Coffee Beans

The coffeeshop for this trip was all about The Cupping Room. I didn't go out of my way to look for it. But its Wan Chai outlet happened to be the closest decent coffeeshop along my daily route, and I really like this one over of its other two in Cochrane Street (Central) and Sheung Wan. Didn't bother hitting the roastery that's also located in Sheung Wan, two streets away from its cafe.

Most mornings, the complimentary Nespresso capsules in the room do the job fine. They cleverly stocked up our favorite flavors. Coffeeshops are only for the afternoons when I need one more shot of caffeine. I did hop into the Central outlet of The Cupping Room when I needed a cold and hip lunch. It arrived in the form of coconut chia seed pudding with seasonal fruits. Hurhurhur.

Checked out The Cupping Room's roasting schedule because I wanted to buy beans. J wanted a Rwanda Rulindo or Peruvian Quiquera reserve. They had plenty of stock for her. As usual, I'm not one to hoard beans. Bought two packets for myself. Somehow the Geishas don't do anything for the tastebuds. So I also chose a Quiquera reserve, and picked out an Ethiopian/Colombian Attaboy. These should last nicely till end of March.

任務臘腸膶肠 :: 「蛇王芬」

To our horror, in January, the BFF and I realized that we've finished our stash of Chinese sausages and liver sausages. We don't buy lupcheong and yuencheong from any shop in Singapore, preferring to get them from Hong Kong. Luckily this trip came up. So the BFF sent me on 'Mission Lupcheong'. She sent me a restaurant's name and a link. Her accompanying one-line text read, "Don't come back if you fail." Pfffft. How to fail??! If it has an address on Google, there's no shop I cannot find in Hong Kong. Unless the restaurant is closed, of which I'll simply walk over to Wo Hing (和興臘味家) or some other 'famous' shop selling preserved meats.

This time, the BFF picked 'Ser Wong Fun', 「蛇王芬」. Besides buying lupcheong and yuencheong (臘腸膶肠), I also ended up eating there when the man suddenly texted to say he was at Central and done with meetings, and wanted join me for lunch, and a colleague K would be tagging along. Clever ah, both of them. Came to join me and didn't have to speak a word to order food. I didn't ask if the restaurant had an English menu. I simply read off the Chinese ones tucked under the glass on the table.

Sure, this is a shop that does snake soup (蛇羹) and such. We're totally not interested in that. Neither were we interested in their other dishes which looked pretty good as they were ordered and trotted out to other tables. We were here for the restaurant's one-dish combo lunch plates. Soya sauce chicken and liver sausages for the man, and the same dish for K, but with regular sausages. I learnt that the man loves the green dip that comes with soya sauce chicken. The restaurant's ginger scallion sauce (薑蔥蓉) was ridiculously tasty, and salty. The man asked if I could replicate it. 😐

The men shared a pig's lung soup. Hurhurhur. They never had it before in their lives, and they were so curious about it. They actually loved it. LOL. I had a regular unadventurous old cucumber pork rib soup. I went for broke and ordered braised goose and lupcheong. It was quite delicious. I ignored the weird too-sweet plum sauce. If only restaurants here offered sambal instead of XO sauce. Hahahah. I forgot to bring my own sambal to Hong Kong on this trip. :P

‘The Nature of Forgetting’

A pity I won't be able to catch the bulk of the shows I want at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, unless I come back in mid March. Heh. Many good shows abound for sure, even during the quieter opening week.

I sat through two concerts (a symphony and an orchestra), a contemporary dance farewell showcase (I can't wait to see what a new choreographer does because imho the current stalwart and founder of the company has no more creative spark; every recent piece is simply rehashing the previous, down to costumes), and a rather cute mime with puppets. For this festival opening week, my pick of the lot is a theatre play.

Thoroughly enjoyed Theatre Re's rather depressing and thought-provoking 'The Nature of Forgetting' directed by Guillaume Pigé. The title itself already indicated that it touches on dementia. Guillaume Pigé himself plays Tom who is at home getting dressed for his birthday party. He's coming to terms with the onset of early dementia. He mistakes his daughter for his late wife. We, the audiences travel back in time with Tom to his past; we meet his friends, and understand how they've shaped him to what he is today.

We're watching his consciousness and memories interact, and how one chips away at the other, and sadness befalls everyone when he can't even remember his wedding day clearly. If you didn't read any reviews or the program notes, you wouldn't know that Tom is only 55 years old. You'd have thought him older. Well, I read the notes, and I know he's only at middle age. That's chilling. It's an age not far from where I am now.

Aging and illnesses are the painful progress of life. It's a common story, and the more we understand it, the better we are at accepting people with dementia and managing the challenges that come along with loved ones stricken with dementia. And when we, ourselves, get there, we can only hope the society will be kind and whoever loved ones taking care of us will know when to let go (put us in an assisted care facility) and not feel guilty.

Theatre Re says,

Ultimately, our piece is not about dementia. It is about the fragility of life and that eternal “something” we all share that is left when memory is gone.