Ella's

"The one with the Spring Vegetable Hash."

http://www.ellassanfrancisco.com/


Place: Ella's Neo Classical American Cooking

Location: 500 Presidio Avenue (on the corner of California Street)

Hours: open for breakfast Monday through Friday at 7:00am; open for "Brunch" Saturday and Sunday at 8:30am

Meal: Spring Vegetable Hash ~ new potatoes, peas, spring onion, with two (over-medium) eggs added on top, served with toast of your choice (my choice was their honey oat raisin once again); and a glassa orange juice

(What's the EweToobular juxtaselections for today? 
It is a well-known fact that both Lady Ella and Satchmo were big fans of pea shoots/sprouts/greens.)


This was my first visit back to Ella's Neo Classical American Cooking (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, January 7th, 2017) since the new change of ownership. (I think this has been the third or fourth now since I have been going there, anyway.) New owners; same old name; open for "Brunch" at the same old time; somewhat same old menu; some old waitstaff/cook-staff; and some new faces in both the waitstaff and cook-staff (just fewer than they used to have crowded into the kitchen area).

Of note: they no longer list any of the dish names in the minuscule on the menu. Plus, it doesn't look as if they will be changing their "Brunch" menu every weekend. I liked that the menu changed from visit to visit; you never knew what you might see listed (it was never a complete surprise for me, as they would normally have the weekend "Brunch" menu up on-line on Friday night and I would pre-check it before heading over; there was always at least one good dish for stupid vegetarians). They may still change the menu seasonally, but just not as often as they used to.

Today's menu still had a few other good ideas for me: Spinach Salad (grilled portobello mushroom, pickled onion, shaved Parmesan, sherry vinaigrette; which I would also have had added a couple of eggs ~ probably poached for this dish ~ on top of); Wild Mushroom-Bacon Scramble (shallots, fines herbs, Asiago; which I would have ordered sans the porky bits); or Lemon Ricotta Pancakes (3) (with a blueberry compote on top; I saw this going out to one of the tables, these were three extra-large pancakes, and it looked very good).

Not for me, but if there are any of "those type of people" that enjoy eating dead, decaying marine insects, there is Shrimp & Grits (white Cheddar greets, Creole bbq sauce, greens). I also saw this dish being brought out and it didn't look half-bad (of course, that half would have been the half without the shrimpy-stuff on it). 

This was very similar to the dish that they used to call "potato scramble". The new potatoes were small/baby potatoes (blue [purple], red, and yellow) cut into half/bite-sized pieces. It also included lots of fresh peas, corn, AND (not listed, but this may be one of those items that gets changed seasonally) pea shoots/sprouts/greens. I happen to love me some pea shoots/sprouts/greens, so I was very happy to see that included in this dish. Needless to say (but I will say it needlessly here, anyway), I liked this dish a lot.

Ella's offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce) in bottles or Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce in single-use packets for condimentary supplements. I used some of my own Sunbelt Plantations Vidalia® Onion Picante Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on top of one egg and some Palo Alto Firefighters 
XXX Ghost Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on top of the other egg.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Spring Vegetable Hash ~ 7.1

Café de Casa

http://www.cafedecasa.com/


Place: Café de Casa[1]

Location: 2701 Leavenworth Street (on the corner of North Point Street)

Hours: open Monday - Saturday at 7:30am

Meal: Veggy [ sic ] (a Savory Crêpe) ~ eggplant[2a], tomato[2b], arugula[2c],  & fresh herbs[2d], made from tapioca flour, gluten free, served with seasonal fruit or salad; one Enroladinho de Queijo[3] (off the Salgados[4] section of the menu) ~ coconut[5] bread with Mozzarella cheese(?!?); and a medium cuppa (pour-over style) Coffee Magic Brazil Poço Fundo[6]

http://quickdrip.com/

(That is one horrible web-site, but it does give you some information on their available Coffees.)

(Both of these EweToobular songs are juxtaselections to my Coffee choice this morning. The second song is even based on a true story; I read it on the Intro-Net.)


