Cinderella Russian Bakery & Café

Richmond (District) Coffeehouses ~ 
Глава 31

http://cinderellabakery.com/


Place: Cinderella[1] Russian Bakery & Café
Location: 436 Balboa Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues)
Hours: open daily at 7:00am
Meal: Cabbage w/ Butter & Egg Siberian-style Pie (Pirog); Potato Vareniki ~ Russian style dumplings with potato and fried onion filling, served with sour cream on the side and topped with crispy fried onions; and (for breakfast dessert) one Poppyseed[2] Hamentasche[3]; and to drink, with the main meal, Kompot (which they have described on their menu-blackboard as "A traditional drink in Central & Eastern Europe, especially Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia, Slovenia, & Bosnia [where it has been a tradition since Ottoman times]. It is a light, refreshing drink, most often made of dried or fresh fruit [raisins, prunes, apricots, etc.] boiled in water w/ sugar & left to cool & infuse."), and with the breakfast dessert, a cuppa The Republic of Tea® British (English) Breakfast

http://www.republicoftea.com/british-breakfast-black-tea/p/v00586/


I started my Richmond (District) Coffeehouses Series exactly a year ago today (see first 'series-entry from July 26th, 2015). How do I know that? Because I started it mainly as an easy way to get something to eat while the San Francisco Marathon was in town, which basically cuts the city in half and makes it nearly impossible to get anywhere crosstown early in the morning. Well, the marathon-circus was back in town again this morning, so I decided to keep it local once more and just headed back to Cinderella Russian Bakery & Café 
(see previous 'blog-entry from March 10th, 2012). I originally had planned to hit up this place back on July 4th, but due to a stupid, useless parklet (see mini-rant below) that is now ensconced in front of the joint, I gave them a boycottlet. Luckily, I like this place and wanted to try to finish up the series, anyway. I think there is just one coffeehouse left to get to in the Richmond District; I will probably finish up with that sometime in the next few weekends.

Cinderella Russian Bakery & Café is just your standard-sized bakery. Half of the front room is taken up by the front-counter display cases. That leaves seating inside for just two tables for two and two window-counter seats. Weather permitting (and it was just barely permitting this morning), there are also seven tables for two outside on the sidewalk; and, additionally...

stupid, useless parklets mini-rant

There is yet still another one of those obnoxious parking obstructions in front of the café that has seating for several more people. At least this stupid vehicular hindrance is just a one-car jobber. So, do you think that I like all these stupid, useless parklets? I will answer that po-rooski: "In the window!"[4]

(mini-rant over... for now)

There were really several other ideas that I could have gone with to make a вкусный завтрак: Piroshki with cabbage; Mushroom and Clear Noodles Siberian-style Pie (Pirog); Cheese Vareniki (Russian style dumplings with baker's cheese filling, served with sour cream or raspberry jam on the side); Cherry Vareniki (Russian style dumplings with sour cherries inside, served in a rich cherry syrup and sour cream on the side); Blinchiki with Mushrooms (blinchiki with mushroom and onion filling, served with sour cream on the side); and Syrniki (sweet cheese fritters with sour cream & jam; I have no idea what those might be, but I might need to get back to check it out). There were also several other savoury and sweet baked goods/pastries in the front-counter display cases.

Also to drink, Pete[5], there was their own homemade (bakery-made, whatever) Kvas (Kвас). This is described on their menu-blackboard as: "A Russian fermented beverage similar to Beer, low in alcohol (0.05%-1.44%). Made from rye or barley. It is made by steeping, boiling, & fermenting rather than distilling." I have had several different versions of bottled/manufactured Kvas that are sold in the rooskie bodegas in my neighborhood, but never fresh-made stuff. This might also need drinking into.

See, this meal included eggs and potatoes just like any typical breakfastary repast would. 

I started with the slice of pirog and had finished it by the time the vareniki had been prepared and brought out. The pirog was okay, but I really enjoyed the vareniki; plus, the onion crispies really added a nice crunch and flavour.

I wanted to make sure to try something from their fresh-baked pastries, so the poppyseed hamentashe was a nice semi-sweet way to end the meal.

Surprisingly, Cinderella Russian Bakery & Café 
had a decent selection of condimentary supplements: Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original), Tapatio® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce, and Huy Fong Foods, Inc. Sriracha HOT Chili Sauce. Because this was just a bakery-place, I was not planning on getting any dishes that would need any hot sauces added and did not bother bringing any of my own hot sauces with me once again. I did end up using some of the Cholula® on the pirog.

Not all of us can be "brave bakers", but some of us can sing in a "bold choir", at least...[6]


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: 
Cabbage w/ Butter & Eggs Siberian-style Pie (Pirog) ~ 6.3;
Potato Vareniki ~ 6.6; 
Poppyseed Hamentasche ~ 6.4;
Kompot ~ 6.8

___________________

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

Po-rooski, "Cinderella" is called "Золушка". This comes from the rooskoe word "зола", meaning "cinder or ash". Simples, nu?!

