Sunday, October 29, 2017

Hollywood Cafe


♪ "Death is there to keep us honest
And constantly remind us we are free... " ♫ 

(I just love that line.)



https://hollywoodcafesf.com/


Place: Hollywood Cafe

Location: 530 North Point Street
(between Taylor and Jones Streets[1])

Hours: open Monday - Sunday: 7:00am

Meal: Chilaquiles ~ chorizo (¡No gracias, José!), avocado, corn chips, Mozzarella cheese, & tomatillo salsa, served with seasoned hash browns & toast; and a glassa grapefruit juice




(No EweToobular juxtaselections, just a coupla Hallowe'enie videos/songs for the holiday.)


I figured as long as I was visiting all five of the 
Taylor Street Coffee Shop-to-Sursian family of restaurants, I might as well make a return visit to the restaurant owned by his brother, too. So I went back to Hollywood Cafe (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, June 23rd, 2013) for breakfast this morning.

I scored a free/legal (well, until 9:00am on Sunday mornings, but I was done eatin' and outta there way before 8:00am, anyway) parking space right around the corner. This might not be too hard to do very early on a Sunday morning, but just a few hours later, it would be nearly impossible to duplicate.

Hollywood Cafe has a pretty decent breakfast menu, and seeing as there are really only a few other good places that are available ~ or open that early every day ~ in Fisherman's Wharf, it makes them a viable destination for many touristas that are staying in any of the surrounding hotels/motels. There were a few other ideas that I was eyeing this morning:

Asparagus Benedict ~ bacon (which I would have de-Glenned, of course), asparagus & tomato; served with seasoned hash browns;

Morning Salad ~ two poached eggs, wild arugula, tomato, fresh Mozzarella, candied walnut (which they have in the singular, but I hope that they would offer more than just one crummy walnut), a side of sesame dressing, & toast;

and they offer French toast four ways:

Classic ~ dipped in our egg, milk, vanilla extract & cinnamon batter;
Orangish[2] ~ dipped in our creamy orange-Grand Marnier® batter;
Vanilla ~ with homemade (well, café-made) vanilla-banana sauce, garnished with whipped cream & almonds (whereas they apparently only serve one walnut per dish, they do not have a problem with an abundance of almonds);
or
Dolce ~ topped with fired [ sic, I do not know if they meant "fried" or maybe "flambéed"; I would sure hope they are not using illegally employed fruit in their dishes] banana, mixed berries & candied walnut (again, this is singular; maybe they are just stingy with their drupe seeds) with whipped cream.

Any one of those French toasts sounds return trip-worthy to me.

Additionally, they do offer under their Hollywood Cafe Favorites section of the menu a dish named Marilyn Monroe ~ 3 wedges French toast & fresh fruit bowl. Now, why they would offer another (and much less boring-sounding) French toast dish and have the gumption to name it after one of the greatest female Hollywoodland figures (and you can take the word "figures" in any meaning you like) ever is beyond me.

They also offer something on their menu called "Sweet Bacon: glazed with maple syrup, fresh orange juice, brown sugar, & Grand Marnier®". I can only assume this is very similar to the "Millionaire's Bacon" sold at the other five restaurants owned by the owner's brother. (Hmmm?! Which came first the "chicken" or the "Sweet Bacon"?)




While I will give them kudos (and an additional 0.2 Glen Bacon Scale points) for the inclusion of Chilaquiles on their menu, I will also have to give them (What the h*ck is the antonym of "kudos"?) anti-kudos (and deduct 0.3 Glen Bacon Scale points) for not incorporating the corn tortilla chips into the scrambled mess (which is the whole point of chilaquiles). The corn tortilla chips were just piled on the side of the plate (and they were nothing special ~ not homemade [café-made, whatever] ~ just out of a bag). I ended up mixing some of the chips into the scramble on my own, but it just was not the same. The saving grace here was the decent amount of avocado on top of the pile of scrambled eggs and two types of jalapeños (green and red ~ and also in a large quantity) in the scramble itself... and their very good hashbrowns (which I prefer as oneword). Additionally (or non-additionally), I am pretty sure they left out any Mozzarella cheese in the scramble, too; I was already thinking that Mozzarella was a strange choice of cheese for chilaquiles and that Monterey Jack or Cheddar would have been a better option, anyway (no Glen Bacon Scale points were deducted for this oversight).

