http://kates-kitchensf.com/ Place: Kate's Kitchen Location: 471 Haight Street (between Fillmore and Webster Streets) Hours: open Monday at 9:00am, Tuesday - Friday at 8:00am, Saturday and Sunday at 8:30am Meal: Lauren Special ~ two eggs any style on a Kaiser roll[1] with sausage, cheese, tomato, red onion, avocado, and chipotleaioli, served with home fries; and a cuppa (and 1-1/2 refillas) San Francisco Coffee Company ~ N'Arlins-style blend (with roasted chicory)
As I have basically run out of any new breakfast joints to check out (now I am sure that there are others [and I am always on the look-out for different places], but after many years of eating breakfasts out on Saturday and Sunday, I can't really think of any just now to visit), I headed back to Kate's Kitchen (see last 'blog-entry from March 7th, 2015) this morning. This was really not that tough of a decision for me because I knew from many past visits there (spanning probably twenty years [and two millennia] or more now) that they are always good for a breakfastary repast. Other ideas that I was also thinking about (and all off the Specials board): Eggs Benedict (with Prosciutto [which I would have skipped; however, those of you that do partake of the dead, decaying Italian dry-cured pork flesh may have enjoyed this as a change from the dead, decaying Canadian-style pork flesh], seared spinach, mushrooms, scallions, & Hollandaise sauce); Vegiscramble (avocado, roasted red bell peppers, roasted tomato, spicy onion, and cilantro all seared in a house-made [restaurant-made, whatever] Habanero salsa, and topped with Cotija cheese[2]; I would normally go with this choice, but it was pretty similar to the version that I had on my last visit); or (2 or 4) Cornmeal Buttermilk Pancakes (which come in a variety of varieties, and the two that I specifically was looking at were: Pear & Gingeror Oatmeal w/Banana & Almonds). The weekend Specials board also always offers a Meatomelette (which I like to pronounce as "Mee-ATO-melette"), but this weekend, in addition to the dead, decaying animal flesh in it, it also include "the vile weed", so it made no sense for me to even think about getting that one.
This was a very good breakfast sandwich and not your crazy Uncle McRonald's crummy ol' Eggamuffin™ (noch dein Onkel Wild Bill Käses Frühstückssandwich). Of course, I sechsundachtzig-ed die toten verfallenden Schweinefleisch. I went with the two eggs fried (as I figured, correctly, that this would be the best medium with which to eat them sandwich-style). The cheese in this was a grated/shredded Cheddar. The chipotle aioli was pretty tasty (I made sure to test it first before adding any superfluous condimentation to it), but I would have liked a little bit more of it on the top. I always like their version of homefries, too. These come with nicely caramelised green bell peppers and white onions. For condimentary supplementation, I only saw bottles of Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauceon the tables (they have had other hot sauces in the past, but that was all I noticed this morning). I just used some (well, a good amount) of my own Palo AltoFirefighters Pepper Sauce (Thanks agains, Amys and Brian!) on the homefries. I didn't want to mess with the flavour of the chipotle aioli that was on the sandwich so I left that untouched. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Lauren Special ~ 6.7 ___________________ 1. Warum Kaisersemmel? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_roll 2. http://cheese.com/cotija/ And I always just love that there is an actual web-site thing called "Cheese.com". Isn't the World Wild Web wonderful?
Richmond (District) Coffeehouses; #22 (Why would anyone ever want to say "toy boat" ten times fast, anyway?)
