"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love." ~ Marcus Aurelius
(No official web-site.)
1399 Church Street (at 26th Street)
phonicular contact: (415) 648-4116
(R.I.P. John Weldon "J.J." Cale; December 5, 1938 - July 26, 2013.
J.J. Cale was truly a legend in the Blues and Rock-and/or-Roll field. Unfortunately most people mistakenly know him as "that guy that stole those two songs ~ 'Cocaine' and 'After Midnight' ~ from Eric Clapton". Here's another fact for those idiots, Bob Marley didn't steal "I Shot the Sheriff" from Eric, or Omar even.
This particular EweToob link was the first song on his first studio album. I always loved the album cover and wondered where Mr. Raccoon was going. And why did he see fit to need a top hat and cane, but no gloves?)
It had been a while since I last ate there, so I went back to Chloe♥s Cafe (see last 'blog-entry from December 9th, 2012). It is still located in way outer Noe Valley. This really is a tiny place; there are only eight tables for two people and one table for four inside. They also have four to five additional tables on the sidewalk for four people each, "whether" permitting; today it was a bit questionable, but I saw a few hardy souls opting for the outdoor seating.
After a perfunctory glance at their standard printed menu, I ordered from the chalkboard weekend Special: "Fresh Herb Scramble" ~ two scrambled eggs (that would be the "Scramble" part of the name, I suppose) with basil, dill, cilantro (those are the "Fresh" part of the name; I never figured out who this "Herbert" guy was, though), tomato, mushroom, and a choice of cheese (Jarlsberg, Cheddar, Cream Cheese, or Feta); served w/ home fries or a cup of fresh fruit, and a choice of toast (my choice was White Rosemary, as usual). I completed the meal with a cuppa coffee.
I went with the Jarlsberg(er) cheese as my fermented milk comestible choice, Mr. Wensleydale. Now when given a choice of Jarlsberg (which you don't see that many places), Cheddar, Cream Cheese, or Feta, who would choose Cream Cheese? That is not a breakfast choice unless you are from Philadelphia. I would probably have gone with Feta normally (and it would have paired best with the "Fresh" ingredients), but I just had that in yesterday's omelette. There was a predominance of basil in this, which is always good. I am sure the dill added a bit of flavour, but let's not get in that pickle. Of course, I had the homefries; potatoes are always better than any stupid fresh fruit cup (even I can cut up fruit and put it in a cup). They always have good homefries; these are reminiscent of the old Café Sanchez (which used to be just two block away). For some odd reason this came with three halves of toast; I noticed that they didn't do the same when someone ordered a bagel instead, though.
Chloe♥s offers both Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) and Tapatío® for condimentary supplements. However, I had brought some of my own hot sauces and liberally used some Youk's Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the potatoes and just five to six drops of Big Papi En Fuego Hot Sauce Off The Wall Triple Hot (Thanks, Kerry!) on the scramble (I don't agree with MLB and haven't suspended Big Papi from my breakfastary condimentation).
All in all, that "naughty Herbert" guy makes a pretty decent scramble.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: "Fresh Herb Scramble" ~ 6.5
(Because I thought linking "We Represent the Lollipop Guild" would have been a bit too un-P.C. for the following Peter Dinklage reference, but I bet it does take some pretty "little feat" to fill his "tiny shoos".)
I had eaten breakfast at Peter D's Cafe before in the past, but this was several years ago (before I started this stupid 'blog) and figured it deserved another visit. The restaurant is located just on the outer edge of Pacific Heights (and not Nob Hill like they have listed in yelp*). It is a Greek family owned small diner-place, and has been in operation since 1959. I had to ask if the restaurant was named for Peter Dinklage due to his recent popularity on that little TeeVee show, but was informed that it actually stands for "Peter D(imitri) Black" (his real Greek name is Πέτρος Δημήτρι Μαύρος); this was all explained to me by Peter D's granddaughter that waited on me. She also shared with me most of the Greek words that she knows and I still understand (all of which I really can't repeat here).
Peter D's has 10 seats at their diner-counter (where I sat) and another eight tables that seat between 4-6 people. They have mostly a tourista clientele as it is attached to a motel and there are many other motels/hotels in the area to support it.
the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude While walking around a bit after breakfast, I heard several of the local conures flying overhead in the neighborhood, but, due to the thick, low fog, I really only saw one.
