Breakfast on Geary (redux), Part 16
"The heart is half a prophet."
~ Yiddish proverb
(And the irony is not lost on me with using a Yiddish proverb for a Lebanese café/deli 'blog-entry.)
(No official web-site.)
Place: Ångel Cafe & Deli
Location: 700 Geary Street (on the corner of Leavenworth Street);
phonicular contact: (415) 931-3467
Hours: open at 7:00am Monday-Friday and at 8:00am Saturday & Sunday for breakfast
Meal: Breakfast Burrito ~ (scrambled) eggs, cheese, potatoes, salsa & your choice of bacon, ham, or sausage; a piece of Pumpkin Cobbler Bar; and a cuppa whatever the house Coffee was (I forgot to ask)
(The first song's EweToobular juxtaselection should be apparent from the name of the café/deli this morning. Sorry, the Rollink Stonz never did a song called "Sweet Lebanese Ångel" that I know of.
The second song is just off the same album, Exile On Main Street ~ probably one of the Rollink Stonz best EVAH, and is easily on my list of All-Time Top Ten Rock-and/or-Roll Albums of All-Time. Plus, it's nice to see Captain Jack Sparrow's father singing one instead of Sir Michael for a change. Does that mean that Sheryl Crow is really Johnny Depp's mom, too?!)
I wanted to keep it "local" for breakfast this morning, so I headed straight down Geary Boulevard/Street… about 4.2 miles or so. Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly locally for my neighborhood (more like four or five neighborhoods away), but Ångel Cafe & Deli is still right along the same street on which I live. This is mainly a Lebanese café/deli (Do you think that dyslexic Lesbians claim to be from "Rayboot"?) and they really have only a small breakfastary menu ~ mostly bagels and such (I was glad to see that they also offer a Hummus Bagel ~ hummus, cucumber, tomatoes, red onions).
I must have missed this little place a few years back when I was doing my "Breakfast on Geary" series. It's understandable, as this is a pretty small joint with seating of just three tables for two inside and another four or five seats along the window-counter; plus, there is sidewalk seating (where I sat on this somewhat sunny morning) with four tables for two on the Geary Street side and another four tables for two on the Leavenworth Street side ("Rufus T. Firefly: I suggest that we give him ten years in Leavenworth, or eleven years in Twelveworth. Chicolini: I'll tell you what I'll do: I'll take five-and-ten in Woolworth." ~ the Marx Brothers, Duck Soup). I ate there for lunch a few months ago and had an excellent lavash[1] wrap (Dolma[2]Wrap ~ with hummus, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, cucumbers, lemony yoghurt-tahini sauce), so I made a mental note (and anyone that knows me, knows that is really more like a psycho-reminder) to get back there for breakfast. There were a few other ideas on the breakfast portion of their menu that I thought about: Spinach & Feta Breakfast Wrap (eggs, Feta cheese, spinach); The Heavenly Breakfast Bagel (eggs, cream cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, red onions, avocado & sprouts); or the above-mentioned Hummus Bagel.
Completely à propos of nothing strange interlude
Last weekend I happened to mention spending a Christmas Holiday on the island of Tenerife in the archipelago of Islas Canarias (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!). I can't believe that I missed the perfect opportunity for a "Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-ornithological/pseudo-canine pointer of the day". You see, Thylvethter, the island chain is actually named after the large dogs originally found on the islands and not the little yellow birds[3]. "Canariae Insulae" means "Island of the Dogs" in Latin. (However, it is a well-known fact that "Tenerife" translates from Spanish as "I tot I taw a puddy-tat.")
This was a decent enough version of a breakfast burrito. They substituted some avocado in place of any of the dead, decaying swine flesh products (somehow, I don't think these guys are Muslim Lebanese). I would liked to have seen some other fresh ingredients also included, even some red onion or sliced/diced jalapeños (for flavour, crunch, and freshness) would have been nice.
I only went with the Pumpkin Cobbler Bar as they were all out of Baklava and this was right next to the empty space in their pastry cabinet. This was good, but I bet Baklava would have been better for breakfast.
I have no idea what Ångel Cafe & Deli might offer in the way of condimentary supplements. I didn't really bother to ask, but seeing as they are just a little corner café/deli, I would expect they carried at least Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red). It really didn't matter, as I had come prepared with a few of my own hot sauces and used some Fat Cat® Strawberry Serrano Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on half of the burrito and a little (and by "little" I mean literally just three drops of this junk; I have had the same bottle for over two years now and have barely made it past the neck of the bottle) Blair's After Death®Sauce with Liquid Fire (Thanks a lot, Sean!) on the other half of the burrito.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Breakfast Burrito ~ 6.0; Pumpkin Cobbler Bar ~ 6.3
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, թիվ մեկ:
"Lavash" comes from the Armenian word "լավաշ". This word possibly has its word root in the Armenian word "լովազ" ("lovaz") meaning "palm, flat of the hand" or the word "լավազ" ("lavaz") meaning "very thin".
Of course, Wild Bill and his Nazi-boys at Microsoft Spell-checkering do not recognise this common flatbread item.
2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, iki numaralı:
"Dolma" is a verbal noun of the Ottoman Turkish verb "dolmak" ("to be stuffed"), and means "stuffed (thing)".
And is it really any surprise that Wild Bill and the Microsoft Spell-checkering Nazis do not recognise this Turkish word either?
3. So, yes, Atticus, these little finches are actually named after the islands (where they sometimes reside) that are named after the large dogs.
"Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a canary."
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