Kantine

Morgenmad/Frokost/Frukost 
på Market Street

http://kantinesf.com/


Place: Kantine[1]

Location: 1906 Market Street 
(near the canto of Laguna Street)

Hours: open Tuesday - Friday at 7:30am 
and Saturday & Sunday at 9:00am

Meal: Savory Porridge with Kale, Mushrooms and Housemade (well, restaurant-made) Farmers Cheese with an added "runny" (soft-boiled) egg; a Tebirkes[2] Danish pastry; and a cuppa heart Coffee Roasters - Guatemala El Amate

https://www.heartroasters.com/collections/beans/products/guatemala-el-amate

(Ignore the recording quality of this EweToobular video, just groove on the Scandinavian vibes of Robbie Fulkskog.)


Kantine was the second of my "new" finds from my Hallowe'en trek along Market Street in the Castro-area. It is also technically "new" as it has only been open since mid-June of this year. Supposably this is an "authentic" Scandinavian bakery/breakfast/"Brunch"/
lunch-joint. However, I have never been to any countries of Scandinavialand (h*ck, I have never even been to an IKEA® store), so I really do not have anything with which to compare it. 

The restaurant is in a cool open-space with a high ceiling. The seating consists of the standard European-style communal tables, where there were three tables with eight seats, three tables with four seats, one taller counter-table with ten seats, and five window-counter seats. Additionally, there is a large cushioned-bench in the corner (over by their on-site bakery room) that could fit about ten people easily, but probably just for drinks as there are no tables for eating there.

Their breakfast/"Brunch" menu is not that extensive, but there were still a few other interesting ideas: 

"Brunch" Board ~ where you can choose five or seven items from a list, to include: three different (bakery-fresh) breads; two egg sides (both of which are stupid vegetarian-friendly); three fish & meat junk; Havarti cheese; 3-lentil hummus, carrot salad; sweet melon with tarragon and mint; roasted cauliflower, charred corn and hay-smoked fresh cheese; hot rye porridge, lingonberry, cream; housemade yogurt, mashed berries, chamomile granola (I am sure I could find five good items from this list);

Sweet Porridge with Pears, Lingonberry, Cream and Pistachios (I was strongly thinking of this as an alternative this morning, but I would have had to order a side of something savoury to go along with it);

or

Open-faced Creamer Potato Sandwich ~ radish, bacon (which would have been seksogfirs/åttiseks/åttiosex-ed, of course), tarragon mayo (I have absolutely no idea what this sandwich would be like; is it made with mashed potatoes or potato salad?).

And because it is a bakery-kinda-joint, there were several other Danish pastries from which to choose. There was one called a Cinnamon Knot that looked very good; I was debating on trying it instead of the one I went with ("with which I went"... nah, that just sounds even awkward more).

I forgot to take a separate photo of the Tebirkes-thing all on its ownsome, but this is the description from their web-site: "This flaky pastry is a delicious classic from Denmark covered in crunchy poppy seeds on top and with a sweet and delicious almond filling inside." However you describe it, it was very velsmagende/velsmakende/välsmakande.

Now this meal would not be for any of those "healthy-faint of heart" eaters. It was mainly made with whole oats and quinoa (which I was told was the true grains of the Norse Gods). There were actually no mushrooms in my bowl, but they did add chunks of roasted pumpkin instead, which was even better. I liked this entire combination and will have to make myself a mental note to get back there again (one of these days) to try something else.

I have no idea what Scandinavian folks might use in 
the way of condimentary supplements (probably 
some kinda lingonberry-infused reindeer salsa) and 
I really did not ask for any. I had come with a few bottles of my own hot sauces and just used some H*ll's Kitchen® Whiskey Habanero Hot Sauce 
(Thanks, Mom!) on top of the "runny" egg. I also added several grinds of grains of paradise (Thanks, Brian!) all over the bowl.

(a not so) Strange Coffee Interlude

Before even heading out for breakfast this morning, I made sure to make myself a decent cuppa Bettys - Colombian Fedar (Thanks again, Greg & Cindy!), just in case the restaurant did not offer a good brand choice of Coffee. As it turned out, the cuppa heart - Guatemala El Amate was very good, too. I do not think that I have ever had this particular Portland-based (the one in Oregon, not the much more internationally-known Coffee hot spot in Maine) brand of Coffee.

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


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Savory Porridge ~ 7.0;
heart - Guatemala El Amate ~ 7.2;
Bettys - Colombian Fedar ~ 7.3

___________________

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist (but really more of an etymological) pointer of the day:

The English word "canteen" comes from French "cantine" ("sutler's shop"), from Italian "cantina" ("wine cellar/vault"), from Italian "canto" ("corner").

The Danish word "kantine" (pronounced "kan-TEEN-eh") is a cognate of the French word.

The Norwegian word "kantine" (pronounced "kan-TEEN-a") is also a cognate of the French word.

Just to be difficult, the d*mn Swedes use the word "kantin" (pronounced "KAN-tin").

2. Say hvad?!

http://danishpastryhouse.ca/Tebirkes.cfm