I mentioned a while back that B was going to get back into home brewing beer here in HK. He has had some pretty good luck making some yummy beers over the last few months. It has been comical--home brewing is very uncommon over here. It actually only became legal in 2000 I think. So he can't find any supplies (ingredients or equipment) over here and has had to ship a bunch of stuff in from the USA.

There is one small craft brewery run by some British guys located fairly close to us so he has exchanged some info with them and that has been fun for him. This micro brew is on tap at a few pubs here in Hong Kong so last week when making plans to go out to dinner in the city on HK Island with a few other couples, B took charge and made the plans to go check out one of these pubs. We were not disappointed with this place and I think it has quickly become a favorite of B's (and everyone else who has been there too).

Last night we were meeting some people out for dinner on the Island at an Indian place that happened to be located pretty close to this new favorite pub so of course we had to go there first. We grabbed seats at the bar and, since it was early in the evening, it was pretty quiet in there and the bartenders were stocking some newly arrived bottles of beer.

We got talking with one of the bartenders about beer, life in Hong Kong (he's been here 15 years), having babies (his wife is pregnant with their first child) and all the things you generally chat with a bartender about. The conversation quickly turned into a discussion about food quality (or lack there of) around here and how what we miss the very most from home is fresh food with known (local & clean) origins. I should mention this guy was Nepalese.

I love stumbling into these types of conversations. One of the things I love most is the cultural studies I get completely by chance and mostly when I least expect it. Isn't it funny that people from COMPLETELY different walks of life can have the same impressions of a foreign city and have the same ideas about things like food?

Well... not exactly the same ideas....

As the conversation progressed he told us that he grew up on a farm in Nepal about a 10 hour bus ride from the airport. There they cultivated everything and only had to buy salt and oil. So that's a bit (I mean A LOT) more rural than I have ever lived. Fascinating. He mentioned that they kept chickens, dog, goats... and then I completely lost track of the 5 other animals he so casually listed. Dogs. Such a normalcy. Such a non-topic that it's second on his list after chicken?

Sometimes the world gets really small for me. I can look at my wall on facebook at any given time and see my old airline friends posting from cities and countries around the world. I see comments from my new friends here in Hong Kong who are from all over the world. I can see people who don't know each other at all posting from the same cities because they randomly happen to be on vacation to the same place at the same time.

And then I have a tiny conversation like this with somebody and it blows the whole world wide open and makes it gets big again.

I wish I had time to write more better. But I am way too busy learning stuff about people.