Thankfully, this was a very large amount of food, and tasty all the same. The size of their portions more than made up for any translation errors from Mexican-to-English-to-Korean-back to English.

Once again, it was interesting (strange) to see that the toast was three slices of sourdough. (It wasn't strange seeing sourdough toast, just the odd number of slices. Why not two slices or four slices? I wonder if "dos" mistranslates into Korean as ""?).

Hollywood Cafe has Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce) and Cholula® Hot Sauce Original for use as condimentary supplements. I used some of my own Dat'l Do-it® Classic Cayenne Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) all over the hashbrowns (and I even included some excess green and red jalapeños from the scramble).

Awooooooooooooooo... draw blood!


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Chilaquiles ~ 6.3

___________________

1. It is interesting to note that Taylor Street Coffee Shop is located on... well... nach'... Taylor Street (just about twenty-two blocks south) and that Surisan is located on the corner of Jones Street (just a block away, around the corner).

2. I originally assumed that this was another one of those completely madeuppery words. However, I checked with Marianne Webster's dictionary, and she confirmed that it is an actual word. Whodathunkit?!

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Kitchen Story


However, I am pretty sure that Rat's Benedict would not be very tasty or breakfastary no matter how much mango salsa or gochujang you pile on top of it...



http://kitchenstorysf.com/


Place: Kitchen Story

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

Hours: open daily from 8 a.m.

Meal: Red & Green Benedict ~ spinach (that would be the "Green" in the name), mushroom (I suppose "Red & Green & Brown Benedict" would sound too strange), roasted tomato (hence the "Red" in the name), mango salsa, served on Ciabatta toast with rainbow potato (they have "potato" in the singularity, but there were actually plenty of different varietals of potato included); and a glassa fresh Raspberry Lemonade






(If you are wondering just what in the h*ck are the EweToobular juxtaselections for today's videos/songs, well, it is a well-known fact that both Bruce Cockburn[1] [and that is pronounced "Coe-burn"; sorry to curtail any of you perverted pun-dits' comments] and Ali Campbell[2] are big fans of mango salsa. I am not sure why the last video is there, though.[3])


Finishing up with my visits to all of the (known and/or local) restaurants in this Korean family-owned mini-chain, I returned to Kitchen Story (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, June 10th, 2017) this morning for breakfast. Kitchen Story was the fourth of the five (that I know of) in this mini-chain; it has been open only since November 2012.

Whenever I park over in the Castro, as an ironic lark (not to be confused with a "sarcastic sparrow" ~ because those are the worst in the aviary world), I always like to park on Beaver Street. For some reason, there is usually a lot of ample parking spaces on that street.

There are still a few other good ideas from which to select at this place, too:

Big Hass Omelet ~ bacon (which, of course, I would have had removed ~ forcibly, if necessary), mushroom, spinach, avocado, Kimchi Pico De Gallo, (I am not so sure that I would have been able to have this ingredient included, too; I think they make their own Kimchi and it is made with the dead, decaying aquatic insects in it), mild Cheddar; served with Butter Croissant (I am not sure if that is meant as a "hot, buttered croissant", or just their way of reemphasizing that croissants are known for their buttteryness) and rainbow potato (again this is in the singularness on their menu, but I am sure there is more than one potato employed [no one likes a down-on-his-luck, out of work spud] and more than one kind of potato, too);

Primavera Omelet ~ egg whites, roasted tomato, arugula, mushroom; served with Butter Croissant and rainbow potato (this same dish is offered at a few of their other locations, too);

or

Grilled Veggie (ugh!) Morning Melt ~ mushroom, asparagus, arugula, red onion, avocado, cherry pepper; made with Pain De Mie bread, cilantro aioli; served with organic salad (other than that odious "Veggie" moniker, this sounds like it would be right up my asparagus-alley).

Unfortunately for me, they only offer the Original Stone Pot Breakfast (aka Dolsot Bibimbap[4] in Korean-speak) ~ served in a steaming hot stone pot: minced pork (which would be minced and left out for me), smoky sauce (aka gochujang), jasmine rice, fried egg, seasonal mushrooms, carrot, cilantro, bean sprout, asparagus, pimento, and cucumber. Mix and enjoy! ~ on their Weekday Breakfast Menu (under the subtitle: Mom's Specials). I was actually looking forward to/planning on ordering this one (insert "frowny-face" emoji here), but only found out this morning that it is not listed on their Weekend Breakfast Menu (where many of the same items from their Weekday Breakfast Menu can be found). I highly doubt that I will ever be able to get over there for breakfast during the week, though. Oh, well.




