Breadbelly

Kaya von Dios?![1]

https://breadbellysf.com/


Place: Breadbelly

Location: 1408 Clement Street
(near the corner of 15th Avenue)

Hours: open at 8:00am Wednesday to Monday (so, basically, they are closed on Tuesdays)

Meal: Kaya Toast ~ griddled Breadbelly milk bread, coconut-pandan jam; Gyeran-Bbang ~ sweet cornbread, Korean chili (by which, I am guessing they mean "Gochujang"[2]), Cheddar cheese, soft jidori egg[3]; and, once again, a cuppa Wrecking Ball Colombia Cauca El Totoró to drink 

https://www.wreckingballcoffee.com/collections/all/products/colombia-cauca-el-totoro-12oz

(I am not sure how this Bruce Springfield-guy feels about coconut-pandan jam...but the point is probably moot. Ever since he lost the girl to that Jessie-guy, he has been in kind of a funk, anyway.)


I returned to the scene of last Sunday's crime, and ate at Breadbelly (see initial 'blog-entry from Sunday, June 2nd, 2019) again this morning. (Yeah, so, maybe I am running outta new places at which to breakfast.)

There are still a few other good ideas that I will probably check-out in the near future:

Breakfast Sando ~ fried egg, ham (which I would have substituted with avocado), braised kale, Gruyère, fermented chili (I was told last week that this included more dead, decaying porcine junk in it, so I would also have to 86 that ingredient);

Smashed Cucumber & Avocado ~ dressed with naam prik nuum[4] (Thai chili-lime vinaigrette), basils[ sics ] (one of the always-patient counter-guys informed me that the dressing has fish-sauce in it, but they could make this with another vinaigrette; I saw this dish on another table this morning and it looked pretty d*rn good; I wonder if they could add a poached egg to it to make it a bit more breakfastary);

or possibly

Mushroom Barley Broth ~ Maitake & English peas, roasted barley tea, Chinese cabbages.

I did not see any "Brass Monkey" listed on the Drinks menu this morning (which is okay, I really was not in the mood for any Beer-orange juice concoction this morning), but there was a Matcha Cappuccino that I had missed last week. I had to ask about that (Re-lax! I pestered the poor counter-guys a lot less than I did last week.) and was informed that it is not a Coffee/Espresso-based drink, but it is made with chrysanthemum tea (or something like that). Which is good, 'cause I would think that Matcha and Coffee would not be a perfect matcha (Get it? Matcha... matcha... whatever!).

So this was basically a "sweet and savoury" pastry-shop combination breakfast for me. (Well, seeing as I had mostly finished the Gyeran-Bbang before they had even brought out the Kaya, more like "savoury and sweet".)

I liked the cornbread-egg-thing; it was made with lotsa whole corn kernels in the batter. I did not find it overly spicy, though. I bet some gochuchang drizzled on top of it would really have added to it.

Now, the Kaya was really a stand-out for me (even if it was all rather a bit simple in design). This was kinda like an egg-less French toast; however, I would not think that it would be considered Vegan-friendly if their "milk bread" contains actual bovine juice in it. The coconut-pandan jam had a strange and interesting taste... I can not explain it, but it still had a very nice flavour. I liked this enough so much so, that I am calling this "My Favourite New (not necessarily) French Toast of 2019" (well, for now, at least). I have no idea if this dish is actually named after the Bob Marley song, but the fluorescent green colour of the jam is similar to the colour used on the lettering of the album of the same name (this is one of the things that I probably mighta-shoulda asked the poor counter-guys... next time). I and I am sure that Bob would much di fuud im be proud a, man!

I still did not ask what condimentary supplementation Breadbelly might have had to offer. For a change, I did not even bother schlepping any of my own bottles of hot sauces with me this morning. Nothing much was really needed this morning, anyway.

Strange Dietary Restrictions of the 21st Century Interlude

(While this story may not be actually breakfastarily related, it still involves "food" and that is good enough with me.)

