Fresca

The one on Main Street Noe Valley



http://www.frescasf.com/noe-valley/


I went to Fresca* (the one on 24th Street, in the heart of Noe Valley) for desayuno this morning, and, surprisingly enough, they were actually open at 10:00am just as they state on their web-site. Even if they had not been open when promised, there are several other nice places from which to choose in this neighborhood if I needed any fall-backs.

http://breakfastatepiphany.blogspot.com/search/label/Noe%20Valley

Fresca is a mini-chain of Peruvian restaurants in San Francisco. As they state on their awnings/signs: Nouveau Peruvian Cuisine. (¿Por qué no "Nueva Cocina Peruana"? No lo sé.) They have locations in West Portal, Fillmore, and Noe Valley. They are all good restaurants and in nice, upscale neighborhoods, but I think the restaurant in Noe Valley is probably the nicest of the Fresca locations. It is in a nice, large, open space. After breakfast, I spoke with the owner and he told me that they have a new place called Pasion over on 9th and Irving in the Sunset; he said that Pasion is actually the nicest of all their restaurants.

http://www.pasionsf.com/

I really liked the interesting centerpiece that they had on all the tables. It had a whole tangerine in with the flowers (some kinda purple and yellow ones); pretty cool.




There aren't that many vegetarian breakfast dishes from which to choose, but the Omelet de la huerta** ~ mushrooms, spinach, onions, bell peppers, aji amarillo chiles, tomatoes, corn, and Feta cheese ~ looked very good, as some of those ingredients are some of my favourite fruits. All of their omelettes are served with fresh fruit or sweet potato fries ~ with lime scented sea salt; I chose the fries, never a very tough choice for me. From their "Brunch" cocktail menu I also had a glass of Peruvian sparkle made with Pisco***, Triple Sec, Midori®****, pineapple juice, and cava.

I had gotten to Noe Valley a little before 10:00am, so I stopped at Bernie's ~ A Local Coffee Shop ~ right across the street from Fresca for a decent enough cuppa coffee. Bernie's is in the old space that housed Tully's for years (and Spinelli's prior to that before Tully's bought them out).





This was served as an open-faced omelette with all the ingredients piled on top. There were lots of fresh ingredients included in it. I especially liked the extra large kernels of corn (picture the size you get with corn-nuts).

The sweet potato fries were a HUGE pile o' taters and it was served with two types of dipping sauces: a green mint and habanero pesto, and a reddish rocoto aioli. Both were muy sabrosa, but I liked the mint-habanero one the best.

The cocktail was very strong (it did include four types of liquor/alcohol), but it was good. I would have liked this better with a little less Midori®, plus a little more pineapple juice and cava (whatever that heck that is ~ ain't that some kinda large guinea pig from South America?).

In addition to the above-mentioned, most-excellent salsas para papas, they have a condimentary supplementation of salsa rocoto ~ con sabor delicioso y un poquito fuego. I used some (well, a lot) on the omelette, plus I added the rest to the aioli. At 50,000-250,000 Scoville heat units, the rocoto chile is located on the Scoville Scale somewhere between the tabasco chile and the habanero chile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocoto

Now I have no idea what a desayuno típico del Perú would consist of (¿Carnes de llama, papas, y frijoles de Lima, tal vez?); I don't even know how to pronounce Machu Pichu***** correctly; but I liked what I had all the same, Señor Pizarro.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Omelet de la huerta ~ 6.7; Peruvian Sparkle ~ 6.6; Bernie's Coffee ~ 6.4


*(Useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número uno:

"Fresca" simply means "fresh" in Spanish. This is not a reference to that horrid dietetic Squirt® wannabe soda produced by the Coca-Cola Company.)

**(Useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, la segunda parte:

"Huerta" means "kitchen garden" in Spanish. I just assumed that "huerta" meant "kitchen sink", as not only did it include all of the above ingredients, but they snuck in some carrots, peas, zucchini, cauliflower, and even one piece of the vile weed.)

***("What is Pisco?", you ask. Let Wikipedia inform you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisco

They did all the work already, I am just "borrowing" it for your edification.)

****(Useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, 3位:

"Midori" in Japanese means "green". It is also a brand of melon-flavoured liqueur from Suntory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midori_liqueur )

*****(Here is a little Mach Pichu information, also "borrowed" from our friends at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Pichu )