Loma Brewing Company/Loma Coffee Bar

A(nother) Breakfastary Roadtrip:
the (Spanish) Kitty-Cats, CA[1]

https://www.lomabrew.com/


Place: Loma Brewing Co. & Loma Coffee Bar[2]

Location:  130 N Santa Cruz Avenue, Los Gatos, CA
(in the ♥ of Los Gatos)

Hours: (brewery/restaurant) open for "Brunch" Tuesday - Sunday at 11:30am (however, they had special hours today and tomorrow and were open at 10:00am);
(Coffee bar) serving breakfast Wednesday - Sunday at 7:30am (well, I had arrived there around 8:30am and was told that they really don't start serving any kinda hot food items until 8:00am usually)

Meal: (me) Breakfast Flatbread ~  bacon (Really, Kevin?! Ain't that kinda non-כַּשְׁרוּת?), spinach, caramelized onion, Mozzarella, mushrooms, garlic, oregano, sunny side egg, salsa roja;
(Dave) McLoma Sandwich ~  chili Beer brined ham, sharp Cheddar, folded eggs, housemade English muffin, tropical fruit cup;
to drink:
(me) two cuppas Ethiopia Guji Heirloom and a 13-ounce glassa Youks Kolsch[3];
(Dave) a Cappuccino (made with Youk! - Loma Espresso Blend) and also a 13-ounce glassa Youks Kolsch

(... 'cause everyone knows that the "[Greek-Jewish] King of Swing" is better'n any ol' "Sultana of Squat" [aka "the Babe-beano"].)


An old Air Force buddy of mine (Thanks, Karl! [Even if he is one of "those" D*dgers fans.]) had sent me a recent news-article[4] last week on defacedbook that former RED SOX star-player Kevin ("Youk's on First? Idunno's on Third!") Youkilis had opened a local brewery/restaurant in near(enough)by Los Gatos. 
I figured I would have to check it out sometime in the future... well, apparently today is the future, Doc Brown.

Just so as to not make it a totally solitary trip "all the way down there", I invited another old Air Force buddy Dave (who lives about thirty-five minutes south of Los Gatos and was closer to it than me, anyway) to join me there for breakfast. As it turned out, the new brewery is in the same location as the old Los Gatos Brewing Company, which, coincidentally enough, Dave used to work at way back in 1994-1995 (Dave is very old!). I think that the last time that I was actually down Los Gatos-way was to meet Dave there for lunch, too. I think it was probably back in 1998 or 1999 (Dave is very old!).

Any true red-blooded RED SOX fan of the past twenty years worth his salt, is well-aware of exactly who this Yoooooouk! guy is. Quick bio: After playing nine quality seasons with the GOOD GUYS (and winning two World Series Championships with them in that span ~ which is one more World Series Championship than the D*mn Y*nkees have won in the entire Millennium so far!), Kevin played one more season of MLB with the Chicago South-siders in 2012. Of course, as all faithful and knowledgeable RED SOX fans know, Youk took the entire 2013 Season off... He is a 3-Time All-Star (2008, 2009, & 2011); Gold Glove Award (2007) recipient; and a member of both the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame and the Boston RED SOX Hall of Fame. (I think that I read somewhere that Youk's brother-in-law is also some kinda sports-player; I think he plays Soccer in Massachusetts or sumpthin'... )

Just in case the Big Guy was there this morning hisd*mnself, I made sure to arrive at the restaurant clad head-to-toe (literally) in RED SOX items of clothing: (head-) RED SOX baseball cap (natch') (I went with an old one of mine that is exactly twenty years old this week/month; I bought it back in 1999 during the All-Star festivities in Boston in a sports-shop across the street from Fenway Park; which is one of four 
RED SOX caps that I own); (to-) RED SOX long-sleeve t-shirt (I have way too many different RED SOX t-shirts to really count); and (toe) RED SOX socks 
(I own three different pairs). I do own two different RED SOX jackets/windbreakers, but I did not want to "over-do" it, so I was just wearing a nondenominational red-and-blue sweatshirt. (I do not own a pair of 
RED SOX skivvies, or I mighta also been wearing those this morning... I would just not have been able to show them off to anyone at the brew pub/Coffee bar.)

