Just For You bakery & cafe

https://www.justforyoucafe.com/


Place: Just For You bakery & cafe

Location: 732 22nd Street 
(between 3rd and Tennessee Streets)

Hours: open Monday-Friday at 7:30am, 
Saturday-Sunday at 8:00am for "Brunch" 

Meal: Greek Scramble ~ 3 eggs with Feta cheese, onions, spinach, tomato, and Kalamata olives, served with choice of bread (a HUGE chunka cornbread was my choice this morning) and choice of sides (the chosen side was homefries); and, to drink, a cuppa (and one refilla ~ they kept offering me more, but I did not want to be awake all day) good N'Arlins-style Community Coffee® with roasted chicory

https://www.communitycoffee.com/products/coffee/32-oz-ground-coffee-and-chicory

(These two old guys do a pretty decent cover of Them's original Garage Rock classic.)

("Hey, Brian, just who the h*ck was that guy that introduced Laura Brannigan?"... Shirley, you must be joking. 

"And, Brian, what is up with the dazzling duo of 'Gloria' songs?"... Well, as far as I know, there are not any EweToobular juxtaselections between Greek Scrambles and anyone named "Gloria". I just happened to be listening to a CD of Blues Traveler live performances [Thanks, Greg!] to and from the restaurant this morning and ol' Pop-man done sang that Them version of "Gloria" hisd*mnself. Of course, there is always the possibility that Sir George Ivan and/or little Johnnie Hooker are fans of Hellenic egg dishes, too.)


I say this every time that I go to Just For You bakery & cafe (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, April 1st. 2018... no foolin') for breakfast, if it was not all the way cross-town, it would easily be in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation. (And, yes, while the restaurant is still in the same city in which I live, even early on a Saturday morning with no real traffic of which to speak, it still took me about a half-hour to forty minutes drive over there.)

Not that there was really anything that I considered ordering, but on the weekends, they offer several items on a separate printed Today's Specials menu. Off which, Today's offerings were:

Blueberry Lemon Mimosa! (They added the explanation point there!) ~ Our 16oz mimosa with fresh blueberry lemon thyme syrup, blueberries & lemon wedge! Ask your server for other flavors! (See, they kinda like them explanation points!);

Corned Beef Hash! (Again, with the explanation point?! Apparently, they do not have Elaine Marie Benes editing their printings!) ~ Homemade (well, bakery & cafe-made) Corned beef hash with peppers, onions & potatoes served with two eggs any style & choice of bread. (Hmmm?! Someone seems to have missed the explanation point at the end of that sentence!);

Chicken Apple Scramble! (I will not even mention the addition of the explanation point here!) ~ Three egg scramble with chicken apple sausage, cherry tomatoes, arugula, mushrooms & blue cheese. Served with home fries or grits, and choice of homemade (again, bakery & cafe-made) bread.

Clam Linguine! (Maybe the exclamation point is standard in Italiano!) ~ A homemade (you know the drill) wine butter sauce with clams, shallots, fresh basil, and tomato over linguine pasta, topped with parmesan cheese. Served with a small green salad.;

and lastly(!)

Pastrami Benedict! (Whatever!) ~ Hot Pastrami, spinach & tomato topped with poached eggs & hollandaise sauce over choice of bread (They do not specify here if it is "homemade" or not!). Served with home fries or grits.(!)

Having already run the gamut (and, I will have you know, that I did it in under 10-minute miles!) of viable st*pid vegetarian-friendly dishes off their standard weekend All-Day "Brunch" menu (which is really pretty extensive), I simple went with a choice that I knew was very good and that I liked a lot. Of course, once again, this was a great meal and a whole lotta food. The portion of homefries was enough to feed two people and the HUGE hunka cornbread was almost too much for me to finish it all (but I did!). If I had one minor quibble with this morning's meal, it was that the scramble-mess was a bit light on both the amount of Feta and Kalamata olives in it.