Peter D's has a pretty standard diner-style breakfast menu and there were several things from which to choose for even those stupid vegetarians out there. Plus, they had a "New" item on their Specials board: Vegi Omelette ~ 3 eggs, onions, peppers, mild spices, cucumbers, zucchini, & carrots (served with potatoes and toast); I almost went with this choice as I don't think I have ever had cucumbers in an omelette before. I ended up ordering the Greek Omelette ~ Feta, mushrooms, tomatoes, green onions, and olives[1]; served with choice of toast (I chose Rye for a change) and hashbrowns. I also had a cuppa the house coffee.
The omelette was made with lots of Feta (which I assumed was authentic Greek Feta; none of that fake French or Bulgarian σκατά) and I was very happy to see that it included actual Kalamata olives (none of those plain ol' black canned ones). I think this might have been a little better with red onions instead of green onions, but that is a minor point. The hashbrowns were good and crispy. And the coffee was… well, black (μαύρος) and hot (ζεστό).
For condimentary supplementation (and I have no idea how that portmanteau phrase might be translated into Greek), Peter D's has both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce and Tapatío®. I used a goodly amount of my own Mama Africa's Zulu Sauces Chilli Mint (Thanks, Kerry!) on the hashbrowns and a little Serious Food… Silly PricesSweet HeatHot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the omelette.
Today's breakfast was à propos[2] of a defacedbook post from an old Air Force buddy ~ that I was stationed with in Athens, appropriately enough (Hey, Bobby!). He had posted a photo of a great looking χωριάτικη σαλάτα, which included most of the same ingredients as my omelette this morning (χωρίςμανιτάρια, με πιπεριές).
Unabashedly Shameless Promotion of another old Air Force Buddy's 2nd Hometown and 'blog The very same "Cabin Jim" that had recently provided me with some of my newest hot sauces, has a weekend/vacation cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is in Luray (pronounced to rhyme with "Hoo-ray!"), VA and is in the Shenandoah Valley, along the Appalachian Trail. Jim keeps a little 'blog of his own that documents life there. ('By the way, Jim was the idiot that finally talked me into doing a 'blog of my own, so 'blame him.)
I mention all that because there is a little contest going on right now that is being put on by Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine: "2013 Best Mountain Towns". What does any of this have to do with Jim, you, or me? Well, Luray is in the category of "Best Trail Town" and could use all the votes it can get. Now here is the best part of this contest, all you have to do to vote is simply click on the provided link below (and you don't even have to provide any contact information or give up the rights to your first born ~ unless, you really want to; I am sure my mother will jump at that chance). You can only vote once a day (it doesn't state when the contest ends, but just vote daily until you can't any longer). Additionally, you are able to vote once a day per browser; meaning, if you know how to access Microsoft's Intro-Net Exploder and Gaggle's Chromium, you can vote twice a day actually. I have been voting with both of those browsers daily and also with Magilla's Foxfire. If you know of any other browsers, feel free to log-on and vote away with them, too.
"If you're going to do something tonight that you'll be sorry for tomorrow morning, sleep late." ~ Henny Youngman
(No official web-site.)
1602 Lombard Street (at Gough Street, naturally)
phonicular contact: (415) 673-4656
(There is no particular reason for today's EweToob selections. I just like the singers.)
I didn't sleep late this morning, Henny, so I went back to Cafe Golo (see last 'blog-entry from January 12th, 2013) for breakfast; and it is good to note that they open up pretty early at 8:00am on the weekends. Of course, they are located right on Lombard Street (which can be considered either in the Marina or Cow Hollow, take your pick).
Cutesy Abbreviated Neighborhood Nickname Rant I really am sick of all these new, stupid, abbreviated neighborhood nicknames that they are coming up with lately: "SoMa", "NoPa", "EtceteRa". Just how hard is it to say "South of Market" or "North of the Panhandle" (which is a pretty stupid neighborhood designator in itself; it's either the Western Addition or Haight-Ashbury ~ or is that "WeAd" and "HaAs"?). Keeping with this jeenyus ratiocination, maybe Cow Hollow should be called "CoHo", or just combine Cow Hollow with the Marina and call it all "CoMa". KiMyAs!