That reminds me of a silly rooskij saying/rhyming greeting (provided at no additional charge as stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, первая часть-б):

Как дела? 
(transliteration/pronunciation: Kak della?)
Как сажа белa. 
(transliteration/pronunciation: Kak sazha bella.)

The first sentence reads: "How are things?"
The second sentence reads: "As white as soot." (or "As black is white.")

This would be said facetiously if you are having a bad day.

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, часть вторая:

Po-rooski, "poppyseed" is "мак" (well, technically the word is used for both the flower itself and the edible seeds), transliterated and pronounced as "mak". (See? Sometimes this Saint Cyril alphabet ain't so hard to understand.)

I had to ask the pretty блондинка counter-lady how to say "poppyseed". That was not a common word that would ever have been taught back at Институт Иностранных Языков in Montereyski.

3. Что?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamantash

I have really only seen this word in the plural form of the German word "Hamentaschen". I am going with the singular as "Hamentasche" because I said so.

4. Look it up, yerd*mnself!

5. Yeah, sorry, that is another stupid, useless cunning linguist pun that you would have to know Rooskij to get.

6. More stupid, useless cunning linguist puns that would only make sense to stupid, useless cunning MA linguists that also went to DLI.

Urban Fish

"My course is set for an uncharted sea." 
~ Durante degli Alighieri 

(Okay, there is some construction going on in front and this was the best shot I could get of the storefront.)

(No official web-site yet. At least none that I could find on-line. Their menu stated that there was a web-site [possibly www.urbanfishsf.com], but I can not find it.)


Place: Urban Fish
Location: 2193 Mission Street (at 18th Street)
Hours: You can catch "Brunch" (Get it? "Catch". Because this is a Vegan and Pescatarian joint. Whatever.) at 10:00am on Saturday and Sunday
Meal: Madrona Omellette (sic)[1] ~ avocado, red onion, pico de gallo; a side of Urban Spuds (fka Weird Spuds); and a glassa Organic Ginger Lemonade

(The first EweToobular juxtaselection should be pretty self-evident by this morning's breakfastary destination. I was thinking about using Burning Sensations' "Belly of the Whale" [that is about a big fish, after all, George], but just went with this superbular one from Lady Ella instead. 

The second video was made by a friend of mine, Skip Way. Skip uses photos ~ usually of flowers or such ~ that his sister Andrea has taken and makes them into a collaborative video with singers/bands that he likes [and especially those that won't castigate him for using their music in his videos, even for non-profit purposes]. If you'd like to view more of Skip's stuff, you can check out his EweToob channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqa4xa_2Bxa9K3NZfBJQMKA )


I navigated my way over to the Mission to Urban Fish (fka Dante's Weird Fish; see previous 'blog-entry from November 3rd, 2013) for breakfast this morning. The place has changed hands and name since the last time I ate there (probably sometime last year, but that was for lunch or dinner, not breakfast or "Brunch", so I can't tell for sure when). The new owners are Turkish, as was my waiter-server dude-person (Whose actual Turkish first name I quickly forgot. Sorry, Mrs. Honeycutt [whose last name does actually have a double consonant in it].). He told me that the new ownership took place about eight months ago now. I regaled the poor guy with the only two Turkish words that I could think of: "Cacik" and "Dolma" (which were not that big of a stretch, as they are very similar to the same Greek words).

They only have paper napkins now, and while those are fine enough for the likes of someone like me, the cloth handkerchief/bandana thingys that they used to have in the past were very cool (you try playing "Pirate" or "Cowboy" with a paper napkin; can't be done). Luckily, the menu has remained much the same as before (where they have replaced any "Weird" names with "Urban" now). The waiter-server dude-person also told me that they will be adding more items in the future (perhaps of the Turkish Vegan or Pescatarian persuasion?). 

There are still several decent vegetarian and Vegan options worth trying: Sequoia Omellette (again, sic; of course, I forgot to write down what the ingredients were for this one; I just remember that it was one of the vegetarian options in their Omellette section); Huevos Rancheros (or Huevvos Rancherros, perhaps; 2 fried eggs, corn tortillas, Ranchero, sour cream; served with cabbage salad, black beans, cilantro); Folsom (from the Hollandaise Paradiso section ~ or Holllandaise Parradiso; which is what they call their Eggs Benedict section; made with spinnach and portabbella); or Mission Combo (or Misssion Commbo; 2 pancakes or French toast with 2 eggs, with choice of Urban Spuds, fruit, or Vegan sausage). I should point out that their pancakes are Vegan Pancakes and their French toast is Sour Batard French Toast. Those sounded like nice options on their own even.

(And, no, I don't think that I will tire of making fun of their menu "Toris" ~ that would be as in "Miss Spellings". I am sure that their computers and professional printers have access to all the most recent technology that Billy-boy and his troupe of Braunhemden spell-checkers at Microsoft have to offer, just like I do.)

This was a pretty simple/basic omelette (or omellette, or ommellette), but still very good. The pico de gallo (or picco de galllo) was really very good, with lots of red onions in it (there had to be as many ~ as much? ~ red onions in the salsa as there were tomatoes; and I am not complaining, as I love red onions), and it was served on top of (not inside of, like the avoccado was) the omelette (or omellette, or ommellette).

