grindz

"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
"It's the same thing," he said.
~ A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

 http://www.grindzrestaurant.com/

(That is their official web-site; however, I don't think it's up and running yet.)

("While My Ukulele Gently Weeps"? Yeah, yeah, yeah… the Beatles and ukulele for some Saturday morning mood music.)


This was my first time going back to grindz ~ "Hawai'ian Style Home Cooking" (see last 'blog-entry from December 29th, 2012) since adding them to my 2013 Breakfastary Rotation. Once again I happened to go to this place on or near a holiday; the last three times were during or around: New Year's Day, Labor Day, and the 4th of July… I wonder if Memorial Day will be my next visit?

This is not something I could get, but it sounded very interesting, on their Presidents Day Specials they had Adobo[1] Fried Rice Omelette ~ Filipino chicken adobo fried rice, scallions, Plantation Potatoes, and spicy pickled tomatoes. I basically knew what I was going to order today, but the next time I go I will have to order Hawai'ian French Toast ~ Portuguese sweet bread, pure maple syrup, and vanilla-poached pineapples; I saw a few other people get that and it looked very good. Today I had Kimchi Huevos Rancheros ~ crispy (corn) tortillas, kimchi fried brown rice, salsa rojo[2] (sic), over-easy eggs, lomi tomatoes, avocados, and Cheddar cheese. You have to love a place that fusions (Can I actually use that as a verb?) Hawai'ian, Korean, and Mexican food. I also had a cuppa very good Bicycle Coffee Co. (The idea of coffee being delivered locally by bicycle only is such a great idea; not only do they deliver their coffee everywhere in San Francisco by bike, but I heard that their back-up generator for their roasters is pedal-powered, too[3].)

http://www.bicyclecoffeeco.com/

Oops! They normally put sausage in their Kimchi Fried Rice, but do not state that anywhere on the menu. I noticed it right away in my meal and thought that they had brought me the wrong dish, but they took it back and made me a new one without any (all in just a few minutes, so that I didn't have to wait that much longer). Of note, they also make their Kimchi Fried Rice with mushrooms in it and don't state that on their menu either; I am sure there are many more people that would hate that extra ingredient more than any ol' sausage.

Perhaps, it was all my fault when ordering:

Me: "I'll have the Kimchi Huevos Rancheros and a cuppa coffee, please."
Them: "How would you like that: mild, medium, or spicy?"
Me: "I will just have the coffee black, thanks… but the Huevos Rancheros medium."

Now I think I know why they stuck the dead, decaying pork in my meal.

I liked this, just not quite as much as the Kimchi Fried Rice Omelette that I had a few visits back. Huevos Rancheros, much like Chilaquiles or Tiramisù, can be made differently wherever you go. This was made with two (or possibly three) fried, crispy corn tortillas (normally Huevos Rancheros are just made with soft corn tortillas); I liked this extra-added crunch. I really liked the kimchi in the fried rice, too. The only thing I might have done differently if I were ever to make this dish (Yeah, right!) is use Monterey Jack cheese instead of the Cheddar cheese. Huevos Rancheros are usually served with a side of rice and beans; well, the rice was already included in the mess, but I wonder what kind of legume might have been added as a Hawai'ian (or Korean) equivalent.

I didn't bother to see what grindz had for condimentary supplementation. The Ranchero sauce was tasty enough, but I did add just a little of my own El Yucateco® XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik® de Chile Habanero (Thanks, Brian!) on top of the eggs and such for a little extra-added heat and flavour.

This may not have been a "hit it out of the park" with today's meal, but it was easily a solid Stand-up Double and scored at least one or two RBI's in my breakfastary book.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Kimchi Huevos Rancheros ~ 6.9; Bicycle Coffee Co. ~ 6.8


1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer del día, número uno:

"Adobo" simply means "marinade" in Spanish. There are variations in Spanish, Portuguese, Latin American, or Filipino adobos.

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer del día, número dos:

This probably should be "roja" as the feminine modifier to "salsa", but perhaps they meant it as "salsa (de chile) rojo”.

3. Now, how many people actually bought that?