Hold me like you did by the lake on Naboo
I stuck my head into the not-yet-opened Hong Kong Fatburger this afternoon and had a brief chat with some obvious non-locals with an authoritative look who informed that the shop should open by Saturday November 8th. The inside of the shop has really filled out and it looks basically finished.
Calendar circled, fasting begun.
UPDATE: Given that the shop is now open, the Drudge-style siren has been removed.
First Bear Stearns going out of business. Then Lehman Brothers going bankrupt. AIG is teetering. Even Iceland is in trouble. I’m not going to lie to you - those hurt. But this news from today is end-of-days-book-of-Revelations hurt.
Hong Kong’s Krispy Kreme franchisee announced plans to enter liquidation and immediately close five of their seven stores. The two remaining locations at the airport will remain open for the time being, at least until creditors meet on November 12. After that, it’s not looking good.
Does this situation not scream for government intervention?
I know that Nator and I will hold close the memories of eating several Original Glazed while sipping some surprisingly decent coffee at the Mong Kok location.
It’s not all bleak for Krispy Kreme in Greater China. Earlier this month, the mothership in America announced plans to open 35 stores in mainland China over the next five years. Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin are first with, hopefully, others cities to follow (Wuhan?). Fortunately, Krispy Kreme awarded the franchise to Korea’s Lotte Group (the franchisee in Korea and Japan), rather than the bozos that ran Krispy Kreme Hong Kong into the ground.
Two new exciting developments at the hopefully soon-to-be-opened Wan Chai Fatburger. As shown above, they are finally trying to hire staff. This being their first Hong Kong shop, who knows how far in advance they are hiring employees, but it can’t be long. The second equally encouraging sign is they are finally taking the front facade off the building. See the action shot below and before you complain about the bluriness please stop to consider the madd photo skillz it took to get a semi-focused picture as my cab flew by on Queen’s Road East. It won’t be long now.
UPDATE: Here’s another photo at night showing the front street-facing side of the restaurant and demonstrating just how tantalizingly close we are to the end of Fatwatch™.
Here we are, less than two days from the start of October and still no Hong Kong Fatburger. Good thing Omega didn’t put together a Fatburger Countdown Clock à la the Olympic Clock in Tiananmen Square. As previously reported, the sign still says “opening in this summer” but summer is officially over and still no Fatburger. Can we continue to wait patiently for America’s Best Burger (according to the trusted readers of the Aurora Sentinel and Highlands Ranch Herald)?
Yes, we can. At least a little while longer. Especially with a slightly-more-than-spitting-distance Fatburger located in Macau able to tide us over for a few more months.
I visited said Macau Fatburger slightly more than a month ago and, let me tell you something: it delivered. And how. The burgers (pictured below) were terrific. A delicate balance of meat, bun, lettuce, tomato and grease. Nothing lost in translation here. The fries were another story. Give the fat fries a miss. The skinny fries are a solid B, but not worth a special trip. The atmosphere? C, C+ at best. The shop is neither free-standing or self-enclosed. It’s part of a large food court in The Venetian Casino and easy to miss. Most of the staff were unable to provide directions and had never heard of the Fatburger. I know - completely F’d up.
As for an update on the Hong Kong Fatburger progress? Here’s a small one. Despite the prevalent view that nothing is happening behind the construction facade, I can personally confirm that progress is being made. Slow progress. Last weekend I ventured over to the site on Queen’s Road East and peeked behind the facade and saw about ten construction workers busy inside. It was hard to tell exactly how far from finished they are, but they have a long way to go. The inside is completely unfinished with nothing resembling a kitchen, grill, counter or seats. Still, a sign outside indicates they are hiring, which can only be positive.
ODB recently asked why the Chinese spacewalk was getting so much coverage. As usual, a quick look at the China Daily homepage provides the answer:
Aside from the Miss Switzerland pageant, it was clearly the top story of the weekend!