Surprisingly, their omelettes (or omellettes, or ommellettes) do not come with any sides ~ no potatoes, no toast/bread, no etc. (And just what the heck is up with that?) I was glad that I asked before ordering, as one of the main reasons I went back there was for their weirdly good spuds. I can always get decent omelettes (or omellettes, or ommellettes) any place else. I am very happy to report that they did not change the recipe (just the name) for their awesome version of homefries; they were still as tasty and crispy (and weird) as before.

The lemonade was also very good and had lots of fresh (and I guess, organnic) ginger bits in it.

mini-rant of the day

Is it just me, or does it bug anyone else when a restaurant brings you out a beverage with a drinking straw in it and the straw has the top part of the paper covering still on it? Just remove the damn thing already, please! If I were afraid of you contaminating my drinking straw with your grimy paws, do you think I would trust you with handling any of my food?! Sheesh! (Okay, mini-rant over… for now.)

For condimentary supplements, Urban Fish offers a pretty decent array of hot sauces: Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce and Buffalo Style Hot Sauce); Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce; and El Yucateco® ~ both Salsa Picante Roja de Chile Habanero and Salsa Picante Verde de Chile Habanero. For a change (and mainly because I had never tried this particular version of Tabasco® before), I used some of their Buffalo Style Hot Sauce (or Buffallo Stylle Hott Saucce) on the spuds, but I went with some of my own Fat Cat® Chairman Meow’s Revenge (Scorpion Pepper Sauce) (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on the omelette (or omellette, or ommellette).

Afterward (and because it was just two blocks away from where I was parked) for a breakfastary dessert, I stopped by Bi-Rite Creamery and got a scoop of Basil[2] Ice Cream and a scoop of Honey Lavender[2] Ice Cream.

http://biritecreamery.com/

I guess that Jimmy Durante degli Alighieri guy was just too weird for San Francisco even (and no one ever thought his "Comedy" was all that funny, anyway).


Glen Bacon[3] Scale Rating: 
Madrona Omellette ~ 6.5 (their excellent pico de gallo added an additional 0.1 points);
Urbban Sppuds ~ 7.4;
Orgganic Ginnger Lemmonade ~ 7.0;
Bi-Ritte Creammery Icce Crream ~ 7.0


________________

1. I just know that this mispelink is gonna cause havoc with Wild Bill Gates and his Brownshirt Spell-checkering Nazi Boys at Microsoft. For which, I say: "Good! I'm glad!" Those bastages don't even like my completely acceptable Frenchified alternative spelling of "omelette".

2. What pseudo-culinaristic/pseudo-botanical lesson did we learn just yesterday, children? Both basil and lavender are members of the Mint family and will pair together very nicely. Or so says I.

3. A friend on defacedbookland (Hey, Miss Maggie Boofé!) had thought that whenever I was mentioning the "Glen Bacon Scale" that I was referring to another person altogether named "Glenn Bacon". Apparently, this other Glenn Bacon is a renowned chef from Australia (in the Queensland Area). I suppose that would make more sense using his name with a food rating scale; however, that Glenn Bacon never had to put up with me throughout six weeks of Air Force Basic Training and another year and a half of Basic Russkij Language training at the Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey and Goodfellow Air Force Base. 

Plus, my friend Glen Bacon is also a Boston Red Sox fan. I have no idea which MLB team that other Glenn Bacon supports (or even which AFL team he might follow).

Of course, that other Glenn Bacon also adds an extra "n" to his first name.

Hmmm?! I wonder if that Aussie was the guy that was responsible for printing Urban Fish's current menu.

Dave Durkin ~ A Tributary

Dave Durkin died suddenly on December 28th, 2014.

I am not really sure what the specific cause was, as his wife had posted only a short message on defacedbook. 

Dave was an old Air Force (that would be the United States one) buddy of mine from way back. In fact, I first met the "Old Man" in Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base[1] on November 3rd, 1977 on my very first day of official Active Duty. His bed/bunk/cot (whatever you want to call a basic metal frame and mattress) was just across the aisle from mine and down one.

Just to keep this all on the up-and-up, here's a breakfastary story tie-in. One time, Dave, a few others, and myself went to breakfast up to Santa Cruz, CA (it is about a forty-five minutes drive due north along Highway One from Monterey, CA) at a place called "Omelets, Omelets, Omelets" (or something to that effect). Of course, the restaurant specialized in many different stuffed egg dishes. So what does Dave go and order? Pancakes! His reasoning was entirely sound, "I don't like f*cking omelettes." Of course, he could have just said that before we all decided on eating at a place called "Omelets, Omelets, Omelets" (or something to that effect).

Anyway, back to our euphony of Dave Durkin. 

We started calling Durkin "Old Man" back in Basic Training early on. He was only twenty-one at the time (and just three years older than me), but he always looked so much older and more tired than the rest of us. My first impression after I had initially met him was that he was some kinda dim-witted red-neck from the South. I am glad to say that after getting to know him, I was completely wrong and found him to be just a dim-witted bohunk from da 'Burgh (my apologies to all the dim-witted red-necks from the South out there).