(No official web-site.) Place: Toy Boat Dessert Cafe Location: 401 Clement Street (on the corner of 5th Avenue); phonicular contact: (415) 751-7505 Hours: open at 8:30am every day Meal: Breakfast Burrito ~ two eggs with Jack cheese (they actually offered me a choice of cheese, but I figured [correctly, of course] that Monterey Jack would be the most appropriate of cheeses in this meal), tomato, cucumber, sweet red onion, peperonicini [ sic ][1], delicious salsa, wrapped on [ sic, also ] a warm spinach tortilla (where you also have a choice of whole wheat tortilla); a scoop of Double Rainbow®Hazelnut Truffle Latte for breakfastary dessert (hey, I had to get something dessert-like; it is right there in their name, after all); and a (16 oz) cuppa Peerless Coffee & Tea®Hawai'ian Golden Kona http://www.doublerainbow.com/dr/products/ice_cream/hazelnut_truffle_latte http://www.peerlesscoffee.com/product/all-coffee/hawaiian-golden-kona-blend/
Finishing up the last few spots along Clement Street in my Richmond (District) Coffeehousesseries, the next stop was Toy Boat Dessert Cafe this morning. This leaves just Cumaica Coffee remaining on Clement Street to visit now. Their menu states that Toy Boat Dessert Cafe is "Family Owned & Operated Since 1982". I knew that they had been around at least since I moved to the neighborhood in 1986, anyway. I have stopped in many times before for lunch, a quick snack, Ice Cream, or to purchase toys/gifts (more on that later), but this was my first breakfastary visit there. There are just eight small round tables that can seat two to four people and two small booths along the back wall that can seat two to four, too. The best choice for a standard breakfast (well, "standard" if you live in San Francisco or California, I suppose) was the selection with which I went. (I am sorry, but "... the selection I went with." just sounds a little smoother to me. Sometimes, these d*mn grammarians just p*ss me off.) Otherwise, they mainly have bagel dishes from which to choose ("...to choose from", dammit!). Of course, their bagelry options are pretty decent ones. They also offer a number of sandwiches and wraps that could probably be substituted for a breakfast meal. I did like the sound of the Avocado & Veggie Wrap ~ a spinach tortilla, fresh avocado (that would be the first part of the wrap's name, I assume), tomato, cucumber, sweet red onion, organic salad mix, peperocini [ sic, with a different mispelink here even] (these last five ingredients being the "& Veggie" portion of the name, most likely), Jack cheese, and honey mustard dressing. Also available for stupid vegetarian-types, Hummus & Swiss Wrap. Not really one for the stupid vegetarians, but I did like the sound/looks of Chicken Gorgonzola Wrap ~ grilled chicken breast, Gorgonzola cheese, fresh avocado, tomato, sweet red onion, organic salad mix, mayo, on a spinach tortilla (which I could always have ordered without the dead, decaying poultry stuff and also without the vile white goop junk. Who-the-heck puts mayo in with Gorgonzola cheese?! That should be a Capital Offense. I know it offends me capitally). All wraps come with a side of pickle, chips, or potato salad.
I got the burrito with avocado (fresh sliced and plentiful inside) added (to "kick it up a notch" ~ which is how they have it on their menu; I am not sure if Emeril Lagreasee is aware of this blatant usurpage of his catch-phrase or not). Like many little places with no real kitchen of which to speak, they had to nookularise the eggs (not scramble them). I did like the added (sliced and chopped) peperoncini (or "peperonicini" or "peperocini", take your pick... or pickini); I wasn't quite sure how these would pair with the rest of the ingredients, but they went very well with all.
They offer about twenty different flavours of Double Rainbow® from which to choose; of which, there are even a few choices (I think I saw three today) for stupid Vegans. I made sure to try a sample-spoonful of the Sea-Salted Chocolate Caramel Truffle (it was very good and would have been my first choice, but I had already ordered my Ice Cream before seeing that one in the display case/freezer-thing), too. They have three different carafes of Coffee at the front counter/cash register area from which to serve yourself. The other two offerings this morning were: Organic Sumatra and Dark Guatemala. I didn't really need a refilla this morning, but there is only an additional 40¢ charge if you want to try a different roast/blend. I didn't notice (nor bother to ask) what Toy Boat Dessert Cafe might have to offer in the way of condimentary supplements. I had come prepared with the last two bottles of my newest hot sauces in my collection (Thanks again, Mom!) and used some Dancing Dragon Cayene Pepper Sauce on half of the burrito and some Golden Pagoda Jalapeño Hot Sauce on the other half. Neither of these were extremely espicy, so I could go pretty heavily-handed with both of them.
(Just in case anyone was wondering where Bill Belichick was spending this Super Bowl Sunday.) The food is good here (and Ice Cream is always worth a return trip), but the real attraction to this cool little neighborhoody joint is all the cool toys that they have on display (most of which are collectibles and are for sale). There is even a working olde-timey mechanical horse for the kiddies to ride. (Sorry, there is a sign specifically stating that adults shouldn't sit on the horse.)
