SanJalisco

My Breakfast with Christopher and Wendy

http://m.sanjalisco.com/


Place: SanJalisco
Location: 901 South Van Ness Street (on the corner of 20th Street)
Hours: open at 8:00am(???) every day of the week (their web-site does not have their hours on it anywhere)
Meal: (me) Chilaquiles Verdes ~ tortilla bits scrambled with two large eggs, cheese, onions, nopales, and salsa verde; (Christopher) Nopales con huevos ~ two large eggs scrambled with nopales, onions, and tomatoes; (Wendy) Chilaquiles Verónica ~ tortilla bits scrambled with two large eggs, cheese, onions, and salsa, complemented with chorizo, nopales, and fresh Mexican-style sour cream; to drink, Wendy and I had Coffee (I had one refilla, too)

(I'll bet not many people were aware that the working title of this song was actually "Rip This Tortilla".)


My "nephew" (well, close enough for Government work[1]) Christopher was in town with his fiancée Wendy (doing some kinda pre-honeymoon Coastal California tour ~ from San Diego to Calistoga), so I took them to breakfast at SanJalisco (see last 'blog-entry from December 21st, 2014). I was pretty sure that this local Mexican joint would provide a breakfastary fare that they would not normally get to see in Massachusetts. Besides, it was about time I made a return visit there para el desayuno.

(I did not want to bother either Christopher or Wendy by taking photos of their respective dishes. I figured that it was bad enough that they had to sit across the table from me for an entire meal. Also, please ignore the bokehocity of this photo; the food tasted plenty un-blurry for my liking.)


Even before getting there and looking over their menu, I was pretty sure that I was going to get one of their chilaquiles dishes for myself. They now offer five versions: (standard) Chilaquiles (tortilla bits scrambled with two large eggs, cheese, onions, and salsa); Chilaquiles Verdes; Chilaquiles Remo (tortilla bits scrambled with two large eggs, cheese, onions, and salsa, complemented with sautéed chicken and fresh Mexican-style sour cream); Chilaquiles Verónica; and Carne Asada con Chilaquiles (tender thick or thin steak [your choice] grilled to perfection, served with grilled onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, accompanied with chilaquiles). I had talked up both the Chilaquiles Verónica and Huevos Divorciados (two fried eggs with chile verde & chile colorado [pork]), as I knew those would be dishes that one would not normally find available in Massachusetts. I think the allure of the nopales (again, not exactly a standard ingredient "Back East") was what swayed Christopher and Wendy to order those dishes that they did. (And I am happy to state that they both seemed to enjoy the cactus paddles product ~ or were at least polite enough to not spit it out.) This was the first time that I have ever had SanJalisco's version of Chilaquiles Verdes (and only the second or third time having it with a tomatillo salsa). I liked this a lot, but the Chilaquiles Verónica (sin chorizo, muchas gracias) is still one of my favourites of all the chilaquiles dishes that I have ever had.

All breakfast entrées are served with home-made corn tortillas, Mexican rice, and your choice of refried pinto beans, whole pinto beans, or whole black beans​. I don't think they actually asked us which beanie choice we preferred, Señor Atkinson, but we all ended up with frijoles refritos and everyone seemed to enjoy that, anyway (I also like to mix mine with the rice and add some of their home-made salsa roja to the mess and use it as a dip for my corn tortilla chips). I made sure to expound on the virtues of the fresh (hot-off-the-grill) home-made corn tortillas (if fresh [hot-off-the-grill] home-made corn tortillas can be called virtuous, these would definitely fall into that category).

As has been mi tradición del desayuno whenever eating at a Mexican restaurant, I made sure to add three to four teaspoons of azúcar (and that is not an exaggeration) and crema to about one-third of the mug. I have named this "Café mexicano", because I have seen many of the old, local guys prepare their Coffee the same way. (Of course, they are also slurping down huge bowls of menudo, so their tastes can be rather suspect.)

For condimentary supplementation, SanJalisco only has bottles of Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce on the tables. This really does not matter (¿Cómo se dice "superfluous" en español?), because their home-made salsa roja is more than picante y sabrosa all on its own. I didn't bring any of my own hot sauces with me this morning; I knew that would be like bringing your own Brown Ale to Newcastle.

Don't worry, it wasn't all just fun and food. I also got to show Christopher and Wendy a quick morning tour of la Misión: Mission San Francisco de Asís[2]; some of the Mission murals along 24th Street (especially including Balmy Alley[3]); and a drive down "the other crookedest street in the World", Vermont Street[4]. I suppose this can be considered my "50 pesos tour of San Francisco". 


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: 
Chilaquiles Verdes ~ 6.9 
(I didn't bother Christopher or Wendy for their GBS Rating input for their meals; however, I have had both before, and know that they are both very tasty... the dishes, not Christopher and Wendy, that is)

___________________

1. I have known Christopher for all his life. He is the son of one of my oldest friends, whom I have know for almost all of her life (give or take four years), too.

2. http://missiondolores.org/old-mission/visitor.html

3. http://balmyalley.com/Welcome.html

4. Contrary to popular belief, it is Vermont Street, not Pennsylvania Avenue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont_Street_(San_Francisco)