Halloween is here, and I was pondering what might be in the cupboards for any surprise treat-or-trick visits from kids in the neighborhood but all I found was an empty cookie tin, which set me wondering. I bought the tin of cookies from a local bakery that used to be a quiet little shop run by a housewife who baked her wonderful cakes and cookies at home in the southern part of Hong Kong. I recalled quiet lazy weekend afternoons indulging myself, undisturbed, over a sinful combination of cakes, coffee and a book. Well, fat hope. Now the owner has her own factory of chefs to bake her secret recipe for her several busy shops spread across Hong Kong, each easily recognized by the pilgrimage of newly converted cookie monsters.