Sim! Here is another great "discovery" and new (well, for me) place for breakfast in the usually breakfastary bereft Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood! This morning I went to Café de Casa para o meu café da manhã. They specialise in Brazilian Street Food. Now I wouldn't know authentic "Brazilian Street Food" from fake "Landing Strip Street Food" (Too "racy" with that stupid joke?), but I had walked by this place last month when I was checking out another new place for breakfast in Fisherman's Wharf and the idea sounded interesting to me.

They have two locations: this one in Fisherman's Wharf (open since December 2015) and their original location in South San Francisco (open since May 2007). Now that I think about it, I am pretty sure that I had eaten either lunch or dinner (that location doesn't serve breakfast) at their other restaurant back when I still worked in Brisbane (the town just south of San Francisco, not the much-less-known city in Queensland, Austria). If I kept a lunch or dinner 'blog-thing, maybe I would have remembered it sooner.

I am happy to point out that there are still many other good other ideas from which to choose for breakfast: 

Omelette Crepe (a Savory Crêpe) ~ eggs, ham and cheese (of which I would have oitenta-e-seis-ed the carne de porco morta em decomposição); 

Caprese (a Savory Crêpe) ~ fresh Mozzarella, tomato and basil; 

Moça[7] (a Sweet Crêpe) ~ coconut and sweetened condensed milk; 

Cartola[8] (a Sweet Crêpe) ~ Mozzarella cheese (Again with the Mozzarella cheese in a "sweet" pastry-thing?), banana & cinnamon; 

or 

Romeu & Julieta[9] (a Sweet Crêpe) ~ guava jelly and (probably Mozzarella) cheese (!!! Oh, h*ck yeah ~ this will definitely be my choice on my next trip over there; if I had seen it before ordering this morning, I probably woulda gone with this one).

Unfortunately for me, they only offer a few items on their Salgados section of the menu that are suitable for stupid vegetarians. I did see that they also offer Pão de Queijo, much like my recent "discovery" at Saltroot Café (see 'blog-entry from Monday, February 20th). I will have to be sure to try one of theirs on my next visit, too.

Now this was a very cool crêpe idea. It was made with tapioca/yuca/manioc flour in place of the standard eggy-batter; this did make it to be much chewier than their Frenchy counterparts. The eggplant was more of a mooshed mistura (kinda like baba ghanoush); which was okay, I was just expecting large chunks of eggplant instead (which can sometimes be a bit unwieldy inside of a crêpe, anyway). The tomatoes were halved cherry tomatoes ~ another nice touch; these added a nice fresh "Pop!" to the dish. This was served with a large spoon (you know, the flat-bottomed kind used in Chinese restaurants as a soup spoon) of olive oil; I was instructed to drizzle some over the top if I liked (I liked, and ended up using the entire spoonful).

Today's seasonal fruits[10a] (and I was glad to see the fruits in place of any silly ol' rabbit-food) were: grapes[10b], kiwi[10c], and honeydew melon[10d].

"Mozzarella cheese AND coconut, Brian? What are you crazy?!" Well, I would answer a resounding "H*ck, YES!!!" to both questions. (Catcha-22 be a-d*mned!) Don't mock me for my tastes. Besides, I didn't concoct this strange pastry (maybe I was um padeiro brasileiro in another life). This was really very good.

I also very much liked that they offered several different roasts/blends of Coffees from which to choose (see above photo for selections available). All can be prepared as a single (small, medium, or large) cuppa pour-over. I mainly went with my specific choice this morning because I figured "When in Rome, do as the Brazilians do!" This turned out to be another nice local roastery find.

For condimentary supplementation, Café de Casa had some of their own homemade (well, casa-made) hot sauce in plastic squeeze-bottles. I had brought some of my own hot sauces with me just in case, but I found their hot sauce to be very flavourful... and a little hotter than I was expecting (about as hot as a good habanero salsa). I went a little heavy-handed with it on the top of the crêpe before actually taste-testing it, but it was all good and it went nicely with all the other flavours. The additional spoonful of olive oil helped temper the heat a bit, too. They also sell bottles of their hot sauce (with the simply-enough named "Café de Casa Hot Sauce" on the labels) for use at home. If I did not already have (too) many bottles of hot sauce in my refrigerator, I would definitely have picked up a bottle for myself. Maybe by the next time I get back there I will have under twenty bottles left in my stock, and can pick one up then.