There was nothing beige (see, when you mix lighter shades of red and green you will get a kinda beige colour) about this Red & Green Benedict. This was another good variation on ol' Benny's eggs. It was topped with a very good mango salsa (which was done in a pico de gallo-style... or would that be "pico de Rhode Island Red"-style?). However, I liked the Wasabi Hollandaise that I had at Sweet Maple two weeks ago a little better as a topping (now a Mango Hollandaise... ). Even so, I really liked the Ciabatta toast as a replacement for plain ol' boring Mr. Thomas' faux crumpets. Plus, the roasted tomatoes were a great addition (even one that Greg Kipe may have enjoyed).

There were these two deep fried spaghetti strings/pieces (What is the word for a single length of spaghetti?) stuck into the dish as a garnishment (I am not sure if you can see them clearly in the above photo). As is the case, no edible garnishment ever goes uneaten with me. (Well, I just hope they were pieces of deep fried spaghetti... otherwise, I just ate two wooden skewers for breakfast... and enjoyed them.)

For condimentary supplementation, as with the last four restaurants in this family-chain, Kitchen Story offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce); and, like a few other of their other restaurants, they also offer Tapatio® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce. In keeping with the whole brown theme (see, if you add red and green together you get shades of brown) this morning, I made sure to use some Original Red Sauce on top of one of the poached eggs and some Green Jalapeño Sauce on top of the other poached egg. I also used some of my own Palo Alto Fire Fighters XXX Ghost Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Amys and Brian!) all over the rainbow potato (or potatoe, Mr. Quayle). I had specifically packed that bottle of hot sauce with me this morning in antici......(Say it!)......pation of juxtatastioning it on the Dolsot Bibimbap with some of their own gochujang.

"And we ate happilly ever after once again. The End."


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Red & Green Benedict ~ 6.9

___________________

1. I have never been lucky enough to have seen Bruce Cockburn perform live, but I have enjoyed his music for almost forty years now. (Man, is he old!)

http://brucecockburn.com/

2. Now, I was lucky enough to see UB40 perform live once ~ in the Summer of 1986, coincidentally enough, for their world tour of the Rat in the Kitchen album.

http://ub40.global/

3. I did also get to see Green on Red perform live in 
ol' (at the time, still as of yet un-reunified West) Berlin-town one time, back in 1985. I even have the album (yes, as in vinyl ~ and it is a very cool green translucent vinyl, too) that this song is on. 

http://www.greenonred.net/

4. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer(s) of the day:

part a:

"Dolsot"/"돌솥" literally means "stone pot".

part b:

"Bibimbap"/"비빔밥" literally means "mixed rice".

Dolsot bibimbap is probably one of my favourite Korean dishes. As a vegetarian, I am kinda limited in which dishes I can try, anyway. While I may not have had this dish "hundreds of times" over the years, I am pretty sure that I have had it at least "dozens of times" (there are several Korean restaurants in my neighborhood that I have been to many, many times). It is usually my go-to (or, perhaps, go-chujang) dish at a Korean restaurant.

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/FO/FO_EN_6_5_2_3.jsp

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Blackwood ~ American Thai Fusion




http://www.blackwoodsf.com/


Place: Blackwood ~ American Thai Fusion

Location: 2150 Chestnut Street 
(between Steiner and Pierce Streets)

Hours: open every day at 9:00am for breakfast and/or "Brunch" (the menu seems to be the same if it is during the week or on the weekends, they just call it "Brunch")

Meal: Brussel [ sic ] Florentine Benny ~ poached eggs, Brussel [ sic ] sprouts, spinach, Tomyum[1] Hollandaise on English muffin, served with crispy Yukons; and a glassa Moscow Melon[2] (a cocktail made with Soju[3], watermelon juice, and ginger ale)





(Just a couple from Wild Colonials. There is no EweToobular juxtaselection that I know of [h*ck, Angela McCluskey might be a Brussels ~ or Brussel ~ sprouts fan, too, but I have no Cliff Clavinistic facts with which to corroborate that].)


Continuing ever onward with my visits to all five of the restaurants in this family-owned chain, I made a return trip back to Blackwood ~ American Thai Fusion (see previous 'blog-entry from Sunday, October 7th, 2012).

