Sunday, November 27, 2016

Dolce Amore


What's White Chocolate Raspberry gelato[1] got to do with it?!

(or)

'scuse me while I kiss the French toast...



http://www.dolceamore.co/


Place: Dolce Amore
Location: 1477 Van Ness Avenue (on the corner of Pine Street)
Hours: open at 9:00am Tuesday through Sunday for "Brunch"
Meal: Signature French Toast ~ croissant French toast served with chef's choice of gelato (the chef chose White Chocolate Raspberry this morning), whipped cream, fresh berries, cinnamon, dried freeze [ sic ] raspberries, & caramel sea salt with a hint of 
Grand Marnier®; and a cuppa Valrhona[2] 
Hot Chocolate ~ silky 64% Manjari[3] Chocolate ganache & whipped cream





(These EweToobular links are mainly due to the fact that yesterday was the 77th birthday of Anna Mae Bullock and today would have been the 74th birthday of Johnny Allen Hendrix. 

Additionally, I suppose the first song can be considered a juxtaselection of "Love"/"Amore". I tried to locate a decent version of Jimi's "Bold as Love", but there really wasn't a good one to be found on EweToob; and, for some reason, he has not uploaded any new versions lately.)


Because I have had some extra large, savoury breakfasts for the past two days in a row (those "past two days non-consecutively" are the worst), I decided that it was time for another sweet take on breakfast. With that in mind, I headed back to Dolce Amore (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, December 19th, 2015) where I knew that I could be assured of getting a very nice, sweet breakfastary meal.

Once again, I sat at the cool jewelry case-counter dining area (or, more accurately, the manager/maître d' guy-person seated me there out of harms way of other customers, even though I was the first customer of the day).

There are still a few other good ideas for which to make more return trips:

On the Sweet Side

Tahitian Vanilla Crepe (please note, there was no circumflexed "ê" in "Crêpe") ~ French crepe filled with vanilla bean crème anglaise (but they did gravely accent the "è" in "crème"; vêrý śtřåñgë) & fresh berries served with lavender maple syrup, whipped cream & candied pistachio (add scoop of gelato 3)

or

Brussels Belgian Waffle ~ your choice of house made waffle:
Caramel Sea Salt
Valrhona Chocolate
Seasonal Flavor
or Plain Brussels Waffle
Topped with your choice of gelato & whipped cream

(Sorry, Sean. I checked. They do not offer a savoury choice of Brussels sprouts Belgian Waffle. There was a Brussels sprouts gelato, though.)

On the Savory Side

Baked Egg Benedict ~ three eggs baked in our (well, their) home made puff pastry served with Béchamel sauce (also noted that they have the ability to acutely accent some words, tóó) & your choice of topping: hot link sausage, turkey bacon, or mixed vegetables

or

(the most intriguing-sounding... or "îñtřïgůíńg-šøůñđîńg")
Crepe Omelette ~ savory crepe filled with Gruyere (but not "Gruyère", apparently) & eggs topped with sautéed (See? They can use the correct accent if they try.) spinach, roasted tomatoes, bell peppers, & onions




Waitress/server lady-person: "Do you want whipped cream on your Hot Chocolate?"

Me: "Is there any other way?!"

(and just a few moments later)

Manager/maître d' guy-person: "Do you want whipped cream on your Hot Chocolate?"

Me: "Is there any other way?! With that option, who would order it without whipped cream?"

This was a very good rendition of hot Chocolate. I liked it. It was not so sweet, and more on the bittersweet side. Of course, I half-expected there to be two helpings of whipped cream on top.




Once again, what was not to like about this dish? 

Very good croissant French toast, a tasty caramel sauce, gelato (which I especially liked; I would put a small amount on top of a piece of the warm French toast and let it act as its own cream sauce when melting), fresh fruits (strawberries, blueberries, kiwifruit, and orange slices)[4], and (not listed on the menu ingredient list) some home made crispy puffed rice dealies. The only thing missing (and they really were not necessary, anyway) were the whipped cream and "dried freeze [ sic ] raspberries" (whatever the heck that is supposed to be). Perhaps, with my insistence of the whipped cream on top of my hot Chocolate, I might have scared them from using any additional whipped cream on the French toast. I liked this meal so much so that I am calling it the "Best French Toast Dish of 2016... not named Baker Street Bistro Pain Perdu - a brunch favorite!".