the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude (or not)

I parked over on the end of Van Ness Avenue[11] under the tall Eucalyptus trees where I knew there was a large-ish pandemonium of the noisy chatter-heads. Unfortunately, I only heard some of them high up in the trees and did not really see neither beak nor feather of them this morning.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Veggy [ sic ] (a Savory Crêpe) ~ 6.5;
Enroladinho de Queijo ~ 7.2;
Café de Casa Hot Sauce ~ 7.5;
Coffee Magic Brazil Poço Fundo ~ 7.3;
the Wild Parrots of San Francisco ~ 8.5

___________________

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day (and get ready for a whole lotta* more of these today), número um:

Lucky for me, I know some Spanish so I can almost decipher what Café de Casa means in Português. My best 202-ing here is coming up with "Coffee on the House", but they made me pay for mine...

Now (as best as I can tell), they do not actually use the "é" anywhere in their name, but both "Coffee" and "Coffeehouse" in Portuguese are "Café". So I am going with that preferred spelling. Simples!**

*(How much is a "half-lotta more", do ya think?)
**(Hey, Cindy, I just figured out that Aleksandr Orlov must be from either República Portuguesa, República Federativa do Brasil, or Região Autónoma dos Açores. The word for "simple" in Portuguese is actually "simples".)

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número dois:

(parte a)
Eggplant = Berinjela (pronounced something like "Berin-JELLA")

(parte b)
Tomato = Tomate (Sorry, I have absolutely no idea how they might pronounce this one; Sometimes I wonder just where the h*ck they come up with all these different names from our true 'merican words.)

(parte c)
Arugula = Rúcula (pronounced something like "ROO-kula")

(parte d)
Fresh Herbs = Ervas Frescas (pronounced something like "Magic Johnson")

3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número tres:

"Enroladinho de Queijo" (pronounced something like "En-ROLL-a-djin-yo de KAY-joe") literally translates as "cheese curl", but this was no cheese-flavored, puffed cornmeal snack being hyped by any suave, sunglassioed cheetah.

4. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número quatro:

"Salgados" literally means "Salties" in Portuguese. However, in this case, Café de Casa was just listing any savoury or sweet baked goods/pastries under the same menu category.

5. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número cinco:

Coconut = Coco (here's another tough one that I can not figure out how to pronounce)

6. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número seis:

"Poço Fundo" (pronounced "Poso Foondo") means "Deep Well" in Portuguese. (Hopefully that will explain Song #2 above.)

7. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número sete:

"Moça" (pronounced something like "MOE-sa") translates from Portuguese as "girl/maid/lass".

8. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número oito:

"Cartola" (you can come up with your own d*mn pronunciation by now) translates from Portuguese as "top hat/topper".

9. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número nove:

Sorry. Try as I might, I could not come up with any good translations of this phrase. Who am I supposed to be? George Costanza?!

(I wonder if Wild Bill Shakespeare spoke any Portuguese.)

10. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número dez:

(parte a)
Fruits = Frutas (yeah, sometimes this cunning linguist stuff ain't exactly cirurgia de foguete)

(parte b)
Grapes = Uvas (pronounced something like "O-vas")

(parte c)
Kiwi = Kiwi (sorry, again, no pronunciation could be located)

(parte d)
Honeydew Melon = Melão Melado (pronounced something like "MelON MelAHdo")

11. For a change, not a "stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day", but just a stupid, useless (but might actually be somewhat helpful) tourista pointer of the day:

At the end of Van Ness Avenue, where it dead-ends over at Aquatic Park Pier (between the back of Fort Mason and San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park), there are many (sixty to seventy, maybe more) free and legal parking spaces. You can park there for four hours at a time on Monday to Saturday between the hours of 8:00am to 6:00pm, and all day long on Sundays. Most people should be able to walk up and down Fisherman's Wharf ~ including stopping at Ghirardelli Square to sample free Chocolates, etc. ~ in well-under four hours (and still have time to take in lunch), anyway.

