HK Magazine

Fresh off the Internet press from my favorite expatriate rag (yes, I'm trying to "go native" in the positive sense, but it's hard to cut oneself off from all things familiar and foreign)

http://hk.asia-city.com/city-living/article/coffee-philosophy

I hope that when things settle down with work in December, I can go visit some of these places.

Mood and Magic

My best friend sent me a link to an article about how coffee consumption is correlated with lower rates of depression in women. She joked about how not having coffee in the morning would make her very grouchy. My gut response was that such research findings could very well be true, since I have experienced more emotional challenges since having to reduce my coffee intake.

I realize that one could simply say that I am undergoing withdrawal symptoms. However, I tried to cut off all caffeine consumption in order to sharpen my mind for my graduate comprehensive exam (based on the research conclusions that caffeine actually makes one's brain fuzzier and less alert) -- oh, big mistake. I felt stuck in the middle stages of the famed Oatmeal cartoon about the emotional roller coaster all caffeine addicts ride on a daily basis [http://theoatmeal.com/comics/caffeine]. Physically, mentally, emotionally draining -- although far less severe pain in magnitude than what individuals who are refraining from heroin and other such drugs are said to endure.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I do miss the activities related to drinking coffee, such as sitting in coffee houses, meeting with friends for coffee, and so on. I admit, I also miss the thrills of drinking coffee in the evenings and being tremendously more productive (whee!) I still drink coffee [like a wonderful white I had just hours ago at Simply Life (http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=18912)] but I am also thinking about whether my coffee-drinking days will soon be over, a phenomenon I could never fathom when expressed by other people, but all the more comprehensible now.

Returning to Work

...in two senses of the phrase.
The academic year (for courses, not finances) started on 1 September, ending my summer routine heavy on research, light on pedagogy. I hope to maintain a more balanced "diet" of these activities this year, but I will have to be practical and meet all sorts of pressing obligations, usually associated with the latter category, so we will see...
I have also been taking a break from coffee to recover from some moderate ailments, and also on the advice of Chinese medicine physicians. I have tried to follow their orders to abstain from and then drink the absolute minimum amount of caffeinated beverages, which has been hard. I probably never had actual carte blanche to enjoy as much coffee as I want, but it is rather discouraging to think consciously about whether to have a cup of coffee on any given day.
With time, I hope to get back on the coffee drinking boat and continue writing this blog.

A Different Flavor

My parents and I share the view that for most of my life, I have not experienced homesickness whenever away from what "home of the moment" might be. For the first seventeen years of my life, I grew up in Oregon. I started to leave home for short periods, spanning a few days to three months, during summers. After starting college, my time away from Oregon increased to six or more months. By my fourth and final undergraduate year, I still referred to the place where I was born and raised as my hometown, but I enjoyed being a transplant with thin but tight roots in my college town. The college town became my home base for the subsequent ten years while I went back and forth from China, Taiwan, Korea, and very short trips to Europe. I said good-bye to that place three years ago to take up my first job away, and after two years, replaced it with the city in which I worked and lived. When WH took his job in yet another place, that town became "second home," but more out of respect for WH's presence there rather than because of genuine attachment.

I am sure some proverb exists about an experience occurring eventually, and for me, I finally started to feel subtle but explicit pangs of homesickness this past year. I could distinguish them from cultural shock, work-related stress, and all of the other emotions I expected to feel. I know that being a foreigner is always challenging, unless one is equipped with tremendous amounts of money, power, as well as vast support networks of friends, relatives, and subordinates to mitigate all the problems of marginalization. The critical difference between this "trip out" and all others preceding is that I plan to stay away and settle down in this new home city until death do we part. Resolving to make a long-term commitment (scarier and arguably less satisfying than promising one's all to spouse or children) has sapped a bit of the flavor out of my life, and inspired memories of my previous homes.

All of these thoughts relate to the coffee part of the blog in the sense that I began to enjoy coffee in the US and learned the ins and outs of such appreciation there. I hope that in the coming months, I will learn more about how a precious few manage to imbibe real coffee here in Hong Kong, and as such, how I can long less for places, in a trite way, that may only have flavored my past but not my future.

The Ironic Reality of Coffee Consumption

I have not been posting lately because 1) I have been spending most of my creative energy gearing up for the next round of conferences/publications, 2) expending what limited intellectual power I have after a busy and productive spring semester, I am tired.

Now the funny thing is that when I am exhausted, I cannot drink coffee.

Hmm -- one may think, "Isn't coffee the ultimate stimulant? A cup to open the eyes and start the day?"

A reasonable assumption.

However, my body must not adhere to that logic because I need to be sufficiently well-rested to ingest the first cup of the day, as well as any subsequent helpings within the next 24 hours.

