Students burning the midnight oil to meet term paper submission deadlines are common scenes on campus. When all canteens are closed and the call of an empty stomach is high, a visit to the Women Cooperative Store located next to the University swimming pool could be a good option. The store operates till 11:30 pm outside term time and1:30 am during term time. The steaming hot tea eggs, among other popular food items, provide the utmost comfort to the exhausted body and soul of those pulling an all-nighter.

Eggs are first hard boiled and then simmered with their shells cracked in a spicy sauce for three to four hours. The spicy sauce is a perfectly mixed concoction of eight types of Chinese herbs, including dried tangerine, prickly ash peel, liquorice and figwort, as well as red lychee tea and green tea leaves. After that the eggs are left to soak in the sauce for about 30 hours so the spicy flavour can penetrate into the yolk.

There has been a scene that a student didn’t get enough money for the food and the shopkeeper gave a casual remark of trust, ‘It doesn’t matter. Just pay me next time you visit.’ It is this feeling of a warm and friendly neighbourhood and homemade specialty snacks which distinguish the small cooperative store from any other chain convenience store.