(Now how did that BSTRONG baseball cap get there?!) For the PEZ®[2] enthusiasts (and Star Wars and Disney geeks alike) out there, there are dispensers of all sorts (Is the plural of PEZ®, PEZ's®?) displayed along the front counter, in the front window, and in a large display case over the Ice Cream area.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Breakfast Burrito ~ 6.4; Hazelnut Truffle Latte ~ 6.6; multitude of way-cool toys ~ 8.5 ___________________ 1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, Nummer eins: "Peperoni" in German actually means "chillies" or "peperoncini". How do I know this? Just ask my old buddy from (what was still at the time West) Berlin, Doug Depraved. He was very surprised when he figured he was ordering a nice meatatarian-style Pizza with lots of 'merican peperoni on it and it came out covered with peperoncini instead. (How do you say "D'oh!" in German?) 2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, Nummer zwei: The name PEZ® was derived from the German word for "peppermint" ~ "PfeffErminZ". https://www.pez.com/ There is even a local museum dedicated to PEZ®. I have yet to get down there, but one of these day... http://www.burlingamepezmuseum.com/
(No official web-site.) Place: Ro Cafe Location: 2739 Geary Boulevard (between Masonic Avenue and Wood Street); phonicular contact: (415) 340-9765 Hours: open at 7:00am every day Meal: Morning Fresh ~ (a sandwich of) cream cheese, (bell) pepper, onion, mint, cucumber, yogurt; one piece of homemade (coffeehouse-made, whatever) Kurdish baklava[1]; and a small (12 oz) cuppa America's BestCoffee Roasting CompanyMedium Roast Blend http://www.ambestcoffee.com/
(Yeah, sure, this EweToobular juxtaselection is a bit of a downer, but there are only just so many good "river"-themed songs, and I really couldn't quite qualify linking Bruce Springfield's biggest hit here: "I Wish That I Was Jessie's Girl".) I wanted to check out some other offerings from Ro Cafe (see previous 'blog-entry from November 7th, 2015) so I went back there this morning for breakfast. I still plan on getting back again one day to try their other breakfastary sandwiches (suitable for stupid vegetarians, that is): Avocado Egg (avocado, fried egg, toasted bread) and Sthara (jam, cream cheese, baby spinach, Mozzarella; I am really intrigued to find out just how jam and spinach will combine into a sandwich). There are still a few other of their (coffee)house-specific items that I might need to try for lunch or dinner one of these days. There is Kurdish Style Nachos (Kurditos) ~ chips, Mozzarella, yogurt, mint, Ro sauce (which can have chicken or beef added to it for those of you that partake of the dead, decaying animal flesh). And, especially, there is something called vash. The counter(/owner?)-lady was making a fresh batch of it this morning while I was leaving. I forget what is in it, but I do remember her telling me the last time I was there that it is stupid vegetarian-friendly (much like trying to find an English-Kurdish/Kurdish-English translation site, finding a decent Kurdish cuisine dictionary is about as impossible). I really want to get back and see exactly what that is. She told me it can be eaten for breakfast, too.
I also asked the counter(/owner?)-lady if the Kurds also offered a version of Turkish/Arabic/Greek Coffee. She said that they do, and I then saw that it is offered on the Coffee drinks menu. A little later I saw the above picture on the wall. (Can anyone tell me how do you say "D'oh!" in Kurdish?)
(You really can't tell much from this photo. I suppose that I shoulda oughtta probably maybe opened up one half of the sandwich to show the inside stuff.) I just have two words to say about this sandwich: "Brilliant!" (Okay, for any of you mathematicaltitian-types out there keeping actual count: "Positively absolutely brilliant!") A Tzatziki sandwich! Who knew? This was even freshly made; I saw the counter(/owner?)-lady actually dicing up fresh cucumbers and mixing the whole mess together. I was wondering how yoghurt might perform in a sandwich ("That's more messed-up than a yoghurt sandwich!"), but with the addition of the cream cheese, the viscosity actually worked very well in a sandwich (and tasted much better than that vile white goop stuff ever does ~ see 'blog-entry from June 6th, 2012). The Kurdish version of baklava definitely had a bit of lemony flavour to it (as stated on the sign in the pastry window/shelf). I always like baklava and this was a good version. Of course, Kataifi is always the best of all Middle Eastern pastries. Once again, I didn't bother to check what Ro Cafe might offer in the way of condimentary supplementation. I didn't even bother schlepping any of my own hot sauces with me because I pretty much already had in mind what I was going to order, anyway. Tzatziki and hot sauce might not be such a great combination (and I am almost positive that baklava with hot sauce is never needed). Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Morning Fresh ~ 6.7; Kurdish baklava ~ 6.4 ___________________ 1. I had to ask the counter(/owner?)-lady how to say "baklava" in Kurdish. She said it is pronounced pretty much like "balawa", with a "w" in place of the "v". For what it is worth, there is still no English-Kurdish/Kurdish-English offering on Google Translate.