It seems that everyone these days has their own set of dietary restrictions, whether those are religion-based, allergy-based, self restricted-based, or morally-based. Last Friday night this came into play because both of my dining companions each possess their own gastro-afflictions. 

I met with two very old friends ~ I have known Jordan now since the Summer of 1979 (Man, is he old!) and his wife, Pam, since December 1982 (when she was "just" our roommate at the time... uh-huh!) ~ on Fisherman's Wharf to have dinner. Jordan is a bit lactose-intolerant, Pam has wheat/gluten-allergies, and, of course, I am of the st*pid vegetarian ilk. So, to find a restaurant that might be able to cater to all of our needs might prove to be a bit difficult. (Thankfully, there were no Hindu, Muslim, or Jewish friends joining us for dinner that night or we woulda had to really tighten our search.) Luckily, there are many (many, many) different restaurants from which to choose along that particular tourista-haven. A few ideas were either an Italiano seafood joint[5], where I could always get some kinda salad (bo-ring! What am I? Some kinda silly rabbit?!) or at least a basic pasta (non-fishy-based) dish, or Thai or Korean restaurants.

We finally decided on Surisan, a Korean restaurant (mainly because I really like the place and it was only a two block walk from where we had met up). I had eaten breakfast there a few times before (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, October 14th, 2017) and have been wanting to check out their dinner fare, anyway. It was pretty funny as we all ended up ordering basically the same dish ~ Dolsot Bibimbap[6]. The only differences were that Jordan went with the "beef" option, Pam had the "seafood" variety (read: those dead, decaying aquatic bugs), and I had the only intelligent choice ~ "tofu". 

Pam was smart enough to ask them first if they used any soy sauce in the dish, as soy sauce usually has wheat as a main ingredient in it. I had never even thought of Bibimbap as being soy sauce based, though. It was lucky that Pam had asked, because they do use soy sauce in this dish, but they were able to make it for her without any undo gluten-junk affecting her.

We all really enjoyed our meals. And afterward, Jordan even partook of a night-cap of a once-in-a-while treat of Ice Cream with Pam and me. (For which, I am sure he suffered a bit on the long drive back to Moffett Field where they were staying the night.)

Of course, your nonna italiana or ελληνική γιαγιά would have none of this!


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Gyeran-Bbang ~ 6.8;
Kaya ~ 7.0;
Wrecking Ball Colombia Cauca El Totoró ~ 7.2

___________________

1. ¡¿Gott it, señor?!

(I am sure that any cunning linguist that is fluent in both Español y/und Deutsch will get these st*pid puns/spoonerism.)

2. https://mykoreankitchen.com/gochujang-korean-chili-paste/

3. "Say whaaaa', Brian?!"

https://www.samuelsseafood.com/products/jidori-eggs/

Just think Japanese "free-range chicken" eggs, d*mmit!

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nam_phrik_num

5. Yeah, sorry, did you really think that you could get away without one st*pid, useless (be it only pseudo-)cunning linguist/culinaristic pointer of the day?

The Italiano seafood joint that I was thinking of taking them to is called "Cioppino's" (pronounced "Chip-ee-no's").

http://cioppinos.letseat.at/

Now this is where it gets fun (and is one of my favourite pseudo-cunning linguist pointers). The word "Cioppino" is not an actual Italiano word, nor is it derived from someone's Italiano name.

I will just let il restaurante Cioppino's explain it to you (and this comes directly off their web-site):

The origin of both the dish and the name came from the Italian fishermen in the early 1900's, when Fisherman's Wharf was still called Meigg's Wharf. Someone would make the rounds of the moored fishing boats, calling out for for contributions to a common, festive stew. One fisherman would toss a nice, fat fish into the bucket, another would drop in a succulent Dungeness crab, another some herbs and vegetables. The cry that prompted each contribution was "Chip In!, Chip In!". But coming from an Italian throat, this American slang had to end in a vowel. And the "in" was, of course "een". So "Chip-een-o" was born.

6. https://mykoreankitchen.com/dolsot-bibimbap/