As Dave and I were the first idiots to walk in just as they were opening (right on the nose, Mr. Durante!) at 10:00am, we had our choice of seats. It is a fairly large restaurant and there are many tables that can seat two-to-eight people. The place filled up pretty quickly, too.

As for the food, I have never met a Breakfast Pizza (Flatbread, whatever) that I did not like. Of course, in honour of Kevin Youkilis' Jewish heritage, I made sure to have them 86 the dead, decaying porky-butt bits from my meal. It was a single-serving Pizza (Flatbread, whatever), but it was just about all that I could do to finish it. (Actually, I "forced" Dave to try a slice of it.)

The McLoma Sandwich looked much tastier than (and was easily twice the size of) whatever that clown Ronald McJ*ter could ever come up with ("... up with could come... "? Nah! That just don't sound right.). The "folded eggs" sounded confusing in the menu, but it was just flattened scrambled eggs ("folded" in between the slices of English muffin). Plus, they make their own (over-sized) English muffins fresh daily. When I had first arrived this morning, they had just finished baking up a batch of these English muffins. I was even thinking of ordering this one myself (again, just making it kosher-likeⓊ).

Loma Brewing Co. had just Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Huy Fong Foods Inc. Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce for use as condimentary supplementation. I did not really feel like schlepping any of my own hot sauces "all the way down there" this morning, but, as it turned out, their salsa roja was flavourful (and picante) enough, anyway.

Why the two cuppas of Ethiopia Guji Heirloom? I bought one cuppa when I first got into town. I purposefully got to the place an hour before I was planning on meeting Dave there so that I could walk around Los Gatos for a bit and the second cuppa was for-with breakfast. Plus, 'cause I decided to buy a bagga (it is either a 12 oz or 1-pounder) the Ethiopia Guji Heirloom to take-with-home, I got the second cuppa as a freebie! (They were not being extra nice to me, that is just what they do for anyone buying a bagga.) The Coffee was very good. Ethiopian Coffee is one of my favourites.

I would really have liked to have tried several of their Beers, but, sadly, I did have to drive the hour-or-so back home in the afternoon and thought it best to just try the eponymous brew that I did. It was also very good. I have been a fan of Kölsch-style Beers since living in Deutschland. Dave and I were both stationed together in Berlin-town back in 1983-1985 (Man, that Dave is really old!).

Before breakfast, while waiting for Dave to finally show up, I walked around the area a bit and happened across a local gelato-joint a few blocks down the street from the brewery. I was amazed that they were open for business before 9:00am. Of course, I had to sample a few of their flavours... Well, after breakfast ("Brunch", whatever), I went back over there and got a small cup with two flavours: half-cuppa Sambuca and half-cuppa Horchata. 

http://www.dolcespazio.com/

All in all, this morning turned out to be a very good one breakfastarily for me:

Coffee! Beer!! Pizza!!! Ice Cream!!!!

The only two items missing from the Five Major Food Groups this morning were Potatoes and Chocolate. 

(Hmmmm?! I wonder if'n I should try some Chocolate-dipped French Fries for dinner?!)

Glen Bacon Scale Rating:

Breakfast Flatbread ~  6.7;

(I did not bother asking Dave what he might rate his McLoma Sandwich; he seemed to have liked it well enough to clean his plate; so I would guess it was upwards of a 6.5, too);

Ethiopia Guji Heirloom ~ 7.4;

Youks Kolsch ~ 6.9;

Ice Cream ~ 7.0 (cumulative; the Sambuca-one was probably a 7.2 all on its ownsome)

Kevin Edmund Youkilis ~ .281

(I would just like to point out that Glen Bacon ~ 

he of the above named "Scale" ~ is also a long-time RED SOX fan.)