I really have no idea what Dolce Amore might offer in the way of condimentary supplementation. I was pretty sure that I was going to go for something "On the Sweet Side" this morning, anyway, so I did not bother to ask what they might have or to bring any of my own hot sauces with me for a change.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating
Signature French Toast ~ 7.4 (due to all the cool toppings/sidings, especially the gelato idea);
Valrhona Hot Chocolate ~ 6.7

___________________

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

"Gelato" is the Italian word for "Ice Cream". Literally it means "frozen"; it is the noun use of the past participle of "gelare" (to freeze). See gelatine.

2. http://www.valrhona.com/accueil.aspx

3. http://www.valrhonaprofessionals.com/manjari.html

4. Stupid, useless botanical pointer of the day:

They stated "fresh berries" in the menu ingredient list. Of these four fruits, only two were technically berries ~ that would be the blueberries and kiwifruit, of course.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Boogaloos


"Pop-up" @ Parada 22 Comida Puertorriqueña

El desayuno puertorriqueño completo, perhaps?



http://boogaloossf.com/

http://parada22.com/


Place: Boogaloos
Location: (well, for Parada 22 Comida Puertorriqueña) 1805 Haight Street (between Shrader and Stanyan Streets)
Hours: open at 9:00am for "Pop-up" breakfasts only on Saturday and Sunday 
Meal: Vegan Chorizo & Eggs ~ 2 scrambled eggs with white beans, salsa, and green onions; a "side kick" of home fries; a large glassa orange juice to drink with the meal; and, for afterwards, while just walking up 
and down Haight Straight, a cuppa pour over-style Counter Culture La Golondrina from 
Stanza Coffee

https://counterculturecoffee.com/store/coffee/la-golondrina

(Sorry. I could not locate an official-type web-site for the coffeeshop itself.)





("Hey, Brian?! What's up with these the Beatles EweToobular juxtaselections here? I thought this place was supposed to be some kinda Comida Puertorriqueña." 

Well, first off, there was no way I was ever gonna link any m*ldito Ricky Martin songs on MY 'blog-thing.

Secondly, the restaurant was playing the Beatles songs exclusively this morning. It was very interesting, too; all the versions that they were playing sounded like the standard album versions, but seemed to have been enhanced[?] to sound like they were being played at a live concert or something. When I asked my waitress/server lady-person [who was una salvadoreña, by the way] about it, all that she could tell me was that they were being played off a Pandora® radio station.

And, yes, I suppose that I could have done a mucho bettero EweToobular juxtaselection by linking the Richard Starkey, MBE solo song "back off boogaloo", but, let's face it, everybody knows that the REAL the Beatles drummer was the much more talented Pete Best! the Beatles music went straight downhill after he left the group. Just look at the history: they only lasted another eight years or so after he left the group, and they have never recorded together ever again!) 


I headed over to the Haight for breakfast this morning and ended up at Boogaloos (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, February 8th, 2015) "Pop-up" at Parada 22 
Comida Puertorriqueña. I can only assume that there is some kinda relationship between these two restaurants (same ownership?). I have been meaning to get back to their original location over in the Mission, but it is still closed due to a fire from several months back (May-ish 2016). I confirmed with my salvadoreña waitress/server lady-person that they should be opening again... one of these days.

My original point-of-attack was going to be to revisit Sparrow Bar & Kitchen (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, November 14th, 2015). I had arrived on Haight Street a little after 9:00am and was just planning on walking around a bit until Sparrow Bar & Kitchen opened at 10:00am. I then remembered that Parada 22 Comida Puertorriqueña was now doing a "Pop-up" breakfast for Boogaloos and decided to go directly there instead; it ended up saving me about forty-five minutes of waiting, anyway.

I have eaten at Parada 22 Comida Puertorriqueña a few times before for lunch and dinner and knew that I liked their food, anyway. It is not a very large restaurant; it only has seating of five tables for two (three of which could have been made into one long table for six because they had those wing-extensions on the sides of each table), one table for four people, one large table for ten people (which could also have been used to seat five couples if they didn't mind table-sharing), and seven stools at a counter-seating area. As I was the only person eating there the entire time that I was there, it was plenty enough space for me. 

