http://www.plinsf.com
Place: Plin[1]
Location: 280 Valencia Street (between 14th Street and Duboce Avenue)
Hours: open at 10:00am on Saturday and Sunday for "Brunch"
Meal: Vegetable Hash ~ winter squash, peppers, shallot, tomato sauce, Swiss chard; with a side order of two eggs over-medium placed on top; and a cuppa Flying Goat Coffee
http://www.flyinggoatcoffee.com/
(You will need to read footnote #1 below to get today's EweToobular juxtaselection.)
I wanted to check out a different place for a change and headed over to the Mission for breakfast (well, they call it "Brunch" on their menu) at Plin. This is a relatively new (as in opened in August of this year), nice, upscaley Italiano restaurant place. Per my friendly, informative server-guy, Brandon, (see, I sometimes remember their names, Mrs. Huneycutt… even if they aren't cute female server-types), they are known for their fresh pasta dishes in the evenings, but seeing as this is a breakfast 'blog-entry, I can only comment on what I had there for breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) this morning.
Plin is located right across the street from Annunciation Cathedral (that Greek Orthodox church in the Mission ~ see 'blog-entry from September 25th, 2010). It occupies a very large space, with seating for probably sixty to seventy persons or more (even though I was the only customer this morning the entire time I was there).
Their "Brunch" menu is rather on the skimpy side and there were really only a few other viable options for vegetariani stupidi. I could have ordered either Italian Scramble (caramelized onion, peppers, potato and grandpa George's sausage, toast; and requested it senza che la carne di maiale morto in decomposizione ~ nonno Georgio be damned) or Baked French Toast (mascarpone cheese quenelle, roasted pecans, walnut syrup ~ why not "roasted walnuts" or "pecan syrup", though? And, Mrs. Morin, just to let you know, neither pecans nor walnuts are botanically "nuts", as nuts as that may sound). They also offered a dish that sounded interesting: Crispy Polenta Cakes with Braised Oxtail (poached eggs and chive; while I couldn't get that one, it didn't sound bad for any of you that partake of the dead, decaying bovine tails). However, don't be fooled by the nomenclature Sweetbread Omelet (onions, sage, toast and chicken demi-glaze), Brandon warned me that does not mean that it included any kind of Italiano pancake or French toast in it.
This was okay enough, but it was more of a ragoût (but not a ragù) than a hash (or hàsh even). The vegetables were mostly in a light tomato stew. There was a good amount of Swiss chard in it, which is a plus with me. It comes with a side of toast (either whole wheat or white ~ I went with the whole wheat). This was not an awful lot of food, and without having added the two over-medium eggs, it would have been less so. I probably should have ordered a side of hashbrowns or maybe an order of their doughnuts (which I figured would probably be like Zeppole[2]) and they offer two different types: chocolate sauce and rolled in cinnamon sugar or topped with honey glazed pears and powder sugar.
My friendly server-guy, Brandon, wasn't sure which exact roast/blend of Flying Goat Coffee that they offer. It tasted good (I normally like their roasts/blends), but this was made very weak this morning… but not weak enough that I felt it necessary to turn down a couple more refillas.
I never asked for (nor found out) what condimentary supplementation Plin might offer. It really didn't matter as I had just bought two new hot sauces for my own collection earlier this week and wanted to check them out. I used a little of both on two separate halves (two un-separated halves would be a whole, of course) of the pile ~ using an over-medium egg on top of each as the division point: Lucky Dog (Food's Best Friend) Medium Fire-Roasted Pepper Sauce and Hot Licks® Serrano Hot Sauce. Neither one was really over the top with the heat levels, the Lucky Dog was a bit more picante, though. Both were very tasty, but I also liked the total flavour of the Lucky Dog more, too. There is a plastic pourer/dripper on top of Hot Licks® bottles, which is always nice. I bought both of these at the Hot Licks® retail shop on Pier 39. The really nice thing is that you can sample many different brands and types of hot sauces at the shop, too.
http://www.luckydoghotsauce.com/products/red-label-hot-sauce
http://www.hotlickssauces.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=419
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Vegetable Hash ~ 6.3; Lucky Dog Medium Fire-Roasted Pepper Sauce ~ 7.0; Hot Licks® Serrano Hot Sauce ~ 6.4
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer del giorno, numero uno:
"Plin" means “pinch” in Italian. Hence the use of the pasta-pincher/crimper/roller thing in their corporate logo. What the heck do I know? I thought it was supposed to be a Pizza-cutter. (Just be glad that I didn't come up with some kinda lame joke incorporating "High Plins Drifter" or such.)
Both the definition and information were provided to me by Brandon. However, I could not verify this with either Google Translate or bing Translator.
2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer del giorno, numero due:
"Zeppola" (singular) or "Zeppole" (plural) are specific types of Italian doughnuts. They are usually just balls of fried dough. The really interesting thing is that they are named after Zeppo Marx*. Apparently during the filming of the Marx Brothers classic "A Night at the Opera", Zeppo became enamoured of these local pastries while in Roma, so much so, that a particular bakery decided to name their doughnuts after him. There is even a large chain of doughnut shops throughout Italy named Dunkin' Zeppos®.
*(Nah, not really. I actually have no idea where the name comes from. However, the Rock-and/or-Roll group Led Zeppelin is really named after Zeppo, though. The story goes that Robert Plant was a huge Marx Brothers fan when he was growing up and he felt that Zeppo was the funniest and most underrated Marx brother. Rumour has it that "Stairway to Heaven" was penned right after Mr. Plant had just finished watching "Duck Soup" and was overly upset that this was the last Marx Brothers film ever to feature Zeppo. Coincidentally enough, it is also a well-known fact that James Patrick Page, OBE, is a huge fan of deep-fried dough balls.)
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