Ella's

"The one with the sweet potato pancakes with toasted pecan butter."


http://www.ellassanfrancisco.com/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr6EldSFwOI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRxS7Q64xUQ

(I really wanted Lady Ella's version of "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea", but couldn't locate that particular one on EweToob. These songs will suffice, as one is a Blue song, and I did have some pretty decent black coffee this morning with breakfast.)


My first breakfast for 2012 from one of my Breakfast Starters Rotation was at Ella's (see last 'blog-entry from September 10th, 2011) on the corner of California and Presidio in Laurel Heights.

I usually opt for the potato scramble, but couldn't pass on the opportunity to try some sweet potato pancakes this morning; plus, I had this exact variation of their current scramble (curried cauliflower, etc.) the last time I was there. Now, IF the potato scramble had included asparagus or some kinda Bleu cheese, I may have chosen that instead… or even some edamame, which I think would have paired well with all of the other flavours. Today's "Brunch" menu also had some very interesting eggy dishes (sans any of the dead decaying animal flesh, of course): a scramble with toasted onions, pea sprouts, and Asiago; an open-faced omelette with braised leeks, roasted garlic, and Muenster; a folded omelette with basil, sun dried tomatoes, and ricotta; not to mention a great Eggs Benedict version with poached eggs and a roasted tomato Hollandaise sauce on top of a sweet corn Cheddar biscuit. So many good choices, but only so much appetite.

As it were, I had the aforementioned sweet potato pancakes (2) with toasted pecan butter ~ Combs Family Farms pure maple syrup, Vermont. I also had a side order of home fries, a glass of Ginger Orange Juice Punch, and a cuppa Blue Bottle Coffee (which I brought with me).




These were two very thick pancakes (and the side of home fries wasn't very small, either, which is why I was very glad that I didn't order the three pancakes that was on the standard menu). After the first bite, my first impression was that these were very good pancakes; my second impression was that these were very, very good pancakes, made even better by the toasted pecan butter. I am generally not nuts about pecans[1], but this really worked for me; I am sure these sweet potato pancakes would have been very tasty on their own, anyway.



http://www.bluebottlecoffee.net/

Ella's offers a decent enough cuppa themselves, but I had arrived a bit (well, a half hour) before they were open and spotted this sign right across the street:

1) Blue Bottle Coffee is one of the best in the City ~ each cup is made fresh as a drip while you wait;

2) I am currently in a "Photo Challenge" in a group on defacedbook that has "BLUE" as the theme for the month (This is a completely idiotic idea. Whoever suggested this ridiculous theme should be shot, hung, and then drawn and quartered for good measure! Is this supposed to be a colour, an emotion, or some kinda music thing?) and I figured what better way to jump-start the month's challenge than with some "Blue" coffee. (Now if only it were a Jamaican Blue Mountain blend,, that would have been perfect.)

As for condimentary supplements, Ella's just has Tabasco® (both the standard red and green Jalapeño); so, I used some Cherry Republic® KaBob's Kick'en Hot Sauce (Thanks again, Greg and Cindy! This stuff is so much more palatable than yesterday's five-alarm stuff.) on the potatoes.

Of course, the ultimate breakfast choice to get nourishment for this particular photo challenge would have been to eat at Dottie's True blue café; however, as stated last week, they are closed while they move to their new location.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: sweet potato pancakes ~ 7.3; Blue Bottle Coffee ~ 7.2


[1] Pun totally intended.

And just in case you thought you could get away without a stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:

"Pecan" is from an Algonquin word meaning "a nut requiring a stone to crack".

Useless culinary pointer of the day:

A pecan is not technically a "nut", it is actually a "drupe" (a fruit of the Hickory tree), and the part that we eat is actually the seed of this fruit. Other similar edible drupe seeds: almonds and cashews.

One other useless culinary pointer of the day:

The saying "as 'merican as apple pie" is a misnomer. Apples were indigenous to the Old World and not native to North America, and there were several versions of apple pies already available in Europe. If someone really wanted to state "as 'merican as", it should be either pumpkin or pecan pies, as both of these foods were indigenous to the New World, Cristoforo.