The "Pop-up" Boogaloos menu that they offer is not the entire normal Boogaloos menu, but it still offers many good choices. Additionally, there was a separate menu with three versions of Eggs Benedict from which to choose. If I hadn't gone with the choice that I did, I would probably have gone with Eggs Valencia ~ English muffing [ sic, I kid you not, and it was mispelded that way for each of the Eggs Benedict dishes descriptions ] topped with poached eggs, avocado, bacon (which I would have had omitted, of course), and Hollandaise sauce (I think a nice salsa ranchera would work better here, though).




Yeah, I mucho liked this desayuno. I really liked that this came with a side of habichuelas puertorriqueños (hence the silly subtitular remark above); these were braised white beans with green olives, potatoes, carrots, sweet peppers, and pumpkin. I have had this side dish before when I had lunch at Parada 22 
Comida Puertorriqueña and liked them then, too. I was also very happy to see that it came with a side of Tostones (fried traditional pressed green plantains with salsa rosa); I was even thinking of ordering a "side kick" of those in place of the homefries. Of course, this all ended up being waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much food for me; I did finish it all, but just barely.

Like BoogaloosParada 22 Comida Puertorriqueña offers their own fresh-made salsa habanera in bottles on all the tables. I asked my salvadoreña waitress/server lady-person if it was the same as the one that was served at Boogaloos, but she stated it was similar, but a different recipe. However, if her knowledge of las salsas was anything like her knowledge of la música, I am not so sure that it wasn't exactly the same. It tasted a lot the same to me, anyway. Because I was originally planning on going to a different restaurant, I had brought a few of my own hot sauces with me this morning; I ended up using just a skosh[1] 
of my own Florida Gold Premium Habanero 
Hot Sauce (Thanks, Kerry!) on top of the scrambled eggs and Vegan chorizo stuff. I suppose the usage of both of today's habanero-based hot sauces could 
be in honour of the passing of ol' El Presidente hisdammself (but don't count on it)[2].

Today's Coffee input was truly exceptional. I am not sure if I have ever had any Coffee from this particular roastery before. I liked this cuppa so much that I even bought a different 12 oz bagga their Tairora to check out for later use at home. I haven't tried any yet, but when I was grinding up the whole beans, it smelled realllly good. My kitchen still smells great (for a change).

https://counterculturecoffee.com/store/coffee/tairora


Glen Bacon Scale Rating
Vegan Chorizo & Eggs ~ 6.7;
Parada 22 Comida Puertorriqueña's fresh-made salsa habanera ~ 7.2;
Counter Culture La Golondrina ~ 7.3

___________________

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

It is well-known that "skosh" is Spanish for "just a smidgen". I have no idea how to say "skosh" in Japanese, though.

2. You can look up the origin of the word "habanero" yerdammself!

Now this is pretty funny. I saw several posts and references about "Fidel is dead!" this morning on defacedbook; it never occurred to me that it might be Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz. I was reading "Fidel" as if it were a Hebrew or Israeli name in origin and was pronouncing it as "FIE-dle" (rhyming with "bridal") in my head and really couldn't understand whom they meant. 

Hey, don't judge me before I have had any Coffee that early in the morning! 

"Let ye who is without Coffee cast the first bean!"

Friday, November 25, 2016

Dave's Gilroy Café


A Breakfastary roadtrip

Happiness... 
hit me like an omelette on a plate?


(No official web-site thing.)


Place: Dave's Gilroy Café
Location: somewhere in Garlic City, CA
Hours: open Sunday through Saturday at 7:00am for canine service only; open at 9:00am for human consumption (that is, if you are of the Walking Dead-type)
Meal: Dave's Special Tomato, Mushroom, Chedda[1], & Feta[2] Omelette ~ I really can't confirm exactly what ingredients were in this omelette, served with pancakes (as many as you can eat, too); a glassa freshly-opened-cartoned (no pulp) orange juice; and a cuppa (and several refillas) Dave's Gilroy Café house Coffee, a very robust ~ even though, I am pretty sure the beans were Arabica (that's just a little Coffee humour there) ~ Dark Roast Italian






I had heard very good things about a new restaurant way down Gilroy-way, so I decided to make the 83-mile trek to Dave's Gilroy Café on Thanksgiving Day; however, when I had arrived there yesterday afternoon, I found that they were not open due to some local holiday. So, I had to make the long 83-mile trek back home and try again this morning. Luckily, this quaint little place (have you ever heard of a "quaint large place") was open for business today.

