https://www.eatsrestaurantsf.com/ Place: Eats Location: 50 Clement Street (on the corner of 2nd Avenue) Hours: open Monday - Sunday at 8:00am Meal: Divorced Eggs ~ sunny up eggs with half red sauce and tomatillo sauce, ricotta salata[1], black beans with pepper Jack cheese[2], grilled tortillas, and roasted potatoes; and, to drink, a glassa Power C ~ a mixture of orange, pineapple, and grapefruit juices
("Before"... "After"... whatever. Unseasonable [and mostly unwanted] rain is still rain.) Because I am still running through my Breakfastary Starting Rotation, and today is also the 108th annual running of the Bay-to-Beerin San Francisco, and it had been raining earlier for most of the morning, I wanted to keep it as local as possible and not have to deal with any traffic that may have been caused due to all of that. So, I simply returned to Eats (see previous 'blog-entry from Saturday, January 19th, 2019) for breakfast this morning. Since I last ate at Eats, there are brand new (retractable) awnings outside on both the Clement Street-side and 2nd Avenue-side sidewalk seating areas. I probably coulda even sat outside if I really wanted to, as the rain had already ceased from the earlier morning deluge and did not resume until much later this afternoon. However, I had arrived early enough this morning to still get a choice of a few different two-seater tables indoors, anyway. By now, I have more than worked my way through their entire menu and will be repeating most of the meals again. This is fine-by-me, because they have many good items from which to choose (even for st*pid vegetarian-types) and it will take me a few years to run through all of them again (even with three to four visits a year).
Oh, noooo!!! Sadly, it appears that along with their fancy new awnings outside, they have also changed the formula for their homefries. However, this would be in the opposite direction ("un-fancy old"?)... they are no longer including any roasted garlic cloves. (Well, there were none what-so-ever in my portion this morning, where there were normally at least three to six cloves.) I just hope this was an oversight for my meal and they do still include the roasted garlic cloves in their homefries. These were easily the best homefries in town with the garlic in them. Additionally, I did not notice any rosemary sprigs in the potatoes either. (Hmmm?! Maybe to be able to pay for their fancy new awnings, they had to cut back on a few other important items.) Anyway... thankfully, the eggs dish was still mighty tasty itself. With the salsa roja, salsa verde, and grated white cheese (ricotta salata) on top, the colours sorta reminded me of la Bandera Mexicana, Antonio. As far as condimentary supplementation goes, Eats offers the full Standard San Francisco Triumvirate of Hot Sauces (Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce [Original Red Sauce], Cholula®Hot Sauce [Original], and Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce); plus, El Yucateco® three ways (Salsa Picante Roja de Chile Habanero, Salsa Picante Verde de Chile Habanero, and XXXtra Picante Salsa Kutbil-Ik® de Chile Habanero). I still went with some of my own Old St. Augustine Snake Bite Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on the potatoes and some H*ll's Kitchen®Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on the black beans. Both of which ended up being superfluously supplemented. I liked their salsa roja better than their salsa verde (which was tomatillo-based, and plenty good enough all on its ownsome) and happened to mention it to one of the server-lady persons, so she went back and brought me out a whole 'nother small ramekin of salsa roja, which I proceeded to dump on top of the one egg that already had salsa roja on it, the potatoes, and the black beans. (another, not really such a) Strange Coffee Interlude Before heading out for breakfast, I had prepared myself a mighty fine cuppa Bettys - Java Kalibaru[3] (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!). Now, not that I really needed another cuppa after breakfast (Does anybody truly need another lung-full of oxygen more than once a day?!), but when I got home I made myself yet another cuppa the same stuff (and once more prepared