Blackwood was the third restaurant (that I know) in this mini-chain to open (since June 2012 now); only Taylor Street Coffee Shop (the first/original) and Sweet Maple (the second) predate it. I was handed a postcard with the bill that listed the five restaurants that I was knew of; additionally, there are four other restaurants on it (two in Marin, one in Berkeley, and a brand new San Francisco location on Fillmore Street; I did a web-search for the new Fillmore restaurant and it has not opened yet, but should be opening very soon). I happened to mentioned to my server/waitress-lady person that I had eaten at three of the other five places over the past two weekends and she told me that there is also another location of theirs on Sacramento Street; I will have to try and locate that one also (it is not listed on the postcard).

This morning I sat outside once again in their sidewalk patio café area. Out there, there are three tables for two and two long benches that can seat eight each. They had the overhead gas-heaters going, but these were more of a nuisance than a necessity in my opinion; it was comfortable enough outside if you kept your jacket on, anyway. I made sure to sit as far from the heaters as I could. Sheesh! If you want to dine al fresco in San Francisco in October, you had better expect that al fresco to be a bit al freddo, Freddie!




(Hey. It had fruit juice ~ and, in this case, an actual botanical berry juice ~ in it, so I am claiming this a breakfastary drink. That slice of watermelon on the rim did not last very long either.)


Simply put: I liked this one a lot. 




This was made with halved then deep fried Brussels (or Brussel) sprouts! (As in the plural[4], and there were several throughout ~ for which, I am adding 0.2 Glen Bacon Scale points to the total.) This was a very good take on your ol' Uncle Benny's eggs... if you like poached eggs and Brussels (or Brussel) sprouts, I suppose. The Tomyum Hollandaise sauce was very good, too (I probably shoulda mighta asked what was in it; hopefully it did not include any dead, decaying aquatic insects or fish-sauce in it). While this was not quite as awe-inspiring (if you like to be inspirated by awe, that is) as my initial meal at Surisan (see previous 'blog-entry from Sunday, March 19th, 2017), this was one of the best Eggs Benedict dishes that I have had this year, and probably second only to the Fried Green Tomato Benedict at Mission Beach Cafe 
(see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, September 17th, 2017). (Of course, we need not even mention the Touchstone of Eggs Benedict Dishes ~ Zucchini Cakes at Dottie's True blue café).

I am seeing a theme here at most of their restaurants, there are bottles of Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce) on all the tables for use as condimentary supplements. Additionally, this restaurant also offers Cholula® Hot Sauce Original. I used some of my own Emperor's Revenge Teriyaki Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on top of one of the eggs (which turned out to be unnecessary, but it was too late after I had already poured some on) and some Dat'l Do-it® Zesty Chipotle Hot Sauce (Thanks again, Mom!) all over the crispy potatoes.

I forgot to ask them why the place is named "Blackwood". Luckily, I will be going back again one of these days and will have to ask them about that moniker then.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Brussel [ sic ] Florentine Benny ~ 7.3 
(they can spell ~ or mispel [ sic ] ~ Brussels any way they d*mn like, just as long as the dish tastes as good as this one did today);
Moscow Melon ~ 7.0

___________________

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, ส่วนหนึ่ง:

"ต้มยำ" ("tom yum" or "tom yam") is the combination of two Thai words: "tom" refers to the boiling process, while "yum/yam" refers to a Thai spicy and sour salad.

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointers of the day, часть вторая - а, б, & в:

а) The Rooskoe adjective for "Moscow" is "Московский" (pronounced "Moskovski" [and in spite of what one Mr. John Kurovsky always states, the "v" is not silent]).

б) The Rooskoe word for "(water)melon" is "арбуз" (pronouced "arbooz").

в) The Rooskoe word for "mule" is "мул"* (pronounced "mool").

*(See? Sometimes this cunning linguist business ain't exactly ракетная хирургия.)

3. 뭐?

"Soju"/"소주" (meaning "burned liquor") is a Korean distilled beverage. While it is traditionally made from rice, wheat, or barley, modern producers often replace rice with other starches such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, or tapioca.

http://www.trifood.com/soju.asp

4. Hmmmm?! Is the singular of Brussels sprouts ~ "Brussel sprout"? Maybe that is why they keep mispeling [ sic ] it on all of their menus and I really shud [ sic ] stop making funs [ sic ] of it on their menus.

(But don't count on its [ sic ].)

