Ella’s

"The one with the ella's florentine."

http://www.ellassanfrancisco.com

(I was trying to think of a good Groundhog Day song, but couldn't come up with any. This one is a bit early, but at least it is sung by Lady Ella.)


Next up in my Breakfastary Rotation for 2013 was Ella's (see last 'blog-entry from December 16th, 2012). I should be able to work my way through my complete line-up before Spring Training starts and give everyone a good workout (and enjoy many good meals). This morning I sat at the counter overlooking the bakery-kitchen area (just to let you know, they do have all of their breads and pastries for sale to take home, too).

There were several good selections on this weekend's "Brunch" menu. These specials are all that are offered for the early morning meal on the weekends, but there are usually ten to twelve dishes from which to choose. The fried egg sandwich with Cheddar cheese, pesto[1] aioli[2], organic baby arugula, avocado, on house made brioch[3] (sic) bun looked promising. I was also thinking about the potato scramble with roasted beets, green beans, grilled carrots, and Havarti; and normally would have jumped at that due to the inclusion of beets, but I have had a variation of this in the past there and wanted to try something a little different. And my selection was just that, ella's florentine ~ fried cornmeal, sautéed spinach, poached egg(s), oven roasted tomato, pesto Hollandaise (all of which comes with a side of homefries). I also had a glass of Ginger Orange Juice Punch.

I really liked the pesto Hollandaise, which was a nice idea. It was extra fresh as they had just made a batch before I ordered (I watched them preparing the mess). Using fried cornmeal (polenta[4]) for the base was a nice touch, too. The only thing that didn't work for me was the roasted tomatoes. They added a nice enough flavour; however, these should have been sliced thinly, but were provided under the eggs as a quarter of a tomato. Sure this is probably a much easier way to roast them, but it makes for a rather unwieldy Eggs Benedict. The Ginger Orange Juice Punch was good as always; refreshing and spicy with the ginger in it.

For condimentary supplementation, I went with a little of my own Cholula® (Thanks, me!) and a little Youk's Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the potatoes (Ella's offers just Tabasco® Brand Hot Sauce ~ both the standard red and green Jalapeño) . The pesto Hollandaise was tasty enough without me messing it up.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: ella's florentine ~ 6.9


1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-epicurean pointer del giorno, numero uno:

"Pesto" comes from Italian; it is the contracted form of "pestato", the past participle of "pestare" (meaning "to pound, to crush"), (see also: "pestle").

2.  Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-epicurean pointer du jour, numéro deux:

"Aioli" comes from French/Provençal equivalent to "ai", meaning "garlic" (from Latin "allium") plus "oli", meaning "oil" (from Latin "oleum").

3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-epicurean pointer du jour, numéro trois:

"Brioche" comes from French Norman dialect, from "brier" (meaning "to knead"), of Germanic origin, plus the noun suffix "-oche"; compare to French "broyer" (meaning "to pound, break").

4. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo epicurean pointer del giorno, numero quattro:

"Polenta" comes from Italian from Latin for "crushed pearl barley", perhaps from Greek "palē", meaning "pollen".