Anyway, back to my normal breakfastary rant. Cafe Golo has made a few changes to their breakfast menu selections. They changed the name of the Veggie Tater Scramble to Florentine Tater Scramble ~ with the addition of spinach to all of the other ingredients (sautéed onions, peppers, even ~ ugh ~ the vile weed, artichokes, mushrooms, zucchini, and cheese). I went with another new addition the Florentine Omelet ~ spinach, mushrooms, Feta, and Mozzarella; served with country potatoes and toast. I also had a glass of orange juice.
This was a very good omelette. I liked that it had two kinds of cheese in it; that is always nice. My choice of toast was sourdough. I particularly like that they have two types of potatoes ~ regular and sweet taters ~ in the country potatoes.
Cafe Golo offers Tapatío®, Crystal®Louisiana's Pure Hot Sauce, and Castillo®Salsa Habanera for condimentary supplements, which is a pretty decent triumvirate, Julius. Even so, I used some of my own Dave's Gourmet®Ginger Peach Hot Sauce (Thanks, Jim!) on the taters and just a skosh of El Yucateco® Exxxtra Hot Sauce SalsaKutbil-ik® de Chile Habanero on the omelette (Thanks, Brian!).
Completely Unrelated and Unsolicited Stupid, Useless Cunning Linguist Story of the Day "You are a 'hazard'!" Years ago I was visiting a friend that was going to school for one semester in Paris (the one in France; the one in Texas doesn't really have a good university that I know of). After dinner one evening, we were walking through le Quartier Latin with a bunch of her friends and a guy from Columbia that they had met a few days before that.
Some other fuzzy li'l ferner (that hardly spoke any English) frantically ran up to us and asked "What is a 'hazard'?" He was pretty distraught and must have thought it was some kind of swear or terrible insult in English. The funniest part was that he asked the question directly to the guy from Columbia (whose English was kinda questionable itself). It turned out that the guy was crossing the street in front of traffic and the above accusation was hurled at him by one of the drivers. (Why they didn't yell at him in French, we never found out.) We explained to him as best we could that "a hazard" wasn't really an insult, but just to be careful when crossing the streets.
French ~ "hasard" (or "danger", but to be pronounced with the full frenchifried snootiness as "DON-zhay") Spanish ~ "peligro" Latin ~ "periculum" Italian ~ "pericolo" (which doesn't mean "half-assed") German ~ "Gefahr" Russian ~ "опасность" Greek ~ "κίνδυνος"
Of course, Cafe Golo also offers many great fresh-baked pastries. So I made sure to get a few pastries to go: Blackberry-Mango Tart, Sweet Potato Tart, and a Cranberry-Kiwi Tart (which I am enjoying… er, enjoyed, as I scarfed it up almost immediately, with a cuppa Bettys Jamaica Blue Mountain while typing this out). Miss Peebee told me that they sell most of their baked products (breads and pastries, etc.) at local farmers markets throughout the city, too.
Of course, I am never sorry for going to Cafe Golo, господин Юнгман, so don't even think you can "take my breakfast -- please!"
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Florentine Omelet ~ 6.6; various pastries ~ 7.0-7.5; BettysJamaica Blue Mountain ~ 8.5
(The first EweToob video will become apparent after reading through today's 'blog-entry. The second video was mainly because they were playing old 80's junk the entire time I was eating breakfast this morning. To me, the 80's always reminds me of Germany, anyway.)
For a change of pace, I had breakfast at Rosamunde[2]Sausage Grill (the one on Mission Street near 24th Street). They are only open for "Brunch" starting at 10:00am on the weekends. The seating is mainly at one of several long wooden tables/benches (Bierhalle-style); plus, there are five sidewalk/patio tables that seat four each. You first order and pay at the bar and then pick it up at the kitchen window when your number is called (they also have a lighted number system for you to be able to see it from across the restaurant when it is crowded and noisy in the evenings; I have eaten here on a Friday night before and know it is comes in very handy). Rosamunde has an awesome selection of Beers from which to choose, too.