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Taylor Street Coffee Shop


♪ "Now the (Twenty-)First of December (October, whatever) was covered with snow
And so was the Turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston... " ♫ 



(No official web-site, which is kinda strange, as this is the first/original of their mini-chain of five restaurants and all four of the other restaurants have their own web-sites.)


Place: Taylor Street Coffee Shop

Location: 375 Taylor Street (between Ellis and O'Farrell Streets); phonicular contact: 415-567-4031

Hours: open daily at 7:00am (give or take ~ mostly take ~ five to ten minutes)

Meal: Spring Omelet ~ mushroom, tomato, bell pepper, basil, red onion, arugula, zucchini, Feta optional (which I opted for, of course), served with hash brown [ sic, as two words and in the singular ] or sliced tomato or mixed greens and toast (I went with the sour dough [ sic, also as two words] option); and a glassa orange juice




(Here's a little-known Cliff Clavinistic fact, James Taylor is a big fan of Feta cheese, too.)


Continuing with my visits to all five of the restaurants in this family-owned chain, this morning I went back to Taylor Street Coffee Shop (see last 'blog-entry from Thursday, March 16th, 2017).

I arrived there a few minutes before they were scheduled to open and ended up being the first idiot waiting in line. The place filled up quickly again this morning, and all of the tables were occupied by 7:15am.

Like all of the other restaurants in their stable (however, I did not see any horses eating their oats at the next table over), there are still some other ideas from which to choose:

Primavera[1] Omelet Combo ~ spinach, roasted tomato and mushroom egg white omelet, fresh housemade (well, Coffee Shop-made) salsa; served with English muffin, fresh fruit mix, small fresh squeezed OJ and a Coffee or hot tea;

Crunch Flakes ~ cornflake crusted French toast (versions of this seem to be offered at each of their restaurants);

or

Hombre Omelet ~ honey ham, bacon, pork-lime sausage w/ Cheddar (which for me would just be called "Cheddar Omelet", I suppose).





Even though it is actually Fall already, the Spring Omelet was seasonally good. I was particularly impressed at the amount of Feta it had inside the omelette; you would be surprised at how many places go all el cheapo (which is Greek for "frugal bastages") with the Feta. The spinach, arugula, and basil were incorporated into the egg batter of the omelette and not inside.

Unfortunately, I did not "upgrade" my hashbrowns with their excellent habanero-infused red onions (which would have gone just as nicely inside the omelette, too).

While eating this meal, I mixed some of the Feta in with the hashbrowns just on an exalted lark[2]. Fuggedabout their "Millionaire's Bacon®" side dish! You wanna talk about a real "Million Dollar Idea"?... Feta Hashbrowns!!!

For condimentary supplementation, like both Surisan and Sweet Maple last week, Taylor Street Coffee Shop offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce. I didn't need/use any additional flavouring with this morning's meal, though.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Spring (well, Autumn) Omelet ~ 6.9
(I am giving this an additional 0.2 Glen Bacon Scale points due to the preponderance of Feta in it) 

___________________

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

"Primavera" simply means "Spring" in Italiano.

The Italiano word for "Fall/Autumn" is "Autunno".

2. My brother Sean may be the only person to get that stupid pun.

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Sweet Maple




http://www.sweetmaplesf.com/


Place: Sweet Maple

Location: 2101 Sutter Street 
(on the corner of Steiner Street)

Hours: open for breakfast Monday through Friday at 8:00am (however, open for "Brunch" Saturday and Sunday at 8:00am)

Meal:  (from the Benedict and Friends section of their menu) Hemingway Benedict (and I always thought his first name was Ernest) ~ smoked salmon (which did not make the edit), lemon, capers, cucumber wasabi Hollandaise, served with potato medley; and a glassa fresh-squeezed orange juice




(Sorry, as far as I know, there are no Rock-and/or-Roll singers with the last name of "Steiner" that have done duets with Sir George Ivan, so there is no corresponding EweToobular juxtaselection for today.)


I headed back to Sweet Maple (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, June 4th, 2017) mainly as a comparison to yesterday's breakfastary meal at its sister-restaurant Surisan. More than likely I will be returning to the other three to four restaurants in this family-owned mini-chain later this month, too.

