PIE OF MY EYE

Having gotten out of the house late, after accomplishing nothing at all all day (other than losing a computer painting which I had worked on for five hours obsessively, due to an idiotic mistake - operator error), it was already late when I stumbled into the bakery for milk tea and a pastry. And because I had overlooked lunch, as well as not eaten breakfast, my bloodsugar was at a monumental low. Even though it has not rained today, several days of weather that limited my outdoor activities affected me. European style greyness can have that effect.
So I was somewhat gloomfilled. Not at my emotional twinkling best.
Not clinical, just not fully up there.


I've had better days.


Still, the company of four retired gentlemen, a hot cup of milk tea, and a little chicken pie restored me somewhat. As did a bowlful of good tobacco in an elegant pipe afterwards.

Rattray's Old Gowrie in a Charatan black sandblast.

I think the wetness in the air is affecting the baked products. The little chicken pie practically fell apart. It's like the crust, which is normally delightful, lacked cohesion.


Later, walking past where Yong kee (容記糕粉) used to be, I realized that I missed that shop. They've been gone for over ten years now, closed in the Spring of 2012. They had the best of various things, generations of Chinatown had relied on them, but like many fine old C'town businesses, there was no one to catch the baton, so to speak. When the American success story yields medical and engineering degrees, you can't expect the offspring to reject that and instead work for long hours under grinding conditions for little reward.

I don't think they ever made little chicken pies.

Little chicken pies are much more a Hong Kong thing, and the place where I had my tea is probably the best bakery in that regard. Their egg tarts are also totally scrumptious, fresh batch out of the oven close to four thirty (啱啱出爐嘅 'ngaam ngaam chut lou ge').

There are times when such thing hit the mental spot.
I was in a cheerier mood after my tea time.
It may have been the caffeine.
That too.



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