let lemons be angry

Working here in Toa Payoh has exposed me to a whole slew of food I never knew existed. Before I leave this job and all this food, I will try to document everything worth eating again. I'm sorry I don't take note of unit numbers, I will try to if anybody is interested enough to ask me personally. But everything is around the Yellow Pages Building, 1 Lorong 2 Toa Payoh.

1. Cranberry muffins from BlissHaven
"Clean Market," 2nd floor, Blk 12_ (in the 120s, i don't know exactly what block)
Their muffins, when freshly popped from their baking trays, are crispy all over their edges. They have the chewy consistency of those Chinese pink and green cupcakes, but as said before, are also crispy and browned. I normally do not go for fruit muffins. But this critter, smaller than the rest, has a coating of crispy crackled cheese and nuts. The cranberries are sufficiently succulent, and the muffin, buttery.

2. Meatball Ee Mein from the porridge stall
"Clean Market," 2nd floor
I'd never eaten Ee Mein with soup before, so the joy when I discovered this was known to all--colleagues, friends, grandma, etc. They serve this with a meaty pork soup thickened with an egg dropped into it, with fish, chicken or porkballs. I once ate this three days in a row, with different meats.

3. Fish and Chips, from the man who had lived in London
Coffeeshop down the lane from Tims (more about Tims later), block 90-smth
His London life shows in the four bottles of Malt Vinegar generously laid out for customers to help themselves to, and the paper he wraps takeaways in. The fish portions are huge, as are the sides of spaghetti, mashed potatoes, fries, or rice. He proudly displays his heritage and his son's photo at the counter, and is said to have a colorful vocabulary. To be honest, I don't remember the taste of anything, but it is like Botak Jones, in that it is good Western food in an unexpected setting.

4. Tims
Blk 95
A humble-looking restaurant without air-conditioning that pulls business away from the sad eateries next to it. They serve Western and Nepalese food, with a menu that boasts everything from $5.90 set meals to $20 Black Angus steak and lamb chops. The variety of the menu alone makes it fun to eat here. Surprisingly good was their crispy grilled saba (mackerel), which instead of being overly oily as they tend to be, had faint smatterings of what I think is plum sauce. Their daily soups and desserts always change. But there was this one slab of plain-looking butter cake that looked like nothing, but was awesome. If you're gonna be a butter cake, you'd better the best butter cake you can be.

5. El Piccolo
Coffeeshop near SPH that also has Botak Jones
If my colleagues were more fond of long walks, I'd eat here more. Amelia and her intern came over one happy day and we shared a caesar salad (creamy, garlicky), a pasta dish, and a free soup. This place has $2 Tiramisu that I hear isn't too shabby, and the rarer pastas like Crespelle and Gnocchi.

6. Fish head mee sua from the everything-fish stall
Renovated market near Tims, blk 100 (?)
Only gripe: too many pieces of fried fish head to finish. Which isn't bad. I heard the stall auntie say that mee sua must never be eaten with milk, so I insisted on adding milk to my soup. You have to have milk, with all those fried bits. The best part for me is digging up the dried fish at the bottom, which are pungent and bitter and make everything flavorful.

7. Sarawak pineapples from the cut fruit stall
Near 7-11, in the stretch that has Macs, Blk 109-111
One of the rare fruit stalls that sells these heavenly half-moons chilled. I eat two at a time after lunch, and have to be sitting down and calm as I do. I learnt their sweetness while working at Pass the Juice some years ago. The trick to eating pineapples is to not eat the white hard core, which gives the tongue cuts that so many people complain of.

8. Ice blended coconut from the bubble-tea shop
Corner of the newer bakery, near 7-11
Coconut milk, coconut flesh, and coconut juice ground up into an icy, frothy explosion of sin. I love all things coconut, and even drink that artificial stuff from the can because it has conveniently-diced real coconut bits in it. But I couldn't finish this magnificently coconutty creation because I thought my arteries would burst. It is more lemak than refreshing. But ice-blended coconut is such an excellent idea!

This post has been fun, no wonder so many people write about food. The words pour out, as if they had been longing to do so since I had my first bite.