Rosamunde only offers six breakfastary (well, "Brunch"-ary) choices, and the only ones that are available to stupid vegetarians (and Vegans alike) were: Grilled Sausage Breakfast ~ choice of grilled sausage, cheesy egg bake, roasted potatoes & toast; Breakfast Burrito; and Waffle ~ with fresh fruit, granola, dark ale syrup. I went with the Grilled Sausage Breakfast as this was my main reason for eating there this morning (I can get burritos and waffles just about anywhere else). I also ordered a cuppa Four Barrel Coffeeund ein Bier ~ Ommegang BPA (which is a Belgian Pale Ale, hence the "BPA").
Rosamunde offers three different types of Vegan/vegetarian sausages (made from 100% Vegan pigs I was assured). These are probably some of the better and freshest Vegan/vegetarian sausages you can get in San Francisco. I chose the Vegan Apple-Sagesausage. Don't worry, for you dead, decaying animal flesh partakers, they also offer several of "those kind" of sausages, too, particularly of note: Knockwurst (all beef); NuernbergerBratwurst (savory pork); Hungarian (smoked pork); Weisswurst (veal, onion, & leek); Fresh Lamb (fennel & sun-dried tomato); Wild Boar (apple & spice); along with several others.
The "egg bake" thing was basically scrambled eggs with zucchini, red peppers, and I guess some kinda cheese (I really couldn't tell which type, though ~ probably Cheddar). The toast was three slices of sourdough baguette. They have very good homefries with lots of grilled onions in them. All of this wasn't the largest of portions, but it was sufficient enough for my appetite. If I had the time (I had found a legal, free parking spot just two blocks away that was only good for an hour on Saturdays), I probably would have gone up the block to Mission Pie and gotten a slice of whatever was seasonally available to fill me up.
I know that this is not exactly ein typisches deutsches Frühstück, but sausages deserve to be served mit einem Bier (Na, und?!) no matter what time of day they are eaten (besides, I am sure it was after Noon somewhere). They have several Beers vom Fass that I have never had before so I wanted to choose a decent German or Belgian Beer to complement the meal. So I turned to the knowledgeable bartender-lady and she suggested that the Ommegang sounded like it might do the trick.
Me: "Is that from an actual Belgian brewery?" (Apparently not as knowledgeable as I had figured) Bartender-lady: "I think it's a German brewery."
Well, it turns out that it is actually from a Cooperstown, NY brewery. Macht nicht! (or Ce n’est pas grave.) It turned out to be a very good Belgian-style Ale, anyway.
For bottled condimentary supplementation, Rosamunde only has Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red). I used some of my own Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce ~ XX Habanero (Thanks agains, Amys and Brian!) on half of the potatoes and some Serious Food… Silly Prices Chunky Habanero (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the egg bake thingy. Seeing as this is a Wursthaus, they have a pretty decent selection of homemade ketchups (2), mustards (3), and mayonnaise (1) to use with the sausages. So I used some of their Curryketchup on the other half of the potatoes.
Come for the sausages… stay for the Beer!
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: das komplette Früuhstück ~ 6.8; nur Vegan Apfelwurst ~ 7.2; Ommegang BPA ~ 7.0
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, numër një:
I wasn't quite sure what "Rosamunde" meant, I assumed it was either of Italian or Spanish origin, so I did a quick check with GoogleTranslateand the first thing that popped up was that "rosa munde" in Albanian means "ducks overcome".
2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, Nummer zwei:
Figuring it wasn't really of Albanian origin, Mr. Belushi, I did a little more digging and came up with this information (which seemed to make much more sense).
"Rosa Mund" in German means "pink (or rose/red) mouth (lips)".
A) There was an 1823 Austrian play called "Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern (Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus)". The music was composed by Franz Schubert. B) "Rosamunde" is the German name for "Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out the Barrel)".
Additional stupid, useless cunning linguist pointers for "pink mouth":
"Goja rozë" ~ Albanian "Rose munden" ~ Danish "Roze mond" ~ Dutch "Bouche rose" ~ French "Bocca rosa" ~ Italian "Rozā mute" ~ Latvian "Rosa munn" ~ Norwegian "Boca rosada" ~ Spanish "Rosa mun" ~ Swedish
I have no idea what they call Conjunctivitis in German, though.
(This
is their official web-site; however, I couldn't get it to work today. I
know they actually exist as I ate there this morning.)
(Well, "Adia" is close enough to "Alia" and "Alana" for me.)
