I have had my bouts of homesickness over the years but fortunately Hong Kong has an amazing propensity to continually adapt to new culture and ideas from overseas that keeps it rejuvenated. One of the elements of Melbourne life that I miss most is coffee culture. For those of us not into drinking alcohol, or who have found a beloved drinking hole has become a bit too unruly and just want a quiet place to gather with friends to chat, the coffee cafe is the perfect place. Coffee usually plays second fiddle to the social aspects of coffee culture.

Coming to Hong Kong has made me more appreciative of the actual cup of coffee, which I had taken for granted for all those years. I think many Melbournians are coffee connoisseurs at heart and intrinsically know what good coffee should taste like and that bad coffee should be poured down the drain. Ten years ago in Hong Kong a decent cup of coffee at a restaurant or cafe was a rare thing indeed. And the ritual of coffee drinking became for me a daily necessity rather then pleasure.

I was under the misapprehension at the time that coffee was good for keeping me awake during those long hours of working hard as a veterinarian, as well as playing hard in between. But using coffee as a stimulant to keep you awake is ultimately self-defeating. It provides a short-term stimulus that makes you feel more awake, but shortly after that it stimulates an increase in insulin production by your pancreas, which lowers your blood glucose - and the resulting drop in glucose to your brain will make you tire quickly and feel the need for more coffee.

In the long run over years, coffee will stop working for you as a stimulant, making you more stressed and less resistant to illnesses. The chronic low glucose will increase your appetite and hence increase your weight, so coffee is certainly not a good idea for people on diets.

There are more than 208 acids found in a simple cup of coffee and all those acids will wreak havoc on your body, which is constantly striving to maintain an alkaline environment for healthy bodily functions. Coffee can increase malabsorption of various minerals that are essential for health and increase urinary excretion of various minerals, which can worsen osteoporosis in women, especially during menopause.

And since coffee is a diuretic, it causes you to feel thirsty and urinate more and this taxes your kidneys. And kidney failure is certainly in the top 10 causes of death. Coffee can also cause other problems, such as miscarriage during pregnancy and, for men, exacerbation of prostate problems. There is also the added cosmetic problem of coffee-stained teeth, which has invigorated a thriving teeth-bleaching industry.

All this doom and gloom doesn't mean I can't enjoy my cup of coffee any more. I now drink coffee not out of necessity, but to enjoy the moment of pleasure it brings. Like most things taken to extremes, it can be detrimental to your health, but in moderation coffee probably does a lot less harm then a typical fast-food meal.

It is increasingly apparent that coffee culture in Hong Kong is fast emulating what I am used to back in Melbourne. The market in Hong Kong is dominated by the large corporate chains, unlike in Melbourne, where less then 2 per cent of people would go to a chain coffee outlet. Hong Kong people are much more accepting of big business, while Melbournians aim for the small guys.

Despite my natural resistance to large coffee chains, I have to thank them for introducing the culture with the coffee. Going to a coffee cafe near a university in Hong Kong nowadays makes me feel young again, with scores of students doing homework and gathering in the environs with the aroma of a hot cup of coffee wafting in the air - and I begin to dream of coffee.