Richmond (District) Coffeehouses; nummer/numéro enogtyve/vingt et un
http://usa.andersenbakery.com/index.html Place: Grain D'or[1] Location: 236 Clement Street (between 3rd and 4th Avenues) Hours: open at 7:00am daily Meal: Jalapeño Cheese Bread ~ roll with three cheeses and creamy jalapeño sauce; Cream Cheese Walnut~ honey walnut brioche with sweet cream cheese topping; Mango-Coconut[2]Danish[3] ~ mango and coconut filling in a Danish; and a large cuppa Peerless Coffee & Tea®Italian Roast Classic http://www.peerlesscoffee.com/product/all-coffee/italian-roast-classic/
Next up along Clement Street (still heading eastward) for a Richmond (District) Coffeehousesseries visit was Grain D'or. This bakery is now part of the ever-growing Danish-owned Andersen Bakery/Group chain of bakeries/restaurants. I think it originally was a smaller locally-owned/Bay Area chain of French bakeries. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against chains (just as long as they aren't attached to shackles and tethered to slaves); 'merica has been built on chains. Well, at least it ain't part of St*rbucks... yet. I was originally planning on going to Blue DanubeCoffee House/Café (see previous 'blog-entry mentions from January 21st, 2012 and September 5th, 2011) this morning, but they have been closed now for a little over eight months (since mid-May 2015) due to "plumbing problems" (seems to me, someone needs to see a good café-proctologist). It does not look like they are about to reopen again any time soon (if at all) either. This just leaves Toy Boat Dessert Café (where you can expect more pictures of cool toys than my actual breakfast) and Cumaica Coffee remaining on Clement Street to visit. This particular location of Grain D'or is very spacious and has eleven tables for two. They offer about fifteen different types of fresh-baked breads for sale as whole- or half-loaves, and they will slice the bread for you if asked; I saw a few people getting whole loaves sliced to take home with them (well, I suppose eating a whole loaf of bread in a bakery is a bit much). There were only a few other possible breakfastary ideas: Pesto Cheese Bread (roll with basilpesto and Pizza cheese mix [I can only assume that "Pizza cheese mix" is Danish for "Mozzarella and/or Provolone"]) or International Cheese Bread (roll with Gruyère, Fontinella, Mozzarella, and Provolone cheeses [So it seems that "International" in Danish means "Swiss and Italian"]). They also offer a few different vegetarian sandwiches (if you happen to be "that type") that would be great for breakfast (along with one of their fresh-baked pastries or two, too): Vegetarian Feast (lettuce, sprouts, tomato, cucumber, fresh avocado, Provolone cheese, Dijon/mayonnaise) and Roasted Tomato Caprese & Avo(without looking at the menu, I bet that it has roasted tomatoes, Mozzarella, and possibly something called "avo"; however, I could not find a good Danish-to-English translation for that word).
All of these baked-goods items were very good and fresh. The Jalapeño Cheese Bread was even still warm (the counter-guy told me it was recently out of the oven and offered to toast it up a bit for me, but that was not necessary). I especially liked the Mango-Coconut Danish; it had loads of fresh, cubed mango on top (easily half a mango) ~ plus, there was one small sprig of fresh rosemary[4] on top that really added something a bit extra, but I can't quite put my finger (or tongue on it)[5]. Not that I really expected to be using any sort of condimentary supplementation on any of these fresh-baked items, but I did notice that Grain D'or has bottles of Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce if needed. This may have seemed like a lot of bread/baked-products this morning, but you know what they say: "Man does not live on omelettes and potato side dishes alone." Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Jalapeño Cheese Bread ~ 6.5; Cream Cheese Walnut~ 6.4; Mango-Coconut Danish ~ 7.4 ___________________ 1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, nummer et/numéro un: Unlike what some people may think (Okay, how was I to know that "Grain D'or" was not an opening to a silo. There was absolutely no reason for the guy at the cash register to laugh at me for asking. And it really didn't help any when I also asked "Grain or what, then?"), "Grain D'or" is simply French for "grain of gold". "Grain of gold" in Danish is "korn af guld". (I have no idea what "John Stewart" or "Stevie Nicks" translates as into either French or Danish, though.) 2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, nummer to/nombre deux: a) "Mango" = "mango" in Danish and "mangue" in French. (Sometimes this linguistic stuff ain't Raketvidenskab.) b) "Coconut" = "kokosnød" in Danish and "la noix de coco" in French. (And sometimes it ain't even Opération du Cerveau.) 3. I can't seem to find a stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer on how to say "Danish" in either French or Danish, though. 4. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, nummer tree/numéro trois: "Rosemary" = "rosmarin" in Danish and "romarin" in French. 5. Does anyone know how do you say: "Je ne sais quoi!" in Danish or French?