I found myself having to get up at O-Dark Thirty (and, despite what the stupid movie was called, the correct Military term is "Oh-Dark Thirty", not "Zero Dark Thirty". Who are you going to believe, me or Hollywoodland?) this morning to participate in a walk-a-thon for a friend's daughter, Alia Coleman. Alia is 19 years old and has been diagnosed with advanced Gastro Intestinal Stomach Tumor (GIST) after complaining of stomach pains while in Arizona trying out for a dance team in late April 2013. She has already gone through one surgery and is currently trying to regain her strength as she begins a series of treatments towards recovery from this Cancer. The Coleman family and friends are organizing a number of fundraisers, including this walk-a-thon, to assist the family with medical expenses that are very costly for any kind of Cancer treatment.
This is a partial family picture of (mom) Marie, Alia, and (sister) Kendall Coleman. (Yes, Marie is actually their mother, not an older sister.)
I skipped breakfast before the 3-mile walk-a-thon (from Mariners Point Golf Park in Foster City to Seal Point Dog Park in San Mateo) as the only places which were open that early on my way were just coffee or doughnut shops. We were all done with the walk by 9:30am and I was just going to head on home and skip breakfast, but when I was heading north on 101, I figured I might as well stop in Burlingame for a late breakfast (just beating the dreaded "Brunch" crowd by a few minutes). I have had lunch a few times before at alana's Cafe, but this was my first time getting there in time for an actual breakfast. Like most joints along upscaley Burlingame Avenue, this place is a very nice and friendly restaurant; and they open at 8:00am on weekends.
alana's Cafe has a pretty decent breakfast menu with lots of different scrambles and egg dishes from which to choose; plus, the requisite griddle fare: French Toast (made from homemade raisin focaccia[1]); Southern Pecan Pancakes (served with a mixed berry compote); and Martha's Famous Swedish Oatmeal Pancakes (served with you choice of fruit on the side). The Jalisco Scramble (black olives, mild green chiles, green onions, tomatoes, Cheddar cheese, and homemade tomatillo salsa) looked pretty good, but I ended up ordering the Farmer's Garden ~ homefries, tomatoes, scallions, mushrooms, Cheddar and Provolone cheeses, sautéed and topped with two poached eggs; served with choice of bread (I went with whole wheat toast). I also had a large glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice.
I mainly chose this dish as it incorporated potatoes into it and as a main ingredient. Any time potatoes are the focus of a dish, I am right there. This was very good and cheesy (as to be expected with two different types of cheese).
alana's Cafe only has Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (both the standard red and green jalapeño) for bottled condimentary supplements on the tables and counter. I hadn't planned on going out to breakfast this morning, so I didn't bring any of my own stash with me for a change; however, I noticed someone else using some fresh homemade salsas and asked if I could have one of those, too. I used their red salsa, which turned out to be a Pineapple-Mango-Habanero salsa, judiciously on top of the pile. I didn't know that one of the ingredients was habanero (until asking after I had already used and tasted it) and went a little heavy-handed with it, but luckily it was mostly flavour and not so much heat. The homemade green salsa was probably a tomatillo salsa, but I didn't try any of it.
If anyone reading this knows Bobby and Marie Coleman (even if you don't and just think Cancer bites the big weenie) and would like to donate any money to help support the costs of Alia's recovery, you can either contact Bobby and Marie via defacedbook or you can contact this organization:
http://youth4fitnessandeducation.org/wordpress/Home.html Youth Fitness Education/YFE was the organization that organized today's walk-a-thon so that any donations made to assist with Alia's recovery could be 100% tax-deductible. Just let them know you want to donate money for Alia Coleman's recovery. You won't even need to get up before the rooster and walk three miles to do so.
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day:
First off, die Microsoft Spell-check Nazis didn't recognize this as a valid word. Really, der Fuhr-Gates? Do you only eat at restaurants that serve Wonder Bread® and the like?
"Focaccia" is the diminutive form of the Italian word "fuoco" ("fire") and comes from Latin "focus" ("fireplace, hearth").
2798 Diamond Street (on the corner of Chenery Street)
phonicular contact: (415) 239-4060
[1]
(I couldn’t find any good tiger-related[2] songs on EweToob, so these will have to do. Besides, what is the difference, they are all large African felines, anyway, right? Plus, noone sings like that Herman guy does.)
