Book: “Before The Coffee Gets Cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
“‘Are you listening?’ Kazu continued. ‘When you return to the past, you must drink the entire cup before the coffee goes cold.'”
<giggles to self> When was the last time I managed to drink a cup of coffee still hot – even before parenthood this was not my forte and thus returning to the past in a dingy little Tokyo coffeeshop and keeping to its rules could be problem for me…
This is the debut novel from Japanese playwright Kawaguchi, and one can easily imagine it set on a stage. The potential messiness of time travel is wiped away within the strict confines of the café rules – and nothing you do or say will alter the present. We are given four vignettes of café patrons revisiting a past moment – I The Lovers, II Husband and Wide, III The Sisters, and IV Mother and Child all umbrellaed under a larger flowing narrative (how very play-like).
Gin: Sakurao Japanese Dry Gin Original
Japan, known better for their wonderful whiskies, is dipping into the craft gin world and I really love that this Hiroshima distilled offering is full of local Japanese botanicals – navel oranges, sweet summer orange, yuzu, dai dai (local bitter orange), hinoki cypress, green tea, red shiso and ginger. Don’t worry, juniper berries are involved too and quite apparent on the nose. It’s all about citrus here though and makes for a slightly sweeter than usual summery affair. Try get your hands on some Yuzu peel to garnish your G&T with and maybe pop in a few juniper berries for fun. Rumour has, it makes an excellent martini too!
Gin available in Hong Kong online at Gin HK
Miss you Tokyo, can’t wait to be back one day x