As has been documented many times in the past (so I am not gonna do so again in the present), Just For You bakery & cafe offers one of the best selections of condimentary supplementation in the city. Oddly enough, even so, I  used some of my own Old St. Augustine Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on the potatoes and some H*ll's Kitchen Sriracha Chili Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on the scrambled stuff. I also grinded several grinds of The Spice & Tea Exchange® Pirate's Bite Spice Blend (Thanks, Cindy!) all over everything.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Greek Scramble ~ 6.6 (with the sufficient amount of Feta and Kalamata olives, I think that I normally would rate this as 6.7 or 6.8);
Community Coffee® with roasted chicory ~ 6.8

LaLe

No actual Nederlandse kindjes were harmed during the writing of this 'blog-thing.

https://www.lalesf.com/


Place: LaLe

Location:  731 Irving Street 
(between 8th and 9th Avenues)

Hours: "Brunch" is served at 9:00am during the week and at 8:00am on Saturday and Sunday

Meal: Dutch Baby Pancake ~ w/ caramelized apples & housemade (restaurant-made, whatever) whipped cream; a side order of homefries; and a cuppa (and one refilla; I drank a whole cuppa while waiting the 15-20 minutes for the pancake to be baked; they warn you ahead of time that it can take a while to prepare this dish) Sightglass Coffee (I forgot to ask which roast/blend they serve, though)

https://sightglasscoffee.com/

(There were not meant to be any EweToobular juxtaselections with the above two songs/videos. 
These two songs were played [back-to-back] on the house [restaurant, whatever] stereo while I was eating my meal. However, I bet that Sir George Ivan and those the Four Tops fellows would all enjoy a good Dutch Baby Pancake. I mean, who wouldn't?)


As I have been double-heading all of my Breakfastary Starting Rotation for visits this month, it was back to LaLe (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, October 26th, 2019... so, basically, yesterday) once again this morning.

Even before I had left my apartment this morning, I had already known exactly what I was going to order for breakfast ("Brunch", whatever). However, I really do need to try their new(-ish?) frittatas that are now offered. I think earlier this year was when I first saw the new items on their printed menu (their web-site does not even show these yet). There are three different frittatas (served with salad and fruit; where I would probably request a substitution of their very good homefries), thusly:

Paris ~ leeks, bacon (sorry, Glen, but you would have to be nixed), peas, goat cheese;

Seattle ~ asparagus, peppers, chicken-apple sausage (which would have to go the way of poor Glen above), Cheddar (this would most likely be my first choice of frittata);

and 

Milan (v) ~ spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, Cheddar.

See? No tulips in the vase on my table again this morning. Just some (if not a bit on the wilting side) roses and such. There were various colours of roses 
on all of the other tables, too.

This was so good! This dish is probably my second favourite breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) meal that they offer. Dutch Baby Pancakes are only offered during weekend "Brunch", though. It can also be ordered with bacon or strawberries; I just prefer the caramelized apples version. I am not sure exactly what kind of flower petals (they were quite possibly tulip petals, but never having eaten a tulip before, I could not tell you for certain) were used as a garnish on top of the whipped cream. I hope they were edible... 'cause I done edibled them both. I bet these pancakes would be extremely good with fresh rosemary sprigs on top of the whipped cream, too.

For condimentary supplementation, LaLe had... same as yesterday. I used some of my own H*ll's Kitchen® Chipotle Chocolate Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) all over the side order of potatoes... and even a skosh on a small part of the pancake. ("No, you did 'nt, Brian!" Do not judge my culinary quirks!) I also used some grinds of The Spice & Tea Exchange® Pirate's Bite Spice Blend (Thanks, Cindy!) on the homefries. (Relax. I did not sprinkle any on top of the pancake, because that would just be silly.)