___________________

1. https://www.losgatosca.gov/

The "town" of Los Gatos is about fifty miles (well, according to Google Map, it is 54.1 miles) south of my apartment in San Francisco and about one hour travel time down there (almost 'zackly ~ I left my apartment at 7:30am and arrived at 8:30am [well, I would have arrived then if I had not missed my exit off Highway 17 and then had to back-track for about five minutes... 

but still... )

I found this titbit of information pretty interesting. Both Olivia de Havilland and her kid sister went to Los Gatos High School.

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número uno:

I do not know why the joint is called "Loma" (I asked one of the baristarettes, but she did not know either), but the word "Loma" en español simply means "hill" or "knoll", Chuck.

(Perhaps, "Loma" has an entirely different meaning in Romanian or Greek.)*

*(Ha! This cunning linguistic stuff kills me.

Just on a lark [there were no Wild Parrots of San Francisco nearby], I Google Translate-d "Loma" under "Detect Language" and it came up that "Loma" in Finnish also means "holiday" and "Λόμαξ" [pronounced "LOmax"] in Greek-speak actually means "hilltop". It did not list anything under Romanian, though.)

3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-brewista pointer of the day, Nummer zwei:

Kölsch is a style of Beer originating in Cologne, Germany. "Kölsch" simply means "from Cologne" auf Deutsch.

4. https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/06/25/kevin-youkilis-boston-red-sox-loma-brewing-company

Riverside Cafe

Wareham, MA 
(Sunday, 09/04/16)

(No official web-site.)


Place: Riverside Cafe
Location: 189 Main Street, Wareham, MA; 
phonicular contact: (508) 295-2050
Hours: open daily 6:00am
Meal: (Me) Monkey Bread[1] French Toast and a side of home fries (noted as two words); (Sean) Hawaiian Melt ~ ham, pineapple, egg, & Mozzarella cheese on Texas toast, served with your choice of homfries (now here they had it as oneword), fruit, or baked beans; (Kerry) Florentine (Omelet Style) ~ spinach, tomatoes (or mushrooms), and Mozzarella cheese, served with homefries or fruit and toast; (Mom) just an English muffin and a slice or two of Sean's bacon; and (Me) a cuppa (and one refilla) New England Coffee® Blueberry Cobbler (I kid you not) (I don't really remember what everyone else had to drink; it's hard enough for me to remember what they all had to eat)

http://www.newenglandcoffee.com/product/blueberry-cobbler/


My first breakfastary stop while I was on vacation last week was to Riverside Cafe in Wareham[2], Massachusetts. There aren't that many breakfast-style restaurants in town, but the few that they do have are all pretty good (or so I have found). Wareham is known as "the Gateway to Cape Cod" (and hence the Cape Cod Baseball League[3] Wareham Gatemen[4]) because it is one of the last towns before you head over to Cape Cod (via either the Bourne Bridge or the Sagamore Bridge). One of the notable people to have been born (not Bourne nor Sagamored, though) in Wareham is Hollywoodland actress and international archer Geena Davis[5]. 

(And just to prove that it truly is "riverside", here is a photo from behind the restaurant of the Wareham River.)


I was very impressed with the amount of interesting items that Riverside Cafe has on its menu (for both stupid vegetarians and dead, decaying animal-fleshetarians). Some other good ideas were:

Irish Style (Benedict) ~ with hash (which I am pretty sure meant "corned beef" and not plain ol' "potatoes")

River Rat ~ (which can be made as either a "Scrambler" or "Omelet Style") ground beef, onions, American cheese, & topped with ketchup, mustard, & pickles (I tried talking Sean into getting this one; this was disgusting sounding enough that if I ate meat, this would definitely have been my choice)

Garden (which can also be made either as a "Scrambler" or "Omelet Style") ~ tomatoes, peppers, onions, and mixed cheeses

Santa Fe (another "Scrambler" or "Omelet Style") ~ avocado, tomato, onion, black beans, pepper [ sic, in the singular ], & cheese with salsa

Green Pig (another "Scrambler" or "Omelet Style") ~ spinach, sausage, and mixed cheese (I wonder what Theodor Seuss Geisel would have to say about this)

Irish Breakfast Melt ~ hash, egg, and cheese on marble rye (ya ol' bag!)

or (simple enough, but still interesting sounding to me)

Beanie Breakfast ~ baked beans, 1 egg, & corn bread or a biscuit (I wonder if this was a regular meal at the Sussman household when little Herbie was growing up[6]).

