Just Cafe

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Here's a Trivial Question - what is the common denominator between the following shops? Bread Talk, Food Republic, Macau Just Cafe, Crystal Jade, Toast Box, Awfully Chocolate, Romankan, Bairin, Suzuki Cafe, Cafe Royce, La Serene Caffe, SHIOK, etc.Well some might not fit in at a 1st glance, but the obvious relation is that, all of these either arrived here from Singapore or have a linkage to that country, having been blended into our daily lives invisibly without us even noticing it much! Let me explain:- Bread Talk: Singapore operated, one of best modern bread shops in HK.- Food Republic Food Courts: Bread Talk Group, invading and operating most of our food court spaces in HK! (Otherwise, its Citysuper, which is Japanese haha!)- Macau's Just Cafe: Hailing from Singapore as well, coffee beans roasted over there then imported. Head Training Barista is a Singaporean.- Crystal Jade (翡翠拉麵小籠包): Well, it was started in Singapore and I bet no one even questioned it !- Toast Box (土司工坊): Bread Talk group.- Awfully Chocolate: Singaporean invention, proliferating over Asia.- Romankan (浪漫館橫浜): From Japan, but entered Singaporean's market before it got introduced to Hong Kong, since someone in Singapore with a smart brain and foresight opened up this Japanese-export's market by pioneering the international Franchise first! - Bairin (梅林): Same story to Romankan, Singaporean's cracked and led the way to the internationalised franchise system first.- Suzuki Cafe (鈴木珈啡館): Japanese cafe, but using, you guessed it, Singaporean roasted coffee beans but to the Japanese owner's specs.- Cafe Royce / La Serene Caffe: Singaporean coffees too!- SHIOK: Well, the food isn't perfect yet but the smartness, the design of dishes and the heart put into it is definitely very Singaporean minded!*****************************- CAFFE LATTE -Just Cafe Macau is actually just like Dane's Gourmet Coffee in Hong Kong, them being a coffee training school in Macau, the only one in fact. And similar to Dane's they only sell take-away coffee or provide drinks as counter service. There are several Singaporean pre-roasted Coffee Beans available, the House Blend in my cup is from memory made up of Costa Rican, Brazil and Colombia - making it an South American all star. My caffe latte was made very well on the Expobar machine, as you'd expect from a barista training school, the milk was nicely warmed and frothed with a lovely sweetness, the coffee base under carried quite a dark roasty, chocolatey character to be supplemented by that same roasty aroma which really punched through the milk! Its finely balanced between a sweet base with a small hint of bitterness only.This is a very commercialised Coffee Blend, and exactly what you would expect to drink in a Cha Chaan Teng except this version is perfectly made on an Espresso Machine.... Its enjoyable! On the other hand and with my personal agenda needing to be voiced, to protect those of us who might in the future want to be able to experiment with and appreciate the BEANS ORIGIN and TERROIR in half the occasions, this type of blending will fail to satisfy that aspect of coffee exploring. As a side note, TW Concept in TST really makes this style of commercial coffee really well, and so do the rare few McDonald's or even Le Gouter Bernadaud who has a capable Barista who can make the perfect commercial cup of coffee.**********************ANYWAY, my point is, the Singaporean people and their city really do deserve our applaud and respect. Despite having only a 2 Million population just a third the size of ours, they manage to expand and thrive in businesses in our city and Macau because they have ambitious goals, they plan ahead and are brave enough to take action, whereas us Hong Kongers really haven't exported many shops internationally and relying on 老本. They even hold a Formula 1 Night race event and with the addition of their amazingly built Marina Bay Sands casino opening soon, will attract a lot more tourism business and attract a lot more foreign spending to help expand their economy. They have even attracted nothing less than 3 Star Chefs in Santi Santamaria (Spain), Guy Savoy (France, Vegas), Daniel Boulud (US), Tetsuya Wakuda (Aust's equivalent of 3 Stars) to open restaurants there, even the lowly 2 Star chef in Wolfgang Puck nearly didn't make the cut. And what do we in Hong Kong get? Cafe Gray? Mini Ducasse's serving weekend brunch. Worst Nobu outlet in the world. To eat at a Boulud's, we need to buy a ticket to Singapore or Shanghai! 繼續閱讀