via the single-cuppa drip/pour-over method). The main reason I decided to "risk" drinking two cuppas-a-day was that, after breakfast, I once again strolled through the Clement Street Sunday Farmers Market and picked up a few interesting fresh baked-goods junk. For a mid-morning after-breakfast snack (and, because of which, I had to completely skip any lunch), I went with a Cardamom Puff purchased from Portside Bakery (outta Sausalito-town). The best way to describe this was a roundish croissant (about the size of a very large apple) filled with a cardamom custard. The cardamom custard was awe-some and really complemented (or vice-the-versa) the cuppa Coffee. So, it totally made it worth the second cuppa... even if I cannot get to bed until really late tonight... like, say, 10:30pm. I also made the second cuppa in my brand-spankin'-new "Eats" mug that I had just purchased this morning after breakfast. (I already have two "Dottie's True blue café" mugs, so I figured I would try to collect one mug from each of the other restaurants in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation... if possible; that makes two down and only three to go). https://www.bettys.co.uk/java-kalibaru-single-origin-coffee http://portsidebaker.com/ https://agriculturalinstitute.org/directory/listing-details/clement-st Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Huevos Divorciados ~ 7.0; Power C ~ 6.7; Cardamom Puff ~ 7.8; BettysJava Kalibaru ~ 7.4 ___________________
1. For those of you that might be cheesily-impaired: https://www.cheese.com/ricotta-salata/ 2. This link is probably unnecessary, but still... https://www.cheese.com/pepper-jack/ 3. For a posh British tearoom kinda place, Bettys really does a great job with their Coffees, too. The Coffee is always top-notch and only costs about the same as the swill you can get at that St*rbucks place. This blend/roast is priced at £5.95 for a 227g bagga; with today's exchange rate, that equates to about $15.16/pound (that would be 'mercian-style measure of weight "pound", not the Britishlander-style monetary unit "pound").
https://www.ellassanfrancisco.com/ Place: Ella's American Kitchen Location: 500 Presidio Avenue (on the corner of California Street) Hours: open for "Brunch" Saturday & Sunday at 7:00am Meal: (the simply-enough named) Fried Egg Sandwich ~ Cheddar cheese, baby arugula, avocado, potato bun, served with French fries (but they let me substitute those with their country potatoes); and, to drink, a Ginger Orange Juice Punch
While still running through my Breakfastary Starting Rotation, I returned to Ella's American Kitchen (see previous 'blog-entry from Sunday, January 13th, 2019) once again. I have had Ella's in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation now since at least the year 2000. As far as any other good, fresh, new ideas go for breakfast for me... I think they just dun runned out! There really are only five or six viable options on their current menu for st*pid vegetarian types and I have had all of those now. I do like their new earlier opening hours and that they now have two locations in town; however, with the new ownership and menu changes, there are less items for me from which to choose. I used to like that their old weekend "Brunch" menu would always change seasonally and always offered new choices and taste experiences. Sadly, it looks as though it might be time for Ella's to be retired (she's too old to be DFA-ed) from my Breakfastary Starting Rotation and to possibly make a September Call-up... probably either Home Plate (they offer many good/great options [Can you say "Dulce de Leche Pancakes" and fried Brussels sprouts?!]; however, they are a bit further away than most of the other restaurants currently in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation), 6th & B (they also have many good options and are a lot closer, but are just not quite as good as Home Plate), or maybe even Marla Bakery Restaurant (this place is very local for me ~ within walking distance; their fresh baked goods are top-notch; however, they do not really offer a lotta items from which to choose either; plus, they do not start serving "Brunch" until 10:00am on Saturday and Sunday). Oh, well... we shall see.
