Ro Cafe

Breakfast on Geary (redux), Part 28C

(No official web-site.)


Place: Ro Cafe
Location: 2739 Geary Boulevard 
(between Masonic Avenue and Wood Street); phonicular contact: (415) 340-9765
Hours: open at 7:00am every day
Meal: Fried Egg & Avocado ~ on toasted bread; and a cuppa (which is really a demitassa) Kurdish/Greek Coffee[1]

(As stated previously in my first visit to Ro Cafe, in Kurdish, the word "Ro" means "river". [I have no idea what the "Cafe" part might mean, though.])


Like most 'mericans, I know little to nothing of the ethnic group known as the Kurds or the Kurdish language(s).[2] (I just know that historically they have had no homeland, much like Armenians and Esperantans...[3]) However, since my last visit to Ro Cafe (see last 'blog-entry from February 6th, 2016), Google Translate is finally offering an English-Kurdish (Kurmanji) option.[4] So, in preparation for this morning's breakfastary visit, I learned two Kurdish phrases (which I seemed to pronounce close enough to not insult the owner[?]/counter-lady person): "Beyanî baş!" ("Good morning!", pronounced something like "Bay-ahnnie bash!" ~ or close enough without any aural assistance from Google Translate) and "Spas dikim." ("Thank you.", pronounced something like "Spass deekeem." ~ again, close enough without any aural assistance from Google Translate).

The owner(?)/counter-lady person informed me that they have changed their menu somewhat since my last visit there. They no longer offer their awesome Tzatziki Sandwich (well, which they used to officially call Morning Fresh), which I just had on my prior visit there. This is too bad, as that was a really good sandwich for breakfast (or any time). Also no longer on the menu is Sthara (jam, cream cheese, baby spinach, Mozzarella... "jam, cream cheese, and spinach"?), which I was really looking forward to trying this morning. Bummer. 

They do now offer a few new ideas, though: Veggie Omelette (Feta cheese, tomato, cucumber, olives, & toasted bread with butter and jam) and Kurdish Pancake (which I am also interested in trying to see how these might be prepared with a distinctive Middle Eastern-twist). 

I thought it funny that they have this drink named as "Kurdish/Greek Coffee" instead of the more familiar "Turkish Coffee", but I think that all might stem from the animosity of the Kurdish people towards the Turks. This came with a shot glass of water (which, at first, I thought might have been a shot of some kinda Kurdish equivalent of Ouzo, Raki, or Tsipouro, but thought that would be very strange for breakfast... not that I wouldn't have drank it, anyhow) and a piece of lokum/Turkish delight (or whatever is the Kurdish equivalent to keep it from seeming too Turkish). I ended up eating the lokum before the sandwich was brought out.

Now this was a pretty simple and basic sandwich, but I liked it still. It was a simply and basically made sandwich with a fried egg on top of (lots of) sliced avocado, with fresh cracked pepper in it. I can only think that this would have been even better with some of their special Ro sauce (which I had on my first visit there and knew to be very tasty).

For condimentary supplementation, Ro Cafe has at least Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce), which I used on only one half of the sandwich. I purposely did not bring any of my own hot sauces with me this morning because I was fully planning on ordering the Sthara and really didn't think that "jam, cream cheese, baby spinach, Mozzarella" would go very well with any hot sauce (even with my strange tastes).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: 
Fried Egg & Avocado ~ 6.3;
Kurdish/Greek Coffee ~ 7.0

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1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, jimara yek:

The Kurdish word for "Coffee" is "Qehwe" (sorry, I have no idea on the actual pronunciation of this word as Google Translate doesn't have an aural pronunciation for this language yet; I can only assume it is pronounced something close to "Coffee" as this word is the same word in many languages the World over).

2. If you are interested in a short history of the Kurds, you can thank the friendly folks at WikipediA:

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

3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, Միավորների քան-երկու/numero du:

The word for "Coffee" in Armenian is "Սուրճ " (transliterated as "Surch" and pronounced something like "Soork") and in Esperanto it is "Kafo" (but I have no idea how that might be transliterated or pronounced).

4. Bing Translator still does not offer any English-Kurdish; however, they do have two (cha') Klingon options. Seriously.

Stupid, useless cunning linguist/Trekkist-nerdist pointer of the day, ml' wej:

Oh, by the way, the Klingon word for "Coffee" is "Qa'vln".