http://www.lalesf.com/home.html Place: LaLe[1] Location: 731 Irving Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues) Hours: Breakfast is served everyday [ sic ] between 8am and 3pm! Meal: Athens (Egg Scrambler) ~ bell peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, & Feta cheese (I would just like to point out that they actually utilise the Oxford comma after mushrooms on their menu; well, I suppose, in this case, it is more of an Hellenic comma, but still), served with home style (restaurant-style, whatever) potatoes and homemade (restaurant-made, again, whatever) English muffin; a large(-ish) glassa fresh squeezed orange juice; and, afterward, a cuppa (pourover-style) Snowbird CoffeeMyanmar Pyin Oo Lwin[2] http://snowbirdcoffee.com/ (Their web-site really does need an update/upgrade, though.)
(Sorry, there are only just so many good The The videos to link.[3] And, yes, that is [a much thinner] John Goodman [pre-Roseanne days] in the TalkingHeads video. I am not sure if that is the real Meatloaf or just a hamburger-helper look-alike, though.) If ever I needed another Sixth Starter in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation, there is always LaLe (see previous 'blog-entry from February 1st, 2015 ~ almost exactly a year ago). Not only is it pretty easy to get to ("pretty easy in which to get..."?) because it is just across Golden Gate Park (where there are many free parking spots to be found still that early in the morning on weekends) in the Sunset, but the breakfast selections that they offer are many return trips-worthy. Plus, you really couldn't get more international than a Persian-named/Turkish-owned restaurant that serves a Greek-named scrambled egg dish prepared by Mexican cook-staff. Return trips-worthy other ideas for breakfast: Toronto (Benediction; ham, grilled tomato, spinach; which I would have ordered without the dead, decaying pork bits, ya hoser); Mexico City (Scrambler; chorizo, green onions, mushrooms, guacamole, sour cream, cheese; again, I would have ochenta-y-seis-ed the descomposición salchicha de cerdo muerto); Napa (Scrambler; goat cheese, mushrooms, bacon [again with porcine stuff?!], bell peppers); or Istanbul (Scrambler; onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, cheese). Additionally, they had a "Brunch" special this weekend called Dutch Baby w/ caramelized apples, which was described to me as a large, single Dutch pancake. Now if I had seen this one before I had already placed my order, I may have gone with it (but I would also have had to order a side of house [restaurant, whatever] potatoes). I was also told that this dish takes about half-an-hour to prepare... so, maybe not.
I liked this scrambled egg dish a lot; however, if I were to have named it, I don't think that I would have named it "Athens". When I think of Athens (the original one in Greece, not the one in Georgia ~ I have never been to that city, but I kinda like the music), I think more along the lines of Feta, spinach, and Kalamata olives. (And even their Istanbul Scrambler is much more along the lines of μια αυθεντική χωριάτικη σαλάτα.) Now I am not usually one to comment on (or commend) any of the plain ol' bready/toasty sides, but their homemade (restaurant-made, whatever) English muffin was truly exceptional (Mr. Thomas, please take note), too. I didn't really notice their homemade (restaurant-made, whatever) English muffin on my previous visit because I liked the beets, mushrooms, and lentil patty so much that it overshadowed (well, literally covered up) the English muffin base. The only thing that I saw on all the tables in the way of (bottled/commercial) supplementary condimentation at LaLewas Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce. This was okay with me as I still have a few more bottles of my newest hot sauces to try (Thanks, Mom!) and used some Emperor's Revenge Teriyaki Hot Sauce on half of the potatoes and some Great WallWasabi Hot Sauce on the other half of the potatoes. ("Great Wall" and "Wasabi"?! Methinks someone has their Asian cultures mixed-up.) Another great find about LaLeis that they have jars of their own homemade (restaurant-made, whatever) jams/preserves on the tables. Today they had an orange[4a]marmalade, quince[4b] preserves, and strawberry[4c] jam. I tried some of the orange marmalade on one half of the English muffin and some (well, a lot) of the quince preserves on the other half. When I first saw the quince preserves, I just assumed that it was a chunky apple-butter, but the very friendly and informative waitress/server-lady person told me that it was actually quince. Both of the ones that I tried were awesome. I liked the orange marmalade a bit more than the quince preserves, but I would highly recommend both to any and all. (And, strangely enough, there were no Coffee undertones to the orange marmalade.)
