KITCHEN Story

"Once upon a time there was a Korean family that decided they wanted to open some decent breakfastary joints in San Francisco... "

http://kitchenstorysf.com/

(This is supposed to be their "official" web-site-thing, but it does not seem to be operable right now.)


Place: KITCHEN Story

Location: 3499 16th Street (on the corner of Sanchez Street)

Hours:  open every day of the week at 8:00am 

Meal: Mascarpone[1] Stuffed Deep Fried French Toast ~ served with mixed berries, real Vermont maple syrup, honey butter OR Caramelized Banana and Maple-glazed walnuts for $3 instead; a side of Rainbow Potatoes (well, this was the Castro, after all); and a glassa fresh-squeezed orange juice 

(Hmmm?! Somehow I don't think that Empress Bessie was exactly lamenting the loss of Sam's culinary expertise.)


So, I finally got back to KITCHEN Story (see previous 'blog-entry from Saturday, February 23rd, 2013); and that only took me over four years to do. After my first visit there, I really expected that I would get back there much sooner and oftener. Because I was recently waxing nostalgic (for this purpose, I have found 100% pure beeswax the best... or if you prefer a different type of wax, you can just mind your own d*mn bizzness!) about a Korean family-owned group of restaurants (see last week's visit to Sweet Maple, etc.), I figured it was due time to check them out again.

Inside KITCHEN Story isn't that large of a place (small to medium sized), but there are many more (probably as many ~ or more ~ as inside) tables and seating outside along the Sanchez Street sidewalk area. If it were just a bit warmer this morning and the Sun was already hitting that area, I probably would have opted to sit outside.

Like all of the other restaurants in this local mini-chain, there are still several other great breakfast ideas (both for stupid vegetarians and jeenyus meatetarians alike) from which to choose; ferinstance: 
Red & Green Benedict ~ spinach, mushroom, roasted tomato, mango salsa, served on ciabatta with rainbow potatoes (Now why not also call this a "Rainbow Benedict"?);
Big Hass Omelet (or Scramble) ~ bacon (which I would have un-opted for), mushroom, spinach, avocado, Kimchi Pico De Gallo (which is pretty intriguing-sounding all on its ownsome), mild Cheddar, served with butter croissant and rainbow potatoes (this is an identical dish that is also served at Sweet Maple);
or
The Original Stone Pot Breakfast[2] ~ served on [ sic ] a steaming hot stone pot: minced pork (but I would have gone with the "vegetarian available" option without the dead, decaying porky stuff), smoky sauce (they don't specify what this is, but my best guess is that it is the very tasty Korean red chili paste called Gochujang [고추장]), jasmine rice, fried egg, seasonal mushrooms, carrot, cilantro, bean sprout, asparagus, pimento, and cucumber. Mix and enjoy! (I have had this dish many, many, many times at various Korean restaurants around town [it's my go-to dish normally], but only for lunch or dinner, never for breakfast. I will have to try it one of these days. I am sure I would love it for breakfast, too.)

Seeing as I missed the perfect opportunity to use any maple syrup last week at Sweet Maple, I figured I would make sure to order something that I could use some on this weekend at their sister restaurant. I went with the upgrade option of OR Caramelized Banana and Maple-glazed walnuts, which I believe was the way to go. Deep fried French toast?! Oh, yeah! This was purely ree-dic-yu-luss!

The Rainbow Potatoes were basically the same mix as last week's "potato medley" served at Sweet Maple: Chilean Purple, Yukon Gold, Gemstone Red, Russet, and Sweet Yam. I treated these more as a savoury breakfastary dessert and mostly ate them after finishing the French toast. These came in a mini-deep fryer basket and were a HUGE portion. 

This all turned out to be a whole lotta food (and a whole lotta deep-fried food to boot... if you get your kicks booting deep-fried foods, that is).

KITCHEN Story only offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce) for condimentary supplementation. I had come well-prepared (as opposed to sickly-unprepared) with a few hot sauces of my own and used just a little (I wonder how they say "skoshi" in Korean) Pepper Palace Gator Bite Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on some of the colourful potatoes.


Strange Coffee Interlude

While keyboarding up this 'blog-entry, I brewed me uppa (well, seeing as I prefer la méthode à la pour-over, this was more like "dripped me downna") a cuppa Bettys Peruvian Pangoa (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!). This was the last of the baggas of Christmas Coffee that I had received and I have finally broken into it. (Yes, I received that much Coffee at Christmas that it has lasted me until mid-June.) In the past, I felt that this blend/roast was always a little too light for me; however, this year's roast seems a lot darker and stronger (they list it as a Medium-Dark roast; I think they may have used to make it more as a Light-Medium roast). This Coffee may not put hairs on your chest, but it will make the existing hairs on your chest stand up and take notice. As with all of Bettys Coffees (even those lighter/weaker-type roasts), this was a truly great cuppa.

https://www.bettys.co.uk/peruvian-pangoa-coffee-pack


"And everyone ate happily ever after. The End."
(That is, if everyone also had Mascarpone Stuffed Deep Fried French Toast with OR Caramelized Banana and Maple-glazed walnuts and a cuppa 
Bettys Peruvian Pangoa for afters.)


Up next:

Back once again to Dottie's True blue café 
(for an early birthday breakfast, and more than likely for Zucchini Cakes if it is available on the Specials Board tomorrow)


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Mascarpone Stuffed Deep Fried French Toast with OR Caramelized Banana and Maple-glazed walnuts ~ 7.0;
Rainbow Potatoes ~ 7.3;
Bettys Peruvian Pangoa ~ 7.3

___________________

1. http://www.cheese.com/mascarpone/

(This is one of my favourite web-sites on the World Wild Webs.)

2. This dish is known as "Dolsot Bibimbap"
(돌솥 비빔밥) in Korean. 

Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-epicureanistic pointer of the day:

"Dolsot" (돌솥) simply means "stone pot" in Korean and "Bibimbap" (비빔밥) literally means "mixed rice".

And just because I can ('my 'blog, 'my 'd*mn 'rules!), here is my Glen Bacon Scale Rating for an average Dolsot Bibimbap ~ 7.1.