After Basic Training, several of us were lucky enough to get a "Delay Enroute/Leave" (which was just Military-speak for "vacation") before our technical training course started at the Defense Language Institute (DLI for short), Presidio of Monterey, CA. This was mainly because our Basic Training had ended a few days before Christmas and most Air Force
technical schools were closed for the week between Christmas and New Year, anyway. The next week, I even ran into the "Old Man" at San Francisco International Airport and we were on the same flight down to Monterey. What are the odds? (And anyone that knew Dave or knows me, knows that "odd" is the key word there.)

Dave was not only known as "Old Man", there was his simply nicknamed "Durk" and also "Groucho". While we were at DLI, there was a pseudo-fraternity we had of Marx Brothers. It all started out as there were four members from my Basic Training Flight that were assigned to the Presidio of Monterey and, as luck would have it, all happened to be in the same Basic Russkij class: Durkin, Glen Bacon ~ as in the eponymous inventor of the Glen Bacon Scale, Wayne Vernon, and myself. As we had already known each other from spending the past six weeks together at Lackluster AFB, TX, we all hung out together when we first arrived in Montereyski. I am not sure how it came about that we started calling ourselves "the Marx Brothers", but it was soon after we had arrived there ~ there may have been alcohol involved (and probably massive quantities if you knew those guys), or it may have just been that my sometime-nickname in high school was already "Harpo". So, Durkin ended up as "Groucho", Glen was "Zeppo", Wayne was "Chico", and I was… well, still "Harpo". As time went on ~ Language School training lasts anywhere from six months to a year, depending on the language being taught ~ we started gathering more "Marx Brothers" into our little "fraternity". There was: Al Guinee ~ "Gummo"; Warren Treadway ~ "Alpo"; Brent Smith ~ "Bozo"; Chuck Bunge ~ "Bungo"; Ed Drake ~ "Wo-Bung-Lo"; Marcia York ~ "Elbo"; Roisin Gormley ~ "Kuno" (which was later changed to "Karla" once she found out what "kuno" meant in Persian-Farsi); etc-o. As can be seen, the nicknames were normally all in the grande Marx Brothers tradition of ending in an "o"; Wayne even named his car "Ringo" ('cause it was a VW "Beatle"); and Durkin's VW van was called "Gonzo".

I only mention the name of Groucho's vehicle, "Gonzo", because there was a funny story involving it. (And it's only funny now because no one was actually injured ~ miraculously ~ during the filming of this story.) One night Dave and a couple other "brothers" ~ I think that Brad "Brado" Noah (okay, so not all of these are such well-thought-out nicknames) and at least one other person were in the van with Durkin ~ were driving home one night (and I should probably mention that it was after closing hour, so there may have been one or two libations consumed that evening) from downtown Monterey by way of winding Route 68, which was the roundabout back way to the Presidio from downtown. Well, apparently on one of the tight turns, Durk flipped the van completely upside-down and it continued traveling for a few hundred feet on its roof. Dave said he remembers seeing confused drivers in cars heading in the opposite direction. And the strangest thing was that through all this, while upside-down, Durk said he was still trying to control the direction of the car with the steering wheel. Luckily no one was even hurt more than a few bumps and bruises, but the van ended up totaled… it was "gonzo", if you will.

Durkin had a strange way of calling things (it may have been his 'Burgh-ish upbringing and the way they talk; yinz know what I mean). There was a particular bar that he liked to go to that was named "The Rogue", for reasons known only to him, he always called it "The Groin". I remember one summer evening after leaving "The Groin" (we may have been thrown out, I really don’t remember the details), it was getting late and Dave wanted to hit one last bar before last call, so we headed over to a bar on Cannery Row. Well, the particular establishment that we happened into had an Asian/Chinese bartender behind the counter and Durk saunters directly up to him and says "What time do you all crose?" Well, we didn't last more than the time it took for the poor bartender to let it sink in that Dave was insulting him and he chased us all out of there screaming and yelling. 

I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression here that alcohol played a major role in off-duty Air Force
activities… heck, I know there were many times when we were all drunk on duty, too.

Dave and I went on to our classified/technical training together down in Goodfellow AFB and also portions of our Airborne Survival Training schools in Fairchild AFB (in Spokane, WA) and Homestead AFB (just outside Miami, FL). So, in all, we had spent about a year and a half together of our first enlistment. Dave then got stationed up in Mildenhall AB (about two hours outside London, the one in England) and I got a chance to visit him up there in the Spring of 1980, while I was stationed at Hellenikon AB (just outside Athens, the one in Greece, not Georgia).