That red-nosed freak only wishes his lame-o Eggamuffin was this good! (And Ray Crock probably thought that "Arugula" [baby or adult] was just another island in the Lesser Antilles.) Sure this was "just a fried egg sandwich", but I liked that it had lotsa avocado (easily half of an avocado berry) on top of it and the potato bun really added to the whole packackage. If I had one minor quibble (a "quibblette", perhaps?), though, it was that the "lotsa avocado" could have been sliced a little thinner and not made the sandwich quite so clunky (so that would be a "plus by minus"). Ella's American Kitchen has for use in the way of hot sauce condimentary supplements both Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce. I used some (sparingly, this one is a bit more picante than a lot of my other hot sauces) of my own Punch Drunk™Chocolate Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce (Thanks,Sean!) on the potatoes and some Old St. Augustine Snake Bite Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) inside the sandwich. Additionally, I used several grinds/twists of my portable grains of paradise grinder all over the potatoes and inside the sandwich (I will soon need to look into getting some more grains of paradise seeds as I am almost outta the batch that I found/bought last Summer on Cape Cod). (not really such a) Strange Coffee Interlude Long before even thinking about heading out for breakfast, I made myself a large cuppa (via the pour-over single cuppa drip-méthode) BettysJava Kalibaru(Thanks, Greg & Cindy!). I knew that this would be a far superior cuppa to anything that might have been offered at the restaurant, anyway. https://www.bettys.co.uk/java-kalibaru-single-origin-coffee Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Fried Egg Sandwich ~ 6.6; Ginger Orange Juice Punch ~ 6.8; BettysJava Kalibaru~ 7.4
Forager® Project Organic Cashewmilk ~ Unsweetened Plain https://www.foragerproject.com/cashewmilk While shopping at my local grocery store last week, I came across another new(-ish) non-dairy milk product: Forager® ProjectOrganic Cashewmilk ~ Unsweetened Plain. I really like cashews[1] and figured this might be another good bovine-milk alternative. Well, sometimes ya just plain figures wrong... This was not truly 'orrible in any way, it was just very disappointing. I normally like most anything to do with cashews, so I think that I might have set the bar too high for this cashew-based product. My two major tests for any of these non-dairy milk products are how it works and tastes "in a tall glassa with cookies" and "on cold cereal in the morning". I tried a coupla glassas with a few different cookie types and on at least three different breakfast cereals (two flake-type cereals and one Cheerios™ flavour). Sadly, it really did nothing to enhance either cookies or cereals. It actually tasted both kinda bland and off at the same time.
Additionally, I even gave it a go in a cuppa hot Chocolate (just your boring ol' Nestlé®-brand powdered junk ~ I used this cheap stuff 'cause I did not want to waste a test on any of my superior Bettysproduct [I only have a little left from Christmas]), and it really did not add anything special. I suppose I coulda just used hot water in the mix and it woulda tasted just about as good (or bad). Plus, when heating up this kinda faux-milk, you really have to watch it while it slowly boils. The ingredients in it tend to break down a bit and you have to constantly stir it around. Forager® Project offers their cashewmilk line-up with four different options: (the one I tried) Organic Cashewmilk ~ Unsweetened Plain; Organic Cashewmilk ~ Original; Organic Coconut Cashewmilk ~ Unsweetened Vanilla; and Organic Coconut Cashewmilk ~ Unsweetened Plain. Unfortunately, I did not think enough of the flavour that I did try that I will be bothering to try any of the others. I have had other brands of cashewmilk before and seem to remember liking them much better. On the plus side, Forager® Project also offers a line of cashewmilk-yoghurt, which they are marketing as "Cashewgurt®" (these d*mn companies and their completely madeuppery words!). Now, I have had several of their flavours of Cashewgurt® and have actually liked them a lot. They are very creamy, but not quite as good as αυθεντικό ελληνικό γιαούρτι (and I do not think that anyone would ever try to make a good Τζατζίκι outta this stuff). I did not even put the two products together when I first bought their cashewmilk, and did not realize they were the same company until I checked out their web-site recently while researching this 'blog-episode. (Hmmm?! Could that be a new portmanteau "'blogisode"?) In conclusion, do not let the sound of "cashewmilk" fool you into believing it might actually taste as good as cashews in milk form. I mean, pistachios happen to be one of my favourite "nuts"[2], and I generally love all thing pistachio, too (Ice Cream, Kulfi, plain/roasted, etc.); however, I think that even I would possibly have to draw the line at pistachiomilk... maybe... Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Forager® ProjectOrganic Cashewmilk ~ Unsweetened Plain ~ 5.8; (however,) Cashewgurt® (various flavours) ~ 6.7 (Whereas: 100% organic Bovine juice ~ 8.3; Almondmilk ~ 7.0 - 8.2 [depending on the brand and/or flavour]; Coconutmilk ~ 7.0; Hazelnutmilk ~ 6.9; Cashewmilk ~ 6.8 [other brands]; Flaxmilk ~ 6.7; Ricemilk ~ 6.5; Soymilk ~ 5.8; ripple™ Unsweetened Original Nutritious Pea Milk ~ 5.2; Hempmilk ~ 5.0 [ugggh! and I am only including it here on the list with the rest of these because I did try it... once... never again]) ___________________ 1. Of course, the cashew is not truly a "nut"; it is actually the seed of the cashew apple (fruit). Stupid, useless cunning linguist (etymological) pointer of the day: Its English name derives from the Portuguese name for the fruit of the cashew tree caju (Portuguese pronunciation: [kaˈʒu]), which itself is derived from the Tupian word acajú, literally meaning "nut that produces itself". The generic name "Anacardium" derived from Greek άνά (aná), meaning "outside", and καρδία (kardía), meaning "heart", refers to the unusual location of the seed (the heart) outside of the fruit. 2. Pistachios are also not another true "nut" botanically, but another tree seed, and, surprisingly, also a member of the cashew family. And just for the h*ck of it, here is another stupid, useless cunning linguist (etymological) pointer of the day: "Pistachio" comes from late Middle English "pistace", from Old French, superseded in the 16th century by forms from Italian "pistacchio", via Latin from Greek "pistakion", from Persian "pesteh".
♪ "'Cause I was just thirteen when I got my first taste of... Brie and leeks... " "... and the kids are lined up on the wall and they're ready to... dine... " ♫
https://chloessf.com/ (Wow! This must be a brand new[-ish] web-site for them. It was not active last year when I ate there.) Place: Chloe♥s Cafe Location: 1399 Church Street (on the corner of 26th Street) Hours: open Monday - Sunday at 8:00am Meal: Special Scramble(off their weekend Specials Board) ~ 2 scrambled eggs w/ spinach, mushroom, leeks, fresh red bell peppers, basil, & Brie (the Frenchy soft cow's-milk cheese, not the Academy Award-winning actress... although, I am sure she woulda been plenty melty and tasty in a scramble, too), served with a choice of 2: fresh fruit, home fries (which was one of my intelligent and correct choices), green salad (yeah, right!), or toast (and this was my second intelligent and correct choice, where I went intelligently and correctly with the rosemary-potato bread); and, to drink, a large glassa grapefruit juice
(Once again, there is no real EweToobular juxtaselection with these songs and today's meal. Well, I am sure that Mikel Jollett, Steven Delopoulos, and even Mr. XV like[d] Brie and leeks in their breakfastary scrambled poultry ova dishes.) Sometimes, it is all a matter of timing... I had arrived at Chloe♥s Cafe (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, February 18th, 2018) at around 7:50am and noticed that there was already a small line (which for the size of the restaurant is sometimes enough to fill the place) beginning to form outside. I passed up a legal parking space directly in front of the restaurant because it looked like it might be a tight fit for my car-length (I did not want to be "that guy" that parks over the crosswalk line). No biggie, I found another (larger) spot just a half-block down Church Street, anyway. I decided to sit in my car listening to one last song (which just happened to be the first song above by those d*mn Toxic Avenger people) before getting into line myself. It was still a few minutes before they were to open their doors and they had not even put out the "Sign-up Sheet" yet (of which I was not aware). When they finally did put out said "Sign-up Sheet", I thought everyone in front of me had already signed-up, so I left my spot (I was last in line at the time, anyway) to check it out and only then found out that everyone in line was also waiting to "sign-up". When I went back to my place at the end of the line, there was a new couple (well, they may have been together for many years, I just mean that they were new to the end of the line) standing there. They offered me my spot back in line, but I told them not to bother because from the looks of the size of the line we would all probably get in on the first wave of diners... Ooops! Guess who missed out getting in with the first group by one table?! Because of which, I am counting that as my "Pay-it-forward (... or bugger off!) Weekend" input-deed for today. Besides, the food tasted just as good a half-hour later... Now, I coulda opted to sit outside (about fifteen minutes after they had opened, they started setting up four small, round tables ~ that could fit three to possibly four people comfortably ~ along the 26th Street sidewalk), but, by that time, I figured I could just wait another fifteen or twenty minutes for anyone in the first group to finish-up. It was not raining at that time (it had stopped raining 'round about the time I left my apartment this morning), but it looked like it was threatening to start again, anyway. (It actually did start raining about twenty minutes after I had finished eating while I was driving on my way home. Another "all a matter of timing", I suppose.)
