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Ep. 45: Zafran and Our Return

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We’re back from our two-month hiatus! This week, we’re going to catch up on each other’s lives and then do a review of the awesome restaurant Zafran, which kindly invited us to try out and sample their food in December. It’s good to be back, and we’re looking forward to bringing you guys more laughter and joy throughout 2014!

[audio https://dearhk.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/ep-45_zafran-and-our-return.mp3]
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Ep. 44: Overhyping It

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This week, Charlotte and Felix catch up a little on what they’ve been up to for the past week, and then dive into an interesting discussion on the notion of ‘hype’. What is hype? What are some things that have been overhyped, or under-hyped? Any ideas? 🙂

[audio https://dearhk.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/ep-44_overhyping-it.mp3]
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Ep. 43: 5 Things We Want (but don’t need)

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This week, we don’t waste any time by catching up and dive right into our feature topic, which is discussing the top 5 things we want right now (but don’t need). We set some ground rules, set some guidelines, let’s see how it goes!

[audio https://dearhk.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/ep-43_5-things-we-want-but-dont-need.mp3]
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Ep. 40: One Year Anniversary! (GUEST: Peter Lau)

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Today, October 22nd, marks the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the Dear HK Podcast! We’re so happy to have gone through this year with you guys and to celebrate this awesome first birthday, we have our good friend Peter here with us today, to play an awesome game with us! Just a heads up, the audio quality in this week’s podcast is a little funky, so please bear with us! Yay, happy birthday to us!!

You can also listen and subscribe to us on iTunes via this link: https://itunes.apple.com/hk/podcast/dear-hk-podcast/id661746289

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An Afternoon Alone

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Posted by Charlotte Raybaud

I’m sat here with a surprisingly good cup of Caramel Latté (but more on that later), wondering where on earth the past few months (or perhaps maybe even more?) have scurried off to.

Now since diving back into the blog was never going to be an easy job, it seems rather fitting that I’ve chosen the most evil day of the week to tackle this post. (EDIT: This post was meant to come out yesterday, but technical faults abound…) But with caffeine in hand in an oddly quiet café, I feel reassured that this is going to be okay.

Let’s do this.

So I figured the best thing to do was to shake out a few little life updates, so that y’all know what to expect from me wrt* the blog. My first little post will be about my latte addiction in McCafé. I’ve been a little hooked, to the point where I’m getting a little worried about what is going to happen when I move into my new flat, which is nowhere near a McCafé. *sob*

Counting Down the Days: Too Much Time in McCafé

Mmm…Caffeine…

One thing I’ve been up to during this extended disappearance is spending a lot of time with the cool younger sibling of McDonalds, The McCafé. It’s gotten to that point in my early adult life that I can’t quite function without coffee (I say this, I really mean lattes), and since there was no PCC, Starbucks, Café Habitu…etc. in sight near the serviced apartments I am/was (more on that in another post) living in, the McCafé that was just around the corner seemed like an unlikely beacon of hope amidst a sea of caffeine-deprived zombies, (myself included).

I gingerly stepped into one and I’ve never really looked back. I was so pleasantly surprised and impressed by how tasty the coffee/ tea-lattes were that I felt like I should really share my favourite things on the menu.

Working in Admiralty, I’ve paid my fair share of overpriced caffeine, so I promise you McCafé has got its sh*t together. I’ve also sampled overpriced coffee around town, and while some of it is really deserving of its pricetag, McCafé really does not disappoint both in its taste and price. So without further ado, here are my Top 3 favourites (latte-wise):

1)     The McCafé Soy Green Tea Latte:

I’m not quite sure what its real name is, but it is quite possibly better than its Starbucks counterpart.  The closest thing I’ve tasted to the McCafé version is a green tea latte I fell in love with that was served in a café called Mitchell’s all the way in St Andrews, but since coming back to Hong Kong I haven’t found one that really compared. Until this of course. This latte is super fancy shpancy considering it’s just from Macky-Ds—they sprinkle green tea flakes/ powder to form an “M” shape, which adds this bitter/ salty flavour to the latte itself. Delish.

This is part of their promotional menu, I think, along with a Himalayan Black Tea Latte (I think that’s what it is?) which is equally delicious, if not a little too sweet for my taste. If you’re a huge fan of green tea like I am, this will certainly not disappoint. EDIT: I’ve since found out that maybe this isn’t part of their promotional menu!!  

2)    The Bog-standard McCafé Latte:

There isn’t much to say about this. It’s everything you would expect from a latte, except for some reason the McCafé one has beaten even the $50-ish one I paid for a while back. I think it’s because the froth is actually really ‘solid’ in the McCafé one. I can’t stand a watery froth on a latte—if I’ve committed to getting all the cream, don’t give me some watered down crap, namean? It’s best with just a bit of brown sugar. I was in a massive hurry a few weeks ago to get to work, and they were doing some deal at McCafé, where you could add an additional $9 for a whole-wheat bagel with cream cheese. It’s honestly the best quick breakfast/ snack I’ve had in a while. The two went together surprisingly well!

3)    The McCafé Caramel Latte (pictured above):

So I walked in here knowing I wanted a caramel latte, and the sign said it was on offer today for $15. FIFTEEN BUCKS!? That is insane. That’s not even enough to cover two pens nowadays (I think I should probably write about my Muji obsession soon). It’s barely enough to buy a few packs of tissues and here you are charging only FIFTEN BUCKS for a slice of heaven?! Yeah. Basically McCafé is ridic.

I’ve tried my own fair share of caramel lattes (strangely I’ve never tried the salted caramel latte from Starbucks, which is next on my list) but this one is really surprisingly good. It’s not so obnoxiously sweet that it makes your throat hurt afterwards, yet it satisfies a crave for a pinch of sugar. (It’s also great for oiling the cogs on blog-writing…) This needs absolutely no sugar and has quite a good little kick of caffeine.

And that’s all! Did I also mention that until November (possibly until longer?), McCafé is doing this promotion where with every drink you buy, you get a little stamp. After 4 stamps you get a free small sized drink. I’m on my second little card, which has enough space for 8 stamps. I’m more than a little addicted, for sure, but am proud!

If you guys go and check out the McCafé, let me know what you thought. Some of them are a bit ghetto (the one I go to has a questionable bag-lady that obsessively clears up all the tables…), but aside from that the Caffeine Angels are really nice, and because it seems like no one has found out about the wonders of McCafé coffee, they still care about each cup!

For more information, check out the McCafé website

 #Caffeine_Yayz

* i.e. with regards to: Someone taught me this yesterday!

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Ep. 39: 5 Things We Wish We Had

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This week, Charlotte and I spend a lot of time catching up and talking about things that we’ve been up to for the past week. Felix talks about Alfonso Cuaron’s new film ‘Gravity’, while Charlotte shares her cool experiences. We then move on to our feature topic of the day; and of course, hilarity ensues! Enjoy!

Listen and subscribe to us on iTunes via this link: https://itunes.apple.com/hk/podcast/dear-hk-podcast/id661746289

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Ep. 38: Adult Adventures

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Don’t worry, we’re not talking anything dirty! This week, we talk about things that we’re experiencing now that makes us feel “adult” and how that makes us worry and feel old. We promise you that it’s not depressing at all!

[audio https://dearhk.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/ep-38_adult-adventures.mp3]
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Ep. 37: To Autumn

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We’re finally back this week, after a month-long hiatus! Sorry about the wait! This week, Charlotte and Felix catch up on the cool things they’ve been up to while they were gone and then they dive right into a discussion of why Autumn is perhaps the best season of the year!

[audio https://dearhk.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/ep-37_to-autumn.mp3]