We kept in touch as best as possible before the days of the Intro-Net and e-mail stuff; phone calls once in a while, usually just the occasional Christmas card or semi-yearly letter. We both got out of the Air Force
around 1986: me ~ just because I needed a change of pace; Durkin ~ due to a Medical Separation/Discharge (seems like some guys just can't take a little heart attack now and then). I moved to California and he moved to Houston, Texas attaining a decent job with Compaq (and then with Hewlett-Packard after they had enveloped Compaq). He got the chance to travel for conventions and such and we saw each other several times over a twenty year period out here in San Francisco. We made sure to do a weekend roadtrip down to Monterey to check out some of the old haunts (I don't think we were tossed from any bars, but Durkin did get into an argument with, of all things, an English bartender about not knowing how to make a "propa 'arf-n-'arf").

The last time I actually saw Dave and got together with him was probably within the past ten years ago or so (when you have known someone for over thirty-seven years, ten years seems like yesterday and twenty years only seems like the day-before yesterday); he was in town once again for business. However, since the advent of defacedbook, it had been much easier keeping in touch with him.

So, let's all raise a frosty mug of Montana Redbird[2] and toast to David "Dave/Durk/Old man/Groucho" Durkin one last time before "crosing time"!

1. That would be at the 3703 BMTS (Basic Military Training Squadron).

2. This is actually called a "Montana Red Beer", but I am calling it a "Montana Redbird" as that was what I first (mis)heard it called back in the Summer of '78, or at least that was what I think I heard it called; either way, I am sticking with my name for it. 

This is made from just a Beer (usually a Lager*, and a really cheap one at that ~ no reason to ruin a perfectly good Beer, after all) mixed with equal parts tomato juice, and I think you can add a few splashes of your favourite hot sauce, too. 

*(Durk's choice of Lager that Summer happened to be Lucky Lager®, which may have been the cheapest Beer available back then and the most affordable on a low-ranking Airman's salary. I don't think Lucky Lager® is even produced any more; it was really that bad.)

Tzatziki

"I opened up a yogurt, underneath the lid it said, 'Please try again.' because they were having a contest that I was unaware of. I thought maybe I opened the yogurt wrong… Or maybe Yoplait® was trying to inspire me… 'Come on, Mitchell, don't give up!' An inspirational message from your friends at Yoplait®, fruit on the bottom, hope on top." ~ Mitch Hedberg


I just wanted to do a quick 'blog-entry on one of the World's Best Condimentary Supplementations ever invented in the World ~ nay, one of the World's Best Foods ever invented in the World: Τζατζίκι (Tzatziki)! I had done a previous 'blog-entry on the merits of Curryketchup over "the vile white goop" ~ also known as the national anthem of France: "Le Mayonnaise" (see previous 'blog-entry from June 10th, 2012), and I figured that Τζατζίκι more than deserved its very own 'blog-entry (much like Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee did).

Stupid, Useless Cunning Linguist Pointer of the Day:

"Τζατζίκι" derives from the Turkish word "Cacik" (pronounced somewhat like "djadjik"). "ژاژ (jaj)" in Persian, and "cacix" in Armenian and Kurdish, refers to herbs like dill, mint, parsley, thyme, etc. (sorry, no sage or rosemary that I know of, Art and Paul); the added suffix "-ik" comes from Turkish.

Most people only know Τζατζίκι as the white sauce that is usually on top of gyros (or souvlakis) or döner kebaps, but in Greece and Turkey and many other countries in the Middle East, Τζατζίκι is generally served as an appetiser/side dish/dip. This was how I was first introduced to it ("It is so very nice to have made your acquaintance, Ms. Τζατζίκι!"). Τζατζίκι was one of the first Greek dishes that I ever had when I first moved to Greece; it was presented as a dip to be used with some fresh-baked peasant bread (ψωμί), pita bread (πίτα), or (the best use of all) with some French fried/steak fries (πατάτες τηγανητές).

There are many different versions of Τζατζίκι or Cacik found throughout the Middle East (mainly due to the Ottoman Empire's influence), and the Indian dish of raita is also very similar. The Greek version of Τζατζίκι is my ultimate favourite. It is made with strained yoghurt (usually from sheep or goat milk), mixed with cucumbers (diced or shredded and then drained/strained of most of their excess water), garlic (a friend's wife used to crush it in a mortar and pestle with a pinch of salt to get it to the right consistency of paste), olive oil, and a little acidity/flavour from fresh-squeezed lemon juice. The Turkish version of Cacik will usually have most of these same ingredients, but with the addition of either dill or mint (I prefer neither extra herb, but it is still pretty good with them added in) and with or without the cucumbers (the cucumbers really add a nice texture to it, though). Greek Τζατζίκι will usually be a lot thicker and dippier than Turkish Cacik. 

I once had a roommate when I was going to school at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California that liked it so much that she would eat it for breakfast even. (Hey, Pam!) One morning before class, I caught her sneaking a few spoonfuls out of the batch that we used to keep in the refrigerator (both myself and our other roommate ~ Hey, Jordan! ~ had been stationed in Greece together and had introduced her to this most excellent dish). However, after Pam explained it to me, it all made perfect sense. What is not to like about Τζατζίκι for a breakfastary repast? It has yoghurt in it ~ very healthy and good for you (and a breakfastary staple with a lot of people); cucumbers ~ very refreshing (and while not a normal breakfastary item, it is technically a fruit); olive oil ~ another healthy and very tasty ingredient; and, last but not in the very leastest, garlic (which probably deserves its very own 'blog-entry one of these days, too). So, who am I to argue with such indisputably sound ratiocination?