I was happy to find that my Monkey Bread French Toast was shockingly good, Mr. Gabriel. This was a different and interesting take (and taste) on your standard (or not-so-standard) French toast. The only thing that I could have done without was the jimmies/sprinkles on top of the whipped cream; not that I don't normally like jimmies/sprinkles, I just didn't find them necessary on my French toast.

Sean's Hawaiian Melt turned out to be a sorta Hawai'ianese Monte Cristo, bra'. Pineapple in anything is always a good thing.

Kerry went with the "or mushrooms" option in his Florentine (Omelet Style), but they offered to have both the tomatoes and mushrooms in it (which is what I would have gone with personally). I don't remember if the omelette had any Hollandaise sauce on top of it, but that would have been the way I would have liked it.

As for my Blueberry Cobbler (or Cobblah in New Englandese) Coffee, there was no need to add any sugar (and I normally don't add any, anyway) to it as the blueberry flavour was sweet enough already. However, after taking a few sips, I did go with Sean's suggestion to add some half-and-half to it; this was a good idea and it greatly improved the experience.

I asked (but have forgotten now over a week later) what Riverside Cafe had in the way of condimentary supplementation; I think they had Frank's RedHot® 
Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce and possibly one more. It really didn't matter as I had come well-prepared with three new (well, for me) hot sauces that Kerry had provided (actually, one was brought all the way back from Isla de Vieques, Puerto Rico[7] by my sister Sharon earlier this year): Maine Man Flavahs Blueberry Habanero; Chelsea Fire Wicked. Hot. Sauce.; and Coqui[8] Fire Flaming Frog Sauce. I used some of the Blueberry Habanero on half of my potatoes (mainly because I wanted to try to complement the blueberry in my Coffee) and some Wicked. Hot. Sauce. on the other half of my potatoes. (Curiously enough, I left my Monkey Bread French Toast un-supplemented, George). Of the two, I much preferred the Wicked. Hot. Sauce.; it didn't contain any chipotle peppers, but was very reminiscent of that style hot sauce (with just a little more heat perhaps). The Blueberry Habanero was sweet, but not really that hot and I can't imagine using it on many other breakfastary items (I bet it would go nicely on top of some Ice Cream, though).

http://www.mainemanflavahs.com/

http://www.chelseafirehotsauce.com/

http://coquifire.com/


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: 
Monkey Bread French Toast ~ 6.9;
New England Coffee® Blueberry Cobblah ~ 6.6

(Sorry, I didn't bother asking anyone else at the table for their GBS input. I know that Sean is well-versed in the intricacies of the GBS, but I would have had to explain the whole kitten-and-poodle[9] to Kerry and Mom... besides, my mother would probably have rated her English muffin as an 8.5.)

___________________

1. Yeah, I had no idea what the heck this was either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_bread

2. http://www.wareham.ma.us/

3. http://www.capecodbaseball.org/

4. http://gatemen.org/

5. Did you know that Geena Davis is probably smarter than you or me? Well, probably smarter than you.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000133/

6. Maybe one person reading this from the Red Sox Fan Forum Message Board will get that stupid joke.

7. ¿Dónde?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vieques,_Puerto_Rico

8. ¿Qué?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coqu%C3%AD

9. Like any of you really know what the heck a caboodle/kaboodle is.

Dottie's True blue café

http://www.dottiestruebluesf.com/


Place: Dottie's True blue café
Location: 26 6th Street (on the corner of Stevenson Street)
Hours: open Thursday through Monday at 7:30am
Meal: Kalamata Olive-Roasted Garlic-Feta Three Egg Omelet ~ with homefries (which they have as two words on their menu, but I prefer the oneword spelling) and toast 


(Warning: Explicit language ensues.)