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Dutch Baby Pancake ~ 7.5;
Sightglass Coffee ~ 7.2

Y*nkee Pier®

Airport Breakfastary Food - Part IX
San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
(Saturday, 8/17/2019)

https://www.flysfo.com/content/y*nkee-pier [1]


Place: Y*nkee Pier®

Location: Terminal 3, Boarding Area F near Gate 72, SFO; phonicular contact: 650-821-8938

Hours: open daily 5:00am (or so they say; I got there around 6:30am and it looked like they had just opened for business for the morning)

Meal: Greek Scramble ~ eggs scrambled with spinach, mushrooms, red onion, Feta & tapenade, served with home fries & choice of toast (I chose sourdough); to drink with the meal, a large glassa orange juice; and, to drink afterward while walking around waiting for my plane, a medium cuppa Peet's Coffee® Yosemite Dos Sierras

https://www.peets.com/coffee/dark-roast/yosemite-dos-sierras-organic

(I do not know if either Sir George Ivan or Maurice, the Space Cowboy,[2] like Feta and/or spinach, but they were playing both of these songs on the house-stereo while I was eating breakfast.)


I really enjoyed the geographic irony of eating at a place named Y*nkee Pier® when flying out of San Francisco heading towards Boston. Of course, I was half-expecting to find a seafood restaurant in Logan Airport on my return flight called "Dock of the Bay" or such.

They actually offered a decent variety of breakfastary items, even for stupid vegetarian-types. Ferinstance:

Tofu Scramble ~ egg whites scrambled with tofu, mushrooms, spinach, green onions, served with home fries and choice of toast;

NorCal Scramble ~ eggs scrambled with tomatoes, avocado, salsa verde, cumin sour cream, served with home fries & choice of toast;

or maybe even

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast ~ with fruit compote & pure maple syrup.

(The tops of the tables caught my eye as they were cartography-themed. Mine happened to be of the Monterey Bay/Monterey Canyon area.)

All in all, this was surprisingly a very decent breakfast. I was not really expecting to like a dish from an airport restaurant-kitchen as much as I did. It was served more in a frittata-style, which is nice. One of the nicer surprises was that the topping was made of an authentic Kalamata olive tapenade. However, if I had one small quibble (a quibblaki, perhaps?), it would be that they should have used tomatoes instead of mushrooms in it; that would have been a bit more Greek-y to me.

Their version of homefries were extremely good, too.

For condimentary supplementation, Y*nkee Pier® had Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce), Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce, and Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original) (but just one bottle that was semi-hidden in with a bunch of other condiments). I used a good amount of their Tapatío® on the potatoes.

(just a bit of a) Strange Coffee Interlude

I was hoping on finding a less ubiquitous Coffee purveyor than both St*rbucks and Peet's®, but SFO's Terminal 3 really lacked in choices. So, I just went for the worse of two evils and ordered whatever they were serving as the drip-Coffee choice at one of the Peet's® in the terminal. 

Me: "What blend do you have this morning?"
Clueless Baristette: "Dark Roast!"
Me: "Yes, but which specific blend or roast are you offering this morning?"
CB: (has to go look at the bag of whatever blend/roast they have brewed... then just shows me the bag)
Me: (thinking "Really?!")


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Greek Scramble ~ 6.5;
Peet's Coffee® Yosemite Dos Sierras ~ 6.8

___________________

1. Okay, so maybe you will need to replace the "*" in that URL with an "a". I just did not want to be caught using any overtly vulgar language in my personal 'blog-thing.

2. It took me a bit to recognize this song. You know you are getting old when it takes you a minute or so to remember who the original artist of a Classic Rock-and/or-Roll song is.

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 Sunday at 8:00am

Meal: Sweet Potato Pancake ~ cinnamony healthy goodness, served with pure Vermont maple syrup (Hidden Springs Maple Syrup ~ a family-owned and operated maple syrup farm in Southern Vermont) and butter (they do not specify from which creamery they source their butter, though) and a side of Herb Roasted Potato Medley ~ consists of seasonal & regional varieties such as Chilean Purple, Yukon Gold, Gemstone Red, Russet, Sweet Yam

https://www.hiddenspringsmaple.com/

(My initial thought was to use one of Shana Morrison's[1] cover-versions of this Sir George Ivan song, but I came upon this one in the same EweToob search and really liked it.)


