Market & Rye

Minor conundrum.
No Haiku[1] for 'blog-entry?
Sorry, 芭蕉さん!

http://www.marketandrye.com/

(The first EweToob video should be self-exploratory by the title and the name of today's restaurant. The second one is just because they were playing exclusively Classic 60's and 70's Rock-and/or-Roll while I was having breakfast and this was among the songs played.)


Also in the line of thinking "new places that open before 10:00am in 2013" is Market & Rye. They are another one year old joint and they open up plenty early enough (8:00am on the weekends and 7:00am during the week) for my liking. Why they are called "Market & Rye", I couldn't figure out; I am sure it is some kinda play on words for something. They have two locations currently: one in the Potrero Hill neighborhood (at the corner of 16th and De Haro Streets) and one on West Portal. The Potrero Hill store is the only one that serves breakfasts during the week and "Brunch" on the weekends. I have had lunch at the West Portal branch and must say that their selections of fresh, seasonal salads and sandwiches really can't be beat.

They have a separate "Brunch" menu from their standard weekly breakfast menu. I cheated and had checked on-line last night and was planning on getting From the Griddle/Bakery section of the "Brunch" menu the Pumpkin Pancakes ~ Pomegranate, Bacon Marmalade, Black Pepper Candied Pecans, Warm Maple Syrup; however, they hadn't updated their website and the pancake special today was actually Poppyseed-Lemon, and I didn't feel much like that this morning. So, I ordered from the Legs, Eggs or Fins portion of the "Brunch" menu (Scramble of the Day) Mexican Scramble, served with Crispy Potatoes and Salad. I also started with something from their fresh baked goods, a Cranberry Coffeecake and a very decent cuppa Palio Coffee Brand to top it all off.

http://www.paliocoffee.com/

The scramble was made with Monterey Jack, halved cherry tomatoes, green onions, white onions, finely diced jalapeños, and red bell peppers; and topped with queso fresco, guacamole, and a fresh, homemade salsa. The salsa wasn't that spicy, but it had mucho sabor. The Crispy Potatoes were actually fingerling potatoes homefried style; I really liked this idea, you never see fingerling potatoes for breakfast. The salad went mostly uneaten; it was just your typical mesclun/mixed greens stuff. The coffeecake was good and warm; it was fresh out of the oven, as I had gotten there just as they were opening in the morning. There were a lot of cranberries on top (cooked in a syrup) and also in the batter (the dried variety), but there were no nuts of any type in it, and it was more of a muffin consistency than a coffeecake/bread thing. Another nice, simple touch was that the ice water was flavoured with orange and lemon slices.

Now Market & Rye really excels when it comes to condimentary supplements. They have a larger selection than I have in my refrigerator currently (which is sitting on twenty or so right now). I went with some Pain Is Good Cayenne[2] on the potatoes and a little Gringo Bandito on part of the scramble, as their own salsa was pretty tasty and I didn't want to mess with it much. I have had both of these hot sauces before and knew that they would be a good addition to the meal. This is the second day in a row (and probably the first time in a long time that I went an entire weekend) that I didn't find the need to use any of my own hot sauces (but I had brought a few along with me just in case). The counter-server-guy was also a hot sauce geek and I loaned him some of my Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce ~ XX Habanero to use later in the morning.

http://www.originaljuan.com/pain-is-good

http://gringobandito.com/

Haiku are poems?
Metrically, I suppose.
But with no rhyming.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Mexican Scramble ~ 7.0; Cranberry Coffeecake ~ 6.5; Palio Coffee Brand ~ 6.8


1. Why start a breakfastary 'blog-entry with Japanese poetry, you ask? Well, today is Haiku Day on defacedbook, or so it has been decreed by one Mister Estes. I just figured it would take me over a week to write the entire post in the correct meter; besides, I have to take my shoes off to count to seventeen.

Which brings us to the stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, ナンバーワン:

"Haiku" is Japanese for "amusement" ("hai") plus "verse" ("ku").

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, second part:
 
"Cayenne" (formerly "cayan") comes from Tupi "kyinha".