(There is no EweToobular juxtaselection between Dottie's and Vampire Weekend or Cape Cod [well, none of which I can think]. It is just that this weekend brings to a close another Cape Cod Baseball League[1] season. This year's ultimate winner was the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox[2], taking the Championship Series in 2-1 Games over the Falmouth Commodores[3]. This is the third consecutive championship for the Red Sox. [If they didn't sport that honorific name, I would start to think that these guys were the Y*nkees of the CCBL.]

Congratulations to each and all of the other CCBL teams this season, too.)


I arrived at Dottie's True blue café (see last 'blog-entry from June 12th, 2016) just a little after 7:05am and knew that I would have close to a half (an half?) hour to wait before they would open. This morning was still pretty chilly and foggy, and I figured that most of the stupid touristas would not arrive until much later. So, of course, I was the first idiot to arrive; the next person in line did not show up until about five minutes after I did. By the time they did open up, the line was already around the corner (that would be around the corner of Stevenson Street).

For a change, I bypassed their Blackboard Specials and actually ordered off their printed menu. (I have eaten at Dottie's True blue café at least 150-200 times in the past 20+ years, and I have probably only ordered off the printed menu less than ten times now. Their Specials are just usually that good.) Anyway, how it works with their Three Egg Omelets is that you choose from a list of ingredients to have in it. It's a pretty decent list, too (for both stupid vegetarian-types and dead, decaying meatetarians alike); there are about five to six different cheeses from which to choose and that is always a good basis for an omelette. Some of the other combination ideas that I was a-pondering on: Spinach-Corn-Bleu Cheese (I have no idea if these ingredients even go well together, but they sounded interesting to me); Jalapeño-Avocado-Goat Cheese; or Tomato-Basil-Provolone (I am pretty sure that they just use plain ol' fresh-cut tomatoes, but I bet this would be great with roasted tomatoes [and made with the Roma varietal would be even greater yet]).

(Sorry. The lighting is terrible in this photo. I promise that it tasted much better than this looks. You will have to forgive my photographer, he only gets paid with whatever is left over on my plate... so, today, he went hungry... again.)


This was a very good omelette. The genius that thought up this combination of ingredients is a genius! (Okay, so maybe not all of us can be members of Mensa. I tried joining their high(IQ)falutin' club one time, but they laughed me out the door when I asked them why they named their organization after a woman's monthly cycle.) There was a very good amount of all three ingredients in this. Many places will normally go all "cheapo" (no relation to either Groucho or Chico) with either the Kalamata olives or Feta cheese. Pffft! You'd think they were imported or something. Additionally, there was a ton of the roasted garlic in it, too. This added a nice sweet-savoury flavour to it. (Hmmmm?! Can it be considered Kashrut to have a meal with so much garlic in it and a Vampire Weekend song linked in the same 'blog-entry?)

When you order most of their egg dishes, you get your choice of either house-made (restaurant-made, whatever) buttermilk dill or whole wheat toast; you can also upgrade (for a minimal $1.00 charge) to their grilled chili-Cheddar corn bread (which I have done many times before and know it is totally worth it). I went with the buttermilk dill this morning. This fresh-baked bread would make for a good sandwich base, too, I bet.

For condimentary supplementation, Dottie's True blue café offers a pretty decent choice, so I don't bother bringing any of my own hot sauces with me. This morning I used some (well, about the amount a normal person would use ketchup) Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Chipotle Sauce) on the pile o' potatoes. I left the omelette unscathed by any additional heated influences as I felt there was enough flavour in it already with the three tasty ingredients of my choosing.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: 
Kalamata Olive-Roasted Garlic-Feta Three Egg Omelet ~ 6.7

___________________

1. http://www.capecodbaseball.org/

2. http://ydredsox.pointstreaksites.com/view/ydredsox

3. http://www.falmouthcommodores.com/

Seal Rock Inn Restaurant

"We lived for days on nothing but food and water." ~ W.C. Fields

http://www.sealrockinn.com/restaurant.html

http://sanfrancisco.menupages.com/restaurants/seal-rock-inn-restaurant/menu

(There really isn't any Six Degrees of Kevin ~ or Glen ~ Bacon between today's EweToob selections and the restaurant. I just happened to learn yesterday that many words of Arabic ~ not "Arabian" ~ origin that begin with the prefix "al-" have made there way directly into English; for example: "alcohol"[1], "algebra", "Alhambra", "Al Gore", etc.)


