pomelo

REFRESHINGLY GLOBAL

http://www.pomelosf.com/


Place: pomelo ~ REFRESHINGLY GLOBAL
Location: 1793 church street (at 30th street)
Hours: "global brunch": saturday and sunday at 10:00am
Meal: makena (maui) ~ crunchy french toast – banana rum-stuffed pain de mie dipped in mascarpone egg batter and rolled in corn flakes, with roasted macadamias and warm coconut syrup; a side of house potatoes (they don't specify which country the house is in, though); a complimentary (and complementary) mini-muffin ~ today's was a strawberry-rhubarb; and a cuppa (and 1-1/2 refillas) Mr. Espresso® (I didn't ask which specific roast/blend it was)

http://mrespresso.com/

(Because everyone knows that the Swedish word for "pomelo" is "norgren"[1][2]... )


It's been a few years since I last went to pomelo (see last 'blog-entry from November 15th, 2014), so I figured it was time for a return visit. At one time (back when the place was known as Valentine's), this restaurant was in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation. I DFA'd them several years back due to the distance and time to get "all the way over" to the far end of Noe Valley.

This DFA-manship was not in any way due to the quality or quantity of items from which to choose. They still serve great food and have many choices for stupid vegetarians and those that partake of the dead, decaying animal-flesh alike. Some of the other global destinations that I was thinking about this morning were:

monte cristo (italy) ~ polenta sandwich with prosciutto, mozzarella, sun dried tomato and basil, pan fried in olive oil, served with a balsamic reduction, two eggs your way and seasonal greens (of course, I would have had to ottantasei la carne maiale morto in decomposizione);

bern (switzerland) ~ swiss rösti – crispy grated potato with bacon, onion and gruyère cheese, topped with one egg sunny side up, butter lettuce and cherry tomato salad (I don't know if I could have ordered this ohne den toten und abklingende Schweines Hintern; I didn't really ask);

masantol (philippines) ~ filipino style spicy sizzling tofu with chili peppers, garlic, onion, soy sauce and lemon (don't judge me, I have had much stranger stuff for breakfast before);

lop buri (thailand) ~ ไขย่ ดไส khai yat sai - thai style stuffed omelet with minced pork, tomato, onion, garlic, cilantro, thai basil, thai chilies, served with lime-garlic-chili sauce (again, I would have ordered this โดยไม่ต้องเนื้อหมูตาย; 555!);

otsu (japan) ~ cold buckwheat noodle salad with cucumber, scallion, cilantro & a spicy soy, ginger & sesame dressing, topped with pan sautéed tofu;

or

pomelo (apparently this poor little salad has no homeland) ~ butter lettuce, baby arugula, roasted sweet pepper, grilled peach, gorgonzola, large
herb mustard vinaigrette.

I mainly went with this breakfastary destination because I have never been to Hawai'i (or hawai'i)[3]. I suppose that I have also never been to the Philippines (or the philippines), Thailand (or thailand), or Japan (or japan), but I felt like having French toast (or french Toast) this morning. This turned out to be rather smallish in stature, but, thankfully, it was LARGE in flavour. I am glad I had ordered the side o' potatoes; it probably wouldn't have been enough even for my appetite otherwise. I really liked the coconut cream sauce/syrup and there was a lot of it to go around ~ literally, it was surrounding the pieces of French toast (or french Toast) like little archipelagos of tastiness. There was lots of Macadamia nuts all over the mess, too; a lot of places tend to go very cheap with the amount used of these "nuts"[4]. Now I can't be sure, but it seemed to me that the roasted Macadamias may have also been salted, which gave the dish a nice salty-sweet twist to it. While this may not have been Baker Street Bistro quality Pain Perdu, it was definitely very tasty to me ~ cornflakes, bananas, coconut cream-syrup, and Macamadamia nuts... what's not to like?!

I ended up taking the surplus (and superfluous) mint leaves-sprig out of the top of one of the French toast (or french Toast) squares and added it into my cuppa (à la what I normally do at Baker Street Bistro or what you might find at Philz Coffee).

I like the selection that pomelo offers for condimentary supplementation: Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (three types: Original Red Sauce, Green Jalapeño Sauce, and Chipotle Sauce); Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original); and El Yucateco® Hot Sauce Salsa Picante de Chile Habanero (the red kind). However, I had brought a few of my own hot sauces with me and went with some Marie Sharp's 
Grapefruit Pulp Habanero Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on half of the potatoes and some Dragon Breath Garlic Hot Sauce (Thanks again, Mom!) on the other half of the potatoes. (Here is where I would  have liked to have stated that I brought along the Marie Sharp's as a planned breakfastary juxtaselection for the whole "pomelo" thing, but it was actually just a serendipitous supplementary turn of events.)

I don't know if it is globally refreshing or not (this morning was a rather chilly and wet, foggy morning), but there was the same little Chihuahua (¿la chihuahuaita?)[5] from a few visits back waiting patiently outside while her stupid human fed his belly and sat inside the warm, dry joint...


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: 
makena ~ 7.4

___________________

1. Really? No one actually bought that stupid Cliff Clavinism, did they?

Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:

(part a)
The actual word for "pomelo" in Swedish is "pomelo" (simply pronounced as "pom-MELLO" ~ see, sometimes this cunning linguistic stuff ain't always raket vetenskap).

(part b)
The word for "grapefruit" in Swedish is "grapefrukt" (simply pronounced as "GRAPE-frookt" ~ and sometimes it ain't even hjärnoperation, too).

2. If you have never heard of Daniel Norgren and enjoyed these two simple songs that I have provided this morning, you should check out some more of his stuff on EweToob or check out his official-type 
web-site thing:

http://www.superpumarecords.com/danielnorgren/

3. I have been to 48 other of these here Yoo-nited States. I have never been to Hawai'i (or hawai'i) or North Dakota (or north dakota). Some day I hope to get to Hawai'i (or hawai'i), though.

4. Botanically-speaking (I don't remember "Botanical" being one of the languages taught at DLI), Macadamia nuts are not really a "nut", but are the kernel of the fruit from the Macadamia trees. 

Additionally, coconuts are not actual "nuts" either. 

(However, true "nuts" can be found all over Washington, D.C. during this Presidential Harvest Season.)

5. Speaking of dogs, Macadamias are toxic to dogs. Ingestion may result in macadamia toxicity marked by weakness and hind limb paralysis with the inability to stand, occurring within 12 hours of ingestion. Depending on the quantity ingested and size of the dog, symptoms may also include muscle tremors, joint pain and severe abdominal pain. In high doses of toxin, opiate medication may be required for symptom relief until the toxic effects diminish, with full recovery usually within 24 to 48 hours.

Always be careful what you feed your K-9 friends, folks. 

Luckily, "the vile weed" has not been proven to be harmful to dogs...