The parking spots do fill up quickly, but if you get there before 8:00am (like I did this morning), there are usually many empty spaces still available (less-so in the Summer, but only an idiot would visit San Francisco in the Summer). There were even still about fifteen to twenty empty spaces at 9:00am when I was leaving the area.

(just plain ol') DeLucchi (???)

http://www.caffedelucchi.com/


Place: DeLucchi

Location: 500 Corso Cristòforo Colombo (on the corner of Stockton Street)

Hours: open for breakfast Monday - Friday at 10:00am, and Saturday & Sunday at 8:00am

Meal: elvis in north beach ~ housemade (restaurant-made, whatever) peanut butter, applewood smoked bacon (which I ottantasei-ed, ovviamente), concord grape jam & bananas on toasted panini roll with a small mista salad (apparently mrs. salad was unavailable); a glassa grapefruit juice; and afterward, for a breakfastary dessert, un doppio Espresso e uno cannolo at Caffe Trieste

http://coffee.caffetrieste.com/

(Tuesday April 25th marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of the best [if not The Best] singing voices [male or female] to come out of the American 20th Century Music Scene ~ Lady Ella Jane Fitzgerald. Hence, the first EweToobular song.

Coincidentally enough, Tuesday would have been the 100th Birthday of one Elvis Aaron Presley, too.)


I went back to DeLucchi (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, October 23rd, 2016) per mia colazione. It looks like they have now omitted the accentually confusing "Caffé" or "Caffè" or "Café" from their name. (Perhaps, too many stupid touristas or wise-guy 'blogsters must have asked them about which is the correct spelling of that portion of their name.) Their printed menu just has it as "DeLucchi" now, and on the windows it is simply stenciled as "DeLucchi", too. However, their original neon sign on the corner of the building still shows "Caffé DeLucchi". Gó fîggèr.

I thought it was a bit too chilly (and it was still in the shadow side of the building) to sit outside this morning on one of the sidewalk tables. Be that as it may (be that as it was), it didn't appear to be too cold for an Indian family (with two little kids) to sit outside, anyway... "You're a better family than I am, Gunga Dins!"

Confusingly accentauted (or absent altogether now) name aside, I want to get back there to try some other of their breakfast ideas still: 

polenta funghi ~ polenta, melted fontina, braised kale, mushroom medley & poached eggs

(I know I will like that a lot, too.)

or

mediterranean scramble ~ two eggs, Feta, olives, roasted red bell peppers, red onion, spinach, artichoke, capers with potatoes and toast

(Feta, spinach, artichoke, and capers? Öh, yèáh!)

I don't know. I was a bit disappointed in this meal. Don't get me wrong, it was okay and all, but I was really expecting the bananas to be fried or something. It was a bit messy/sticky to pick up and eat hand-held, too. I would also have liked more of their housemade (restaurant-made, whatever) peanutbutter in the sandwich. This is currently made with Concord grape jam (as stated on their printed menus), but their on-line menu lists it with fig jam. I bet this would be much better with fig jam.

Luckily, because I could, I substituted (consider it "major upgraded") the small mista salad (Is a bigga mista salad the norm in Utah?!) for their excellent artichoke hash. 

DeLucchi has three kinds of Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce, Green Jalapeño Pepper Sauce, and Chipotle Sauce) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce for condimentary supplements. I used some of my own Dragon Breath Garlic Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on some of the artichoke hash.

Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
elvis in north beach ~ 6.2;
artichoke hash ~ 7.5

Dottie's True blue café

(No official web-site any longer [or any shorter].)


Place: Dottie's True blue café

Location: 26 6th Street 
(on the corner of Stevenson Street); 
phonicular contact: (415) 885-2767

Hours: open Thursday through Monday at 7:30am

Meal: Spinach, Kalamata Olive, & Feta Omelette ~ with home fries and your choice of (boring ol') English muffin, (most excellent) house-made (well, restaurant-made) buttermilk dill or whole wheat toast... or for $1.00 extra, grilled (the mostest excellent) chili-Cheddar corn bread with pepper jelly (which is exactly what I went with); and a glassa orange juice

(Early in the mornings, Dottie's True blue café is usually playing old Blues and Jazz music, etc., and who better to exemplify the Blues than the Empress of the Blues herd*mnself, Miss Bessie Smith?! [Somehow, I don't think Empress Bessie was referring to any sweetener for her morning Coffee in this song.]