I really didn't feel like traversing anywhere far away this morning for breakfast, so I just headed back to Seal Rock[2] Inn Restaurant (see last 'blog-entry from March 31st, 2012). As they are basically the house restaurant attached to a motel (and seeing as the definition of "inn" ~ according to my Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language ~ is "a commercial establishment that provides lodging, food, etc., for the public", I am going to drop the superfluous "Restaurant" part of their name in the rest of this 'blog-entry. However, I suppose it would have been a lot more succinct to do away with this explanation altogether and just use "Restaurant" throughout, but… "My 'blog, my 'rules!"), they open up bright and early at 6:00am every day to provide food to the touristas and locals alike.

I got there plenty early enough before the invading hordes took over the place and I sat in the front room/atrium area with the canvas-covered roof, which has seating for about 60 or more. Additionally, the entrance room dining area has seating for another 20-30 people. On a clear, sunny day (like this morning), it's always much more enjoyable to sit in the atrium area with a view of the Ocean (and beyond).

Seal Rock Inn (See how much smoother it flows without the additional "Restaurant" attached to it and takes much less typing?) has a very extensive breakfastary menu. They are particularly known for their large selection of "International Omelettes" and "The Good Old American Omelettes". In the past I have tried many of their omelettes, but once again I ordered the Greek Omelette No. 1 ~ Feta cheese, olives, bell peppers, onion (they had this in the singular, but there were both red and white onions in it), and tomatoes; served with hash brown (they had this as two words on the menu and in the singular again for some reason), toast (I went with sourdough as my choice) and jelly (they actually brought out two different types, they must just really like their singulars). I also had a cuppa so-so coffee (but it was still good enough for me to not refuse another two half-cup refills, of course).

While this is a pretty predictable choice of mine (I usually get this one or the Greek Omelette No. 2 and recently discovered the Sophia's Omelette, which I am calling Greek Omelette No. 3), it beats their French Omelette, Swedish Omelette, or the (truly 'orrible) Sunrise (Omelette With No Country). (Bananas, raisins, and carrots should never be combined as ingredients in any omelette! Believe me, if you have ever tried it, you would know that no country would ever take claim for this atrocity. I think it's even mentioned in the Geneva Convention under "Cruel and Unusual Punishment".) All the Greek spices (probably at least oregano, parsley, and black pepper) in the omelette makes it taste just like αυθεντική χωριάτικη σαλάτα. I really like all three of their Greek Omelettes and can't decide which is my favourite. The No. 1 included an unbelievable amount of Feta cheese in the omelette today (and this is always a very good thing); there was easily as much Feta in this as can be found on a good Γλυφάδα ταβέρνα χωριάτικη σαλάτα (those that have lived there know exactly what I mean; the only thing missing was a glass of ρετσίνα to wash it down with). Plus, you had better not call yourself a "Greek Omelette" otherwise. The hashbrowns (and I was happy to see that there was actually more than just one) were verrrrry good and extra-crispy this morning.

Seal Rock Inn only offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) for condimentary supplementation. I used some of my own Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce ~ original flavour (Thanks agains, Amys & Brian!) on half of the hashbrowns and some Serious Food… Silly Prices Mango Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the other half of the potatoes.  I really didn't want to mess with the flavours in the omelette.

After breakfast, I went for a little walk down the street to Lands End[3] and looked out over the actual Seal Rocks. However, I didn't see any seals or sea lions on the rocks. (There was lots of bird guano all over them, though. I really think they need to rename these "Bird-shit Rocks" for truth in advertising.)