Because last week I ate at Taylor Street Coffee Shop again, I figured it was fitting that I should probably go through the litany of other restaurants in this local family-owned mini-chain of restaurants. Hence, next up was Sweet Maple (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, October 15th, 2017). I think this was the second restaurant that they opened (possibly third), but it has been ensconced in the Lower Pacific Heights/
Japantown/Fillmore District triangle-area since 2010.

Many of the restaurants in their mini-chain have the same or very similar dishes (just with different name-variations) and I have tried several of them already. There are still yet another few (specific to the Sweet Maple menu, at least) other ideas that seem breakfastary worthy for me:

Southern Benedict ~ chorizo (which woulda gone chorizo-no with me), cherry pepper, tomato, chipotle Hollandaise, served w/ potato medley 
(I have had their chipotle Hollandaise before and know that it is really good);

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

or if I am the mood once again for something Sweet...

Marnier ~ French toast: creamy Grand Marnier® (citrus) batter.

There is not really much to report about this dish. It was sweet potato pancakes in all its sweet potato-goodness and cinnamocity (yeah, it's not a real word, but neither is "cinnamony"). They have this listed on the menu as "Pancake" in the singularity, but it actually came as three (possibly four?) rather large (but, thankfully, sorta thin) pancakes; otherwise, with the side of potatoes, it woulda been wayyyy too much for me to finish. Not listed on the menu was that it also comes served with two types of berries (that would be blueberries and oranges to you botanical minded-types) and one not-a-berry (that would be strawberries to you in the botanical laity) on top. (However, I am not quite sure where in the fruit-world that sprig of fresh parsley may lay. In time, I am sure that Rosemary will sagely tell me... )

I saw on their menu that you could upgrade to something called "JD syrup". This intrigued me enough to ask what exactly that meant. Sadly, it was not a syrup tapped from juvenile delinquent maple trees in Vermont. However, I was ecstatic to learn that the "JD" actually stood for "Jack Daniels" and just had to try out that junk! Unfortunately, when they brought it out in a small syrup-pourer/carafe-thing, it was chock-full-o' crispy dead, decaying porcine-butt bits. The waiter/server-person guy forgot to mention to me that it included this item, and I had to end up going back to the "plain ol' 100% Vermont maple syrup" instead... 

As far as condimentary supplementation goes, Sweet Maple offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce 
(both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce), Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce, and Traina® Hot Sriracha Sun Dried Tomato Ketchup. I ended up using a goodly portion of the Sriracha Ketchup on the potatoes (and don't think the thought did not cross my mind to try some on the pancakes, too, Mr. Moses Harry Horwitz!).


(yet still another not necessarily such a) 
Strange Coffee Interlude

Sure, I coulda ordered a cuppa Coffee at the restaurant to complement my breakfast ("My, Miss Pancakes, you do look lovely this morning!"), but earlier in the morning I made sure to whip-me-up (well, technically, drip-me-down) an extra-fine cuppa Koa Coffee Plantation® 100% Kona Coffee Grande Domaine Single Estate Medium Dark Roast!!! (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!)[2] This was actually from a Christmas gift, which I am finally getting around to using some of it up. Man, I wish I had known how d*rn good it was, because, trust me, it would not have made it past February! Besides, no matter how good the Coffee at Sweet Maple might have been, I knew that (even with the way that I crummily make Coffee) this superior bean/roast could not be topped. In the past I had always had a lighter (as in "way too light") roast of Kona Coffee and was never very impressed with its flavour. However, I really like this Coffee so much so that I am claiming it as "My Favourite New Coffee of 2019" (and I truly believe that you will be hard pressed [or hard-percolated] to change my mind on this before year's end, anyway). To make this early morning cuppa even more early morning special, I drank it outta my "Breakfast of Champions"[3] mug (Thanks, Sean!), too.

https://www.koacoffee.com/p/pure-kona-coffee/grande-domaine-vienna-roast-whole-bean-kona


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Sweet Potato Pancake(s) ~ 6.5;
Koa Coffee Plantation® 100% Kona Coffee Grande Domaine Single Estate Medium Dark Roast!!! ~ 7.7-7.8;
"Breakfast of Champions" ~ 6.9 (the book; actually, I would have to rate the mug at 7.9)

___________________

1. http://www.shanamorrison.com/

Trust me, Shana is a way lot cuter'n that guy from Indiana performing the Sir George Ivan song above, but I had never heard this Hoosier-guy's cover-version before and felt like going with it up top.