I was curious about the ”763 batches of Chinese milk found chemical free” link, however, so I searched the site for the keyword “milk”. Turns out there has been a lot of news about milk in the past couple of weeks. It’s all terribly complicated, and I’m still sorting out the facts. But these articles, all taken from China Daily and Xinhua, have been particularly helpful:
A classic moment today at my local McDonald’s: A young girl was eating an early lunch at about 11:30 am with an older guy, probably her grandfather. Gramps wasn’t hungry, but he was definitely thirsty, as he took several large swigs from his bottle of Red Star erguotou (in the classic green flask). He even gave her the drunken finger-point, wagging it in front of her face as he loudly passed along some sage advice. Alas, I didn’t bring my camera.
Merchandising note: The Olympics theme has already been pushed out in favor of a series of ads and toys for Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Have you ever noticed the “help wanted” signs in China, you know, the ones that say “wanted, female, ages 18-25″? These jobs invariably involve minor clerical or waitress type work. It’s more important that she be a certain height (often 160cm) than to have any formal schooling certificates.
Today I had lunch at the “Steak & Eggs” diner in Shanghai (the American-run restaurant that started in Beijing). There was a new waitress who was very polite, decent, and - most amazing for China - she hustled. I mean, she really moved swiftly around the two story dining room. Judging by her face she had to be at least 35 (though from behind she could pass for 22, ohhh Chinese women…). The main point was not how attentive she was, but that she was “old” for this line of work. It helps that the owners are an American-Chinese mix, I believe, and that they themselves are late middle age. That is, we’d expect less age discrimination in this set up. But it led me to come here to ask what has crossed my mind from time to time. What do these girls do after they hit 28 or so and leave their original job? Obviously some enter the throes of motherhood and homemaker, but what about the rest? What does a woman in China do who has no education beyond high school, doesn’t know English, and doesn’t have tangible job skills?
NATOR ADDS: Hotpoter kind of said it in the comments, but I’ll be more specific: they get married. An American woman in a similar situation would probably think marriage is her best option; the typical Chinese woman will be a lot poorer and thus more likely to look to marriage. Also, China remains very conservative about certain things, and marriage is one of them. (Though I’d add with more emphasis on “till death do us part” and less on ”to love and to cherish”.) And finally, Chinese women are increasingly outnumbered due to the combination of the one child policy and a traditional preference for males. More than ever before, China’s women will be able to “marry up”. So I think Hotpoter’s point is valid. Most of these women are going to want to get married, and they will get married, and they’ll have a better (financial) life than before.
I’m far more worried about China’s men with little education. What will these men–and there are already tens of millions of them–do when they get older and can’t even find a wife?
Many interesting things to cover. First and most imporantly, the Egg McMuffin is available 24 hours a day. It’s option number nine in the photo:
This fantastic option is essentially negated by the lack of coffee refills outside of breakfast hours–which, by the way, last until 11am, instead of 10am as is standard on the mainland.
The coffee is decent, but with so many good coffee shops around, it tastes relatively worse. It is nice to get real half-and-half with one’s coffee, though, instead of the faux half-and-half substitute provided in the mainland.
The sausage here tastes much stronger and better than the sausage patties used in the rest of China. I suppose it’s imported from the U.S., while the China meat is processed domestically.
Will try the pancakes soon….
Finally, some movement on the elusive Hong Kong Fatburger. A few weeks ago (yes, it took me a little while to get around to taking a photo) they put a wrap on the increasingly frayed construction barrier announcing that renovation was in progress and the shop would be “opening in this summer.” English grammar aside, I interpret this to mean they will open before the end of August. Judging by my recent walk-bys on Queen’s Road East, there hasn’t been a lot of movement on the renovation. Time is running out.
The earthquake donation roll call extends from the largest companies in China down to the smallest. This photo is from a poster on Hubuxiang, an alley in Wuhan famous for its dozens of stalls selling tasty snacks. About 80 stalls are listed, with individual donations as small as 10 RMB mentioned. Most of the snacks here cost 1-3 RMB, and thousands of people eat on Hubuxiang every day, so 10 RMB isn’t exactly a generous donation, even for these small-time proprietors. I wonder whether those in the 10 RMB group are proud or ashamed to have their name and donation amount listed like this — probably a bit of both.