Cape Cod Baseball League/Wareham Gatemen Interlude
 
It ain't[3] really summer until there is Baseball being played on Cape Cod. I just received notification this morning that the Wareham Gatemen are holding their tryouts for this season starting today.

Go Gatemen!

http://www.capecodbaseball.org/

http://www.gatemen.org/


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Greek Omelette No. 1 ~ 6.7 (now this would be easily a 7.0+ if they used real Kalamata olives in it); Wareham Gatemen/CCBL ~ 8.0


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

Contrary to popular belief, the word "alcohol" didn't come from an Irish drunkard named "Albert Coholic". "Alcohol" was borrowed from French, which took it from Medieval Latin. Ultimately the word is from Arabic "الكحول" ("al-kuhl"; "kohl" is a powder used as an eyeliner). "Al-" is the Arabic definitive article (equivalent to "the" in English). The word "alcohol" was originally used for the very fine powder produced by the sublimation of the natural mineral stibnite to form antimony sulfide (hence the essence or "spirit" of the substance), which was used as an antiseptic, eyeliner, and cosmetic.

It is interesting to see that the same (or closely related) word is used in many other languages:

Afrikaans/Bosnian/Cebuano/Croatian/Czech/Danish/Estonian/Filipino/Hungarian/Indonesian/Javanese/Malay/Norwegian/Polish/Slovak/Slovenian/Swedish ~ "alkohol"
Albanian ~ "alkool"
Basque ~ "alkohola"
Belarusian/Russian/Ukrainian ~ "алкаголь/(alkagol')"
Bengali ~ "এলকোহল/(Elakohala)"
Bulgarian/Macedonian/Serbian ~ "алкохол/(alkokhol)"
Catalan/Dutch/Galician/Spanish/Welsh ~ "alcohol"
Esperanto ~ "alkoholo"
Finnish ~ "alkoholi"
French/Romanian ~ "alcool"
Georgian ~ "ალკოჰოლის/(alkoholis)"
German ~ "Alkohol"
Greek ~ "αλκοόλ/(alkoól)"
Haitian Creole/Turkish ~ "alkol"
Irish ~ "alcól (pronounced: Guinness®)"
Italian ~ "alcol (pronounced: Vino)"
Japanese ~ "アルコール/(Arukoru)"
Korean ~ "알코올/(alkool)"
Latvian ~ "alkohols"
Lithuanian ~ "alkoholis"
Maltese ~ "alkoħol"
Portuguese ~ "álcool"
Thai ~ "แอลกอฮอล์/(alcohol)"

See? Alcohol is the one true equalizer in the World. I say, let's all get drunk and screw!

2. They have this also in the singular; whereas, the rock formation is actually in the plural on most maps and in tourist guides. Why it is called "Seal Rocks" and not "Sea Lion Rocks", I have no idea, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_Rocks_%28San_Francisco,_California%29

3. Seriously? Herr Wilhelm Tore, you and your Auto-Spellcheck Nazis don't recognize this nonstandard ~ but generally accepted ~ word?! If you have a problem with this contraction, Billy-boy, I reckon you take it up with some bloke named Charles John Huffam Dickens that popularized it in his novels way back in the 19th Century.

4. Why this park is called "Lands End" and not "Land's End", again I have no idea.

http://parksconservancy.org/visit/park-sites/lands-end.html

Quintal’s Crack O’ Dawn

Wareham, MA (Thursday, 11/29/12)

(No official web-site.)

2605 Cranberry Highway (Route 28)
Wareham, MA  02571

Phonicular contact: (508) 273-0008

(I am pretty sure that I have used this EweToob link previously ~ probably just last Summer when I last visited Wareham, but you try and find a good Cape Cod-y song or even a Wareham-referencing one.)