The second EweToobular selection is just because today is Earth Day. [Listen to Neko. You had better never turn your back on Mother Earth. She'll shiv ya just as soon as look at ya. The dirty ol' b*tch!])


Continuing with my once-a-monthly visits for 2017 to Dottie's True blue café (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, March 25th, 2017), I went back there again this morning.

Once again, I sat at "Seat One!" (the corner counter seat, right under the large Specials Blackboard). Seeing as I was the second "group" (there was one couple just ahead of me this morning) in the door, I pretty much had my choice of seating, anyway. There were only about fifteen to sixteen people waiting in line by the time the doors were open this morning. Of course, the joint filled up quickly enough (as could be heard by Kurt exclaiming, "The grille is backed-up!") and there was a small line out the door by the time I had finished eating.

Sitting under the Specials Blackboard, I realised that it has been quite some time (at least over a year now) since I had last ordered their Sweet Potato, Caramelized Red Onion & Gruyère Tart (with eggs any style [just don't ask for them "poached" or you might p*ss off Kurt ~ see previous Dottie's 'blog-entry for an explanation of that silly reference] & fruit). If it is one of next month's specials, I will have to think about getting that again.

Sure this was "just an omelette" (and the ingredients were of all of my [intelligent] choosing), but this was really a great omelette due to the fact that it had lots of everything that I like. There was no skimping on either the Kalamata olives or the Feta (which are two ingredients that a lot of non-Greeky establishments tend to go el cheapo on). Even that picky ol' one-eyed sailor-man would be impressed with the amount of spinach that was sequestered throughout the omelette.

For condimentary supplementation, I simply used some of the provided Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce 
(Chipotle Sauce) on the homefries. I thought about using some of Dottie's pepper jelly on the potatoes, but I only had just about enough to use on the cornbread, anyway.

I skipped any Coffee with breakfast because I planned on checking out yet still another Christmas gift (I even still have one more bagga to go) to enjoy while keyboarding-up this 'blog-entry (Thanks again, Greg & Cindy!). This afternoon's cuppa was Bettys Colombian Fedar (no relation to that Darth Fedar guy, by the way): "A lively Coffee, with a butter caramel sweetness perfectly complemented by a delicious fruity character." (Is this supposed to be a cuppa, or one of them actors on that "Downtown Abigail" TeeVee show?) This was a very good cuppa (as all of Bettys products are), but I have had better from Bettys (Can you say "Jamaica Blue Mountain"? Yeah... Well... Can you say it ten times fast?!). And for extra added juxtaselection points, I drank it out of one of my Dottie's True blue café mugs. 

https://www.bettys.co.uk/bettys-colombian-fedar

https://www.bettys.co.uk/blog/new-single-origin-coffees


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Spinach, Kalamata Olive, & Feta Omelette ~ 7.0 (this is taking into consideration the plethoria... the plethera... the Pliny the Elder... whatever... there was a lotta d*mn Feta in it);
Bettys Colombian Fedar ~ 7.1 

eight am

♪ "Don't blame us if we ever doubt ya
You know we couldn't live without ya
Breakfast... you are the only only ooooonly..." ♫

(No official web-site [or none that I could find].)


Place: eight am

Location: 1323 Columbus Avenue 
(between Beach and North Point Streets; right across the street from Joseph Conrad Square [you know, the triangular mini-park ~ but not odious "parklet" ~ across the street from the Cannery Shopping Center]); phonicular contact: (415) 292-4888

Hours: (ironically enough, they actually) open at 7:00am seven days a week 

Meal: Pacific Heights (Frittata) ~ asparagus, tomato, and Manchego cheese; and a glassa freshly-squeezed (extra-frothy/foamy with lotsa pulp) orange juice

(There are absolutely no EweToobular juxtaselections with this morning's songs/videos. I just happened to catch one of T Sisters[1] songs on the car stereo on the way to breakfast this morning and really liked it. The second one is just because... GO RED SOX!!!)