As an extra added bonus for my efforts, I did get to sit at the Chef's Table for a change. This was an honour that I had never experienced before. Of course, I had to share the table with some guy named "Dave" (and three pushy dogs around and under the table). 

The only complaint that I might have about this joint is that the menu really needs some expanding. I was told that the only breakfast dish that they would be serving this morning was the one that I ordered. Jeez, give a customer some variety or something!




There are a couple of interesting points that I would like to make about this tasty omelette dish: 1) the inclusion of two cheeses (and I must say, I really liked the mixture of both the Chedda and Feta here) is always a good thing; and 2) the mushrooms were first sautéed in a separate pan and then deglazed with a nice White Wine before adding them into the middle of the omelette, this added a very nice flavour to the whole mixture.

I also liked that you got the side-option of pancakes instead of boring ol' toast. There was a large stack of pancakes provided (I think that I may have had four or five myself). And like many other fine dining establishments (that Casa Internazionale di Frittelle place comes to mind), they leave the potta Coffee on the table so that you can serve yourself as many cuppas as you like (I am pretty sure that I "liked" at least two or three myself).

Because I was not sure exactly what hot sauces might be provided at this restaurant (and because Dave had warned me to bring a few of my own with me the day before),  I came prepared with some of my own hot sauces and used a little Dixie Crossroads Hot Habañero [ sic ] Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on my omelette and Chef Dave even used some of my 
Old St. Augustine Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on his omelette, too.

Due to the fact that I enjoyed the meal so much (and you can't beat the price), I will not be sending a formal complaint to the Board of Health. I really didn't think that it was very sanitary with several dogs walking around all over the dining area. Gawd-knows what kinda diseases with which we may have contaminated those poor canines...



(Comet)

(Nellie)

(Zoey)


Glen Bacon Scale Rating
Dave's Special Tomato, Mushroom, Chedda, & Feta Omelette ~ 6.5;
Dark Roast Italian Coffee ~ 7.0

___________________

1. In case none of you have ever heard of this extremely hard-to-find imported-type cheese:

http://www.cheese.com/cheddar/

2. And just because I can, here is a link for Feta, too:

http://www.cheese.com/feta/

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Dottie's True blue café




http://www.dottiestruebluesf.com/


Place: Dottie's True blue café
Location: 26 6th Street 
(on the corner of Stevenson Street)
Hours: open Thursday through Monday at 7:30am
Meal: Black Bean Cakes and Eggs Any Style ~ grilled chili-Cheddar corn bread and home fries, topped with sour cream & pico de gallo; and a glassa fresh-squeezed orange juice


Once again, it was raining a bit this morning and I had arrived at Dottie's True blue café (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, September 24th, 2016) about fifteen minutes before they opened. Luckily, I was the third person in line and got the chance to remain somewhat dry under the small overhang at the front of the building; however, it is only large/long enough for about six to ten people to huddle under it out of the rain.




As usual, there were also several other good ideas off their weekly specials chalkboard. I have had most of them recently (or at least in 2016) and decided to go with what I ordered as it had been a while since I last had that dish.

I ordered the eggs as over-medium. I tried something different with this dish today, I placed one of the eggs on top of one of the black bean cakes (à la Eggs Benedict); this turned out to be a very smart idea and worked out very nicely. While this may not have been as genius as their Zucchini Cakes (aka Uova Benedetto), it was still pretty intelligent on my part all the same. The next time I order this dish, I will have to get it with poached eggs and try that again. As always, their portions are never lacking here; a meal here will usually last me until late afternoon where I will skip a normal lunch and just eat an early dinner. The piece of grilled chili-Cheddar corn bread was huge and very tasty, too.