I had purposely (and purposefully) forewent any Coffee with breakfast because I had it in mind to head around the corner to Snowbird Coffee after breakfast. This is a great little neighborhoody (well, some would say "hipster" ~ just check out some of the yelp*-ified reviews) coffeehouse. They offer a few different roasts of their own in addition to a few other Coffees from around the country. The Coffee that I had today was done pourover-style and has this stated on the bags (which can be purchased for home use) at the counter: "A very earthy and herbal Coffee from the Shan State; toffee, orange, brown sugar". I don't know about any toffee or orange notes to it (and I never add sugar ~ white or brown ~ to my Coffee, anyway), but it was a very good cuppa. It was easily one of the better ones that I have had this year (well, even if this weren't only the month of January, I would probably still say that).
Raccoon Island Discovery Day Anniversary Strange Interlude Some day I expect this date to go down in history along the lines of October 12th, 1492 (and, unlike Columbus Day, no indigenous Raccoons were harmed or kidnapped during the filming of this 'blog) and other great discoveries. Some day... It was exactly two years ago today that I had first stumbled across Raccoon Island (well, not really "stumbled across the island", but I did stumble a bit on one of the tree branches sticking up on the other side of the shore). At first I thought that I was going to have to celebrate this great occasion with just the fluffly-tailed rats and Steller's Jaysin the surrounding trees, but, luckily, Rocky and a few of his brethren and sistren showed up to enjoy some (fresh/raw and already shelled ~ not roasted or salted) peanuts that someone was illegally feeding them.
By the way, both (that b*tch) Magill/Lil/Nancy and (that bastage) Dan were personae non gratae this morning (I am not sure of the whereabouts of Doc or Mr. Gideon either)... Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Athens (Scrambler) ~ 6.8 (I am giving this an extra 0.2 GBS points due to the homemade [restaurant-made, whatever] English muffins); orange marmalade and quince preserves ~ 7.5 and 7.3 (respectably); Snowbird CoffeeMyanmar Pyin Oo Lwin ~ 7.7; Raccoon Island ~ 8.5 ___________________ 1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, شماره یک - بهترین/bir numara: As stated in the 'blog-entry of my initial visit to LaLe, the name of the restaurant comes from the Persian word for "tulip", which is "گل لاله" (pronounced something like "la-lay"). I was also informed by my waitress/server-lady person (who stated that she was from Turkey) that the Turkish word for "tulip" is also "lâle" (also pronounced something like "la-lay"). And at no extra charge: "Tulip" in Greek is "τουλίπα" (pronounced: "tou-LEE-pa"). "Tulip" in Spanish is "tulipán" (pronounced: "la-lay"). 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyin_Oo_Lwin 3. See last year's 'blog-entry to get any inkling to that joke. 4. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, شماره دو/iki numara/νούμερο δύο/número dos: a) the words for "orange": Persian = "پرتقال" (sorry, I have no pronunciations for any of these other Persian words because Google Translate does not have an audio translation for Persian for some reason) Turkish = "portakal" (which is similar to the same word for "orange" in Arabic; I can only assume that the Persian word is somewhat similar in sound, too) Greek = "πορτοκάλι" (pronounced" "porto-KAL-ee") Spanish = "naranja" b) the words for "quince": Persian = "درخت به" Turkish = "ayva" Greek = "κυδώνι" (pronounced: "key-THON-ee") Spanish = "membrillo" c) the words for "strawberry": Persian = "توت فرنگی" Turkish = "çilek" (pronounced: "CHIL-ek") Greek = "φράουλα" (pronounced "FRA-oo-la") Spanish = "fresa"
Richmond (District) Coffeehouses; #20 What could be better? Today is Haiku Day, plus... Peanut Butter Day![1]
http://cafelaflore.com/ Place: Cafe la Flore Location: 1032 Clement Street (between 11th and 12th Avenues) Hours: open Monday through Friday at 7:15am, Saturday and Sunday at 7:45am Meal: Veggie Breakfast Sandwich ~ egg, spinach, Provolone cheese, English muffin; a (grand) Chocolate croissant; and a cuppa (aussi, grande) Mr. Espresso®Neapolitan Espresso http://mrespresso.com/
