Dottie’s True blue café

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food." ~ George Bernard Shaw (and he should know; he was a stupid vegetarian, too)

http://dotties.biz/
 

(Continuing the Linda Ronstadt Weekend Tribute. The last song can be taken however you like, but I am sure Linda believes it now more than ever, as do we all as we get older. I always thought she was such a cutie back in the 70's and 80's; she was far from "a classic beauty", but she was also far from ugly ~ well, at least 500 feet from ugly… stupid restraining orders!)


As we near the last month of the Baseball Season, I am going to try to make it through my Breakfastary Rotation over the next few weeks. What better way to start it off than a little morning repast at Dottie's True blue café (see last 'blog-entry from May 6th, 2013)? (That was just a rhetorical question. I would always choose Dottie's over many other places, anyhow.)

I got there about fifteen minutes before they opened this morning (see above photo for times, ya lazy bastages). I was surprised that there were only three people in front of me for a change. These three blokes[1] were all from England. I figured this out all on my own after listening to them speak in a funny accent of 'mericanese, and confirmed it when I asked them which part of Australia they were from. One guy had lived in Harrogate for a while (and even knew of that megalopolis Pateley Bridge, Greg & Cindy). Another is married to a lady from Beverley, near Hull on the Yorkshire coast. I made sure to tell them to be sure to check out the Bakery Specials (the three of them could easily order two baked goods to share) and the normal Specials Board.

You know, in all the times I have ever eaten at Dottie's (at least a hundred or more), I think that I have only ever ordered twice from their printed menu. So, that's what, 97% of the time I order off the Specials Board?

The kitschy salt-and-pepper shakers on my table this morning were some little tiki[2] guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzfcRx0Os_M

(For some reason I can not get this to imbed as a video like the others above. Just click on the hyperlink for this one if you want. This EweToob music interlude can actually still kind of be included in the Linda Ronstadt Weekend Tribute as both of those guys were friends of hers and occasional collaborators on her albums ~ and vice-versa ~ in the 70's.)


As always, there were several good choices on the Specials Board. Nectarine-Plum French Toast sounded very good, and if they didn't have what I eventually ordered on the Specials Board this morning, I would probably have chosen this one. However, as it was, Zucchini Cakes/Uova Benedicto was available again this morning, and I hadn't ordered it since several visits previously (my brother Sean did order this when we went there in May; coincidentally enough, Alison was with us that morning for breakfast, and Linda Ronstadt did a very good cover of that Deckie MacManus song on one of her albums). I also had a cuppa coffee.

I won't go into any long and boring explanation of how brilliant I think this culinary masterpiece is (but it truly is), which is basically an Italiano take on Eggs Benedict. I will just describe it from top to bottom. In place of any stupid "sauce from Holland" on top, they use a speecy-spicy Marinara sauce. Next there are the poached eggs; well, these were just standard poached eggs like you would find on a normal Eggs Benedict. And now, for the pièce de résistance (I do not know how to say that in Italian, though), instead of any boring ol' muffins from Mr. Thomas' bakery, they use fresh made zucchini cakes as the base. I have never really asked how these are made (Kurt would probably kill me if I ever did), but I think it's a cornmeal batter with finely shredded zucchini in it. This meal is always top-notch (or top-Marinara, whatever).

Today's side cup of fruits included: cantaloupe[3], watermelon (an actual botanical berry, of course), blueberries (also berries), strawberries (nope, sorry, not real berries), and blackberries (not real berries either).

I didn't bring any of my own hot sauces with me this morning, nor were any really needed, as I know that Dottie's offers a pretty decent selection for condimentary supplementation. I used some Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce ~ Chipotle on the potatoes. No way was I going to mess with the Marinara sauce on the Zucchini Cakes (again, that would probably be a death sentence from Kurt).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Zucchini Cakes ~ 7.6; Linda Ronstadt (singing and in general)~ 8.2


1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, part the first:

I know what you're thinking, "Very funny, Brian. You are still saying that 'English' is a foreign language to most 'mericans. Ha ha ha!" However, the origin of the word "Bloke" is actually unknown, but there are a few suggestions as to its origin: one is that it may be from Celtic "ploc" ("a large, stubborn person") or from Romany "loke" ("a man") with its roots in Hindi.

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, number two:

In the Māori language, "Tiki" was the name given to large wooden carvings in human shape. In Māori mythology, "Tiki" is the name of the first man created by either Tumataunega or Tāne.

However, there is no truth to the fact that the word was originally coined by Walt Disney in 1955, Adam.

3. Not really a stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, more like just a stupid, useless etymological/horticultural pointer of the day:

"Cantaloupe" is derived, via French, from the Italian "Cantaluppi" which was formerly a papal villa near Rome. Tradition has it that this is where it was first cultivated in Europe.