute.
Video of takeoff.

Making a U-turn back.

Climbing above the clouds and into the sunset.

After takeoff announcements and a view of the Business Class cabin.

Service started with the distribution of socks and eyeshades.

Phitek headphones were already placed in the magazine racks.

Started watching a local comedy production starring Sandra Ng and Mark Lee, A Perfect Ghost Wedding. This film was rated M18 in Singapore due to the theme, but was actually recommended in the Krisworld magazine haha.

Our post-takeoff drinks were served, where I received my earlier ordered Jubilee Lining cocktail.

Made a quick visit to the lavatory, which was stocked with the usual SQ amenities.

Returning to my seat, with the satay service just starting.

A look at the menu.

Selection on the inbound SQ878 SIN-TPE flight.

And the dinner menu for our SQ879 sector.

Satay was served. 2 sticks of chicken and 1 stick of lamb each.

However, after the satay was cleared, it was at this moment that moderate turbulence started, and service had to be suspended for almost an hour. According to the pilot, the bad turbulence was due to shifting winds and thus to minimise the effect, we were only flying at a low 31,000ft due to expected worse conditions at higher altitudes. For the safety of the crew, the captain decided that meal service to be suspended till the turbulence weakens. However, personally I did not feel the turbulence to be too bad as I had encountered worse on my previous SIN-JNB flight.
Due to the expected suspension of meal service for some time, the crew came by and offered Haagen Daz ice-cream (presumably from economy class) to us while waiting for the turbulence to die down and meal service to resume. Rather proactive here!

After almost more than half hour, meal service resumed and crew rapidly distributed the meals. Luckily, with 5 crew serving us in Business Class, service was faster than usual as compared to a normal SQ flight. As this was a A330 regional flight, meal trays were distributed instead of the tray-less service on the long-haul flights.

Decided to have some Riesling with my meal, but was surprised that no Riesling was available in Business Class on this flight, but only in Economy. Instead, we had a choice of French or Australian chardonnays. The stewardess offered to bring me some from Economy, but I decided to stick with the Australian chardonnay.
Alcoholic beverages list.

Meal tray with starter and bakery items. I chose garlic bread and lavosh. The garlic bread was very dry, but guessed as the bakery items were heated earlier but due to service suspension and could not be served, most of them had dried up.

Peppered smoked duck breast with dried apricot compote.
This starter was rather tasty.

For the mains, we had both Booked-The-Cook, and was glad to do so as none of the menu mains seemed appealing and with the heavy load, there was a high chance that our preferred selection might not be available.
Our selections were:
Cod fillet with citrus saffron cream sauce
Pan seared cod fillet with citrus saffron cream sauce, sundried tomato couscous and buttered vegetables.

Seared lamb loin with jus
Seared lamb loin with jus, crushed pea with mint, leek and olive oil mashed potato. Designed by Singapore Airlines International Culinary Panel Chef Alfred Portale.

The cod fillet was decent though a tad dry, but the asparagus were still crunchy. The lamb loin was surprisingly tender and flavourful, but I am not a fan of the crushed pea. However, both mains were not bad overall.
After the mains were cleared, we were offered dessert. As we had ice-cream earlier, both of us went for the cake instead, which was just ok as I don't think that fig is a good accompaniment to chocolate.
Chocolate layer cake with dried fig compote and passionfruit sauce.

We were already halfway through the flight by the dessert course.

Cheese and crackers and a selection of fruits next. I loved the grapes as they are of the Japanese slip-skin variety currently popular in Taiwan (costs a bomb in Singapore!).

Pralines to round off the meal. Coffee/tea orders were taken but were served later due to another bout of turbulence.

My Paris-Singapore tea served after cabin lights were dimmed.

Remainder of the flight was just spent watching another movie, a HK comedy.

Across the cabin.

Soon, we were approaching Singapore, and the usual landing preparations were performed.

Flying over Batam.

My attempt at capturing the Singapore night skyline during approach into Changi, but did not turn out well…

Landing on Rwy02L, slightly later than scheduled due to the slower flying speed and longer than expected flight time.

This evening, we would be docking at Terminal 2 Gate E27. Parked beside a ANA B787!

Final view of my seat before disembarkation.

Thanks for reading and all comments are greatly welcomed!