Expresso!Noisette!!

I was listening to OPB while dropping Noe off (more like,after I dropped him off-he is more into Tamir-translated as 'Tamil ' songs and so I had to wait until I was alone in the car to listen to what I wanted).
There was this short snippet about a guy who publishes a magazine called Espresso out of San Diego-dealing with the  coffee bar culture there.He mentioned that San Diego was a hodge podge of cultures with its fair share of Asians and Middle Easterners and of course being that close to Mexico,a vibrant Latino culture as well.
Which made me remember all the "bunk" stores back home and the "chaya" stalls with the resident malayali tea master concocting fragrant milky tea with the precision of a  chanoyu ceremony!Generally one is discouraged from having food at roadside stalls back home,but this is an exception-the milk keeps simmering away for hours and the tea is piping hot. E-coli that had the bad luck of getting caught in that mixture probably died ten times over!!
Having the misfortune of being part of the, ahem,"weaker sex"-I have not had the experience of sitting at a tea stall and sipping the hot beverage,but I have watched enough Tamil movies to see how they are basically the Starbucks of  Indian culture.People conglomerate there,friends plan and meet there to do or not to do stuff,and just like Starbucks,a tea stall has not just beverages,but snacks that might attract someone feeling a bit peckish!Look around a Starbucks and you will find the same spectrum of humanity you would at a teastall-except the one's whiling away their time usually have a laptop or a phone with them.Newspapers are passe you know?(another gripe-The Oregonian is cutting down home delivery to 4 days and I am tearing my hair out wondering if I should cancel my subscription,this after sixteen years-all my years of living here-of loyalty).Anyway,back to the chaya stall-the barista and the chaya master are almost identical-watch tamil movies and one understands the familiarity and understanding between them and regular customers.Back home I am sure people drink tea on credit which is impossible here,but baristas seem to know customers by name and of course their usual order too.
Which brings me to Starbucks' baked goods venture-tried a croissant last week-good but not good enough-nothing like the ones in Paris,but we do get good ones right here in the US(I know a couple of good places in Portland that make awesome ones)-so a little bit more of market research needed there!!
After ordering a Doppio with some warm milk(my husband coached me on that one!),I have finally been told by a barista that what I need is a cafe latte-it has the two shots of espresso anyway and the milk too-but obviously it is slightly more expensive than the double shot-so, I don't know.......