Brenda’s ~ French Soul Food

Do you think that Oedipus is a wreck on Father’s Day?

http://frenchsoulfood.com/

(I can only assume that the rainbow flag on the building is the State flag of Louisiana or maybe the City banner of New Orleans. Gee, there really must be an awful lot of Cajun and Creole restaurants in the Castro District.)

 

(Sure I could have gone with the more conventional Harry Chapin classic "Cat's Cradle", but that one is too ubiquitously played… and you hear it everywhere, Mr. Shawn Kemp, Sr.)


How do you say "serendipity" in French or Cajun?[1]

I was not really planning on having French toast again for breakfast this morning, as I just had some yesterday and earlier in the week on my birthday at Dottie's True blue café (Are you happy now, Mrs. Huneycutt, I went an entire weekend without having an omelette or main egg dish of some sort?); however, I went back to Brenda's ~ French Soul Food after a long delay (see last 'blog-entry from October 9th, 2011) and as I had just mentioned Bananas Foster[2] French Toast in yesterday's 'blog-entry the three chefs of Serendip must have heard me, as this was the weekend sweet entry on their Specials (an actual chalk)board.

This was my first trip back to Brenda's since they had opened up the other room next door for dining (I think they have had it open since late October-early November now). The "new" space more than doubles the capacity allowed; it is a little bit wider and there are many more tables than in the original space. Even though, there is still a bit of a wait to get in if you don't get there as soon as they open (I was there at 7:50am before they had opened yet and was third in line).

I really didn't want to order French toast again, but Brenda's doesn't have that many items on their "Brunch" menu (they call it "Brunch", but it’s really breakfast at 8:00am in the morning) for stupid vegetarians. So I went with the sweet offering off the Specials board: Bananas Foster French Toast ~ with warm butter rum sauce and whipped cream. I also had a side of hash potatoes (which really are more of a homefries chunky type, not the shredded hashbrowns version) and a cuppa mighty fine Community Coffee (N'Orleans-style with roasted chicory). I really need to try their Sweet Watermelon House Tea one of these days.

This was very good and I will order it again (just not if I have already had French toast twice in the same week) if it is available (I spoke with someone there and he told me this shows up often on their Specials board). It was a lot of food with three entire slices of French toast; however, I still think that the Merchants Way version was better (from memory, everything always tastes better). I probably would have made it with thinner slices of bananas not whole chunks; and if I ever did cook (and could figure out how to make that tasty Butter Rum sauce), I would do just that. I did discover an extra added taste treat by taking some of their homemade strawberry preserves and using it on a few of the slices. (There is no way in H-E-double hockey sticks that I will ever attempt to make my own homemade preserves, so Brenda's has got me there.)

Brenda's has just Crystal® Hot Sauce for condimentary supplements; at least it's an original Loosianna brand. So I simply used some of my own Youk's Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the hash potatoes.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:  Bananas Foster French Toast ~ 7.4 (with their homemade strawberry preserves ~ 7.5)


[1] You shouldn't have asked.
 
Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:
 
The word for "serendipity" in French is "sérendipité". 
 
For a change, they actually stole a word from English (which was in turn formed from a Persian fairy tale place name). I have mentioned this word origin before here in the past and am too lazy to write out the whole stupid story again. Besides, what is Wikipedia for?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity

I have no idea what "serendipity" would be in Cajun, though. There is no Google Translate for that dialect.

[2] If you were wondering just who the heck is this "Foster" guy is and why does he rate a dessert named for him, here is the answer from our good friends at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bananas_Foster

Brenda’s ~ French Soul Food

http://frenchsoulfood.com/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5uYKXcmcb4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xB4dbdNSXY

(Happy Birthday[1], John… unfortunately, the War is not yet over… again.)


Je suis retourné à Brenda's ~ French Soul Food (see last 'blog-entry from January 30th, 2011) pour petit-déjeuner, y'all. I got there just before they opened, so I did not have to wait long to be seated… or endure too many of the colourful Tenderloin locals along Polk Street. Brenda's is currently expanding to the building next door (which will double their size and should cut down the wait time for anyone arriving after they open); they said they should be opening in early November.