I am not quite sure how long Tyger's Coffee Shop has been around in Glen Park[3], but I know it has been longer than the 27 years that I have lived in San Francisco. I am familiar with this place as some friends of mine used to live just up the street a bit back in the early 90's (Hey, Bren and Tree!). I think it is currently Korean family owned and operated. At least I hope they were Koreans, as I used one of the only two Korean phrases that I know "Gamsahabnida!" (this is closely enough transliterated for Government purposes), which just means "Thank you!", as I was leaving. I also understood what was said to me in reply "Annyeonghi gaseyo!", which just means "Good-bye!" (the other phrase I know). So, I am pretty sure I guessed correctly. (You can consider those your "stupid, useless cunning linguist pointers of the day" if you like. I am pretty sure that I have done both of them in the past here.)
Tyger's is only open for breakfast and lunch (and I like that they open up early every day at 7:00am). They offer a pretty decent breakfastary menu. I decided on the Chenery Scramble (when on Diamond Street, do as they do on Chenery Street, of course) ~ two eggs with spinach, tomato, onion, mushrooms, and Cheddar cheese; served with country potatoes (they didn't specify which country, though) and toast (I went with sourdough as my choice of burned bread). The California Scramble also sounded good and was very similar, but with avocado in place of the spinach. I also had a cuppa coffee; it is a "coffee" shop, after all, it says so right in their name.
This was all pretty good. The scramble had lots of fresh (not frozen) spinach and (sorry, Greg) tomatoes (also fresh, not frozen) in it. Whatever country the potatoes were from was very good; these were thinly sliced potatoes and prepared like most homefries, which makes for better crispiocity. The house coffee turned out to be Peerless Coffee & Tea®, and it was made from freshly ground whole beans (I didn't ask what roast or blend, but they told me it was "organic"); this was a very good, strong cuppa and much better than your typical diner-joint swill.
For condimentary supplementation, Tyger's has Crystal®Louisiana's Pure Hot Sauce on all of the tables and they also have a spice rack at the diner-counter that has another 5-6 different brands (I saw Tapatío® and Huy Fong Foods Inc.®Sriracha that I recognized, but there were a few other names that I didn't know). I was actually surprised not to see any Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce or Cholula®Hot Sauce, though. I ended up using some of my own Cholula® (Thanks, Brian!) on the scramble mess and some Nando'sExtra Hot Peri-Peri Sauce (Thanks, Kerry!) on the homefries.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Chenery Scramble ~ 6.0 1. There is no confirmation from the NTSB that one of the pilots of Asiana AirlinesFlight 214 was really named "Wi Mo Wei", either.
2. Okay, so I lied:
If anyone is into Alt-Country Rock (or just likes cute gingers), I suggest checking out more songs from Neko Case. She's been a favourite of mine since the early 2000's or so. I finally got to see her perform live at Hardly Strictly Bluegrasstwo years back.
3. Glen Park is a nice little boutique* neighborhood in the southeastern portion of San Francisco. I call it a "boutique neighborhood" mainly because it is a tiny neighborhood, yet there are a number of nice shops right along Diamond and Chenery Streets. There are three more coffee shops/cafés (one being a crêperie also); un bistro français; a very good cheesy shop; a non-chain book store (yes, there are still a few of them left; so, bite me amazon.com and Barney's & Ignoble!); una taqueria (La Corneta, which is very good); and a top-notch pizzeria italiana (Gialina, they specialize in Pizzas, and Napolitana-style ones at that, Johnette).
There is no relation to the inventor of the Glen Bacon Scale. The surname "Park" just might be in reference to a Korean family, though, Neon.
*(In case you were in the mood for another stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, sorry, I had already covered this word previously. It has the same word root as "bodega", too.)
"Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (the original "Where's Waldo?", by the way)
(There really is no connection between today's EweToob link and either "bread" or "Ralph Waldo", I just like it.)
For my birthday last month, I received a gift certificate card to Panera[1]Bread® from my sister Sharon (Thanks, Sharon!). There is just one local San Francisco location. I like that they open up bright and early every morning at 7:00am; this always makes it easy for me to drive over there and find a legal parking spot. I have eaten there a few times in the past for lunch or dinner before San Francisco Giants(your 2012 World Champions) games as they are just a block away from AT&T Park on the corner of 4th and King Streets. Now you can call this area of town either "SoMa" or "Mission Bay" ~ take your pick, they are both stupid names for a neighborhood if you ask me (even if you don't ask me, they are still stupid names).
