Blackwood

http://www.blackwoodsf.com/


Place: Blackwood

Location:  2150 Chestnut Street 
(between Steiner and Pierce Streets)

Hours: open every day at 9:00am for breakfast and/or "Brunch"

Meal: THAI SHAKSHUKA ~ Tomyum[1] tomato stew, poached eggs, pork (of course, I แปดสิบหก-ed this ingredient), onion, bacon (this ingredient also went 
ลาก่อน), scallion, cilantro, fried garlic, mild goat cheese; and, to drink with the meal, a large glassa Raspberry-Lemonade; and, beforehand, to enjoy wandering up-and-down Chestnut Street while waiting for the restaurant to open for the morning, a 
dynamo donut + coffee Passionfruit Milk Chocolate doughnut (bought at a local bodega along Chestnut Street, too)

https://dynamodonut.com/menu

(Yeah, there is really no EweToobular juxtaselection here. I dunno, maybe Catherine Elizabeth Pierson loves her some spicy Tom Yum, too.)


Ho-kay... onward and upward with the Taylor Street Coffee Shop-family mini-chain brought me back to Blackwood (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, October 22nd, 2017). I think that this restaurant was the third in their mini-chain to open (circa June 2012).

I sat outside again in their sidewalk/alcove-patio seating area. The morning was still a bit foggy and chilly, so I did keep my sweatshirt on; they also had the overhead gas-heaters going this morning, anyway.

Their menu is similar to what is offered at most of their other restaurants, and there are a few other ideas still worth checking out ("... out worth checking"?! Nah, that does not sound right all at.):

(once again, in keeping with their menu stylization, I am attempting to imitate the different font sizes used 
on the dish names)

SNOWED SPINACH SCRAMBLE ~ baby spinach with white Cheddar, served with Rainbow Potatoes and ciabatta toast;

PRIMAVERA WHITE OMELET ~ roasted tomato, mushroom, arugula, served w/ berries instead of potatoes (which I would probably have tried to have substituted back with the multicoloured underground tubers instead);

BLACKSTONE BENNY (Didn't he used to be the straight-man for Eddie Anderson?) ~ poached eggs, Millionaire's Bacon® (which I would have to go all pauper on), asparagus, cherry tomato, Meyer lemon Hollandaise on English Muffin, also served with Rainbow Potatoes (just no toast);

MARINA JOK MOO ~ rice porridge with bacon, garlic, carrots, spinach, mushroom, cherry pepper, green onion, cilantro, poached egg, sesame and tamari sauce drizzled (I am not even sure if this could even be made st*pid vegetarian-friendly, but it might be worth asking);

or maybe even

POPOVERs(!) w/AVOCADO (???) ~ offered with three different toppings: Strawberry, goat cheese, avocado, balsamic glaze; Bacon, avocado, tomato, honey; or Walnut (candid)[ sic ] (or perhaps that was not a typo, just an indication of the walnut's sincerity, Frank), avocado, Parmesan (I saw these ordered at two other tables and it looked pretty interesting; as best as I could tell, there is half an avocado already baked inside the Popovers[!]; if I did get this, I would probably have to supplement it with at least an order of Rainbow Potatoes).

(For those of you that do partake of the dead, decaying porky-butts. This is the kinda "Flight" that always made me want to remain on Ground-Status when I was in the Air Force, though.)

What can I say? I liked it. I have had several other versions of Shakshuka (mostly at Arab or Middle Eastern restaurants) over the years and this was right up there in tastocity (yeah, so, it ain't a real word... tough!). The Tom Yum sauce was a very nice flavour-change. I coulda easily used another piece of the ciabatta toast with which to soak up more of the sauce. I bet this woulda been even better with some fresh sweet basil leaves in it (as long as they did not have to go all the way to Kirk Hammerton to procure those)[2], but that is just my สองสตางค์ worth...

With my pre-breakfastary snack of the doughnut, this ended up being a lot more food than I had expected. I am glad that I did not order a side of their Rainbow 
Potatoes (however, with this being Pride Weekend and all, those woulda been the perfect side for the morning).

Blackwood only offered Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce, which it had bottles of both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce on all the tables. The Tom Yum-Shakshuka sauce was lightly spicy enough that I did not need to mess with its flavours in any way, though.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
THAI SHAKSHUKA ~ 6.7;
dynamo donut + coffee Passionfruit Milk Chocolate doughnut ~ 7.5

___________________

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

Here is a little-known Cliff Clavinistic fact:

The spicy Thai soup known as "Tom Yum" was originally named by Yuliy Borisovich Briner when he was filming "The King and I" in Thailand. He took one taste and said "This is yummy in my tummy!". One of the native Thai waiters mis-overheard him and passed it on to the chef as "Tummy-Yummy". It has stuck to this day.*

*(Nah! Did anyone really buy that one? Was I just joking there? Of course, Siam...

The words "tom yam" are derived from two Thai words. "Tom" ["ต้ม"] refers to the boiling process, while "yam" ["ยำ"] refers to a Thai spicy and sour salad.)

2. Okay, there may be two people reading this silly li'l 'blog-thing that will get that st*pid reference.