I only have two words to say about today's new breakfastary find: "Yow"-and-"zah"! 

I happened to notice a "new" (well, for me, anyway) breakfast spot last month when I was checking out another great new place, Surisan (see 'blog-entry from Sunday, March 19th, 2017); so I made myself a retarded missive to get back again to check out eight am one of these days. Well, today happened to be one of these day. Much like last month's visit to Surisan, I really have to make an effort to get back again soon to sample some more of their other offerings. Who knew there were now two great breakfastary locations in the confines of (the usually breakfast-bereft) Fisherman's Wharf?

eight am has only been open now since late March 2015. I don't blame myself for not "discovering" this place sooner; it's not my fault that there are not normally enough good breakfast joints in Fisherman's Wharf for which to get over there more often. I think this space used to house just another neighborhood coffeehouse. This is a very cool little spot, with seating for about 34-36 people and additionally three tables for two people each outside on the sidewalk (if you want to brave the cold and don't mind watching the homeless sleeping/waking-up across the street in the mini-park, that is). There was only one table occupied when I had first arrived (a little after 7:00am), but I was happy to see that the place really fills up fast (even early on a pastoral Easter morn). Apparently all the touristas in the nearby hotels and motels have already gotten the word about this great little place.

I especially like that they offer many other options for stupid vegetarians (and, I suppose, many others for dead-decaying-meatetarians, too). There are several more (locally-named) Frittatas and a full line (of the anti meridiem and post meridiem variety) of Crêpes[2] from which to choose, ferinstance: Haight Ashbury (Frittata; mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, and Swiss cheese); Noe Valley (Frittata; Black Forest ham, zucchini, and Gruyère; which I would have, of course, sechsundachtzig-ed the Schwarzwälder Schinken, Adolf); Nob Hill (Frittata; mushrooms, spinach, shallots, and Swiss cheese); 7AM (Crêpe; tomatoes, yellow and red bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and Swiss cheese); 8AM (Crêpe; berry compote made with fresh seasonal berries [just not seasonal heirloom tomatoes or eggplant, I hope ~ please see the silly A Berry Strange Interlude below to get that joke] and Chantilly cream); or 11AM (Crêpe; peanut butter and sliced bananas [which are an actual berry, of course] drizzled with maple syrup).

However, for my next visit, I will probably (most definitely!) have to opt for their Avocado Toast Three Ways (a culinaristic ménage-à-trois, peut-être?!). I was informed by one of the ever-attentive, friendly waiter/server-person guys that this is one of their most popular choices. This meal includes: Avocado Toast with Fried Egg (toasted multigrain bread spread with mashed avocado topped with one sunny-side up egg), Avocado Toast with  Heirloom Tomato (toasted sweet baguette spread with mashed avocado and heirloom tomato slices), and Avocado Toast with  Bacon (toasted sourdough spread with mashed avocado and bacon; of course, I would probably ask for a second sunny-side up egg in place of the porky-butt bits). This also comes with a side of fresh fruit. The person at the next table over from me had ordered this and it looked really good. It might all be a bit too much food for me to order it with a side of their very tasty homefries. Pity. 

One of the main reasons for my exclamatory first sentence of this 'blog-entry is that not only was this a very good rendition of a frittata, but it was completely fully-wrought with asparagus! That is always a very good thing with me. Asparagus (asparagi?) happens to be one of my favourite of the stalk-fruits! There had to have been at least enough asparagus pieces in it for one-per-bite of the frittata. Oh, yeah!

A Berry Strange Interlude

This meal came with (an unexpected, but much welcomed) small bowla fruit. It included bananas (a botanical berry), pineapple (not-a botanical berry), blueberries (a botanical berry), blackberries (not-a botanical berry), raspberries (not-a botanical berry), strawberries (not-a botanical berry), cantaloupe (not-a botanical berry), honeydew melon (not-a botanical berry), and kiwifruit (a botanical berry). Just on a whim (and because I am a bit of a nudnik), I happened to ask one of the waiter/server-person guys if he could name how many different types of "berries" were in the bowl. Of course, he immediately said "Three: blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries." I told him that he had the count correct, but only one of the berries correct. I then went on to explain to him (read: bore him to tears, where he pretends to listen intently to humour me) the "botanical berries" junk. He seemed most impressed that both tomatoes and watermelons are classified as "botanical berries".

