Big up

I went to the Landmark the other day with Ross, pre-doctor's appointment. We found what can only be described as the most amusing people watching spot in Hong Kong. There were so many alpha males around, I feared I would drown in testosterone. All gweilos, all wearing suits (or Louboutins for the few token ladies). The only newspaper available was the FT. It was like an 80s timewarp. All we needed was a giant mobile phone and we would have been extras in Wall Street or something. Not that I've ever seen that movie.



Anyway, we had a masala chai at Fuel, the "espresso boutique" (eye roll) in the basement. Here's the spiel:

Fuel Espresso is a luxury offering, focused on serving business executives traditional hand crafted espresso based beverages.

I can confirm that there were quite a few business executives present. I had a masala chai which was, I kid you not, to DIE FOR. The only time I have had a better one was when Saroja's mum was staying with her when I visited. She doesn't speak English, but in the tradition of Indian mums, she more than made up for the lack of conversation by serving about a gallon of genuine chai that she had constantly simmering on the stove. Fuel's banana bread was also to die for.

I haven't stopped thinking about Fuel since, but as there are only 2 outlets in HK (compared to more than 100 Starbuckses and about a quadrillion Pacific Coffees) I am unlikely to be back soon. The first time I went to Fuel was with Mrs N, back in the heady pre-baby days. I met her at Mrs B's baby shower, and we just hit it off. That day at Fuel we were both preggers and having conversations about things that we thought were important, like which stroller to buy. Curiously we didn't explore more useful and relevant topics such as "what to do when your child repeatedly vom voms" and "what to do when your child won't eat at all". We met at Fuel for a coffee, and left about 2 1/2 hours later. Like I said, pre-babies! This was us. Maybe a bit less boob, and bit more baby bump.

For those of you who think I have gone waaay overboard on the description of an over-priced coffee break, cut me some slack. I love writing, I love expressing myself without having to see your eye rolling (or is it just me that does it?) and I am externalizing and normalising. So there. 

ps the more observant among you will have noticed that i have been liberally pilfering vocab from FauxFuschia, my favourite blogger to whom I have a spurious connection through the afore-mentioned Mrs B.