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 ].)