Panera Bread® doesn't really offer that many true breakfastary items. Of course, they have a great selection of baked goods, but they do have have four different Baked Egg Soufflés[2] and ten types of Breakfast Sandwiches. I went with the Spinach & Artichoke Baked Egg Soufflé ~ "Spinach, Romano cheese, red peppers and artichoke hearts, lightly flavored with a hint of garlic & a dash of Tabasco®". As they don't have any potato-ey side dishes, I also got an Apple Crunch Muffin ~ "A sweet muffin, filled with chunks of apple and cinnamon (well, the cinnamon was actually the powered type, not chunky) then finished with our cinnamon and sugar topping“. I also got a cuppa their Dark Roastcoffee (they have four different roasts/blend from which to choose).
I liked the soufflé thingy, and it had two of my favourite ingredients in it. It's not something that I normally have for breakfast. I don't think I have ever had too many in my life and it's not something that I would even attempt to make if I did cook (or bake). There was lots of (powdered) cinnamon and apple chunks in the muffin. The coffee was pretty good and the refills were free. I suppose that I could have waited and gotten a cuppa at Philz™, which is just a block away, but the coffee was "free" with the gift certificate, after all.
Even though there was already a "dash of Tabasco®" in the soufflé, I added some of my own Serious Food… Silly PricesMango Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) to it; I left the muffin as it was and unfettered, though.
The best part is that I still have plenty left over on the gift card to get about two more meals out of it… now if Sharon had just sent me some tickets to a Giantsgame, too.
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer del día, número uno:
The word "panera" in Spanish means "breadbasket". I have no idea what they call "below the belt" in Spanish, though.
2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer du jour, numéro deux:
"Soufflé" is the noun use of the past participle of the French verb "souffler", which means "to blow" or "to puff", it comes from Latin "sufflāre" meaning "to breathe on" or "to blow on".
Last week my breakfastary destination was going to be Le ZiNC (see last 'blog-entry from November 20th, 2010), but I got sidetracked by a brand new place. To make up for it, I went there this morning. Knowing that they don't open until 9:30am on the weekends (and for "le Brunch" at that), I timed it so that I arrived there just as they were opening. I sat in their backyard garden patio area (where there is one lemon tree and one fig tree, both of which bear fruit; I was told by the server-lady ~ sorry, no name again today ~ that they use the lemons in their iced water and teas when needed, and the figs are used in desserts and cheese dishes when they are in season ~ the figs, not the cheese dishes). There is plenty of seating available in back: five tables for two and four tables for three. The Sun was just peaking over the fence and plants this morning, but it was still comfortable enough to keep my sweatshirt on (yeah, sure, California is suffering from a heat wave, but that is everywhere else but San Francisco).
They really don't offer that many options for "le Brunch" (and even less for les végétariens stupides). I had the Eggs 'Aurore'[1] (why this isn't called "Oeufs 'Aurore'", je ne sais pas) ~ poached eggs on toast with cheese & tomato cream sauce; served with roast potatoes. I also had a cuppa (caffè) Americano[2].
This was pretty good. I liked the use of plain ol' toast in place of the omniprésent English muffins (you just know it has to kill the French to use anything to do with the British Isles in their cooking). The sauce was good, but I would have preferred more tomato and less cream in the sauce, though. The roasted potatoes were really very good; they were either halved fingerlings or just small yellow potatoes.
For condimentary supplementation, Le ZiNC just has Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red). I left the tomato cream sauce alone, but used some of my own CaJohn's Fiery Foods Oaxacan Hot Sauce on the potatoes. I also used some of my new fresh & easy™Malabar Black Peppercorns ("from southwest coastal India - hot, woody taste, balanced with an exquisitely fine aroma") portable grinder on both the eggs and the potatoes. The pepper was good, but it's not as if I can really tell the difference between Malabar black peppercorns and Sarawak white pepper. Since when do peppercorns get the same hyperbolic treatment as wine?