Just to be fair, here is Shana performing another cover-version of one of her daddy's songs:

(The fat guy in the pork-pie straw hat and glasses singing duet with her really oughtta keep his day job, though... )

2. This gift was given in the "whole bean" version and not the pre-grinded-up grounds style. 

(Just what kinda cheap-o b*stages give a person a gift of a bagga whole bean Coffee and then expect that person to have to do all the work of a'grindin'-up the beans hisd*mnself?! Pfffft! Some people!)

3. While this novel might not be my favourite book from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (that, of course, would be "Cat's Cradle" ~ GBS Rating: 8.0, followed closely by "Sirens of Titan" ~ GBS Rating: 7.8), it was the very first one of his books that I ever did read. (Thanks, Philboyd Studge, for introducing me to the Weird and Wonderful Vonnegutian World way back in the Summer of '77!) Plus, it is one of my favourite current mugs out of which to enjoy a piping-hot Coffee beverage (and maybe even a tea or two sometimes).

café Durant

Another breakfastary roadtrip:
Berkeley, CA

¡Feliz día de San Patricio!

https://www.cafedurantberkeley.com/


Place: café Durant

Location: 2517 Durant Avenue 
(between Telegraph Avenue and Bowditch Street)

Hours: open Monday to Sunday at 7:30am

Meal: Chilequiles[ sic ][1] ~ three eggs scrambled w/ (corn tortilla) chips, green tomatillo sauce, cheese & sour cream, served with rice, beans (in this case it was a combination of both frijoles refritos y frijoles negros) & (three) corn tortillas; and, to drink, a large glass-mugga Mexican Hot Chocolate 

(I have it on good authority that after driving all the Danes and snakes outta Ireland, ol' Santa Pádraig sat down to a hearty breakfast of Chilaquiles hisd*mnself! [See, the joke here being that there was probably just about as much Native American maize crops in Ireland in the 5th Century as there were any sorta d*mn snakes.]

Sorry, but I could not locate any songs by Sir George Ivan en español.)


I had never been to café Durant before for breakfast (I had eaten there a few times in the past for lunch and/or dinner) and decided to start una nueva tradicion for Saint Patrick's Day.[2] But why 
Mexican food and not Irish food you may ask? Because as a stupid vegetarian-type, there are just more options with cocina mexicana . 

Thankfully, Señor Sol was kind enough to grace us with his presence again this morning, so I made sure to sit outside on their second-level sun-deck in one of the tables directly overlooking Durant Avenue. It was still cool enough at the time that I kept my jacket on, but was not uncomfortable in the least (comfortable in the most?!). The entire place was pretty empty on this domingo plácido and there was only one other idiot sharing the sun-deck with me.

Not that I will be probably getting back over there any time again soon (I found out the hard way that on early Sunday mornings, the BART station at Powell Street is not even open for operation until 8:00am and that there are less trains going directly to Berkeley and Richmond then, too), but there were several other viable options listed on their breakfast menu, to include:

Huevos Rancheros ~ three fried eggs with rancheros sauce & cheese;

Huevos Divociados[ sic ] ~ eggs on crispy tortilla;

Huevos a la Mexicana  ~ three eggs scrambled with jalapeños, tomatoes, onions;

Sundeck Combo D ~ two Chocolate chip banana pancakes, one strawberry banana crepe, veggie (uggh!) omelet & fruit salad (if I had not already planned on getting the Chilequiles[ sic ], I would have probably ordered this one, just substituting some homefries for the boring ol' fruit salad);

or

Greek Omelet ~ Feta cheese, olives, spinach, tomato, & green onions (this would have been the back-up to my back-up plan; because nuthin' says "Happy Saint Patrick's Day!" like eating at a Mexican restaurant and ordering the Greek egg-dish).

