Straw

"I could while away the hours, conferrin' with the flowers…"




http://strawsf.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yc-kDJUw3k 



I went back to Straw ~ Carnival Fare (see 'blog-entry from April 23rd, 2011) again this morning for breakfast; however, I am sorry to say that I didn't even encounter any witches (neither wicked, nor good), tin woodsmen, talking lions, tigers, or bears… Oh, my! on my way there, Lyman Frank. I have eaten at this cool little Hayes Valley spot for dinner several times since they opened at the beginning of 2011, but this was only my second breakfastary (not a real word, but it works for me) trip.

I knew that Straw offers a very decent cuppa coffee from a local roastery called Bicycle Coffee Co, but I also knew that just a few blocks away is one of the best places to get a single, fresh-dripped cuppa in San Francisco: Blue Bottle Coffee; Chiapas (single blend coffee beans from Mexico) is what they had a-brewin' today. So I got there a little earlier than Straw opens (10:00am, Saturday & Sunday only for "Brunch") and got me one of them and walked around the area a bit.

http://www.bluebottlecoffee.net/

I really like this neighborhood that runs along Octavia Boulevard as there are lots of fun things to do and always new and interesting places to eat popping up. Just recently, a very cool (no pun intended… well, maybe just a little) ice cream shop called Smitten Ice Cream opened across the street from the mini-dog park*/playground on Octavia. Smitten makes every bowl of ice cream fresh for each person individually. This has to be witnessed to really get the full effect ~ the contraption that they have developed to make this actually uses Liquid Nitrogen to freeze up your ice cream in about a minute. They only offer four flavours a day: Chocolate, Vanilla, and alternate two other flavours ~ usually changing them every week or so. I have already had (the great pleasure to have had): Olive Oil (yes, actually made with EVOO, Miss Ray) and Red Plum.
 


http://smittenicecream.com/home/Home.html


Along several blocks of Octavia Boulevard there are these little kaleidoscope** thingys, which the San Francisco Art Commission calls "Transcopes" ~ you say "potato", Dan Quayle say "potatoe"… The last photo was me trying to be artsy-fartsy and taking a picture through one of the transcopes.






Anyway, back to breakfast and Straw, this was a breakfastary entry about Straw after all. Straw has a good breakfast/"Brunch" selection that they call "Eggs with Greg" (I think they missed an opportunity there for a corn-bally, Joycean joke and should have called it "Eggs with Gregg" or "Egs with Greg", even). I had the baby needs milk ~ cinnamon toast bread pudding/whipped cream (which they forgot, oh well), a side of cheesy home potatoes (which really weren't on the menu, but they threw together for me, anyway ~ more than making up for the absent whipped cream), and a nice, cold glass of "eliminate", Chico.
 



This came as a HUGE bowl of bread pudding! It was very good, and way more than I could finish (especially with the extra added carbohydrates from the side order of home potatoes); this would be a great starter to share between two people and maybe split another of Gregg's Egs dishes. I liked it a lot, but I think it could have used something else: sliced apples or raisins, possibly?

Straw only has as condimentary supplementation Tabasco® (the standard red). I used some of my own Big Papi En Fuego Hot Sauce Original Mild (Thanks again, Kerry!) on half of the home potatoes and a little HP® Brown Sauce on the other half.

With the check today, they provided me with a Mango Dum-Dums®***. So I have that much going for me.

I am sure this will not be the last time I go to Straw for breakfast, broken camel's back notwithstanding…


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: baby needs milk ~ 6.5; Blue Bottle Chiapas ~ 7.3


*(What I mean by this is that it is a rather tiny area for locals to walk/play with their dogs, not that it is exclusively for ankle-biters. Though, I did see a Dachshund, a Shiba Inu, a Basset Hound, and a few other small breeds frolicking around.)

**(Pointless cunning linguist pointer of the day:

Kaleidoscope comes from three Greek words: "kal(os)/καλ(ός)" ~ meaning "beauty"; "eitho(s)/εἶδο(ς)" ~ meaning "form/shape"; and "skop(io)/σκοπ(έω)" ~ meaning "to look at/watch". Hence, it means "beautiful form to look at".

Hmmm? "Kaleidoscope" must be Nicole Kidman's nickname.)

***(This is not a fruity reference to the upcoming Republican National Convention. It is just the name of a candy/lollipop company:

http://www.dumdumpops.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhjRUKCKIG4 )