For condimentary supplements, eight am had Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original) on all the tables (and I did spy one bottle of Huy Fong Foods, Inc Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce in their front refrigerator; maybe they only dole it out when specifically requested). None of that really mattered as I had once again brought a few of my own hot sauces to use and went with some Laura Plantation Vidalia® Onion & Peach Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the homefries and some Dancing Dragon Cayenne Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on top of the frittata (just a few drops for flavour, no way did I want to overpower or mess with all that asparagusy goodness).

I had parked a block away on the corner of Bay and Leavenworth Streets (near where the mini-funicular is located on that street) and I could see that there was some police activity/morning excitement a block up Bay Street at Hyde Street (which I would have to pass by on my way back home). It seems that one of San Francisco's famous "Trolley Cars" had a minor misunderstanding with a couple of vehicles early this morning. Luckily, when I passed by, it did not look like anyone was severely injured, but it was easy to see which would win a battle between a personal automobile and a large cable-operated street railway car that can not veer out of the way of any cross-traffic.

I had skipped any Coffee with breakfast because (after a conversation about this very product on defacedbook yesterday) I had predetermined to use up the last of my Bettys Christmas Blend (Thanks once again, Greg & Cindy!). As luck would have it, I had juuuust enough grounds left to make a cuppa-and-a-halfa by using my French press. (Hey, Cindy! Is it too late to requisition one of those surplus bags that you were offering?!) It's all good, as that now clears the way for yet-still-another bagga Bettys Coffee from Christmas to be opened now. 

https://www.bettys.co.uk/christmas-coffee-pack


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Pacific Heights (Frittata) ~ 7.0 (this is taking into consideration the plethora of asparagus, the very good homefries, and the nice bowla fruits);
Bettys Christmas Blend ~ 7.6 (even though it is an entirely different [as opposed to "entirely the same"?] Christian seasonal holiday already)

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1. T Sisters are (is?) a local Oakland (the one in California, not the much larger suburb of Pittsburgh, PA)-based Folk-Rock musical group. It's just such a shame these sisters are each as ugly as the next. They will never be able to cut it in Musiclandia looking and sounding like they do...

http://tsisters.com/

(I highly recommend checking out more of their songs on EweToob, too. I have been listening to [and enjoying] them all morning while typing [keyboarding, whatever] up this 'blog-entry. 

Bettys Coffee and great harmonies? What a great way to spend a quiet [and extremely wet] Easter Sunday morning!)

2. Not necessarily a stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, but more of a personal pet peeve* pointer of the day:

Please let it be noted that, unlike yesterday's breakfast at an actual crêperie-joint, eight am has this word correctly âččêñtêð (Sorry, I couldn't locate a decent accent for a "t" with which to emphasise my useless point there.) on their menu. 

*(I once had a pet peeve of my own, but it died because I could never find the right kind of food for it to eat.)

Squat & Gobble Cafe & Crepery

http://squatandgobble.com/


Place: Squat & Gobble Cafe & Crepery

Location: 1 West Portal Avenue 
(on the corner of Ulloa Street)

Hours: open seven days a week at 8:00am

Meal: Tropical Island (Sweet Crepe) ~ fresh pineapple, papaya[1], banana, shredded 
coconuts [ sic ], brown sugar (at least not "brown sugars"), caramel sauce, candied walnuts, topped with pineapple papaya sauce, served with your choice of vanilla bean Ice Cream or whipped cream; (then for dessert) a side of Our (well, Their) "Famous" Rosemary Garlic Potatoes (just not "Rosemary Garlic Potato"); and a large glassa fresh-squeezed (well, fresh-machined) oranges juice


Their awful name aside, I went back to 
Squat & Gobble Cafe & Crepery (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, February 27th, 2016) for breakfast again this morning. I sat downstairs in the main dining area (I am not exactly sure when they even open up the balcony seating area upstairs) because it was still pretty early and there were lots of open tables.