(Ooops! I had already dug-in and messed with the dish a bit before remembering to take the requisite photo of the meal.)


Whenever I eat at a new Mexican place, and they offer Chilaquiles (or even Chilequiles[ sic ]), I make sure to order that dish. It is sorta my touchstone (piedra de toque) with un desayuno mexicano . Now this was a very good rendition and I did like their use of a tomatillo salsa in place of a standard salsa roja (which is still my favourite) for a change of pace. 

The three corn tortillas came out warmed/steamed and wrapped in a red-and-white checkered paper-thing to keep them a bit warm. These may not have been fresh-made like at some other Mexican restaurants, but they were still welcomed and good all the same, and I made sure to make the best use of them.

café Durant had for condimentary supplement use both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce. Neither of these were needed (and really seemed un poco superfluo) because they offered two different fresh-made salsas of their own: a very nice salsa roja (which I used on top of the rice and beans after mixing them together) and a tomatillo salsa (which I added to the top of the eggs and chips mess; it already had the same tomatillo salsa in it when they made it, I just added more 'cause I could and I wanted to).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Chilequiles[ sic ] ~ 6.7;
the ♪ music ♫ of Sir George Ivan ~ 8.5

___________________

1. Not that I am un erudito español o un epicúreo mexicano  in any way, but I am pretty sure that after eating this same dish for about thirty years now that it should be spelded kerrectly as "Chilaquiles". It really is not of Spanish origin, anyway; it is actually a Nahuatl word. 

2. "Now... wait... a... minute... Brian! You can not just make up a new tradition whenever you like!"

Well, it is my silly li'l 'blog-thing, and I can do whatever I d*mn please! If you have a problem with that, you can write yer own d*mn breakfastary 'blog-thing.

Besides, I think turn-about's fair play:

Wayyyy back in 1986, when I was still living in Omiehaw, Neebraskie, a bunch of us Air Force types stationed at Offutt AFB decided to have lunch at one of the only good Mexican restaurants in town on Cinco de Mayo. Mind you, the restaurant was about a good twenty to thirty minutes drive away from the airbase. Well, when we got there, there was a sign on the door stating that they were closed to observe this 
Mexican holiday. (How do you say "D'oh!" in Spanish?) Rather than settle for any of the cr*mmy food at a local Taco Bell or waste more time driving around trying to locate another decent Mexican restaurant (trust me, back in the 80's, Omiehaw was dearly lacking in any kinda auténticos restaurantes mexicanos), we all decided to simply head over to a nearby Chinese restaurant. For several years after that, I maintained this "tradition" and would normally try to remember to eat Chinese food on May the Fifth.

(Hmmm?! Looks like next year to celebrate Chinese New Year, I might need to find a decent Irish pub for breakfast.)

Baker Street Bistro

It was a Dark 'n' Stormy morn... 
(and I probably coulda really used one 
of them to drink this morning, too)

http://www.bakerstreetbistro.com/


Place: Baker Street Bistro

Location: 2953 Baker Street

Hours: open for "le Brunch" Saturday & Sunday at 9:00am

Meal: Pain Perdu A "brunch" favorite! (Okay, so maybe I added those extra "quotation marx" around "le Brunch". Don't get all Groucho about it!) ~ two slices of cinnamon French Toast, fresh fruit, strawberry coulis & crème fraîche; a side of home fries; and a glassa orange juice

(I do not know whether Sir George Ivan [or even Marianne Faithful] is a fan of Pain Perdu or not, but I figured that there would be no better way to start my 2019 'blog-entries than with a few of his songs.)