Also, while living in Berlin (the one in Germany, not the more famous one in Massachusetts), I introduced another old Air Force buddy (who we shall just call "Doug DePraved" for informational purposes) to Τζατζίκι. We were out on the weekend in what was then called West Germany (or "the Mainland" to those of us that were living on the "Island of Democracy" of West Berlin). Doug let me choose the place for dinner the first night in Celle. I happened to notice a Greek restaurant just around the corner from where our Gasthaus (basically Deutsch for "bed & breakfast") was located. Now, there are two things you need to know about Herr DePraved: 1) he had never had Greek food before (or he wasn't very familiar with it, I don't exactly remember which), and 2) he was a very persnickety eater. As was my normal custom when eating Greek food, I ordered some Τζατζίκι to start the meal with. Doug took one look at it and sneered, saying, "What the heck is that junk?" So, I explained to him it was just a yoghurt, cucumber, and garlic dip. To which he replied, "I hate yoghurt… and garlic." But he tried some all the same (maybe he really liked cucumbers). Well… apparently he didn't hate yoghurt and garlic as much as he thought he did, or maybe the combination of both negated out his hatred for each other (♪ "Put da lime in da coconut…" ♪ ???). He ended up loving the junk and made us go back the next night for dinner at the same place and ordered his own side of Τζατζίκι, too. Ever after that, Doug would bug me at least once or twice a month to go out for some "Greeky food", as he put it.

Τζατζίκι, it's not just for breakfast any more, Pam…


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Τζατζίκι ~ 7.5-8.5

Zazie

Don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs.[1]

http://zaziesf.com/


Place: Zazie
Location: 941 Cole Street (between Carl Street and Parnassus Avenue)
Hours: "Brunch" is served on Saturday and Sunday from 9:00am to 3:00pm (however, it is good to note that they call basically the same meal "Breakfast" Monday through Friday and are open an hour earlier at 8:00am)
Meal: Eggs en la Marais[2] ~ savory challah bread pudding w/wild mushrooms, arugula[3], thyme, goat cheese, and two over easy eggs baked in a cast iron skillet, w/salad or homefries; and a cuppa LaCoppa[4] Coffee Organic French Roast (o Caffè ou Café ~ now would be an okay time to use either of these words con un accento grave, ou avec accent aigu aussi) 

(This wasn't going to be my first choice for a EweToob-ular link. I first had the idea to use Louis Jordan's "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" and then I had a better idea to use Lightin' Hopkins' "Meet Me At The Chicken Shack", but I couldn't locate that particular song/video. As is usually the case with EweToob, Norah Jones' name popped up on a list of other songs along the right column, so I just decided to use one of her songs instead.)


Je suis retourné à Zazie (see last 'blog-entry from October 14th, 2012) pour mon petit déjeuner. Mais qui est "Zazie"? One of these days I really should ask them if one of the owners is actually named "Zazie" or if they just named the restaurant after the main character in a 1960's Louis Malle movie (from an earlier French novel of the same name). It was a little too cold and damp still this morning to sit outside either in one of the two sidewalk tables or out back in their large backyard patio area (which is usually my preferred spot). I happened to notice that Zazie sells bags of both their Gingerbread and Buttermilk pancake batter mixes if anyone wants to make them at home (I doubt they would allow you to purchase the bags and let you make them in their own professional kitchen, though).

My meal this morning was off their "Brunch" specials menu. Seeing as they are "a French bistro in the heart of Cole Valley" (it is stated as such right on their menu and web-site), je ne sait pas why this dish wasn't called "Oeufs en Le Marais". Take heart, no Glen Bacon Scale Rating points are ever taken off due to confusing linguistics, though. Also off the seasonal "Brunch" specials menu, Miracle Pancakes (1, 2, or 3 sugar pie pumpkin spice pancakes w/ fresh whipped cream) sounded very good. A few other good ideas off the standard "Brunch" menu that are options for another return trip: Fontainbleau[5] (scrambled eggs with portobellos, shiitake, porcinis, spinach, and Fontina), or Italie (scrambled eggs with tomatoes provencales, cream cheese, and basil ~ they probably should have had this as "tomates provençales", but, again, no GBS points are deducted for not keeping with a Frenchy theme).

This was another very good recent find (even if it is only a seasonal special). I really had no idea what to expect from the description on the menu, but this ended up being very interesting and tasty. It was basically two eggs over easy (or "over easy eggs" ~ damnés Français!) placed on top of a bread pudding made in a small round cast iron skillet. It all worked nicely for me; sort of a baked Eggs Benedict dish (simplement sans sauce hollandaise stupide). There were three cloves of roasted garlic (trois gousses d’ail rôti) in with the homefries this morning ~ always a good thing.