The breakfast (and "Brunch") menu at Sweet Maple 
has many of the same items that are offered at Surisan; some are exact replicas (names and ingredients), and some are similar, just tweaked a bit. And like Surisan, there are still several other good ideas yet to try: 

(also off the Benedict and Friends section of their menu) 
Southern Benedict ~ chorizo (which I would have ochenta-y-seis-ed ¡Cómo no!), cherry pepper, tomato, chipotle Hollandaise (which would be the real reason to check this one out); served w/ potato medley;

(off the Omelets, Scrambles, etc. section of their menu)
Hass Omelet ~ avocado, bacon (sorry, but no, Glen), Monterey jack, side pico de gallo; served w/ potato medley and ciabatta au levain[1] toast

Snowed Spinach Scramble ~ baby spinach, Vermont Cheddar, Parmesan; served w/ potato medley and ciabatta au levain toast

(off the Maple Plates section of their menu)
Crunch Flakes ~ cornflake crusted French toast (depending on the size of this meal, I would probably have to order a side of their very good potato medley);

and

Sweet Potato Pancakes ~ cinnamony[2] healthy goodness (I would also probably order a side of the potato medley with these).




I ordered the Hemingway Benedict today because I liked the sound of it on yesterday's menu, too. As far as I can tell, this is the exact same dish as served at SurisanSweet Maple just adds the word "cucumber" to the sauce name. I suppose this dish might seem a tad-bit boring without the dead, decaying piscine flesh (it would be just poached eggs on English muffins, after all), but I still liked the capers (which I think had been deep-fried) and thinly sliced lemon bits in it. I was extremely happy to find (and to taste) that the cucumber wasabi Hollandaise is worth a try all on its ownsome. 

Like Surisan yesterday, Sweet Maple offers as condimentary supplements Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce; additionally, this particular restaurant also has Traina® Hot Sriracha Sun Dried Tomato Ketchup (which I have had before and knew to be very good). 
I used some of my own Palo Alto Fire Fighters 
XXX Ghost Pepper Sauce on half of the potato medley and some Traina® on the other half.

https://www.trainafoods.com/shop/product/sriracha-sun-dried-tomato-ketchup


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Hemingway Benedict ~ 6.8;
cucumber wasabi Hollandaise ~ 7.2 (on its own)

___________________

1. Che cosa?

This article is a simple explanation of what this type of bread is:

http://aulevain.canalblog.com/archives/2008/05/16/9198651.html

2. "Cinnamony"* is a totally madeuppery word.

*(Now this is pretty funny. 

On the Intro-Net, both Collins English Dictionary and Random House Dictionary have the adjectival form of cinnamon as "cinnamonic". Whereas, Merriam-Webster has it listed as both "cinnamonic" and "cinnamony". 

Take your pick. Let the World Wild Webs battle it out among themselves. Personally, I like "cinnamonic" better; it has a nice harmoniocity ring to it.)

Saturday, October 14, 2017

Surisan


♪ "Sometimes we know, sometimes we don't
Sometimes we give, sometimes we won't
Sometimes we're strong, sometimes we're wrong
Sometimes we eat Brussels 
(or Brussel [ sic ]) sprouts... " ♫ 



https://www.surisansf.com/


Place: Surisan

Location: 505 Beach Street 
(on the corner of Jones Street)

Hours: open for breakfast everyday [ sic ] at 8:00am

Meal:  (from the Benedicts & poached eggs section of their menu) Brussel [ sic ] Hash ~ Brussel [ sic ] sprouts, Yukon (potatoes, or possibly Cornelius, they do not specify which), bacon (which I had them zesentachtig), chorizo (which I also made sure they quatre-vingt six-ed), onion, mushroom, cherry pepper, tomato, poached egg(s), Parmesan, and a Popover(!); and a glassa fresh Raspberry Lemonade to drink with the meal;
and afterward (for a breakfastary dessert kinda thing) a Snowy Plover at Andytown Coffee Roasters

http://www.andytownsf.com/






(The juxtaselection ratiocination for today's EweToobular  trifectation: 
for the first two songs - "Jones" as in "Jones Street" ~ simples; 
and
because there are no groups named "Andytown
[that I am aware of], Whiskeytown will have to suffice, Mr. Adams.

Besides, I never really need an excuse for any Sir George Ivan stuff here.)


Because I originally claimed this new (only open since December 2016) place my Best "New" Breakfast Find of 2017 (plus, Best Breakfast on Fisherman's Wharf), I figured a return visit was in order while it is still 2017 (It is still 2017, isn't it?) back to Surisan (see previous 'blog-entry from Sunday, March 19th, 2017).

