"So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being." ~ Franz Kafka
Place: Q Restaurant and Wine Bar
Location: 225 Clement Street (between 3rd and 4th Avenues)
Hours: open for "Brunch" Saturday and Sunday at 9:30am (However, according to the "Brunch" section of the menu on their official web-site, "Brunch" is "Served Saturday, Sunday and Holidays 10am-3pm"; so, take your pick. I got there a little after 9:30am and they were just opening up and setting up, so that is good enough for me.)
Meal: Grilled Portobello Benedict; served on focaccia[1] with home fries
(In keeping with the whole "Q"-theme, here are a few EweToobular songs from Stevie Q. Wonder…
Okay, so maybe I took a little poetic license with his name, but it's getting harder to find "Q"-related songs to use here, and Innervisions is probably one of the best music albums produced in the 70's, if not one of the best in the 20th Century.)
Eating breakfast has historically made people feel sated and has allowed us to revel in our subjectivity. So, in continuing my pre-Spring Training workout of my Breakfastary Rotation, I went back to Q Restaurant and Wine Bar (see last 'blog-entry from September 14th, 2013). Once again I sat at my favourite table, the one with the Wooly Willy tableau, and, for a change, this time they actually had an ultra-strong magnet to use to be able to play with and give him a "magical magnetic makeover". (The magnet was so strong that if I laid my fork or knife within two inches of it, it would quickly attract them.)
In addition to a pretty decent standard "Brunch" menu, Q Restaurant has a Weekend "Brunch" Specials menu that changes seasonally (or probably even weekly). Off the Weekend "Brunch" Specials menu, the only item that was really vegetarian-friendly (The heck with them stoopid Vegans and their bloody secret handshakes!) was a Corn Scramble ~ with shallots, cilantro, and white Cheddar, with home fries and buttered toast; but I had that very dish last year during a previous visit (see 'blog-entry from February 10th, 2013).
Unlike my last visit there, this time the eggs were fully cooked/poached correctly. The grilled Portobellos were a nice addition and made this more unique than a plain ol' Eggs Benedict would have been. Of course, this dish would not be for the fungi-faint of heart. Unfortunately, the base of focaccia was somehwat hardish to cut through; this was a little bit disappointing, as I was really looking forward to the change, but it was still a decent enough meal. The side of homefries was very good as always.
For condimentary supplementation, Q Restaurant (and probably even the Wine Bar portion) has a varied selection (to include at least): Crystal® Hot Sauce; Tapatío®; Original "Louisiana" Brand The Perfect Hot Sauce; (something new ~ for them ~ called) Productos Marín (which, as best as I can figure out, is a Mayan-style hot sauce from the Mexican Yucatan area) Habanero Pepper (a green salsa); and their own blend of dried spices that they have in large shakers (the kind that you'd see in a Pizza joint holding either grated Parmesan cheese or crushed red chillies). They may have had a few other options, too, but these were the specific hot sauces that I saw out on the tables this morning. I used the spice shaker all over both the Eggs Benedict dish and the homefries. Additionally, I used some of the green habanero salsa on top of one of the eggs. On top of the other egg, I used some of my own Dave's Gourmet® Ginger Peach Hot Sauce (Thanks, Jim!). I also generously doused the homefries with some of my own Pickapeppa Sauce (Thanks, Amy!).
It's always a pretty simple thing ~ but something this simple (minded) person looks forward to ~ with the check this morning was a Tootsie® Green Apple Frooties®. After all, what is better than a candy with the check? A Tootsie®-brand candy, perhaps?
I purposely (Or is that "purposefully"? I never no witch one to use correctly.) skipped a cuppa Coffee with breakfast as I have a ton (I am not exaggerating there; I have approximately 2,000 pounds of the stuff now in my refrigerator) of new Coffee at home that I received for Christmas and really need to start using up. So, I made a cuppa Café El-Aguila[2] Espresso (Thanks again, Amy!) to enjoy while typing up this 'blog-entry. This is a great-tasting, but potent Coffee, with undertones of raspberries and overtones of chocolate and with just un soupçon de tabac(?)… oh, and lots of roasted Coffee flavour, but no austere verdancy was noted. This really is pretty strong stuff. If I hadn't already been wide awake while typing this out, I would surely be up for hours thereafter. I couldn't locate an official web-site for this Coffee; I think it's actually an imported Cuban brand. (Wait, we are allowed to drink café cubano, but not smoke los cigarros cubanos?)
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Portobello Benedict ~ 6.4; Café El-Aguila Espresso ~ 6.66
1. Oh, c'mon, Billy-boy and your Gestapo of Spell-check Nazis, you guys really don't recognize this word?! Do you and your goose-stepping brown-shirts ever go out to eat anything other than Schnitzel (which I see your auto-spellchecker thingy had absolutely no problem recognizing)?
Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, numero uno:
"Focaccia" comes from Late Latin "focacia" (neuter plural*), derivative of Latin "focus" (meaning "hearth", where the flat bread would have been baked).
*(Wait… a… minute. If something is "neuter" how does it ever reproduce to become plural?)
2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número dos:
"El águila" simply means "the eagle" in Spanish.
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