The LaCoppa Coffee Organic French Roast was very good, too. They are a local coffee roaster in Marin and used to have a few coffee shops (o caffès ou cafés). From what I can discern, they have sold off all of their coffee shops now, but are keeping the roastery for wholesale coffee. This is a shame as I had been to their flagship coffee shop in downtown Mill Valley a few times and really liked the place. 

http://www.lacoppacoffee.com/

Upon request, Zazie has for condimentary supplements Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red only). I used some of my own Dave's Gourmet® Ginger Peach Hot Sauce (Thanks, Jim!) on top of the eggs and some Florida Gold Salsa Picanté[6] Premium Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Kerry!) on the homefries. The Ginger Peach Hot Sauce went very nicely with the bread pudding as it had its own elements of savoury and sweet.

The Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude of the Day
Before breakfast I heard probably 6-10 of the noisy little buggers flying around the neighborhood, but didn't see any of them until afterward while walking around Richard Gamble Memorial Park (at the West Portal of the N-Judah MUNI line). I then saw a semi-large pandemonium of parrots (at least 20-30) flying southward (probably towards Twin Peaks). I wonder if they roost in this small park. There are several tall trees that they could call home. 


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Eggs (ou Oeufs) en le Marais ~ 7.1; LaCoppa Coffee (o Caffè ou Café) ~ 6.8


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

This old saying in Russian would roughly be: "Яйца курицу не учат.", which literally means: "The eggs do not teach the chicken." 

I only know this as I came across it many years ago in my copy of Smirnitsky (the standard Russian-English dictionary that was used throughout the Military at the time) while I was still taking Basic Russian at the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey, and not really being familiar with the English saying, it stuck with me. 

This knowledge came in very handy a few years later when I completely amazed one of my co-workers, John Kurovsky ("long 'o', no 'v'…"), during a Mids Скрэббл® game session at the 6916th. (See, I was his supervisor and trainer at the time and we were supposed to be doing actual work and studying, but there was usually nothing much to do for us. So I brought in my Russian version of Scrabble® to play with to pass the time on boring Mids shifts. Yeah, it pissed off the Hebrew and Arab linguists some, but I just claimed we were utilizing our vocabulary. I am not saying they actually bought any of that хуй, but they usually left us alone after that.) Anyway, during one heated game, John had challenged my spelling on "egg" or "eggs" (silly boy) and looked it up in our Russian-English dictionary at work. He saw the saying "Яйца курицу не учат." in the entry and read it out loud, and I told him that just meant colloquially: "Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs." He was absolutely flabbergasted and truly couldn't believe that I even knew that. Of course, he never challenged any of my words or spelling/grammar thereafter.

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, numéro deux:

"Le Marais" means "the swamp" or "the marsh" in French. Le Marais is also a historic district in Paris. 

Now was this dish meant to mean "Eggs (I still can't believe they didn't use "Oeufs") in the swamp" or "Eggs in the mode of a historic district of Paris"?

3. Herr Gates and his stupid Spell-checker Nazis at Microsoft do not recognize this as a valid word. Really, Billy-boy?! You guys need to get out of die verdammten Bierhallen and go out to eat more often.

4. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, numero tre:

"La Coppa" means "the cup" in Italian. What that has anything to do with coffee (o caffè ou café), I will never know.

5. Not really a stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer, but more of just a stupid, useless geographical/historical pointer:

This should be "Fontainebleau" not "Fontainbleau". Again, no GBS points are ever taken off for any mispelded werds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontainebleau

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

I am pretty sure that "Picante" should be sin acento agudo. "Picante", meaning "hot, spicy" in Spanish, is the past participle of "picar", meaning "to prick, bite". (see also: "pique" and "piquant", Jean-Luc)

Original Buffalo Wings (OBW)

Happy Cat in the Hat Day!

http://www.originalbuffalowings.biz/ 

 

 

(Yes. Three EweToob videos this morning.

The first one is in reference to Cat in the Hat Day. Today is the anniversary of the birthday of Theodore Geisel, aka Doctor Seuss. March 2nd has been adopted as the annual date for National Read Across America Day in his honor.

I would also just like to point out that if you look at the album cover artwork for "Year of the Cat", you can see that Al Stewart was the original inspiration for Grumpy Cat.

The connection with the next two songs can be figured out easily enough if you actually waste your time and read along through today's 'blog-entry. You can consider this your contribution to National Read Across America Day, but I will expect everyone to contribute and Pay It Forward on their own.)


In keeping with my self-imposed 2013 breakfastary restrictions, I decide to go to Original Buffalo Wings (OBW) on Lombard Street (on the corner of Divisadero Street) this morning. They open up plenty early enough at 7:00am everyday, and do not do "Brunch". They are a small local chain and have six or seven Bay Area locations (depending on which part of their official web-site you look at).

OBW is located in the space that once housed the Not Yet World Famous Clown Alley. I think that the Lombard Street restaurant of that particular hamburger joint had already closed by the time I had moved to San Francisco in 1986, but the main location on Columbus Street remained open for a few more years yet.