Seating-wise, this restaurant is probably second in size to its sister restaurant, Sweet Maple, but probably not by much. I sat inside again this morning, but I really shoulda sat outside in the large corner patio seating area in the front of the restaurant. The weather was more than comfortable enough for it (Can you say 70° and climbing at 8:00am?); hopefully the next time I get back there, the weather holds up as well.

Here are a few other reasons for future visits:

(under their Korean "Brunch" section of the menu) Boosted Jook[1] ~ rice porridge with carrots, spinach, mushroom, bacon (which I also would have made sure to have had여든 여섯-ed), scallion, cherry pepper, poached egg;

(under the Sweet and Fruity [which really should be a category specific to their sister-restaurant in the Castro, Kitchen Story] section of the menu) Blueberry Stuffed Crunch French Toast w/caramel sauce (this was going to be my back-up choice if I was in a fruitfully sweet mood);

or maybe even

(again from their Benedicts & poached eggs section of the menu) Hemingway Benedict ~ smoked salmon (which would have to be edited out; sorry, Ernest), avocado, fried capers, lemon, pickled onion, wasabi Hollandaise (this needs to be checked out if for nothing else other than to see what their wasabi Hollandaise tastes like).





This dish may not have been as awe-inspiring (or is that "Awwww!"-inspiring?) as the first meal I had there, but I still liked this one a lot. It is no secret that I am a big fan of this member of the cabbage family, and, luckily, this dish included a very good amount of Brussels (or Brussel [ sic ]) sprouts in it. I think this was supposed to come with two poached eggs on top, but they only gave me one (and that one egg was brought out separately in a small bowl after they had already served me the dish)... but as they say in Koreatown: 
"No biggie-san!" This was served in a black (piping hot ~ yeah, I had to touch it to make sure) skillet. It turned out to be a large amount of food, all of which I just barely finished.

Once again the Raspberry Lemonade was a bit strong and sweet, so I kept cutting it with water whenever there was space in the glass. It was all good and turned out perfectly after a few watering-downs. 

Surisan offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce 
(both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce for condimentary supplementation. None of these was needed/used (nor any of my own hot sauces that I had brought) as the dish proved flavourful (and picante) enough with the quantity of cherry peppers in it.

I had purposely skipped any Coffee with breakfast mainly because I was planning on heading back to Andytown Coffee Roasters (see recent/previous 'blog-entry from Saturday, September 30th, 2017) to one of their three locations in the Sunset. I returned to the scene of the crime (to their original shop on Lawton Street) specifically to pick up another bagga their totally awesome Ethiopia Natural Banko Fuafuate. This bagga was not for my own use (I still have several cuppas left from the bagga I picked up two weeks ago). However, sometimes "turn-about is fair play" with all these gift-giving things and I am finally re-paying some long-overdue "Thanks!" to Greg (of the "Greg & Cindy"/
"Cindy & Greg" numerous hot sauce gifts). 

http://www.andytownsf.com/purchase/ethiopia-natural-banko-fuafuate

While I was there, anyway, I figured I might as well also get me a cuppa one of their Coffee-kinda drinks. I am not normally a sweet or iced Coffee drinker, but I had been told by one of the barista-persons on my last visit that their signature iced Coffee drink is the Snowy Plover. Who am I to go against convention  (or iced Coffee recommendations from a barista-person)? So I gave it a go. They make their Snowy Plover by pouring S.Pellegrino® Sparkling Natural Mineral Water over ice into a 16 oz glass (or plastic cup if it happens to be "to go", like mine was this morning) until it is two-thirds full (and I bet that particular amount just drives OCD-Pessimists absolutely crazy); they add two shots of Andytown's home-roasted (roastery-roasted, whatever) Espresso and a small amount of brown sugar-based simple-syrup (which might be the real kicker to this great sparkling refresher); then, finally, they top it all off with a generous dollop of homemade (well, coffeehouse-made) whipped cream. Stir, sip, and enjoy!

This ain't your Uncle St*rbucks crummy ol' Iced Cr*ppuccino...


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Brussel [ sic ] Hash ~ 6.9;
Snowy Plover ~ 7.0;
(whereas) Ethiopia Natural Banko Fuafuate ~ 8.2 
(at least, and trending upward)

___________________

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

As best as I can figure, the Korean words "" and/or "" (transliterated/pronounced close enough to "jook" or "juk") simply mean "gruel" or "(rice) porridge".