Yes! Some things are worth waiting for! (And, yeah, sure, if you wanna get all Grammatik Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei on me, that sentence probably shoulda read: "Some things are worth waiting for, *ss-hole!") The Brie and leeks were the real standouts in this morning's scramble-mess. The leeks were finely julienned (as were the red bell peppers). Also, not many places will use "le fromage de la belle France" (Yeah, I know that was a reference to some other m*udit Frenchy cheese, Mr. Wensleydale, but you gets my point, right?!) as an ingredient. Brie is not Feta (Of course, everything's just betta with Feta!), but it did go very nicely with the rest of today's ingredients (and Brie does the melting-thing much betta than Feta). I did not really taste any basil, but I was so intent on getting the full Brie and leeks experience that I probably overlooked that one with all of the spinach (another favourite of mine, too) that was also in it. Now, who in their right mind, when given the above side choices, would ever choose a d*mn green salad or fresh fruit over homefries?! People like that should not be allowed to go out to eat at nice joints. "But... but... Brian... what if they are on a diet and are trying to eat healthy?!" Then, once again, stay at yer own homes and "eat healthy" there and leave all the other good, "unhealthy" junk to those of us that can truly enjoy it while dining out! Chloe♥s Cafe has both Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce for use as hot sauce condimentary supplements. I used some of my own Pepper PalaceChocolate Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the perfectly crispy and crunchy (See?! If'n I had been in the first wave of diners, the potatoes may not have reached their crispiocity perfection yet. Another positive "all a matter of timing"-thing.) homefries and some Dat'l Do-it®Spicy JalapenoHot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on top of the scrambled-mess. (another not so very) Strange Coffee Interlude When I arrived back home, to ward off some of the recent dampness and chill, I made myself a cuppa (once more via the single pour-over funnel-thing) BettysJava Kalibaru (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!). This is another gifted-Coffee that I finally just opened this morning. Now, this ain't BettysJamaica Blue Mountain, but that is not a fair comparison for most Coffees, anyway. This is another one of the many really good Coffees from the tea-totaling-folks at Bettys and it is probably my 3rd or 4th favourite of theirs. https://www.bettys.co.uk/java-kalibaru-single-origin-coffee ♪ "And the world is crying as we move along And the world is trying as we move along But they're still chopping our leeks and red bell peppers for a scramble... " ♫ Mikel and his band of friends owe me a half-hour of my life back... Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Special Scramble~ 7.0; BettysJava Kalibaru ~ 7.3
(No current official-type web-site thing still.) Place: Royal Ground Coffee Location: 5301 Geary Boulevard (on the corner of 17th Avenue); phonicular contact: (415) 751-5282 Hours: open at 6:30am daily (however, I do not think that the kitchen is open for breakfast until after 8:00am-ish) Meal: Hash-Over ~ hash brown[ sic singular ] topped w/chili (which I of course 86-ed), two eggs any style (my style today was "over-medium"), Cheddar cheese, jalapeño, pico del[ sic ] gallo, sour cream, & scallion, this also comes with a side of toast (I went with sourdough); and a cuppa (whatever brand/roast) their House Coffee (was; I asked, but really could not understand what the lady behind the counter said the name of the brand was)
(As far as I know, their chili does not include any baby grey seal meat in it, and I do not know if Dame Elton is a big fan of hashbrowns or not. The only reason I linked this EweToobular video was that my 2019 calendar is of Smithsonian's National Zoo[1] and the month of February highlights the Grey [or Gray] Seal [Halichoerus grypus][2].) I was able to eat at Royal Ground Coffee (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, August 18th, 2018) again this morning. Lucky for me, the kitchen was actually open and operational at 8:15am when I had arrived, 'cause I really had no other back-up plan planned, Stan. Unlike those smarmy bastages at St*rbucks, this little local (mini-chain) coffeehouse offers many other decent options for cooked breakfastary fare (both for stupid vegetarians and dead, decaying fin-footed, semiaquatic marine mammal-eating meatetarians alike ["I'll have the Sloppy Nanook, please!"]): Cheese Omelette ~ choice of cheese: 'merican (which should really only be a "choice" if there were no other cheeses offered, and, only then, if you are truly desperate for cheesy comestibles), Swiss, Cheddar, Jack, Pepper Jack, Provolone; Vegetarian Omelette ~ spinach, mushroom, tomatoes, Provolone cheese, topped w/ avocado, pico del[ sic again ] gallo, & sour cream; and six different Eggs Benedict dishes, of which, only the Egg[ sic ] Florentine would be a viable vegetarian-friendly choice, though.
