Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 132 - 129 Bao Ka

As a Japanese restaurant in Australia, this establishment had also undergone many improvements, such as the pre-meal drink menu, which features a variety of specially crafted cocktails. Yan Yan’s favorite is the blue Aqua-themed cocktail.

The wine list includes Australian wines and Japanese sake, among others, and the desserts combine Australian and Japanese influences in a very distinctive way.

Some diners, who were unaware of the true nature of the restaurant, treated it as a pure Japanese restaurant and came for dishes like sashimi and tempura, making a mistake in their meal choices.

Of course, seasoned foodies like Yan Yan would definitely order the perfect combo for "Rock Burning"—Wagyu Rump Steak and Lobster Tail, with the lobster tail removed.

The quality of the meat varied, and so did the prices. Yan Yan’s order of this rock-burning hot plate was twice as expensive as the previously mentioned popular "Beef Combination Rock Burning" and came without any side dishes.

In terms of sauces, the Wagyu Rump Steak went from four to five different types compared to the previous combination.

Although Yan Yan often invited others to dine, saying "it doesn’t matter how good it is, the key is it must be expensive," when someone else invited her out, she would choose the less expensive options.

However, this didn’t include Bao Bao, who was born into a wealthy family and had successfully established his own chain of coffee brands.

Whenever Yan Yan and Bao Bao dined out, regardless of who was paying, they focused only on what tasted good without concerning themselves with price.

Speaking of expensive, a hundred Australian dollars for a Wagyu and lobster combo could only be considered a mid-range price.

"Bao Ka, how many stores are you planning to open this year?" Yan Yan had another name for Bao Bao, now also calling him "Coffee Master Bao Bao," or simply Bao Ka.

"No plans to open more stores.

This one, if it hadn’t already been in the works for a long while, I might not have opened it.

I’m going to let things settle for a few years before slowly expanding.

The coffee shops I initially bought were already very well-established brands.

Now, if I’m going to do one myself, I can only earnestly build up the brand at one location before considering an expansion.

But that’s okay, if you open in China Town, you can easily drop by after class," Bao Bao’s previous purchases were coffee shops situated away from the city center.

The first coffee shops Bao Bao bought were mature Australian brands, Gloria Jean’s Coffee, which now also has locations in his native country managed by Tianjin Goubuli Buns.

For investment immigration, choosing such a coffee shop typically involved buying the establishment along with the staff, allowing the investor to simply provide the capital while daily operations could still be managed by the original manager.

It earns slightly less than managing it personally, but investing in such projects is more about having leisure time, similar to how many new immigrants buy small convenience stores like 7/11.

For such purchases, making money is a secondary objective; the primary goal is to meet employment requirements for investment immigration.

Bao Bao began to fall in love with coffee only after he had purchased the coffee shops.

Melbourne is one of the most coffee-centric cities in the world, and the local coffee culture is so strong that it offers minimal survival space for large international coffee chain brands.

For instance, Starbucks, the number one coffee shop brand globally, entered Melbourne in 2000 and has been mostly operating at a loss. In 2008, Starbucks retreated, leaving only a few pitiful branches behind.

The Starbucks stores in Australia are directly operated, not franchised, similar to those in his native country.

Starbucks’s beans and service are both considered "industrially replicated," and Melburnians rarely have a "Starbucks craze," nor are they easily swayed by Starbucks’s own culture.

Locals are unsurprised that Starbucks couldn’t thrive in Melbourne. freewebnσvel.cøm

Conversely, coffee restaurants that sell their own roasted beans are the favorites among Melburnians.

Just wandering around the tourist-centric areas of downtown Melbourne won’t give one a sense of the local culture.

However, visiting all the famous coffee shops in Melbourne certainly provides a fresh understanding of the local customs and culture.

Melbourne is a city that truly requires "slow travel."

Bao Bao had already sold the mature brand coffee shops he previously bought; the shop in China Town is the second establishment under his own brand.

Bao Bao isn’t concerned about turning his coffee shops into a chain; he genuinely loves coffee now and even considered shutting down his very first shop to focus more intently on properly handling a single store.

However, shortly after his first shop opened, it was voted as Australia’s Best New Cafe of the year, and business was exceptionally booming.

Now, closing it didn’t seem appropriate.

Had he not received the award after starting the renovations on his new establishment, he surely wouldn’t have thought about establishing a "chain."

[Xiao Mo’s class]

Ordering at Japanese restaurants abroad, the most frustrating thing has to be not understanding the menu.

This issue has little to do with how good your English is.

The menu has Japanese and English, but many of those English words are direct transliterations of the Japanese, just like Japanese people’s English names, odd and quirky.

The "word choice" on Japanese restaurant menus in English-speaking countries, to some extent, originates from Japanese people’s strong confidence in their own culture.

Many people end up with "mute English" after studying English.

It’s the kind where you can read but can’t speak.

Most of these people think their pronunciation isn’t standard and only speak Chinglish, so they feel embarrassed to speak.

But in fact, Chinese people’s English pronunciation is much better than that of many other Asians, including Japanese and Indians.

Japanese often use Hiragana and Katakana to phonetically transcribe English when they learn it.

So, a lot of Japanese people’s English sounds just like Japanese.

Even if Chinese people’s pronunciation isn’t standard, they still learn English following phonetic symbols.

There’s an interesting phenomenon where Japanese people don’t choose authentic English names; they just use their own given names.

But Chinese rarely use the pinyin of their names as their English names, insisting on choosing a "genuine" foreign name.

Those few who use pinyin are often worried that foreigners won’t pronounce their names correctly.

Ultimately, this fear of speaking English boils down to the same reason: lack of confidence.

But this lack of confidence is completely unjustified.

The reality is, you shouldn’t compare your English to a foreigner’s English; you should compare your English to a foreigner’s Chinese.

When foreigners speak Chinese with a strange accent, does anyone laugh at them?

You most likely won’t, and you’ll even admire the foreigner’s effort.

Similarly,

when Chinese people speak English with a strange accent, foreigners have no reason to laugh, and will actually appreciate your effort to learn their language.

Chinese who feel they speak English well often boast of an authentic American accent or even a more sophisticated London accent.

But language is just a tool for communication; as long as people can understand you, that’s enough.

English is one of Singapore’s official languages, and Singaporeans generally speak very good English, but you can tell right away it’s from Singapore.

What’s wrong with that?

So, there’s no need to worry about your English pronunciation—confidently say a few words whenever you can.

After all, our English pronunciation is much better than that of Japanese, and our English proficiency is much better than foreigners’ Chinese proficiency, isn’t it?

Chinese going abroad to open Chinese restaurants are seldom bold enough to write sections of the menu in pinyin, fearful that foreigners won’t understand.

Japanese are different; they just write it the way it’s pronounced in Japanese.

If you like Japanese food, you need to know their expressions.

That’s why terms like "Sushi," "Sashimi," "Wasabi," and "Tatami" have already rewired the brains of foodies all around the world.

In Japanese restaurants, "Beef Hot Pot" is called Sukiyaki, Shabu Shabu, and the likes.

This method of translation is akin to Chinese restaurants in English-speaking countries translating "Beef Hot Pot" as Niurou-Huoguo.

Just like how Chinese rarely have the confidence to use pinyin for their English names, Chinese restaurants seldom have the confidence to translate this way.

But this is our culture, so why can’t we call it Niurou-Huoguo?