http://www.anandafuara.com/
(Happy 55th Birthday, Johnette Napolitano!)
Place: Ananda Fuara[1] ~ A Vegetarian Restaurant
Location: 1298 Market Street (on the corner of Larkin Street)
Hours: Saturday and Sunday open at 9:00am for "Brunch"
Meal: Sausage Benedict ~ Two poached eggs and vegetarian sausage on an English muffin topped with Hollandaise sauce with crispy potatoes, and a cuppa coffee ("organic and fair trade")
Ananda Fuara is "A Vegetarian Restaurant", they even specify that on their signs on the building. I have eaten here a few times before for lunch and dinner, but this was my first visit for "Brunch". It's a medium-sized restaurant with fourteen tables that seat four, one table for two people, and one table for one person (no, really; the restaurant was pretty empty when I got there so I didn't feel it necessary to look like a complete "lonesome loser" and wasted one of the tables for four all by myself).
As they state on their web-site, they are a "Sri Chinmoy divine enterprise". I don't really know what that is supposed to mean, nor do I really care. As long as the food is tasty, it's all good with me. The waitresses/server ladies all wear saris/wrap thingys. I just hope that by eating here, I don't become some kinda mindless member of a vegetarian cult. Ommm-mmm!
It's nice to go to a place and be able to order anything on the menu. Even stupid Vegans have many choices. (Of course, I only make fun of Vegans because I can. This is akin to Catholics making fun of Methodists for their religious choices ~ "My Jesus-based religion is better than your Jesus-based religion, heathens!") It is hard enough being a stupid vegetarian, I would really find it very hard to be a stupid Vegan and have to give up eggs, milk, and honey (yes, Vegans do not even eat honey; they feel it is unfair to the bees ~ that is not a joke). That would mean no Pizza and no Ice Cream ~ that's just crazy talk! I supposed I would probably be a stupid Vegan if they didn't have so many arbitrary rules (and they will never teach me their damn secret handshake… of course, a Vegan handshake is usually made with almond or soy milk).
There were a few other dishes on the "Brunch" menu that caught my eye: Orange Blossom French Toast (Three big pieces of pugliese or wheat bread dipped in our orange batter with caramelized bananas and glazed walnuts on top. Served with pure maple syrup.) and Gingerbread Pancakes (vegan) (Three vegan pancakes served with poached pear and vegan lemon curd and served with pure maple syrup.) I went with my choice as it had been quite some time since I last had an Eggs Benedict type meal (see both of last weekend's 'blog-entries).
This was just your typical Eggs Benedict with sausage patties in place of the Canadian bacon. I had to ask one of the sari-wearing server ladies if the vegetarian sausage was made from vegetarian pork (which would not be Kosher or Halal[2]) or 100% vegetarian beef (which goes against the Hindu dietary restrictions). She didn't get my joke, and, for which, I am pretty sure that I got the "extra special" Hollandaise sauce on my eggs. It was actually a pretty decent enough Hollandaise sauce and the poached eggs were once again cooked properly.
I also pestered the server lady as to which brand of coffee they use. She didn't know and said that they just buy it from Costco. At least they specify that it's "organic and fair trade" (whatever that is supposed to mean); it was pretty good coffee whatever brand "organic and fair trade" it was. I found this pretty funny: they have two sizes of coffee on their menu, a "Small" (for $2.25) and a “Large” (for $2.75), but they offer free refills. Why on Earth (or Bhuh even) would anyone order the "Large"? But either size is "organic and fair trade", at least.
For condimentary supplements, Ananda Fuara only has Cholula® Hot Sauce, which is not really a bad option. However, I used some of my own Dave's Gourmet® Ginger Peach Hot Sauce (Thanks, Jim!) on top of the eggs (I was a little wary about how it would go with the "extra special" Hollandaise sauce, but it actually worked well) and some El Yucateco® XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik® de Chile Habanero (Thanks, Brian!) on the potatoes.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Sausage Benedict ~ 6.3
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, number one:
"Ananda Fuara" ("आनंद फव्वारा") means "fountain of delight" in Hindi. Aren't I just a "fuara" of knowledge?
2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-religious pointer of the day, number two:
"Halal" ("حلال") means "lawful" or "permissible" in Arabic. Halal foods are foods that Muslims are allowed to eat or drink under Islamic Shari'ah.
No comments:
Post a Comment