I am also a bit odd in that coffee helps me perk up in the morning and allows me to sleep peacefully at night (I am still debating which side is the veritable correlation in modulating energy levels, whether up or down, and the other, the placebo effect). That bizarre formula, again, only works with enough investment in deep, uninterrupted sleep.

My cats, who arrived in Hong Kong two weeks ago, are still adjusting to their new home environment, and are therefore not sleeping through whole nights -- which means I am not doing so either (I plan to sell recordings of their violent shrieks either when fighting each other or demonstrating their individual martial prowess to companies who put together soundtracks for amusement park haunted houses). Perhaps when they are sleeping at least 6 hours in a row, I can start drinking coffee...

On another note: "W.H." is my abbreviation for "wiser half" -- a.k.a MarshalN, my husband and partner in every aspect of life -- never mind that he prefers tea over coffee...

Forward from the Guardian 1

I will strive to write my own material (and only take credit for what I write), but I can't help but sending some forwards along when I see them.

Having given up on the American media since Fox News started to become popular, I now rely on British intelligence (wit, sarcasm, and all) to understand the world around me. My political stance having become obvious with the previous sentence, I will say proudly that this bit of "other people's work" comes from my favorite news site "The Guardian"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/may/16/best-iced-coffee-frappuccino

Coffee Sophisticate

Coffee can be delicious for many different reasons. The first one for many drinkers is the sense of security that the beverage provides -- whether ensuring that one will be able to stagger out of the house in the morning, stay awake during vital meetings, or be able to meet a late-night deadline. The second is that coffees do not taste all the same so to have one that defies the negative stereotypes of "burnt tar" and "black acid" is rewarding in and of itself. A third reason I will pose here is that coffee goes well with many foods, so it contributes more taste to something else with taste. I know I am opening myself up for criticism on this front, since some people will strike the metaphor that coffee tastes like vodka (both liquids being essentially tasteless). I happen to like the taste of vodka too, so maybe my taste buds are the ones that should be scrutinized.

Onto the main topic, since I am offering due praise today, I can actually mention the subject of my blog openly. I am eternally grateful for websites, so the presentation of basic facts regarding any topic is done in a more refined and comprehensive way than I could do.

For those of you who have not been to Taipei, please go and experience the best of East Asian culture. Occasionally derided for being a "provincial metropolis" (oxymoron not withstanding) and second-tier compared to neighboring cities such as Tokyo and Hong Kong, it is actually the finest place in the region if one wants to enjoy productive blends of local and foreign culture at reasonable prices. Taipei's culture is neither flashy nor overly expensive, and is available in idiosyncratic doses all over the city, not just in dedicated "cultural districts" [a jibe at my current place of residence-->you can read about all the controversies regarding the West Kowloon C.D. --> for the pravda description, see http://www.wkcda.hk/]. Moreover, Taipei is a very inclusive place. The city's residents are generally friendly and welcome foreigners, two qualities found in lesser degrees within East Asia's other metropolitan zones. Therefore, all in all, Taipei is a soulful, multi-faceted place, preserving quality culture (high and low) in modest forms.

Jeanlook Coffee [http://www.jeanlook.com.tw/] embodies this spirit of Taipei. Two of my great friends from graduate school took me there as part of my first walk around a section of Da'an district that I had never explored before. We had dessert and coffee before a sumptuous and properly spicy Sichuanese dinner at Kiki's [http://www.kiki1991.com/]. Far from spoiling our appetites, the filtered coffee and sweets were perfect appetizers, bracing our stomachs for peppercorns and chilis galore. Moreover, the ambiance of Jeanlook, where one can have a quick cup upstairs at the to-go stand or descend into the cavernous basement to watch the baristas (literally working in an eye-level open configuration much like a sushi bar) and chat with friends while listening to instrumental jazz pumped in at a delicate volume. One barista worked steadily on extracting one pot of siphon coffee for the full hour that we were there, methodically working through each step with the solemnity of a religious officiant. Behind him, a board advertised courses on coffee science (brewing, tasting, appraising) aimed, I imagined, at attracting participants who treat coffee as a topic of intellectual pursuit.

I admit that I may have been attracted to Jeanlook for the qualities that I rarely enjoy in other establishments. Jeanlook gained many points for not being crowded, having polite customers who were not trying to show off, and moreover, looked like they were savoring the taste of their coffee, neither falsely nor pretentiously. Furthermore, Jeanlook reminds me of a coffee place that has featured on Wiser Half's blog [http://www.marshaln.com/?s=Jaho], Jaho Coffee in Salem, Massachusetts [http://www.jaho.com/pages/about-us]. Jeanlook is more European than Jaho, whether in interior design, food and beverage portion sizes, and such, but both places share the same understated sophistication which makes drinking coffee (quietly) pleasurable...