(Today's EweToobular juxtaselection is twofold [everyone knows that if you try folding a video three times, you end up with real mess of sound]: 1) they were playing a bunch of Spanish/Mexican songs this morning on the (Coffee)house stereo; and 2) in French "(la) flore" means "flora", hence, some kinda floral song in Spanish.) Continuing along with my Richmond (District) Coffeehousesseries, next up heading back eastward along Clement Street is Cafe la Flore (see previous 'blog-entry from December 22nd, 2012). If my calculations are correct, there are only about two to three more coffeehouses left to visit on Clement Street. Of course, this is not including any of the Chinese bakeries/doughnut shops/dim sum joints along Clement Street (of which there are easily ten to fifteen within the next ten blocks); maybe some day I will do a separate series on those. At the coffeehouse this morning, I happened to run into a fellow NewEnglandPatriots fan (I was wearing my old-school baseball cap; you know, the one with the Patriotsguy in the three-point stance) and he happened to notice it and mentioned it to me. He was also wearing a Boston Bruins tuque. He said he was from Vermont, but he had a strong (Olde) English accent (and I saw him eating his breakfast sandwich with a knife and fork). Cafe la Flore is also now offering what they are calling Special "Fin De Semana[2]Breakfast" with three different choices: French Toast (with fruit melange, nube [ sic ][3] and crusted walnuts); Frittata "egg-cake" (beaten eggs, spinach, roasted red pepper, Black Forest ham, bacon, salsa la flore, avocado, goat cheese and toasted bread); and Vegetarian Frittata (beaten eggs, spinach, zucchini, squash, roasted red pepper, salsa la flore, avocado, goat cheese and toasted bread; for those that don't partake of the dead, decaying porcine bits). Without a "real" kitchen, I wonder how these items are actually prepared; you would normally need at least a salamander to prepare frittatas correctly.
The Chocolate croissant was extra large, even so, I finished eating it much before they had brought out the sandwich.
This was a decent breakfast sandwich. It had lots of fresh baby spinach under the scrambled (well, like most coffeehouses, there is no real oven/stove with which to cook food, so these were actually "nuked") eggs. The Provolone cheese was a nice change of pace from most Eggamuffin™-style sandwiches where they use either Cheddar cheese or that fake 'merican cheese-stuff. (For the record, I was also given a knife and fork with which to eat this, but I just ate it like a normal person would with my bare hands.) I am not sure if there has been a change in ownership since my last visit (the guy working the front counter/register was definitely mexicano and not la dame française that had been there in the past), but the Coffee today was mucho/beaucoup better than my past few visits there. This could be due to a few factors: they may have changed the brand of Coffee they now serve (I have found that Mr. Espresso® can be pretty good when prepared correctly, or not if not); and the single cuppas are now all made via Méthode de Presse Française (this could be the major reason the cuppa was very strong and exceptionally good this morning). For condimentary supplements, Cafe la Flore had both Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce and Montecito®Hot Sauce. I wanted to use another of my newest hot sauces and went with some Fan The FlamesSriracha Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on top of the sandwich. This just leaves me with four more of the new ones to try out ("out which to try"?) over the next few weekends. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Veggie Breakfast Sandwich ~ 6.0; Chocolate croissant ~ 6.5; Mr. Espresso®Neapolitan Espresso ~ 7.2 ___________________ 1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/national-peanut-butter-day/ I suppose I could have gotten a bagel with peanut butter for breakfast this morning, but even I can "cook" that at home on my own. Once again, I am little upset that another Peanut Butter Day has come and gone and I did not receive a single holiday card (or a Butterfinger®, at least). 2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número uno/numéro un: "Fin de (la) semana" is simply Spanish for "end of the week". En français this would be: "fin de la semaine". This is another indicator to me that the place may no longer be owned by un expatrié français, and now may be owned by una familia mexicana. 3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número dos/nombre deux: Yeah. I have absolutely no idea what that might mean in a culinaristic sense, but en español "(la) nube" means "cloud". Just for the heck of it, en français the word for "cloud" is "(le) nuage".