I would normally not bother bringing any of my own hot sauces with me, because I know that Dottie's True blue café has a very good selection of condimentary supplements of their own and probably would have gone with some Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce Chipotle Sauce on the potatoes, but I really need to work through the surplus of hot sauces that I currently have in my refrigerator. So I used some (well, about as much as you would use ketchup) of my own Sunbelt Plantations Vidalia® Onion Picante 
Hot Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on the huge pile o' taters and some Golden Pagoda Jalapeño 
Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on top of the two eggs.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating
Black Bean Cakes and Eggs Any Style ~ 6.9;
grilled chili-Cheddar corn bread ~ 7.0


Saturday, November 19, 2016

Toast Eatery




http://toasteateryonpolk.com/

(Sorry. You can basically ignore this web-site. It's not really functional. I am just linking it for the address and phonicular information.)


Place: Toast Eatery
Location: 160 West Portal Avenue (between Vicente Street and 14th Avenue)
Hours: open at 7:00am every day of the week
Meal: Hash Brown Hill ~ mound of hash browns (which they have as two words, but I like as oneword) topped with melted Cheddar, sour cream, avocado, and green onions, with one over-medium egg added; and a cuppa (and one refilla) Carville Coffee Co. Bernie's Blend

http://www.carvillecoffeesf.com/

(Yeah, don't bother checking out this web-site none neither. It's about as useless as the one for the restaurant above.)





http://www.nakedbarbies.com/mp3/Everybody.mp3 

(There is no EweToobular juxtaselection [That I am aware of ("Of which I am aware...", whatever)] between today's destination and Naked [or clothed] Barbies[1] or Vagabond Lovers[2]. I just was thinking about this local 90's-early 2000's San Francisco/Oakland-based band and wanted to share some of their songs. 

There really was not a large amount of songs on the Intro-Net from which to choose and I hope these will suffice.[3] Please be sure to click on the third link there; it's not a video, just an MP3 link to a cool cover of an old R.E.M. song.

I do not know why these guys never made it bigger. Patty Spiglanin had/has an awesome voice. I can only assume their management/promotion team might have been a little crummy.)


I wanted to check out the newest Toast Eatery 
location (see last 'blog-entry from Thursday, November 11th, 2015) and it's always fun going over to West Portal for the mornings. (Well, normally it is, when it is not raining, because I can walk up and down the street window-shopping and such.) This is the newest of the four locations that they have in San Francisco; I think this spot has only been open since May 2015. It is in the location that used to house The Village Grill (see previous 'blog-entry from Saturday, October 30th, 2010). There always seems to be open space along West Portal Avenue for new and good breakfast joints.

I checked with (read: "bugged the heck outta") my friendly waitress/server lady-person, and she informed me that this restaurant is owned by the same people (two brothers, apparently) that operate the other three locations in San Francisco. This newest location was just designed to be a bit more on the upscaley side. However, one minus is that there is no Sirron Norris artwork to be found anywhere. (What-the-fork, over?! His artwork is displayed prominently in all three of the other locations. I mean, without Sirron Norris, there is no "Toasty" mascot!) And, for some reason, the two Noe Valley locations have a separate (and operational) web-site from this restaurant and the Polk Street restaurant.





Seating/space-wise it is about medium: there are twelve tables for two; four tables for four; and six stools at the old diner-counter area.

Their breakfast menu is pretty decent with several good choices for stupid vegetarians and meatetarians alike. Some of the other ideas that I was looking at were: Wet Veggie Burrito (flour tortilla filled with scrambled eggs, grilled veggies [Uggh!], black beans, Cheddar cheese, and sour cream, topped with salsa ranchera and avocado, served with hash browns); California Scrambler (egg whites, tomato, fresh basil, avocado, and Cheddar); Chilaquiles (house made [well, restaurant-made] tortilla chips in tomatillo sauce with 2 eggs any style, topped with sour cream; the guy sitting next to me had ordered this dish and it looked pretty tasty, too); Huevos Rancheros (2 eggs any style on corn tortillas with black beans, sour cream, salsa ranchera, and a side of chipotle cole slaw; that chipotle cole slaw might need a trying of its own); Veggie [Uggh! ~ again] Omelette (mushrooms, spinach, tomato, and Provolone); or the completely artery-clogging-sounding Four Cheese Omelette (your choice of four cheeses: Swiss, Cheddar, Feta, Provolone, Pepper Jack, or 'merican; I would probably gone with the choice of four Fetas). 

