ABOUT MILK TEA

Both yesterday and today are at solid places where the staff is pleased to see me, the food is decent, and the milk tea is entirely as it should be. Meaning that it is served in a ceramic cup, reasonably strong and sweet, and properly brewed. And I cannot sense that the staff would rather be elsewhere, or they and the regulars wish that I were. There are no bakeries on my schedule. One of those is a pleasant place, but I'm sick and tired of the damned paper cups for a beverage that isn't as good as at an Italian caffe in Northbeach though at the same price and at least two of the regular customers in the middle of the afternoon clearly would prefer that I weren't there -- for the past six weeks I've avoided the dropping by -- and an alternative bakery has a limited selection of pastries, the milk tea is distinctly stale, and the owner does not seem to like me.

Milk tea absolutely needs to be in ceramic or glass if it is consumed on the premises. Not in a paper cup with an attitude. That strongly suggests "thank you for your money, now piss off".

All in all I've decided to henceforth limit my Chinatown food and drink jaunts a bit. Two places remain in the regular ambit. Six more once every three or four weeks. Another place which is favoured by sour old geezers if I am down there early because of medical appointments, plus dumpling places for when a whim strikes. The key criteria are good milk tea in ceramic, and a pleasant atmosphere devoid of apathy or distaste at the presence of customers.

I tip well, I do not snarl, I'm patient, and I bathe daily.
Also, I'm sane and do not bother others.
Treat me as customers should be.

As for what had been the frequent Wednesday afternoon tea place, their pastries are indeed exceedingly good and some of the staff actually like me (hard to imagine, I know) but during the last few times I felt distinctly unwelcome. Or least like a leper. So screw it. If I come it will be hours before the old guys show up. The place I tried instead for few times is clean, well lit, and often tiredly apathetic. Kind of screw them too.

Did I mention the paper cup thing? At that price for a beverage, not even factoring in the tip, which is optional, it needs to be decently made as well as in a ceramic or glass container if consumed on the premises.



One place I've more or less avoided has a passle of old country bumpkins who barely even said 'hi', and as the white guy who speaks Cantonese I was treated like a smart monkey who should have learned Toishanese instead, because that is a far more civilized dialect which all decent people speak. There are, never-the-less, two places operated by Toishanese folks where I enjoy going. Good food, good service, good attitude. Why isn't that the norm?



Anyhow, going to have lunch today at a place where they treat me like a fellow human being, and which I know certain local 台山佬 don't like because it's not the old Chinatown, they don't do things properly there, not like in the old days when there weren't so many folks from Hong Kong or the Mandarin speaking zone living here, why, there is nothing that even suggests Chinatown as it should be, things aren't the same, these new people, dammit, and darnit the milk tea isn't slop served in a paper cup good gracious!

And they even understand me when I speak Cantonese!
What is this world coming to?
How whorrid.



==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================