Urban Fish

"My course is set for an uncharted sea." 
~ Durante degli Alighieri 

(Okay, there is some construction going on in front and this was the best shot I could get of the storefront.)

(No official web-site yet. At least none that I could find on-line. Their menu stated that there was a web-site [possibly www.urbanfishsf.com], but I can not find it.)


Place: Urban Fish
Location: 2193 Mission Street (at 18th Street)
Hours: You can catch "Brunch" (Get it? "Catch". Because this is a Vegan and Pescatarian joint. Whatever.) at 10:00am on Saturday and Sunday
Meal: Madrona Omellette (sic)[1] ~ avocado, red onion, pico de gallo; a side of Urban Spuds (fka Weird Spuds); and a glassa Organic Ginger Lemonade

(The first EweToobular juxtaselection should be pretty self-evident by this morning's breakfastary destination. I was thinking about using Burning Sensations' "Belly of the Whale" [that is about a big fish, after all, George], but just went with this superbular one from Lady Ella instead. 

The second video was made by a friend of mine, Skip Way. Skip uses photos ~ usually of flowers or such ~ that his sister Andrea has taken and makes them into a collaborative video with singers/bands that he likes [and especially those that won't castigate him for using their music in his videos, even for non-profit purposes]. If you'd like to view more of Skip's stuff, you can check out his EweToob channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqa4xa_2Bxa9K3NZfBJQMKA )


I navigated my way over to the Mission to Urban Fish (fka Dante's Weird Fish; see previous 'blog-entry from November 3rd, 2013) for breakfast this morning. The place has changed hands and name since the last time I ate there (probably sometime last year, but that was for lunch or dinner, not breakfast or "Brunch", so I can't tell for sure when). The new owners are Turkish, as was my waiter-server dude-person (Whose actual Turkish first name I quickly forgot. Sorry, Mrs. Honeycutt [whose last name does actually have a double consonant in it].). He told me that the new ownership took place about eight months ago now. I regaled the poor guy with the only two Turkish words that I could think of: "Cacik" and "Dolma" (which were not that big of a stretch, as they are very similar to the same Greek words).

They only have paper napkins now, and while those are fine enough for the likes of someone like me, the cloth handkerchief/bandana thingys that they used to have in the past were very cool (you try playing "Pirate" or "Cowboy" with a paper napkin; can't be done). Luckily, the menu has remained much the same as before (where they have replaced any "Weird" names with "Urban" now). The waiter-server dude-person also told me that they will be adding more items in the future (perhaps of the Turkish Vegan or Pescatarian persuasion?). 

There are still several decent vegetarian and Vegan options worth trying: Sequoia Omellette (again, sic; of course, I forgot to write down what the ingredients were for this one; I just remember that it was one of the vegetarian options in their Omellette section); Huevos Rancheros (or Huevvos Rancherros, perhaps; 2 fried eggs, corn tortillas, Ranchero, sour cream; served with cabbage salad, black beans, cilantro); Folsom (from the Hollandaise Paradiso section ~ or Holllandaise Parradiso; which is what they call their Eggs Benedict section; made with spinnach and portabbella); or Mission Combo (or Misssion Commbo; 2 pancakes or French toast with 2 eggs, with choice of Urban Spuds, fruit, or Vegan sausage). I should point out that their pancakes are Vegan Pancakes and their French toast is Sour Batard French Toast. Those sounded like nice options on their own even.

(And, no, I don't think that I will tire of making fun of their menu "Toris" ~ that would be as in "Miss Spellings". I am sure that their computers and professional printers have access to all the most recent technology that Billy-boy and his troupe of Braunhemden spell-checkers at Microsoft have to offer, just like I do.)

This was a pretty simple/basic omelette (or omellette, or ommellette), but still very good. The pico de gallo (or picco de galllo) was really very good, with lots of red onions in it (there had to be as many ~ as much? ~ red onions in the salsa as there were tomatoes; and I am not complaining, as I love red onions), and it was served on top of (not inside of, like the avoccado was) the omelette (or omellette, or ommellette).

Surprisingly, their omelettes (or omellettes, or ommellettes) do not come with any sides ~ no potatoes, no toast/bread, no etc. (And just what the heck is up with that?) I was glad that I asked before ordering, as one of the main reasons I went back there was for their weirdly good spuds. I can always get decent omelettes (or omellettes, or ommellettes) any place else. I am very happy to report that they did not change the recipe (just the name) for their awesome version of homefries; they were still as tasty and crispy (and weird) as before.

The lemonade was also very good and had lots of fresh (and I guess, organnic) ginger bits in it.

mini-rant of the day

Is it just me, or does it bug anyone else when a restaurant brings you out a beverage with a drinking straw in it and the straw has the top part of the paper covering still on it? Just remove the damn thing already, please! If I were afraid of you contaminating my drinking straw with your grimy paws, do you think I would trust you with handling any of my food?! Sheesh! (Okay, mini-rant over… for now.)

For condimentary supplements, Urban Fish offers a pretty decent array of hot sauces: Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce and Buffalo Style Hot Sauce); Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce; and El Yucateco® ~ both Salsa Picante Roja de Chile Habanero and Salsa Picante Verde de Chile Habanero. For a change (and mainly because I had never tried this particular version of Tabasco® before), I used some of their Buffalo Style Hot Sauce (or Buffallo Stylle Hott Saucce) on the spuds, but I went with some of my own Fat Cat® Chairman Meow’s Revenge (Scorpion Pepper Sauce) (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on the omelette (or omellette, or ommellette).

Afterward (and because it was just two blocks away from where I was parked) for a breakfastary dessert, I stopped by Bi-Rite Creamery and got a scoop of Basil[2] Ice Cream and a scoop of Honey Lavender[2] Ice Cream.

http://biritecreamery.com/

I guess that Jimmy Durante degli Alighieri guy was just too weird for San Francisco even (and no one ever thought his "Comedy" was all that funny, anyway).


Glen Bacon[3] Scale Rating: 
Madrona Omellette ~ 6.5 (their excellent pico de gallo added an additional 0.1 points);
Urbban Sppuds ~ 7.4;
Orgganic Ginnger Lemmonade ~ 7.0;
Bi-Ritte Creammery Icce Crream ~ 7.0


________________

1. I just know that this mispelink is gonna cause havoc with Wild Bill Gates and his Brownshirt Spell-checkering Nazi Boys at Microsoft. For which, I say: "Good! I'm glad!" Those bastages don't even like my completely acceptable Frenchified alternative spelling of "omelette".

2. What pseudo-culinaristic/pseudo-botanical lesson did we learn just yesterday, children? Both basil and lavender are members of the Mint family and will pair together very nicely. Or so says I.

3. A friend on defacedbookland (Hey, Miss Maggie Boofé!) had thought that whenever I was mentioning the "Glen Bacon Scale" that I was referring to another person altogether named "Glenn Bacon". Apparently, this other Glenn Bacon is a renowned chef from Australia (in the Queensland Area). I suppose that would make more sense using his name with a food rating scale; however, that Glenn Bacon never had to put up with me throughout six weeks of Air Force Basic Training and another year and a half of Basic Russkij Language training at the Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey and Goodfellow Air Force Base. 

Plus, my friend Glen Bacon is also a Boston Red Sox fan. I have no idea which MLB team that other Glenn Bacon supports (or even which AFL team he might follow).

Of course, that other Glenn Bacon also adds an extra "n" to his first name.

Hmmm?! I wonder if that Aussie was the guy that was responsible for printing Urban Fish's current menu.