There really isn't an extensive breakfast/"Brunch" menu from which to choose for idiot vegetarians, but what they do offer all looks good. If I was an eater of the dead, decaying little porkies, I am sure I would love to have tried their Egg & Bacon Tartine just to try their tomato-bacon relish; I am not sure what that would taste like (heck, I am not even sure what a "Tartine"[2] is), but it sounds interesting. As it was, I ordered off their specials board (and, it is interesting to note ~ well, to me it was ~ that this was a real chalk board, not one of them thar new-fangled dry-erase board thingys).

 


I had the Fried Green Tomato & Bacon Benedict (well, again, sans les petits cochons morts) with a choice of grits or (potato) hash. I also started with an order of Granny Smith Apple Beignets and a cuppa very good, N'Orleans-style coffee, Community Coffee (with chicory).





I really like this alternative Benedict; Fannie Flagg would be very proud. It was made with thinly sliced fried green tomato, which really makes a big difference. It was served on cream biscuits (another nice touch) with a spicy Creole[3] Hollandaise sauce (but, like I have stated before, I really couldn't tell a "Creole Hollandaise" from a "Cajun Béarnaise" sauce) ~ which was very tasty, but not overly spicy. I went with the "greets" as my side dish choice, which were good, buttery grits and a very large bowl/portion, too. 

The Granny Smith Apple Beignets were also very good, but I am not really an expert on this particular baked good as I have only had them a few times before; I made sure to eat it with a little of their excellent home-made strawberry jam again; these comes as three (3) large beignets, which is two (2) too many, so I took the remaining ones (1's) home and plan on eating them later today (when I regain my appetite).

Brenda's only offers as condimentary supplements Crystal® Louisiana's Pure Hot Sauce; so I went with some Sylvia's Restaurant® Kickin' Hot ~ Hot Sauce (Thanks, Sean!) on the eggs and a little Trees Can't Dance African Hot Sauce (Thanks, Greg and Cindy!) on the "greets".

This is a good place to check out a few times a year and the beignets are really worth coming back for. (I know, I know, it should read grammatically correct as "… and the beignets are really worth coming back for, y'all".)


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Granny Smith Apple Beignets ~ 7.2; Fried Green Tomato Benedict ~ 7.3


[1] Interestingly enough, today is also John's son Sean's birthday.

[2] Stupid, boring cunning linguist pointer of the day, la première partie:

"Tartine" in French simply means "a slice of bread" and usually describes some kinda fancy-shmancy open-faced sandwich. None of which really helps me in any way of figuring out what their Egg & Bacon Tartine would entail.

[3] Loosiana Creole cuisine "is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana which blends French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Asian Indian, Native American, and African influences, as well as general Southern cuisine. It is similar to Cajun cuisine in ingredients (such as the holy trinity), but the important distinction is that Cajun cuisine arose from the more rustic, provincial French cooking adapted by the Acadians to Louisiana ingredients, whereas the cooking of the Louisiana Creoles tended more toward classical European styles adapted to local foodstuffs. Broadly speaking, the French influence in Cajun cuisine is descended from various French Provincial cuisines of the peasantry, while Creole cuisine evolved in the homes of well-to-do aristocrats, or those who imitated their lifestyle. Although the Creole cuisine is closely identified with New Orleans culture today, much of it evolved in the country plantation estates so beloved of the pre-Civil War Creoles. (Despite its aristocratic French roots, Creole cuisine does not include Garde Manger or other extremely lavish styles of the Classical Paris cuisine.)" ~ straight outta Wikipedia.

And just to make it another stupid, boring cunning linguist pointer, la deuxième partie:

"Creole" comes from the French "créole" (amazing, huh?), which comes from the Spanish "criollo" (a person native to a locality) from the Portuguese "crioulo", diminutive of "cria" (a person ~ especially a servant ~ raised in one's house) from "criar" (to raise or bring up), from Latin "creare" (to produce, create); however, it is not related in any way to the crayon people.

"Cajun" is an aphetic variant/alteration of "Acadian".

Now you are all on your own trying to figure where "Zydeco" comes from.