"Jai Guru Deva. Om."[1]
(Sure I could have chosen the Beatles original version of this song, but I kinda like this cover by a second-generation of Rock-and/or-Rollers. Plus, the kid on the end really reminds me of John Lennon… Who knew John had a kid named "Rufus"?)
I went back to breakfast at UNIVERSAL cafe (see 'blog-entry from March 19th, 2011) this morning. They are located on 19th Street (between Bryant and Florida Streets) in the no-name neighborhood between the Mission and Potrero Hill (maybe it should be called MUNI Gulch or Bay Guardian Hill). Of note, they have the word "café" in their name sans accent aigu, which is strange as I would kinda expect a fancy "brunchified" place such as this to use the Frenchy way of spelling it. I sat outside this morning on the sidewalk patio; the Sun was out, but it was still a little overcast and a bit breezy, though.
As they are really a "Brunch" place in all senses of the word, their weekend menus change from week to week depending on seasonal availability of fresh ingredients. This can sometimes be a good thing or a bad thing for vegetarian choices. The last time I was there, they had many excellent things from which to choose; this week I was really limited to just one or two items. The french toast with apricot sauce, fresh raspberries and crème fraiche chantilly cream. (Again, of note: for some reason they have "crème" avec accent grave, but don't have "fraîche" with the little hat-thingy on the "î".) I really didn't feel like French toast again, Mrs. Huneycutt, so I ordered the soft scrambled eggs with cherry tomatoes, farmer's cheese with soft herbs (those rock-hard herbs are a terrible additive); toast, lettuces. I also had a side order of garlic-herb (they didn't specify if these were of the "soft" or "hard" variety) potatoes and a cuppa coffee.
I went back to breakfast at UNIVERSAL cafe (see 'blog-entry from March 19th, 2011) this morning. They are located on 19th Street (between Bryant and Florida Streets) in the no-name neighborhood between the Mission and Potrero Hill (maybe it should be called MUNI Gulch or Bay Guardian Hill). Of note, they have the word "café" in their name sans accent aigu, which is strange as I would kinda expect a fancy "brunchified" place such as this to use the Frenchy way of spelling it. I sat outside this morning on the sidewalk patio; the Sun was out, but it was still a little overcast and a bit breezy, though.
As they are really a "Brunch" place in all senses of the word, their weekend menus change from week to week depending on seasonal availability of fresh ingredients. This can sometimes be a good thing or a bad thing for vegetarian choices. The last time I was there, they had many excellent things from which to choose; this week I was really limited to just one or two items. The french toast with apricot sauce, fresh raspberries and crème fraiche chantilly cream. (Again, of note: for some reason they have "crème" avec accent grave, but don't have "fraîche" with the little hat-thingy on the "î".) I really didn't feel like French toast again, Mrs. Huneycutt, so I ordered the soft scrambled eggs with cherry tomatoes, farmer's cheese with soft herbs (those rock-hard herbs are a terrible additive); toast, lettuces. I also had a side order of garlic-herb (they didn't specify if these were of the "soft" or "hard" variety) potatoes and a cuppa coffee.
The scrambled eggs were good, but nothing really special; I can make scrambled eggs (with or without soft or hard herbs, even). There were lots of sweet cherry tomatoes in it, which was nice; however, this might have been a bit more interesting with some summer corn as an additional ingredient.
The side order was a huge plate/bowl or roasted potatoes, which is always very good.
The coffee was from Equator (which while not quite "across the universe", is "across the Earth") Coffees & Teas™. I have had this brand before and it usually is very good. This was prepared good and strong (not sure what blend/roast it was) and it ended up being a bottomless cuppa (no, really, there was a small crack in my cup and it kept leaking onto the saucer and table and they kept having to refill it for me).
UNIVERSAL cafe offers for condimentary supplementation both Tabasco® (the standard red) and Cholula®. I went with some of my own Palo Alto Fire Fighters Pepper Sauce (Thanks agains, Amys!) on the eggs, and some Oaxacan Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the potatoes. They also have mini-pepper grinders on all of the tables so I didn't need to use my own McCormick® pepper grinder that I usually bring with me (Thanks for the great idea, anyhow, Dave!).
"Coffee is flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup…"
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: soft scrambled eggs ~ 6.0
[1] Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:
"Jai Guru Deva. Om." is a Sanskrit mantra and translates loosely into English as "All glory to Guru Dev(a)./I give thanks to Guru Dev(a)./Glory to the shining remover of darkness./Mmm-mmm, good Chicken Tikka Masala."*
And to think, for years, I thought the Beatles were singing "Jack Ruby gave love."
*(That last part was just a joke, as everyone knows that John, Paul, and George were vegetarians by this time. "Om." actually translates as "Mmm-mmm, tasty dal and onion kulcha.")
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