Pour mon premier petit déjeuner out for 2019, I 
wanted to start the year out on a positively high note (♪... I believe it was a C8), so je suis retourné au 
Baker Street Bistro (see last 'blog-entry from Dimanche 2 septembre 2018). I suppose 2019 is gonna be all downhill from here now...

I really wanted to eat my first breakfast for 2019 outside; however, mean ol' Mr. Winter Weather was not cooperating this morning. It was cold and raining (off-and-on), so I wisely decided to sit indoors for a change.

Ce pain perdu est tout simplement extraordinaire![1]

(If you were expecting a bit more loquaciousness expounding on this great breakfastary repast, you can always read through the hundred or so other 'blog-entries that I have already posted on this specific meal.)

I ordered the side of potatoes mainly for a sweet-and-savoury juxtaselection to the French toast. Once again, their version of homefries did not fail to please my taste-buds. Even if their Pain Perdu were not already "simplement extraordinaire!", these are worth ordering all on their ownsome. (Why do people sometimes use the adjective "creamy" to describe potatoes?! I mean, I am one that loves potatoes in all of its sundry forms and tasty manners [see 'blog-entry from Wednesday, February 8th, 2012], but even I would not want to eat any Ice Potatoes or add potato-milk to my morning cuppa.)

Les fruits du jour: myrtilles (blueberries); pastèque (watermelon); cantaloup (cantaloupe); mûres (blackberries); une fraise (one strawberry [made into the shape of some kinda flower-thing]); ananas (pineapple); et pomme (and apple).[2]

Baker Street Bistro only has bottles of Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) on the tables for use as a condimentary supplementation. However, I finally officially got to test out one of my recent Christmas gifts, Peaks of Otter Peppers ~ Cremation Drops Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!), and used several drops/splashes all over my "creamy" potatoes. This hot sauce was not overwhelmingly épicé ~ about the same as your standard Tabasco®-stuff ~ but it had a lot more saveur (Ingredients: Cayenne chiles, garlic, onion, vinegar, black pepper, and salt).

https://www.peaksofotterpeppers.com/


(not so really) Strange Coffee Interlude

I purposefully (purposely? [porpoise, Lee?!] There really is only a shade of difference between the two, anyway, right?) had skipped any Coffee with my morning meal (and Chantal had even mentioned this noticeable omission when I was ordering my "jus d'orange") because I had pre-planned on rounding-out today's excellent start to 2019 with a cuppa Bettys Jamaica Blue Mountain (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) to drink while keyboarding up this here 'blog-entry-thing.


the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

After breakfast, on the way back to my car, I first heard overhead then looked up to see a small pandemonium of four Wild Parrots of San Francisco noisily chasing off/harassing the much larger Mr. Drinky Crow.


The euphonious offerings of Sir George Ivan, Pain Perdu Extraordinaire, enjoying some of the best d*rn Coffee on the Planet (that would be "the Planet Earth"; I have never had Coffee on any of the other Planets; however, I have heard it said that Martians are mostly Mormons [or it may have been the other way 'round]), and being entertained by the caterwauling hi-jinks of the colourful local (but non-native) psittacines... Don't you wish every year could start like this?!


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Pain Perdu A "brunch" favorite! ~ 8.2;
Bettys Jamaica Blue Mountain ~ 8.5;
the Wild Parrots of San Francisco ~ 8.5;
the songs of Sir George Ivan ~ 8.6

___________________

1. If something in French is even "better than perfect", should it be expressed with verbs in the "plus-parfait" form only?

2. Quick (stupid, useless) botanical pop-quiz, kids: 

Okay, how many of those fruits are actual berries again?

The correct answer is two: blueberries and watermelon. 

If you had mistakenly guessed "three" ~ thinking "that is soooo easy, Brian: blueberries, blackberries, and strawberry... " ~ you would have been berry, berry wrong, of course. (Even the spiny ol' pineapple is more of a berry ~ the fruit of the pineapple tree are botanically called "coalesced berries" ~ than these two berry-impostors, but that would just confuse the issue even that much more.)

I know that all sounds rather nuts, but just not peanuts or walnuts...