I have eaten at Squat & Gobble Cafe & Crepery so many times already that I probably have had just about all of their Savory Crepes (well, those suitable for stupid vegetarians). Some of the other ideas that I was thinking about today: Mama Mia (a Savory Crepe; Mozzarella, Parmesan & cottage cheese, onions, mushrooms, spinach, eggplant & tomatoes, topped with Marinara sauce; I have had this [at least once] before and really like it); Whole Thing (another Sweet/Dessert Crepe; fresh bananas, candied walnuts, brown sugar & cinnamon, topped with nutella® & powdered sugar); Castro (Omelette; Feta cheese, tomatoes, spinach & Kalamata olives; oh, yeah ~ this was going to be my choice if I hadn't gone sweet this morning); South of the Border (Omelette; pepper Jack cheese, black bean chili & avocado, topped with salsa, jalapeño, sour cream & cilantro); Fillmore (Omelette; sautéed bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, ham & melted Cheddar cheese; which I would have ordered without the porky-bits); or Milan (Scrambler; Italian sausage, spinach, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes & Parmesan cheese, topped with pesto sauce; of course, I would have also ottantasei-ed il culatello di maiale morto in decomposizione).

As I had expected, this was a very good (and definitely sweet) crêpe (or crepe). I was surprised that there was a bit more papaya in it than both the pineapple and banana combined, though. As strange as it may sound, I actually opted for the whipped cream option instead of the Ice Cream one; this was breakfast, after all, and I wanted to maintain a semblance of breakfastary decorum.

Squat & Gobble Cafe & Crepery has both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original) for condimentary supplementation. I used a little of my own Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce 
XXX Ghost (Thanks, Brian!) on one half of the potatoes and some Dixie Crossroads Hot Habañero [ sic ] Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian! [Who happens to be no relation to the first Brian thanked previously.]) on the other half of the potatoes. Additionally, I broke out a brand new pepper-grinder/shaker from Morton® (Yes, the salt-people... "When it rains... it grinds?!"), which I had purchased just last week. I tested it out all over the potatoes... and stopped short of trying some on top of the crêpe (or crepe), too. (Don't judge me! It would probably have worked nicely. There used to be a local Berlin [well, "local" if you lived in the Kreuzberg or Tempelhof neighborhoods] restaurant that served fresh cracked black peppercorns on top of vaniller Ice Cream [itself on top of a warm fresh fig] and it was delicious.)

the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

After breakfast, while walking along West Portal, I saw (well, I heard them squawking loudly first) a medium-to-large pandemonium (probably twenty to thirty or so) of the Wild Parrots flying overhead. I was somewhat confused as to why they were in this southern part of the city, then I remembered that they have a good-sized roost nearby in the trees at the top of Rocky Outcrop Park or Golden Gate Heights Park (which are just over the [Forest] Hill from the West Portal neighborhood).

I had purposely skipped any Coffee with breakfast as I figured I would head to the other end of West Portal to get a decent cuppa at Greenhouse Cafe once again. I got a medium cuppa (whatever the [Green]house roast/blend may have been today) Naked Coffee. It was still a bit too cold to sit outside in their garden patio area this morning, so I ended up drinking it inside for a change (or for the warmth).

http://www.greenhousecafe-sf.com/index.html


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Tropical Island (Sweet Crepe) ~ 6.7;
the Wild Parrots of San Francisco ~ 8.5

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1. Stupid, useless pseudo-botanical and pseudo-geographical note:

a) The papaya fruit (like the banana fruit) is a berry, botanically speaking.
b) The papaya plant is native to the tropics of the Americas, perhaps from southern Mexico and neighboring Central America. It was first cultivated in Mexico several centuries before the emergence of the Mesoamerican classical civilizations. So, having this ingredient in a crêpe (or crepe) named "Tropical Island" is a bit misleading*... unless the island you are speaking of happened to be named Cozumel or Isla del Tiburón.

*(Sub-note: The pineapple plant is indigenous to South America and is said to originate from the area between southern Brazil and Paraguay. The Spanish introduced it into the Philippines, Hawai'i, Zimbabwe, and Guam.)