CURRY at Starbucks??

Yesterday afternoon, I had afternoon tea on the way to my office but decided that potato wedges and a chicken wing (washed down with iced lemon tea) - all for $12.50 HKD - would not suffice, and decided that it would be too troublesome to leave the office for a canteen when I would get hungry again within an hour or two. Therefore, I decided to drop by Starbucks beside the Main Library, which was on the way to my office, to grab a pastry.

Starbucks offers a small selection of sandwiches and sweet and savoury pastries, and HKU staff and students get a 33% off discount. I usually end up getting a "mushroom and cheese pocket" ($12 HKD, but $8 HKD for HKU students), which is a bit heavy, and only mildly-flavoured. The quiches are a bit more expensive, and besides, "real men don't eat quiche!" I decided to try something new, so I chose the "bacon and cheese puff", also $8 HKD for HKU students.

As I had predicted, I was hungry again one hour later, so I started munching on my alleged "mushroom and cheese puff". After taking one bite out of the triangle-shaped pastry, I didn't bite into either bacon or cheese. After taking my second bite, however, I was shocked to discover a greenish-yellow substance inside. Greenish-yellow?? That could only mean one thing.. my most feared nemesis.. CURRY!!

I immediately spit the contents of my mouth into the rubbish bin by my desk, then ran to the washroom to rinse my mouth. I rinsed for a full 2-3 minutes before rushing back to my office to rummage for some chewing gum. I chewed chewed chewed, then rinsed my mouth again, then ate a piece of Campino candy.

After that, I began to consider my next course of action. Should I write off my $8 as a mistake and throw the pastry away? Or should I return to Starbucks and exchange it for another pastry? And if I were to return to Starbucks, should I make a scene? Or should I murder the baristas and burn down the cafe?

After pondering this for about an hour, I decided that the stench of curry in my office was too much to bear, so I brought the contents of the brown paper bag with the Starbucks logo on it back to Starbucks. This is how the conversation went:

Me: "Excuse me. I ordered a 'bacon and cheese puff', but you gave me a 'curry puff', and I can't eat curry."

Barista: "Sorry sir. Would you like me to give you a 'bacon and cheese puff'?"

Me: "No thanks. I really can't eat now. Can I have my money back?"

While the barista fumbled with the change and double-checked the price of the "bacon and cheese puff", I felt a tinge of guilt. I know that low-level service industry workers in Hong Kong earn piss-poor wages. Some staff at Cafe de Coral, for example, earn between $3000-5000 HKD a month.. in HONG KONG! Anyway, it occurred to me at the time that these Starbucks baristas might have to pay for their mistakes out of their own pocket, so I told them I'd take a "bacon and cheese puff" after all - these places allow for a certain degree of "spillage" anyway, so no one loses, really. If they don't sell all of this stuff by the end of the day, it's usually company policy to throw it out anyway.

Big mistake. The 'bacon and cheese puff' was a huge disappointment. Sadly, it wasn't the worst $8 HKD I've spent on a pastry, though.