A Tale of Two Lounges: United Club and Swiss Business Lounge
On my trip to Valencia, Spain, I was able to use three lounges courtesy of my credit card - the United Clubs in SFO and EWR, and the Swiss Business Lounge in ZRH.
In SFO, I got to experience the newest addition to the breakfast spread - donut holes! Glazed and cinnamon powder holes - both the cakey kind of donuts rather than the yeasted kind. While a nice treat, I still wish for either something with protein or some kind of whole grain item like oatmeal. Otherwise there's a lot of refined carbs in the spread.
The "lunch/dinner" spread was much the same as before. Packaged Tillamook cheese, Pepperidge Farm crackers, and baby carrots. There was a new kind of salty snack in the clear towers - a goldfish-like cracker, only in the shape of... rockets?
After arrival in ZRH, I went to the Lounges near the A gates. There are three lounges here - the Business Lounge for Business Class fliers and people with United Club memberships like me, the Senator Lounge for Miles & More Senator card holders and other Star Alliance Gold members, and the First Class lounge for First Class fliers.
Breakfast wasn't particularly spectacular, but the quality and presentation was so much more refined than breakfast at the United Club with styrofoam bowls and plates. Here there was real china, silverware, baked goods (pretzel roll and crusty loaf) that looked like they were baked the same day, and (raspberry) yogurt that tasted real (I've long ago given up on that Upstate Farms yogurt in United lounges and on United flights). After breakfast I took a shower in a very minimalist shower room - no place even to sit.
After the shower, the lounge attendants transitioned the breakfast food to lunch food. There was a selection of cheese or turkey sandwiches (I took a turkey one), and nasi goreng (fried rice) with chicken - was actually a bit spicy. There were also two kinds of soup, a vegetable soup and a pumpkin cream soup. I topped my pumpkin cream soup with fried spherical things and minced carrot and what I think was radish. While the rice and soup tasted like they were somehow reconstituted from dried herbs or powder, at least everything felt substantial like "real" food.
