LaLe

The proverbial last straw that stirred 
the camel's drink

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: Mumbai (Benediction/Benedict [their web-site still calls this dish "Benediction"; however, their printed menu states "Benedict"]) ~ beet-mushroom-lentil patty, avocado, tomato, housemade (well, restaurant-made) English muffin topped with poached eggs, Hollandaise sauce, served with potatoes; and to drink with the meal a large glassa homemade (again, restaurant-made) Strawberry/Lemonade (served nouveau Callie-forn-ee-ya-style sans straw)

(I had thought about linking a song by Camel, but I am not much of a Prog-Rock fan. So just enjoy this song in double-four-time instead... Creole... Creole... )


Because I could not make it to either Houstown or Washingtoon to catch any live games of the World Series, I figured a Turkish-Mediterranean restaurant from my Breakfastary Starting Rotation would have to do, so I went back to LaLe (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, May 25th, 2019) this morning. ("But, Brian, what do Turkey or even tulips[1] have anything to do with Baseball?" Don't tell me that you have never heard of the "Sultan Süleyman of Swat"?)

Since my last visit, I noticed that their front outside sign above the entrance-way is back. I have no idea where it went to. It looks to be the same one as the previous visit before last.

I thought this kinda strange. Somewhy[2], there were no tulips in any of the vases on the tables, just roses[3] (of varying colours) and other kinda flowery-stuff.

(Ignore the fuzzy quality of the above photo. Trust me, the quality of the food had no bokeh to it whatsoever.)


This is one of my favourite dishes that they have to offer for breakfast ("Brunch", whatever). It was one of the reasons that I went back a second time after my initial visit there and subsequently added them to my Breakfastary Starting Rotation a few years back. I really enjoy this twist on your plain ol' Eggs Benedict. (However, I am not exactly sure if beets[4] are normally big in Indian cuisine. I suppose that this dish could just as easily alternatively have been called "Warszawa" or "Helsinki". And I am pretty sure that there were no avocados nor tomatoes historically in India until that Cristoforo Colombo guy brought them over there on one of his trips.)  I am happy to see that they also offer this beet-lentil patty on their lunch and dinner menu.

For condimentary supplementation, LaLe has both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce  (Original Red Sauce) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce. 
I went lightly with some of my own Chelsea Fire 
Wicked. Hot. Sauce.® (Thanks, Sha'!) on top of both poached eggs and a lot more heavy-handedly with some H*ll's Kitchen® Smokey Bourbon Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) all over the homefries. Plus, I grinded-out several grinds of The Spice & Tea Exchange® 
Italian Street Fair Spice Blend (Thanks, Cindy!) all over everything.


Crafty Coffee Confabulation Interlude

As has been my tradition after dining ("Brunch"-ing, whatever) at LaLe, I walked around the corner for a mighty decent cuppa pour-over/drip-style at Snowbird Coffee. For today's roast/blend, I chose Zatara once again.

https://snowbirdcoffee.com/


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Mumbai (Benediction/Benedict) ~ 7.4;
Snowbird Coffee Zatara ~ 7.2

___________________

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, 
bir numara/नंबर एक:

As I have mentioned before, the name of this restaurant comes from the Turkish word for "tulip", "lâle" (pronounced "LA-lay"). The word for "tulip" in Hindi is "ट्यूलिप" ([I kid you not] simply pronounced "tulip").

2. "Wait... a... minute, Brian! There is no such word as 'somewhy'! You can not just insert any old madeuppery word into your silly li'l 'blog-thing whenever you d*mn please!"

Well, there are already "somewhat", "somewhere", "somehow", "sometime", "sommelier", sometc. So I figured I could add "somewhy" into the equation, anywho.

3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, 
iki numara/नंबर दो:

The word for "rose" in Turkish is "gül" (pronounced "gool") and in Hindi it is "गुलाब" (pronounced "goolab"; which is very similar to the Turkish word).

4. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, 
üç numara/तीन नंबर:

The word for "beets" in Turkish is "pancar" (pronounced "panjar") and in Hindi it is "बीट" (pronounced just like it looks!).