(Here is where there would normally be a photo of my breakfast meal. However, someone forgot to pack a d*mn camera this morning. [Sheesh! Gimme a break! It is not as if I have been doing this silly li'l 'blog-thing almost every weekend for the past ten years... it has only been the past nine years.] The photo of the front of the coffeehouse at the top of this page was just a stock photo from my last visit.) As can be seen in the above well-focused and oh-so tantalizing photo (whatever), there was really nothing extra special about this dish, but I always like it when potatoes are the base (in this case, literally) for a meal. Now if this only had included one other interesting item on top ~ say chilli or somethin' ~ it would have been perfect... (another not so very) Strange Coffee Interlude Earlier this morning (I had fully planned on "sleeping-in" for a change; however, I awoke at 4:30am and could not get back to sleep) and long before heading out for breakfast, I made myself one h*ckuva good cuppa Bettys Jamaica Blue Mountain ~ aka "the Marilyn Monroe of Coffee" (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) ~ with which to bide the time. I probably did not really need to order an additional cuppa with my breakfast, but "Coffee" is right in the name of the place, after all. https://www.bettys.co.uk/jamaica-blue-mountain For condimentary supplementation use, I only saw bottles of Crystal®Louisiana's Pure Hot Sauce. I used some (a lot, actually) of my own Sunbelt Plantation Vidalia® Onion & Jalepeno[ sic with ño tilde-thiñg, Ms. Swiñtoñ ] Pepper Hot Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) all over the toppa the pile (and, with that, "♪ another one bites the dust... ♫" finally; but, everyone, please do not take this as a suggestion to send me five more bottles to replace it). Moral of today's breakfast: Never go clubbing with a pod of baby pinnipeds... Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Hash-Over ~ 6.3; (their) House Blend ~ 6.7; Bettys Jamaica Blue Mountain ~ 8.2 ___________________
A morning haiku: Oh, breakfastary repast! ありがとう, Doc.
http://www.lalesf.com/ Place: LaLe[1] Location: 731 Irving Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues) Hours: breakfast and/or "Brunch" are served daily at 8:00am Meal: Cairo (Scramble) ~ lamb (which I made sure to ستة وثمانون), peppers, tomatoes, onions, Feta cheese, with a side ramekin of Tzatziki (well, more like Cacik as this is a Turkish joint), served with home style potatoes and housemade (well, restaurant-made) English muffin; and a glassa Mint Lemonadeto drink Roses can be red. Tulips can also be red. Haikus do not rhyme. Finishing off the early-2019 workout of my Breakfastary Starting Rotation, I returned to LaLe (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, September 15th, 2018). Even after several visits to this restaurant, there are still some good remaining ideas to check out: Ciudad de México (Scramble) ~ chorizo (which would be ochenta-y-seis-ed), green onions, mushrooms, guacamole, sour cream, cheese; Toronto (Benediction) ~ ham (No thanks, ya hoser!), grilled tomato, spinach; or Fennel Cabbage Salad ~ green and purple cabbage, fresh fennel, apples, arugula (where I would probably have them add a poached egg or two on top of the pile of rabbit-food to make it a bit more breakfastarily-sound). Plus, there is always the possibility of reordering their most-excellent Dutch Baby Pancake. I had also given a brief thought to reordering Boston (Benediction) ~ bacon (nah, it ain't wicked pissah), guacamole, arugula, tomatoes ~ as a superstitious aid to help the New England Patriots win the AFC Championship Game in Kansas City this afternoon. But I had ordered that same dish exactly a year ago and figured (hopefully) that the Patriots do not need my fake mojo-ocity (besides, I am wearing a pair of Patriots socks and my old-school Patriots [the one with the Minuteman-guy in a three-point stance] baseball cap).