If I had been in the mood for a sweeter breakfast, I might have gone with either the nutella® Madness with Bananas Pancakes or nutella® & Banana Belgian Waffle.

Do not fret, for those of you that do partake of the dead, decaying animal flesh, they have several of that kind of dish, too. Particularly of note is the overly meat-laden Irish Breakfast ~ 2 eggs any style, Irish bacon, sausage, pudding (kids, this is not the kind of "pudding" that Bill Cosby used to tempt his victims with), beans, and grilled tomato.




Being the normal jerk that I am, I happened to notice on their menu that they stated "substitute fruit for hash browns 2.75", so I asked my friendly waitress/server lady-person if I could do that with my meal; she almost bought it, too. While there was not really a lot of variety to this dish, I still liked it a lot. Potatoes as the main focus for a breakfastary meal is always a major plus with me. When it was placed in front of me, it didn't look like a lot of food; however, after digging into the "hill", it proved to be plenty enough food for my appetite. I also was impressed by the amount of nice gooey, melty Cheddar cheese all over the top of the "hill".

I didn't order any side of "toast" with my meal. I have stated this before, the choices that they actually have to offer in the way of "toast" do not really live up to the eponymic title of the restaurant, anyway. They really should offer "toast" made from fresh-baked (or at least locally-baked) breads.

As for the Coffee this morning, it was very, very good. It comes from Carville Coffee Co., which seems to be owned by the folks at Java Beach Cafe[4]. Once again, per my extra-friendly, extremely knowledgeable, and increasingly patient waitress/server lady-person, they only offer this brand of Coffee at this specific location; she thought that the other locations possibly serve 
Mr. Espresso®, which is a decent-enough Coffee on its own, but I liked today's offering much better. Because today's Coffee with breakfast was very good, I did not feel the need to head down the next block to Peet's Coffee®, which is what I normally do when in this neighborhood and looking for a decent cuppa (or two). I was also happy to see that there was neither a "Donald" nor "Hillary" blend offered.

For condimentary supplementation, Toast Eatery 
only had Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original). I used some of my own Hot Licks® Serrano Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on half of the "hill" and some Dragon's Lair Extra Hot Cayenne & Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on the other half of the "hill".


Glen Bacon Scale Rating
Hash Brown Hill ~ 6.5;
Carville Coffee Co. Bernie's Blend ~ 7.3

___________________

1. http://www.nakedbarbies.com/ 

2. There was a short period of time back in the 90's when the Naked Barbies were forced to change their name temporarily when they were being sued by the money-grubbing bastages at Mattel for using the moniker "Barbies". 

Pffft! The last time I heard, Babs Streisand never sued that stupid toy company for the same reason.

3. *shivers

Yikes!

Believe you me, you DO NOT EVER want to do a EweToob  search with the topic "naked barbies" ~ you will not like the video results found. The level of creepocity is truly unspeakable.

4. http://www.javabeachcafe.com/

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Scala's Bistro




http://www.scalasbistro.com/


Place: Scala's Bistro
Location: 432 Powell Street (between Post and Sutter Streets; right along the Historic Powell Street Trolley Car Line; a half-block up from Union Square)
Hours: open Monday through Friday at 7:00am (for breakfast); open Saturday and Sunday at 8:00am (also for breakfast); open Saturday and Sunday at 11:30am (for "Brunch")
Meal: Eggs Al Forno[1] ~ two eggs, roasted potatoes, coppa picante (which I, of course, ottantasei-ed), Swiss chard, Ramini buffalo Mozzarella, toast; and a large glassa orange juice[2]






(Happy 71st Birthday to Noel Yang!

Yeah, his birthday was actually yesterday, but he deserves a two-day/all-weekend celebration. 

The second song is just a very cool cover version, by a very cool band.

The last song is included mainly because I know the guy that is playing the fiddle on the song, Phil Salazar[3]. Whether you like Bluegrass or not, it's a good song/rendition.)


