Lunches with V!

The girlfriend is the loveliest. As crazy as her WFH schedule is, she still makes time to lunch or coffee with me because it's hard for me to do dinners. I'm so thankful that we can keep to regular meets. I feel that it takes a lot more effort to step out from the (comfortable) home to meet friends than if we're perched in an office, and looking to take a break in the middle of the day. 

Lunch nowadays, is utilitarian. When I meet friends for lunch, I'm not looking for a long-drawn four-course meal. It's too fancy. I can do that, but there's gotta be a good reason for it. I can easily eke out two hours. But I simply don't have the luxury of time to sit down to a three-hour meal with alcohol. At this point of my life, these types of meals aren't relaxing because I have a zillion other things on my mind. The time spent on a meal is all the time I need to review a contract or an essay before translating it. How fast I work is not just a matter of how much I earn. Income correlates to taking on more challenging projects and working harder. How fast I work, is proportionate to how much me-time I can free up. Heh.

That day, when V and I were discussing about lunch over texts, I also concurrently booked us into an outlet of Crystal Jade Hong Kong Kitchen on Chope. Well, it's kinda a default venue (when nobody has any cravings) and most importantly, it can be easily canceled via the app. Then I read her next text and I was FLOORED.

She suggested Two Men Bagel House! OMG. WHUT. I was just thinking of it, and she suggested it!!! This was over typed-out words okay, not voice, no audio, no visuals. She was like 10km away from me, and of all foods, she narrowed it down to bagels and the exact eatery I was thinking of. How??!!! What sorcery is this!?!

I didn't even know Two Men Bagel House has an outlet at Holland Village. The eatery was crowded but the tables cleared fast and the queues moved easily. We didn't have to wait long for a table. The menu is different from what I'm used to at the Tanjong Pagar outlet. The Holland Village outlet didn't have my favorite vegetarian 'Lulamon', which is padded with really good cashew hummus, then there's avocado, onion, charred cauliflower and lotus chips. Oddly, smoked brisket of any sort isn't on the menu; no pulled pork here either. So I took the porchetta. It really tasted more like siew yoke. Aiyoh. Luckily I added avocado which balanced it out perfectly. No complaints about the bagels. They're generally super decent, and rather filling. I can never finish a whole bagel though. I always end up packing home a half.