I was very happy to see that this was made with πολύ Φέτα, as this was the main reason I ordered it today. Otherwise, it woulda just been a peppers, tomatoes, and onions scramble. One thing that I learned very early on when living in Greece, Τζατζίκι (or Cacik even) and potatoes are a great pair! Because of which, I did not dump the ramekin on top of the scramble mess (like they were expecting me to do), I dumped it all over the homefries instead (Ha! Take that, LaLe!). This was not a mistake in any way. I did not really bother to ask what LaLe might still have to offer in the way of condimentary supplements (in the past they just had Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce). I used some of my own H*ll's Kitchen® Sriracha Chili Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on the scramble. I did make sure to use some of their own very good homemade (restaurant-made, whatever) marmalade and strawberry jam/preserves ~ one teaspoon of each ~ on the two different halves of the English muffin. They also now have jars of both of these for sale. This turned out to be very à propos as I was planning on buying some jam/jelly/preserves after breakfast while grocery shopping on my way home, anyway. I made sure to take advantage of this and bought one of their marmalade jars for home-use, Lady. Awaken my morn, Nubian liquid goddess. Java... Joe... Coffee! (not really such a) Strange Coffee Interlude After breakfast, I would normally grab a cuppa around the corner at Snowbird Coffee to enjoy whilst galumphing around San Francisco Botanical Garden. However, it was (still) raining (light as it may have been) and I did not really relish (nor ketchup) being wet and uncomfortable all morning. Plus, more importantly, I have wayyyy too much of my own Coffee still to use up at home. Sooo... when I got home and was keyboarding-up today's 'blog-entry thing, I made myself a cuppa (single pour-over style) BettysKenyan Karatina (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!). https://www.bettys.co.uk/kenyan-karatina-single-origin-coffee Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Cairo (Scramble) ~ 6.8; homemade (restaurant-made) marmalade and strawberry jam ~ 7.2; BettysKenyan Karatina ~ 7.4 ___________________
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/semi-cultural and historical pointer (refresher): Tulips are called "lâle" in Turkish (from Persian: "lale" "لاله"). When written in Arabic letters, "lale" has the same letters as "Allah", which is why the flower became an Islamic holy symbol*. It was also associated with the House of Osman, resulting in tulips being widely used in decorative motifs on tiles, mosques, fabrics, crockery, etc. in the Ottoman Empire. *(Much the same way the letters in "Jesus Christ" are an anagram for the Greek words "gefilte fish" and the reason you see so many "Jesus-fish" on people's bumpers.)
Hours: open for "le Brunch" Saturday & Sunday at 9:00am Meal: Pain Perdu A "brunch" favorite! (Okay, so maybe I added those extra "quotation marx" around "le Brunch". Don't get all Groucho about it!) ~ two slices of cinnamon French Toast, fresh fruit, strawberry coulis & crème fraîche; a side of home fries; and a glassa orange juice
(I do not know whether Sir George Ivan [or even Marianne Faithful] is a fan of Pain Perdu or not, but I figured that there would be no better way to start my 2019 'blog-entries than with a few of his songs.) Pour mon premier petit déjeuner out for 2019, I wanted to start the year out on a positively high note (♪... I believe it was a C8), so je suis retourné au Baker Street Bistro(see last 'blog-entry from Dimanche 2 septembre 2018). I suppose 2019 is gonna be all downhill from here now...
