I am not exactly sure what they would call this in Minnesota or Oklahoma, though.
http://kitchenstorysf.com
(These two EweToob videos are for my nephew, Alan, who is a Dresden Dolls fan. Alan just completed his 6,000 mile/almost two-year long walking trek across the United States, from Seattle to Washington, D.C.
Nice work, Forrest Forrest!
"LGBT Equality is as LGBT Equality does."
You can read about his journey here if you like:
http://www.intothelightwalk.com/ )
I went to KITCHEN Story for breakfast this morning. They are a relatively new place and this was my first time eating there; they have only been open since November of last year. I don't know what the name of the restaurant is supposed to signify (maybe I should have asked one of the workers; maybe next time). KITCHEN Story is located in the spot that used to house Tangerine (insert sobs and sighs here), on the corner of 16th and Sanchez Streets. I was happy to see that they still have the large sidewalk seating area along Sanchez Street (which is mostly shaded by trees; this can be a good thing whenever the Sun might be out ~ like this morning, but it also can be pretty chilly when the Sun isn't out ~ like most of the time in the Summer). In keeping with my 2013 Breakfastary Resolution, they open up every day at 8:00am and their menu specifies the first meal of the day as "Breakfast"; however, don't let the wording fool you, this place is a completely brunchified place in both cuisine and atmosphere, but that didn't stop me from eating there.
Whenever I go to the Castro, I like to park over on Beaver Street. I can usually find a legal spot and there are no time-limit restrictions all week long, and it is just one block away from Market Street. Plus, I just love the irony of the name in that neighborhood. You can be sure that most of the residents will not be hunting out "Beaver" Street.
Just across the street from KITCHEN Story is a pretty neat mural along a fence called "Tonantsin Renace" by Collette Crutcher. I particularly like how the trees in the yard behind it form a sort of verdant hairdo for her.
http://mosaicartsource.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/mosaic-mural-mosaic-artist-colette-crutcher-san-francisco/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonantzin
KITCHEN Story calls their restaurant "California Cuisine", but it seems like "California Cuisine with a twist of Asian Fusion" to me. Their Breakfast menu offers a nice selection of Egg plates; Omelets, Scrambles, Etc.; Poached Eggs Entrees; Hotcakes and French toast; and Morning melts. If you are a fan of the dead, decaying cured pork-belly products, then you would probably enjoy one of their signature (if you could sign with pork-fat, that is) breakfastary side dishes called Millionaire's Bacon; it is two extra thick slices of bacon that have been cured in 100% maple syrup or some such thing. I was thinking about ordering the Athenian omelet ~ tomato, mushroom, arugula, Greek olives, mild goat cheese; this sounded pretty good to me, but I have had versions of Greek Omelettes many times in the past, and as Mae West always liked to say: "When choosing between two evils, I like to try the one I've never tried before." So I ordered Okonomiyaki[1] (modernyaki) egg pancake ~ cabbage, scallion, asparagus, carrots, mushroom, red onion. I also had a side of Rainbow Potatoes and a cuppa Resident(?) Coffee, French Roast.
There is a strong possibility that this place is owned by the same folks that own Sweet Maple (see last 'blog-entry from October 6th, 2012). They offer several of the same dishes: Athenian omelet ~ which is called Athenian Omelette (with the exact same ingredients) at Sweet Maple ~ and Millionaire's Bacon to name just a few.
You ask, "What is Okonomiyaki?", Daniel-san? Well, as best as I can figure, it's some kinda Japanese savoury pancake. I have never had one before in any of my times eating at Japanese restaurants and figured this was as good a time as any to try one. Now, I am not quite sure why this was served with several slices of orange and strawberries on top of it (there were too many of them to really be considered just a "garnish"), but I still ate all of them, anyway.
The Rainbow Potatoes included: white, red, blue (or purple), and sweet potatoes, and were pretty good.
The coffee was a very good, strong cup; where I felt it absolutely necessary to get two more refills. Not only do they serve a French Roast coffee, but my server knew that and also the brand of coffee that was served; you'd be surprised how many people would just say "some kind of coffee" and leave it at that. Now something may have been lost in the translation (my server was Asian, and I can only assume "ESL" doesn't mean "Electromagnetic Systems Laboratories" to him) and it sounded like he said "Resident Coffee“, I had him repeat it once and didn't want to seem like I was an INS Agent grilling him, so I left it at that. However, I can not find any links to a "Resident Coffee" or "President Coffee" or even any "Lesident Coffee" on the Intro-Nets.
KITCHEN Story has for condimentary supplementation just Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both the standard red and the green Jalapeño); plus, the pancake came with it's own sauce (which may or may not have had some spice to it), which was kinda like a Thousand Islands, just with a bit more flavour. Once again, I used some of my own Spicymonkey Raspberry & chipotle ketchup (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the potatoes, and a little Serious Food… Silly Prices Chunky Habanero (Thanks again, Cindy & Greg!) on the pancake in conjunction with their own sauce to give it a little more kick.
This was good as a change of pace, but I wouldn't go back just for this dish. I mean, it was no Macaroni & Corn Pancakes (or even a Zucchini Latke), but I would still recommend it and would like to try some of their other dishes… 'cause like anyone, all I really want is that fickle little bitch, breakfast.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Okonomiyaki (modernyaki) egg pancake ~ 6.0; Resident(?) Coffee, French Roast ~ 6.8
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo culinaristic pointer of the day:
"Okonomiyaki" derives from the Japanese words "okonomi", meaning "what you like" or "what you want", and "yaki", meaning "grilled" or "cooked".
No comments:
Post a Comment