Coffee, tea and me

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The coffee crisis is over.

My Melitta cone filter had been left behind when I moved from Yutai to Weishan. In the meanwhile, I had been forced to drink Nescafe instant. My friends back home were horrified! A flotilla of mercy vessels stocked with dark-roasted beans was being prepped to sail from Sausalito. But at the very last moment, my precious #2 cone made it's way to Weishan.

By searching the intertubes, I found an American micro-roaster in China that would ship a pound of decent dark beans to me (shade grown, fair trade, free-range and home-schooled), ground for cone filter, for US$8.00 delivered.

It got even better: the next day, my new toaster arrived from Taobao.com
(Taobao is sort of like the eBay of China).

The impossibly adorable roommates (I.A.R.'s) were fascinated and insisted upon toasting lessons, since they had never, ever used a toaster. My toasting lessons were fairly short ("Push this little lever down") and toast school was over for the day. You would be proud of me: I burned the first pieces and then turned the little knob back down to "2". Now, I make perfect toast, probably the best toast in Weishan.

I still didn't have any butter. For a few days, I had made do by spreading Skippy peanut butter on toast, but clearly, a reliable supply of real butter was in order. In the town of Weishan, the most modern supermarket does not even stock butter and doesn't know what it is. In order to obtain butter, I would need to travel to the much larger city of Jining, 110 kilometers away.

Jining has skyscrapers and everything, as well as a RT Mart, sort of like a Walmart (and based in Taiwan, by the way). There, I scored two pounds of Land o' Lakes salted and even found a few pounds of bacon (!!!).

My life is in balance once again.

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Comments

[joy]

coffee and butter, life is good.......

[Tarheel]

Dark roast coffee, toast, butter, and bacon. Life is good. How did you get to RT Mart?

[Kirsten]

I knew..
I knew we were kindred spirits! I use a Melitta cone filter too. Everyone always asks me, What is that? Do you have something again coffee makers?" Yes, yes I do.

[Mimi]

Wow Joe, you scored = happy teacher!

[Betsy]

Hurray for B&B!
Butter & Bacon that is. So glad you finally got some of both - very important staples to get you through your daily performances. And of course, the coffee goes without saying. What do you do for creamer?

[Global Drifter]

Glad you found the RT Mart. It's pretty good, actually.

[Tamlyn]

butter and bacon
Thank goodness you have been able to procure adequate supplies of satfats. You go, Joe!