I really wanted to eat my first breakfast for 2019 outside; however, mean ol' Mr. Winter Weather was not cooperating this morning. It was cold and raining (off-and-on), so I wisely decided to sit indoors for a change.
Ce pain perdu est tout simplement extraordinaire![1] (If you were expecting a bit more loquaciousness expounding on this great breakfastary repast, you can always read through the hundred or so other 'blog-entries that I have already posted on this specific meal.) I ordered the side of potatoes mainly for a sweet-and-savoury juxtaselection to the French toast. Once again, their version of homefries did not fail to please my taste-buds. Even if their Pain Perdu were not already "simplement extraordinaire!", these are worth ordering all on their ownsome. (Why do people sometimes use the adjective "creamy" to describe potatoes?! I mean, I am one that loves potatoes in all of its sundry forms and tasty manners [see 'blog-entry from Wednesday, February 8th, 2012], but even I would not want to eat any Ice Potatoes or add potato-milk to my morning cuppa.) Les fruits du jour: myrtilles(blueberries); pastèque (watermelon); cantaloup (cantaloupe); mûres (blackberries); une fraise(one strawberry [made into the shape of some kinda flower-thing]); ananas (pineapple); et pomme (and apple).[2] Baker Street Bistro only has bottles of Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) on the tables for use as a condimentary supplementation. However, I finally officially got to test out one of my recent Christmas gifts, Peaks of Otter Peppers ~ Cremation Drops Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!), and used several drops/splashes all over my "creamy" potatoes. This hot sauce was not overwhelmingly épicé ~ about the same as your standard Tabasco®-stuff ~ but it had a lot more saveur (Ingredients: Cayenne chiles, garlic, onion, vinegar, black pepper, and salt). https://www.peaksofotterpeppers.com/ (not so really) Strange Coffee Interlude I purposefully (purposely? [porpoise, Lee?!] There really is only a shade of difference between the two, anyway, right?) had skipped any Coffee with my morning meal (and Chantal had even mentioned this noticeable omission when I was ordering my "jus d'orange") because I had pre-planned on rounding-out today's excellent start to 2019 with a cuppa Bettys Jamaica Blue Mountain (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) to drink while keyboarding up this here 'blog-entry-thing. the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude After breakfast, on the way back to my car, I first heard overhead then looked up to see a small pandemonium of four Wild Parrotsof San Francisco noisily chasing off/harassing the much larger Mr. Drinky Crow. The euphonious offerings of Sir George Ivan, Pain Perdu Extraordinaire, enjoying some of the best d*rn Coffee on the Planet (that would be "the Planet Earth"; I have never had Coffee on any of the other Planets; however, I have heard it said that Martians are mostly Mormons [or it may have been the other way 'round]), and being entertained by the caterwauling hi-jinks of the colourful local (but non-native) psittacines... Don't you wish every year could start like this?! Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Pain Perdu A "brunch" favorite! ~ 8.2; Bettys Jamaica Blue Mountain ~ 8.5; the Wild Parrotsof San Francisco ~ 8.5; the songs of Sir George Ivan ~ 8.6 ___________________
1. If something in French is even "better than perfect", should it be expressed with verbs in the "plus-parfait" form only? 2. Quick (stupid, useless) botanical pop-quiz, kids: Okay, how many of those fruits are actual berries again? The correct answer is two: blueberries and watermelon. If you had mistakenly guessed "three" ~ thinking "that is soooo easy, Brian: blueberries, blackberries, and strawberry... " ~ you would have been berry, berry wrong, of course. (Even the spiny ol' pineapple is more of a berry ~ the fruit of the pineapple tree are botanically called "coalesced berries" ~ than these two berry-impostors, but that would just confuse the issue even that much more.) I know that all sounds rather nuts, but just not peanuts or walnuts...