I felt like doing a re-do at another downtown restaurant, so, like yesterday, I headed back to Union Square and revisited Scala's Bistro (see previous 'blog-entry from Saturday, March 21st, 2015). I really have no idea why una trattoria italiana would use the French term "Bistro", but, then again, how many Italian restaurants in the city incorrectly accent "Caffè"?!

Again like yesterday, this is another upscaley dive that caters to mostly touristas and such. I mean, they even have real cloth napkins (which are always completely wasted on the likes of this sciattone). This morning, I sat in the smaller, upper area near the bar (actually they seated me up there, probably to keep me separated from the rest of the other snooty clientele).

There are still a few other good ideas worth going back for:

(the simply-enough named) Omelette (summer squash and blossoms, Stracciatella cheese, pan fried potatoes, toast; I am pretty sure the ingredients in their omelettes change seasonally, as I had completely different ingredients on my prior visit there);
Egg White Omelette (roasted‎ cauliflower, tomatoes, basil, spinach, side of seasonal fruit; while I really liked the sound of the roasted cauliflower ingredient, I just had an egg-white omelette yesterday and wanted to try something different);
Chilaquiles (two poached eggs, fried tortillas, tomatillo salsa, salsa picante, creme fraiche, ricotta salata; Again [like yesterday] with the cibo messicano maledetto? Cosa succede con quello?);
or 
Brioche French Toast (local strawberries, toasted pistachios, Chantilly cream).





Why they don't have this dish listed as "Uova Al Forno", immano.

Now, I was really expecting this dish to have some sorta tomato sauce base to it, but it was more of just an eggs on top of hash dish-thing. I liked it all, but I know that I would have liked it much better if it had had some tomato sauce in it. Because I had asked for this without any of the carne di maiale morto in decomposizione, they added an extra egg on top of this for me without my asking (it was not really necessary, but appreciated, all the same). This was made with lots and lots of melty, gooey Mozzarella throughout it.

Scala's Bistro only had Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) for use as a condimentary supplement. For a change (and because I had pre-decided this morning after checking out their on-line menu that I was going to order what I did, and I really thought that it would be more flavourful with some kinda red gravy), I did not bring any of my own hot sauces with me this morning. This turned out to be a big mistake as the dish could really have used a bit spicing-up. Oh, well. Next time.

the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

While waiting at the bus stop (at the corner of Powell and Geary Streets) to head back home, I heard several of the noisy chatter-birds, but could not see any around. I am pretty sure that there is a small pandemonium that roosts atop one of the buildings along Geary Street ~ somewhere between Mason and Taylor Streets ~ as I always hear them in that neighborhood when I am down there. A few minutes later when I was on the bus, I did see three of them pass right by the bus window ~ heading westward to Dog-knows-where.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating
Uova Al Forno ~ 6.4;
i Pappagalli Selvatici di San Francisco ~ 8.5

___________________

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, numero uno:

"Al forno" simply means "baked" (literally "in the oven") in Italiano. 

(I know there were some of you thinking that it was some kinda kinky, porno dish.)

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, numero due:

The word(s) for "orange juice" in Italiano is (are) "succo d'arancia".

3. http://fiddlelessonswithphilsalazar.com/

http://fiddlelessonswithphilsalazar.com/me.html

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Tratto


Breakfast on Geary (redux), Part 30

Sometimes "Rust Never Sleeps", but that don't mean that it can't be gold-plated none the same...



http://www.tratto-sf.com/#home


Place: Tratto[1]
Location: 501 Geary Boulevard (on the corner of Taylor Street)
Hours: open Monday through Friday at 7:00am (for breakfast); open Saturday and Sunday at 8:00am (for "Brunch")
Meal: Garden omelet ~ three egg whites, goat cheese, seasonal veggies, side of fruit (which I had substituted for breakfast potatoes, because we all know that potatoes are better than plain ol' fruits any day); and a cuppa (and 1-1/2 refillas) Mr. Espresso® (I didn't get which specific roast/blend it was, though)

http://mrespresso.com/





(Happy 71st Birthday to Noel Yang!

The first song is one of my All-Time Favourite Noel Yang Songs of All-time, which would make it one of my All-Time Favourite Songs of All-time, too.