After breakfast I was still a bit peckish (esurient, 'ungry-like), so I stopped by Noe Valley Bakery and got a Cranberry-Meyer Lemon Scone. This was not your standard hard as a rock and dry as a bone (Who comes up with these food similes?) scone. It was fresh and moist ("soft as a non-rock and moist as an anti-bone"?), and chock full o' cranberries (which I think were fresh, not from the dried version).
http://www.noevalleybakery.com/ the Wild Parrots[3]of San Francisco interlude On my way back to my car, I first heard then saw about ten of the (now) local conures flying overhead on 24th Street. I really haven't seen any of them in Golden Gate Park yet; I would expect that with all the trees there (and many, many eucalyptus trees that I know they favour over in the Marina) that they would be full of the noisy little birds by now.
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer du jour:
The word "aurore" means either "dawn" or "aurora" en français.
2. "Caffè Americano" is just a style of coffee prepared by adding hot water to espresso. The name has its origins in World War II when American GI's in Europe would pour hot water into stronger coffee to approximate the swill to which they were accustomed.
3. Extra-added bonus pointer:
The correct term of venery for parrots is either "a company" or "a pandemonium". I like my own made-up "a chattering of parrots", though.
Or as they say in Canadialand: "Happy Thursday, eh?!")
Figuring that there wouldn't be too many places open this morning, I went back to Kate's Kitchen (see last 'blog-entry from December 1st, 2012) for breakfast. I called yesterday to confirm that they would be open and at what time. They open at 8:00am during the week (and 8:30am on the weekend; however, you would never know what their hours are from their official web-site. I triple-dog-dare-ya to find their hours anywhere on their web-site, Sean!). When I got there around 8:20am there was just one other stupid early-bird diner (C'mon, people! It's a holiday. Sleep in for a change.), but it did fill up soon enough by the time I had finished eating.
As usual, I ordered off their "Specials" board. There were several good things on it, to include: the Mindy Hashbrowns ~ layered w/ scrambled eggs, bacon, & Cheddar cheese; and the Meat Omelette ~ Black Forrest (sic, Mr. Gump-Gump) Ham, corn (originally an 'merican/New World food), tomato (also of 'merican origin and a berry to boot), red onion, red bell pepper (another 'merican berry), spinach, squash, and Swiss cheese (which I would have gotten without the dead, decaying Baden-Württemberg Schwein-bits, of course). I decided on the Pumpkin French toast ~ with chocolate (and, yes, chocolate is yet still another All-'merican food) chips & whipped cream. I also had a side of homefries (you can never have enough carbohydrates) and a cuppa coffee (the friendliest and sweetest server-lady informed me that they use San Francisco Coffee Company Espresso Blend with roasted chicory). One of these days I really should order off their standard menu.
This was served as a quintet of slices; four slices would have been more than enough for me, though. This was very good with just the subtlest of pumpkin flavour; the friendliest and sweetest server-lady (I suppose I need to start asking for people's names) told me that this is one of her favourite dishes and that it is made with the same base as their regular French toast ~ "French bread dipped in orange-spiced batter then baked and sautéed in butter" ~ but with canned pumpkin added to the batter mix. I really liked this, but it was all just a bit too sweet for me; I suppose I didn't have to add the maple syrup (and, also of note, this is another truly 'merican product) that they provided, but what is French toast without maple syrup? I probably would have liked this even more without the chocolate chips added (but still with the whipped cream).
I always like their coffee and I probably had 3-½ cups worth with all the refills.
The homefries were very good, too, and they had lots of diced green bell peppers (still 'merican berries) and white onions in them.
Kate's Kitchen actually has a pretty decent selection of condimentary supplementation: Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red), Tapatío®, and some others. But, in honour of the 4th, I went with some of my own Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce~ the regular sauce (Thanks agains, Amys and Brian! I think that was the last of that bottle, but I still have more of the XX Habanero left.) on the homefries.
I am still so full from all that food that I may not eat again… until later this afternoon.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Pumpkin French toast ~ 7.0; San Francisco Coffee Company Espresso Roast with roasted chicory ~ 6.8
1. Everyone knows that "apple pie" stuff is really European.
Pumpkins are native to North America. They are also one of the largest botanical berries.
But, fear not, I am pretty sure that Baseball and Chevrolet are actually 'merican.
2. Even potatoes are more truly 'merican/New World than apples are, Mr. Chapman.
