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"depresso - the feeling when you've ran out of coffee"

bill murray

By 默默富酷

October 13^th, 2015

caffeine fix without the hipsters

i have been going to hsl coffeeshop weekly for almost 5 years now. this place made butter coffee popular before hipsters were old enough to beard. over the years, the baristas and some of the elderly patrons knew me by face, and my order - kopi see kosong (sock-pulled coffee with evaporated milk without the carcinogenic sugar).

occasionally, when i feel like living dangerously, i would order kopi gu yew (coffee with a heavy-handed scoop of sweetened milk topped with a slice of frozen scs butter), kway neng (a pair of runny eggs) and kaya loti (partially stale white bread toasted over charcoal fire and smothered with coconut jam).

what keep me coming back is not the coffee or the accompanying chow. it is the people i meet. several of them would look forward to having a chat with me every saturday morning, and the pleasure’s all mine.

the baristas

basically a father and son tag team run the operation. i prefer my liquid caffeine prepared by the older barista. his grumpiness makes me appreciate the cup better.

the pair runs a tight gig, starting operations at 330am in the morning and winding down at around 430pm.

elder shi having a cup of his own caffeinated goodness.

elder shi tying raffia strings to be used with take away coffee 'cups' - which are empty sweetened milk cans

younger shi having lunch in between serving coffee. it will take him at least 5 seatings to finish his meal.

the regular faces

we exchanged greetings. we shared tables. we shared stories.

some of the regular faces are no more. two of them passed away.

always seen with either beer or fags. he doesn't speak much to me but would sometime comment that he has not seen me for a while.

he told me that the left side of his body is weak due to a stroke several years back.

he speaks to himself most of the time, alternating between elation and more often grimace. i was told he passed on.

he comes in and buy three ciggies from the younger shi, lights one immediately and keeping the other two in his front pocket for later.

"dogs, cats, wild boars - i have eaten them all. cannot eat now due to cholesterol." he repeats this to me every single week.

we never exchanged a word but he is always there every saturday, reading the chinese morning newspapers.

uncle "see ham" (cockles). i miss him. he died following a fall near hsl last year.

he is always in the same corner with his black coffee and a cigarette.

he has the same routine each time - starting a pack of "chee cheong fun", wash down with half a cup of tea and light up a fag.

the irregular faces

some other characters i encountered over the years.

Footnotes

errata: mt messaged me "barista not barrister". thanks for the correction. the difference: one is more substance with little froth, and the other more froth with little substance. :)

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FootNotes

errata: mt messaged me "barista not barrister". thanks for the correction. the difference: one is more substance with little froth, and the other more froth with little substance. :)

“no photographer is as good as the simplest camera”

"depresso - the feeling when you've ran out of coffee"

bill murray

FootNotes

edward steichen

yohji yamamoto

- marian burros

ridley scott

dennis "the worm" rodman

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