Buttermilk ~ Southern Kitchen

http://buttermilksouthernkitchen.com/


Place: Buttermilk ~ Southern Kitchen
Location: 2843 23rd Street (on the corner of Bryant Street)
Hours: open for "Brunch" at 10:00am weekends 
Meal: "veggie" omelet[1] ~ beech mushrooms[2], okra, asparagus, bell peppers, pimento cheese, with roasted potatoes on the side; a side of long cooked collards (which I made sure were vegetarian-friendly and not made with any dead, decaying porcine products [as one would normally assume with southern cooking]); and a glassa lemonade; and, beforehand, while doing my laundry on Balboa Street earlier in the morning, I had a pre-breakfastary snack of a Savory Turnover (farmers cheese and green onion) and an 8oz cuppa Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters Colombia Nariño 'Inga y La Mina' at Marla Bakery

http://www.marlabakery.com/

http://www.wreckingballcoffee.com/products/colombia-narino-inga-y-la-mina

(Get it? Red-White-and-Blue! 

What-ever...

And, yes, I could have used Procol Harum's original version of the second song, but I wanted to go with a different 'merican version for the Fourth of July weekend. [Annie Lennox does a very nice cover of this song, too.])


While doing my laundry this morning (I knew that the restaurant I was planning on going to for breakfast didn't open up until much later... and for "Brunch" at that), I actually had a decent choice of pre-breakfastary snack places from which to choose: either Butter Love Bakeshop (see previous 'blog-entry from March 13th, 2016) or Marla Bakery (see previous 'blog-entry from May 1st, 2016). I mainly went with Marla Bakery, because their Coffee is better (Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters trumps Mr. Espresso®). While Butter Love Bakeshop was right next door to where I was doing my laundry (and its name probably would have juxtaselectioned best with my final destination for breakfast), Marla Bakery was only another block away, anyway. Once again, I really enjoyed this fresh-baked item from my neighborhood. I was informed that it is made with their own house-made farmers cheese (which has lots of dill in it); it also had some Dry Jack melted on the top, too. There was also the idea of either a Savory Scone (Dry Jack, caramelized onion, & black pepper) or (something that they call) a Crebble[3].

(Sorry, there is no accompanying photo of my pre-breakfastary snack. What kinda lunatic brings a camera with him to a laundromat?)

I headed back south (well, south of Market Street, at least) to Buttermilk ~ Southern Kitchen (see previous 'blog-entry from August 9th, 2015) for breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) again this morning. I sat outside at one of the five four-seater tables along Bryant Street. It was in the shade and still a bit cool this morning, but I had a sweatshirt on and I was more than comfortable. ("But, Brian, it's Summer in San Francisco. Why would you need a sweatshirt this morning?" ~ Please refer to Mr. Samuel Langhorne Clemens' sage, rosemary, and thyme words on this subject; trust me.)

I really like this place, but there are not that many other choices for stupid vegetarians. (It is a "southern kitchen", after all: "Veggie-terrian?! Does that mean y'all are one of them thar horse doctors?!") There are still: classy breakfast (two eggs, breakfast potatoes, buttermilk biscuit, and your choice of side; I would like to check out their whipped sweet potatoes with brown sugar & goat cheese or baked mac & cheese with buttered breadcrumbs); baked french toast; or buttermilk benedict (buttermilk waffle, bacon, poached eggs, and Hollandaise sauce; which I would need to order without the bacon-junk, but I do like the idea of an Eggs Benedict dish with waffles as the base). And that is about all she wrote. (And just who is this "she" that is always referenced? The only southern female authors that come to mind are Carson McCullers, Harper Lee, and Ayn Rand... well, if you count "south" of Finland.)

Other than the obviously odious moniker of "veggies", this was a very good omelette (or "omelet" even). For some reason there was a complete lack of (as opposed to "an incomplete lack of"?) okra inside the omelette; which is a shame, as I always love me some okra. There weren't any bell peppers inside either, but I had more than my share of those in with the potatoes. However, there were additionally carrots, zucchini, and snap peas ("mangy toots" to you French- and British-types); while I like all of these ingredients, I was really looking forward to some okra, Gumby, dammit! Luckily, they more than made up for the missing okra with a very good amount o' asparagus. I had no idea what to expect from a "beech mushroom", but these turned out to be tiny little, whole mushrooms. Another big plus in the omelette's favour: there was a great amount of pimento cheese ("the caviar of the South") in it, too.

The roasted potatoes also included green and red bell peppers and lots of (and I mean lots of) red onions. The potatoes were a little under-cooked for my liking (where "my liking" is usually extra-burnt and crispy-crunchy), but I will put this down to my being the first customer of the morning and they hadn't had the chance to properly prepare them yet.

Not listed as such on the menu, but this also came with a piece of (sweet) cornbread.

I probably didn't need another "side", but I wanted to try something else on their menu this morning. (I would have gotten a side of their excellent house pickles like I had last time, otherwise.) Collard greens are one of my favourite of the leafy greens, too. (To tell the truth, there is really only one green vegetable of which I am not overly fond: the vile weed.) It is normally hard to find collard greens on a menu where they hadn't already been tainted with any kind of porky bits.

I liked that the glassa lemonade came in a jar with a handle (and a bendy straw!).

For condimentary supplements, I only noticed Crystal® Louisiana's Pure Hot Sauce on all the tables. It really didn't matter as I had come with some of my own hot sauces in preparation. I used some 
Lucky Dog Medium Fire-Roasted Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on top of the omelette and some Florida Gold Premium Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Kerry!) on the collard greens.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: 
Savory Turnover ~ 7.0;
Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters Colombia Nariño 'Inga y La Mina' ~ 6.9;
"veggie" omelet ~ 6.9

___________________

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-historical/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day:

The word "omelette" comes directly from French. The historical origin of the word either means "little plate" ("alemette") or "blade (of a knife or sword)" ("alumette").

I much prefer the original French (and British English) spelling of "omelette". Why this has come to be spelded in 'merican English with only one "t" and without the final silent "e", je ne sais pas. I blame it all on the Germans. Stick to your Beire und Schnitzels, Franz-ie boy, and leave the real cooking to the French.

2. 何ですか？

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypsizygus_tessellatus

3. Yeah, I did a quick Intro-Net search, but could not find anything immediately on the World Wild Webs for a good explanation of what this might actually be. It had been explained to me quickly (which I of course quickly forgot) by the lady at the register, but it looked like some kinda cinnamon roll/croissant deelie.

(And for anyone thinking that this might be their version of the German pastry/doughnut "Krebble" or "Grebble", it looked nothing like one of those.)