I distinctly remember the first time that I went to the Not Yet World  Famous Clown Alley. Back in February 1978 when I was stationed at the Defense Language Institute/Presidio of Monterey, a friend of mine (Hey, Wayne!) had just bought a new (used) VW Bug and wanted to test it out on a road trip up to San Francisco. Of course, he only came up with this great idea at 11:00pm on a Friday night (alcohol may have been involved in this decision). However, this didn't stop us (that would be Wayne, myself, and Glen Bacon ~ no relation to the illustrious inventor of the Glen Bacon Scale) from jumping in the car and arriving at the Golden Gate Bridge around 1:00am on Saturday morning. After driving across the bridge (and running out of gas, but that's a "whole nuther" story for some other time), we decided to get something to eat.

Unfortunately, the only place nearby that was open at 2:30am happened to be Clown Alley. At that early/late hour, we shared the place with a bunch of (other) drunks and hookers. After grabbing a bite to eat, we decided that maybe we should find a place to crash for a few hours before playing touristas in San Francisco for the rest of day before heading back to Montereyski. We ended up finding a nearby flea-bag motel right along Lombard Street.

As we were stupid, poor Air Force Airmen, we really couldn't afford a room each to ourselves, so we got one room between the three of us. However, there were only two large beds in the room, so I chose to sleep on the floor between the two beds. Sure, I had just been through six weeks of Basic Training with both of these guys and had seen both of them naked many times before (meh?!), but when Wayne said there was plenty of room in the bed for the both of us, I told him: "No thanks. Why do you think they are called 'Queen-sized' beds?" Of course, Glen was already sound asleep by this time and could have cared less where I slept.

The Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

This morning I once again parked over by the Lombard Gate of the Presidio. I heard at least a few dozen of my little feathered buddies, but they were way up in the tops of the eucalyptus trees and I really didn't see any of them flying overhead.

Pay It Forward Weekend… or bugger off! ~ Part III
(To get this reference, please see 'blog-entries from March 3rd, 2012 and March 5th, 2011.)

After breakfast, I walked over to Chestnut Street and was planning on "Paying It Forward" at the Peet's there. However, along the way (and just a half-block from reaching my destination) I passed a table set up on the sidewalk by some Girl Scouts. Now, I am a sucker for this time of year and always like to buy a few boxes of cookies in support. So I bought four boxes of Girl Scout Cookies (two boxes of samoas® ~ the toasted coconut/caramel/striped chocolate ones, which are my favourite, I bought one for now and the other I have to hide from myself so that I can enjoy them later for my birthday in June ~ yes, I really am that manic; one box of savanah smiles™ ~ lemon wedge cookies; and one box of thank u berry much™ ~ with cranberries and white fudge chips) and instead of getting the $4.00 change back from my $20.00 bill, I just told them to give a free box of cookies to the next customer that came along. I told them that if the person questioned this act of unbridled kindness to say that the free box of cookies was "on Scott".

I didn't have a bag to carry all the boxes, as I really wasn't figuring on buying any Girl Scout Cookies today, but the mother-lady gave me a large paper bag (the kind with handles) to carry all of them. So, the five boxes really only cost me $19.90 (to get that joke, you have to understand that San Francisco has a new stupid law that people have to use their own bags at all stores or get charged 10¢ per bag).

R.I.P. Mr. XV!

Anyway, back to the breakfast part of this breakfast 'blog…

I know what you are thinking, "Buffalo Wings for breakfast?" Well, they taste just like chicken, Jessica. Actually, they offer a pretty decent selection of breakfast items on the menu. I ordered the Garden Omelette ~ avocado, green bell peppers, onions, spinach, tomatoes, and Monterey Jack cheese; served with hashbrowns and a choice of toast (I had English muffins this morning). I also had a cuppa their house coffee, which was America's Best Coffee (that is just their claim, they are not really).
 

The omelette was really nothing special, it just had lots of avocado and spinach in it, which is always nice. Surprisingly, the coffee was actually not that bad for a greasy-spoon diner/hot wings joint.

OBW only has as condimentary supplementation Tapatío® (you'd think that as a "Buffalo Wings" place that they would at least have some Frank's® RedHot). But as Stevie Nicks' dad, Max[1], would say, it was lucky that I  had brought some of my own bottles with me; I used some Cherry Republic® KaBOB's Kick'en Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the hashbrowns and just six drops total (I counted; this stuff is pretty "nukular") of BIG PAPI En Fuego Hot Sauce Grand Slam XXXtra Hot (Thanks, Kerry! At this rate, I should be able to use up the bottle in another hundred or so uses) on the omelette.

 
"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck…" on Lombard Street again.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Garden Omelette ~ 5.8; The Cat in the Hat/Doctor Seuss ~ 8.5; Girl Scout Cookies ~ 6.0-7.0


1. You really thought that you could get through another one of my 'blog-entries (and especially one with references to DLI) without a stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day? Well, here is the stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer des Tages:

"Macht nichts" (which sounds a bit like "Max Nicks") is German for "It makes no difference" or "No matter". I think the direct translation is "It makes nothing".