Millbrae, CA
http://www.millbraepancake.com/
I met with a group of friends this morning for breakfast at Millbrae[1] Pancake House (see previous 'blog-entry from February 13th, 2011), which is right on El Camino Real. This place has been a mainstay in Millbrae for as long as I have been alive (yes, it's really old). It is a very large space with lots of seating, but it was full the entire time we were there. Luckily, there was actually a minimal wait (of less than ten minutes or so) when we all had finally arrived and put our name in for a table, which was very good for a group of eight.
Joining me today (sitting to my left and going clockwise around the table ~ how come no one ever says "tablewise around the clock"?) were: David, Hiromi, Luke, Steve, Laura, Zaria, and Marc. With a group this size you can get a good cross-section of what the restaurant has to offer. Millbrae Pancake House has a great selection of pancakes (as can be expected from their name) and also a great selection of waffles (six different types) and egg/omelette dishes. (Now I am doing this from memory and can't remember what everyone got, but I will do my best.) David got the California Omelette. Hiromi got the Vegetarian Omelette. Luke got Fried Chicken & Waffles. Steve had some kinda omelette (hey, he was at the opposite end of the table from me and had finished it by the time I remembered to try to remember). Laura had Eggs Benedict (I think). Zaria had Bangers & Eggs. Marc had some kinda omelette, too (okay, he was sitting right next to me the entire time and I probably should have remembered what he ordered).
All egg dishes are served with hashbrowns (which they have as two words, but I prefer it as one word) and your choice of toast, two buttermilk pancakes, or two Swedish pancakes (which come with lingonberry butter). Hiromi was very smart and got the Swedish pancakes as her side (she'd been there before and knew that was the way to go). David, Steve, and Zaria all chose the buttermilk pancakes as their side. I pointed out to David (after the fact, unfortunately) that he could have had the Swedish pancakes, too; he might have gotten those instead (you need to read your menus thoroughly, people!). And Marc just had plain ol' wheat toast as his side… Toast(!), when he had a choice of pancakes (buttermilk or Swedish) at an actual pancake house! Maybe he thought the name of the place was Millbrae Toast House. (Don't worry, I warned both Marc and David that I would make fun of their choices ~ and, for which, they will probably never invite me to breakfast ever again.)
However, I was surprised that no one ordered the Fall Special ~ Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes; I think the chocolate chips with pumpkin threw them. I have had a version of this unorthodox (as in no sensible Rabbi would ever bless the unholy union of pumpkin and chocolate chips) pancake before. I would have ordered it if I hadn't already had my mind set on getting German pancake (singular, but) ~ Extra large French crepe (their spelling on the menu, I much prefer "crêpe") served with lemon wedges and powdered sugar. As noted on the menu: "Our pancakes are made from scratch, the same way we've been making them since 1959.", but these didn't taste a day over 52 years old. I also ordered a side of hashbrowns, and a cuppa coffee[2].
I enjoyed my meal well enough. It really was one extra large pancake and with my side of hashbrowns (a large pile, also) it was plenty of food for me. I simply slathered the pancake with whipped butter (as can be seen in the above photo; I suppose I should have taken the photo first) and squeezed the juice from the two lemon wedges all over the top. It didn't even need any added maple syrup.
Millbrae Pancake House offers for condimentary supplementation Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both the standard red and green Jalapeño) and Tapatío®. I just used some of my own Palo Alto Fire Fighters Pepper Sauce Habanero version (Thanks agains, Amys and Brian!) on the hashbrowns. Steve and Laura both tried some of this hot sauce and seemed to like it, too.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: German Pancake ~ 6.3
(I really didn't bother to poll the rest of the table on their meals. There were too many people and it would have been too hard to remember them all, but from the looks of the mostly cleaned plates, they all enjoyed what they had, too.)
1. Millbrae is a city in San Mateo County, just west of San Francisco Bay, with San Bruno on the north and Burlingame on the south.
Darius Ogden Mills purchased land in the 1860's from the Sanchez family to build a country estate. The former Mills estate was bordered by what is now Skyline Boulevard, Bayshore Highway U.S. Route 101, Millbrae Avenue, and Trousdale Drive. The estate became known as "Millbrae" from "Mills" and the Scottish word "brae", which means "rolling hills."
You can consider that the stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, number one.
2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/etymological pointer of the day, number two:
I can't believe that I have been doing this stupid 'blog for over two years now and have never really given a breakdown of the word "coffee".
The word "coffee" is pretty universal in many other languages (as opposed to being universal in just English), just like "tea" and "Beer" (see specific 'blog-entries from June 18th, 2012 and October 11th, 2012). It comes to English from Italian "caffè", from Turkish "kahve", from Arabic "قهوة" (pronounced "qahwah", or close enough for Government work).
Coffee (universally) in other languages:
"koffie" ~ Afrikaans/Dutch
"kafe" ~ Albanian/Haitian Creole
"qəhvə" ~ Azerbaijani
"kafea" ~ Basque
"кава" ~ Belarusian/Ukrainian (pronounced "kava")
"কফি" ~ Bengali (pronounced "kaphi")
"кафе" ~ Bulgarian/Macedonian (pronounced "kafe")
"cafè" ~ Catalan
"咖啡" ~ Chinese (pronounced "kafei")
"kava" ~ Croatian/Lithuanian/Slovenian
"káva" ~ Czech/Slovak
"kaffe" ~ Danish/Norwegian/Swedish (and what good would a Danish be without a good cuppa "kaffe" with it?)
"kafo" ~ Esperanto (just in case you ever find yourself in Esperantia and want to order a good cuppa "kafo" with your Danish)
"kohv" ~ Estonian
"kape" ~ Filipino
"kahvi" ~ Finnish
"café" ~ French/Galician/Portuguese/Spanish (just in case you ever find yourself in a French/Galician/Portuguese/Spanish café and want to order a good cuppa "café" with your Danish)
"ყავის" ~ Georgian (pronounced "qavis")
"Kaffee" ~ German
"καφές" ~ Greek (pronounced "kafes")
"કૉફી" ~ Gujarati (pronounced "kophi")
"कॉफ़ी" ~ Hindi (pronounced "kofi")
"kávé" ~ Hungarian
"kaffi" ~ Icelandic
"kopi" ~ Indonesian/Malay
"caife" ~ Irish
"コーヒー" ~ Japanese (pronounced "kohi")
"ಕಾಫಿ" ~ Kannada (pronounced "kaphi")
"커피" ~ Korean (pronounced "keopi")
"ກາເຟ" ~ Lao (pronounced "kafe")
"capulus" ~ Latin
"kafija" ~ Latvian
"kafè" ~ Maltese
"kawa" ~ Polish (pronounced "tea")
"cafea" ~ Romanian
"кофе" ~ Russian (pronounced "kofe")
"кафа" ~ Serbian (pronounced "kafa")
"kahawa" ~ Swahili
"காபி" ~ Tamil (pronounced "kapi")
"కాఫీ" ~ Telugu (pronounced "kaphi")
"กาแฟ" ~ Thai (pronounced "kafae")
"cà phê" ~ Vietnamese
"coffi" ~ Welsh
"קאַווע" ~ Yiddish (pronounced "q'aww'")
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