Luna Park

"Yeah, babe, I know it gets dark down by Luna Park
But everybody else is squeezing out a spark
That happened in the heat somewhere in the dark… "
~ Graham Parker, "You Can’t Be Too Strong" 

http://lunaparksf.com/


Place: Luna Park
Location: 694 Valencia Street (at 18th Street)
Hours: Saturday and Sunday open at 10:00am
Meal: Chilaquiles (Tortilla Chips, Eggs, Queso Fresco, Salsa Fresca)

Luna Park has been open for about ten years now in the Mission, but this was my first time ever eating there (either breakfastarily or for any other meal). My one minor complaint would be that they don't open up until 10:00am on the weekends and for what they call "Brunch"; otherwise, it seems like a decent enough joint. It is a rather large space with twelve tables for two, ten booths for four (or more), and twelve stools at the bar/counter; plus, there are three sidewalk tables for four. I didn't ask (and they really don't specify on the menu or their web-site) for which "Luna Park" the place is named. I saw postcards from Luna Park, Coney Island[1] (the one in Brooklyn, New York City, not the one in County Down, Northern Ireland, Van), and posters from Luna Park in Palermo, Sicily, Italy and from Lunapark in Łódź[2], Poland.

Their "Weekend Brunch" menu only offers about ten different "Breakfasty[3] Choices" (This was their actual term for it, they also have "Lunchy Choices"). There were a few other interesting looking items on that section of the menu: Trois Popovers! (and they even have it with the explanation mark! already) ~ Apples & Salted Caramel, Fresh Berries & Mascarpone, and Ham, Egg & Cheddar (which I would have skipped and probably doubled-up on another Apples & Salted Caramel instead); and Luna Benedict ~ with Tomatoes, Spinach, Hollandaise, Potatoes.

As I have stated several times before, it's always interesting ordering chilaquiles at different places as you will probably never get the same version twice. Luna Park makes theirs as a huge pile o' sautéed tortilla chips and with scrambled eggs (huevos revueltos) underneath. They have a decent enough tasting chilaquiles salsa. The salsa fresca on top was mostly tomatoes and red onions, but there must have been a lot of lime juice in with them as I tasted a lot of lime flavour throughout (which is a very good thing with me and I wouldn't have minded some extra, fresh-sliced limes to squeeze even more juice on top of the whole mess). They don't mention it on the menu anywhere, but this also had pinto beans and avocado in it, which are always much welcomed ingredients.

Luna Park has just Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce for condimentary supplementation. I used a goodly amount of my own Hula Girl Chipotle Habanero (Thanks, Jim!) all over the heap for some extra added oomph (which I am not sure how to say in Spanish).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Chilaquiles ~ 6.8


1. There are several different Coney Islands in both Ireland and Northern Island. The Coney Island in Brooklyn was probably named after the one in County Sligo, Ireland.

Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:

"Coney" is an English word for a rabbit, deriving from the Latin "cuniculus", meaning "rabbit". Similarly, the word for "rabbit" in Spanish is "conejo", in Italiano it is "coniglio", in Portuguese it is "coelho", in Catalan it is "conill", in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish it is "kanin", in Dutch it is "konijn", in Greek it is "κουνέλι", in Irish it is "coinín", and in Welsh it is "cwningen".

2. Łódź (pronounced "Woodzh", and one of my favourite sounding Polish place names because of it) is the third-largest city in Poland.

3. I posilutely hate it when people make up completely superfluousary words.