The second song is just a cover of one of his songs by Gillian Welch[2] and David Rawlings.

And because I think that Gillian is just awesome, I am providing a third song by her, which is also a great cover of one of my favourite songs from the Band.)


I am running out of "new" places to check out ("out which to check..."? whatever) for breakfasts in San Francisco, so I am always on the lookout ("out on the look..."? whatever) for restaurants at which I have not had breakfast yet. This was my first visit to Tratto.  I have passed by Tratto many times since it recently opened (sometime in June of this year) in the same location that once housed BDK Restaurant & Bar (see previous 'blog-entry from Saturday, August 22nd, 2015), which was only open for about two years or so itself. This is the third incarnation for this restaurant-space in the past five years already. It seems like a decent enough spot and it is the house-restaurant for a large, upscale hotel, the Marker San Francisco; so I don't know why it has changed so often of late.

Tratto does not really have a lot of choices from which to choose (because those "choices from which not to choose" are really the worst) for breakfast (or, in this case, on the weekends, "Brunch"). Otherwise, there were just a few others that I saw: Chilaquiles (red and green sauces, two eggs, corn tortilla chips, sour cream, queso fresco; Really?!? ~ I thought this was una trattoria italiana, not una trattoria mexicana) and they also offer a standard Eggs benedict (Do I really need to list the ingredients in this dish?). 

Now, I had checked out their on-line menu just the other day to make sure that there would be suitable ideas for a stupid vegetarian and it also listed a Breakfast Pizza (soft egg, crème fraiche [ sic ][3], prosciutto). However, when I looked over their printed menu this morning it was nowhere to be found. This was really okay as I just had an excellent Pizza (Farm Egg, Roasted Mushrooms, Spinach, Ricotta, Calabrian Chili Oil at -Pizzetta- 211yesterday for lunch, anyway (not that I wouldn't have ordered their Pizza choice this morning if I had the opportunity, too).

https://pizzetta211.com/



(Not that I used it or needed it, but they still have the same cool little cow-creamers that used to be at the previous restaurant, too.)




You know, I don't think that I have ever had an "egg-white omelette" before. It tasted just like a chicken-egg omelette to me...

(And, yes, I have been waiting years to use that terrible joke.)

I liked the taste of this omelette very much. As best as I can figure, this season's "veggies" (uggh!) included: spinach, yellow (Summer?) squash, tomatoes, bell peppers, and mushrooms (lots and lots of mushrooms ~ this would definitely not be a good choice for the fungo-faint of heart). Although, seeing as this joint is basically an Italiano bistro kinda place, I was hoping to see some "veggies" della tradizione italiana in it; perhaps some scarola (escarole ~ one of my favourites of the bitter green leafy foodstuffs) or zucchini

I was very happy that I was allowed the substitution of their breakfast potatoes because these were pretty good, with slices of green and red bell peppers and white onions and lots of herbs and such.

I went with an English muffin for my toast side-choice (because they didn't offer the choice of focaccina italiana). This proved to be a perfect receptacle for their homemade (trattoria-made, whatever) raspberry jam.

For condimentary supplementation, Tratto only had Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce). Non importa, I simply used some of my own 
Pope's Whiskey River Hot Sauce (Thanks, Amy and Chef Joe!) on the potatoes and some Lucky Dog Hot Sauce Medium Fire-Roasted Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the omelette.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating
Giardino frittata ~ 6.7;
raspberry jam ~ 7.0

___________________

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

part a:
"Tratto" in Italian means "stroke (of a pen)".

part b:
The word "trattoria" (meaning a type of restaurant/bistro in Italy) comes from "trattore" ("host, keeper of an eating house"), from "trattare" ("to treat"), from Latin "tractare", frequentative of "trahere" (past participle "tractus") ("to draw") (see tract [n.1]).

2. If you ever get the chance to see Gillian Welch perform live, I highly recommend it. I have probably seen her (and David Rawlings) perform live now at least a half-dozen times (probably closer to ten or more, really) and always enjoy her performances.

http://gillianwelch.com/

3. Now, while I âpplâûd them for their correctly accented use of the "è" in "crème", why didn't they also include the correctly accented "î" in "fraîche"?