I found myself back in Massachusetts earlier this week on family business (it seems that some guy that my mother slept with for the past 58 years up and died) and found time to have breakfast with some of my remaining family before returning home. We again ate at Quintal's Crack O' Dawn (see past 'blog-entry from July 22nd, 2010) in my mother's hometown of Wareham (the Gateway to Cape Cod and home of the 2012 Cape Cod Baseball League Champions Wareham Gatemen).

http://www.gatemen.org/

http://capecodbaseball.org/

Crack O' Dawn is a pretty decent little diner place along the Cranberry Highway, and one of the better breakfast places from which to choose in Wareham. There really are a dearth of breakfastary joints in this town, anyway. I have eaten there a few times in the past and usually order off of the "Power Breakfasts" portion of the menu, which offers some very good and varied choices.

There were six of us today, but only my brother Sean ordered off that portion of the menu and got the Country Breakfast ~ 2 eggs, biscuit & gravy, sausage, bacon, or ham, homefries (which they had as one word on the menu), or grits. My sister Sharon ordered the Georgia Toast ~ peaches & pecans w/wheat. My brother Kerry had a cheese and mushroom omelette; all omelettes are served w/toast & home fries (which was now two words here on the menu) or grits. My nephew Cam simply had two pancakes, bacon, and homefries (I prefer the one-word spelling, Aaron); he may also have had some eggs of some kind, but I didn't really pay much attention to what he ordered or ate (he can start his own damn 'blogs if he wants to write about his breakfasts). My mother ordered just a plain ol' biscuit (she was paying, so we really couldn’t complain about what little she ordered). I had the Denver Omelette, but substituted Swiss cheese for the dead decaying, porcine butt bits.

I ordered my meal with homefries and chose the marble rye for my toasty side (I was very happy to see that it wasn't the last two slices available and no "old bag"-calling or loaf-filching was necessary, Mr. Schnitzer). This was a decent enough omelette. I liked their homefries a lot, but some of the others at the table thought they were a bit too salty.

Sean sat across from me and gave me the best input of his meal (read: I really couldn't be bothered with everyone else's meal details); he chose the bacon and homefries sides; and he seemed to enjoy it all well enough to clean his plate. Kerry's omelette looked cheesy and mushroomy enough (after an initial mishap of our waitress/server lady bringing him a ham and cheese omelette by mistake ~ Kerry is one of those whinging people that are pretty picky about what types of meat they will eat and he doesn't partake of the dead, decaying pork-flesh; what a wimp); I think he got the grits as a side, but I don't remember what kinda toast he ordered. Sharon's French toast was French toast with peaches and pecans on top, just like it sounded and you would expect; she passed up the offer of whipped cream on top ~ big mistake in my opinion. Cam's pancakes were huge ~ about the size of a large plate each ~ and he really only ate about 1-½ of them; I ended up finishing off his homefries, even. My mother ate all of one-half of a biscuit with butter and jam.

Crack O' Dawn only offers as condimentary supplementation Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) and Frank's® RedHot Original. I judiciously used some of the Frank's® on both my homefries and on the omelette.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Denver Omelette ~ 6.0; Country Breakfast ~ 6.3 (per Sean; he is fully aware of the GBS and can be trusted with this rating); Georgia Toast ~ 7.3 (per Sharon; I really didn't have time to go into the intricacies of the GBS with her and we will just have to take her word for it; she is a woman, after all, and, as such, is prone to major exaggeration)

(I didn't query any of the others at the table for their intake, but who really cares what they think, anyway?)

Cranberry Cottage

Wareham*, MA (Wednesday, 08/03/11)

(No website available)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yam5uK6e-bQ

While on vacation last week in Massachusetts, I had breakfast at Cranberry Cottage, which is along the Cranberry Highway**, in Cranberryville***, MA.

This is a fun little local place and as there really are only a few good places in town for breakfast it was pretty busy at 9:30am on a mid-week morning. I have no idea what the Wizard of Oz has to do with either cranberries or Cape Cod ("Toto, I don‘t think we're in Hyannis anymore."), but they had this interesting diorama of the Tin Woodsman hanging from the ceiling; maybe it was made from empty cranberry sauce tins.

They have a lot of good stuff from which to choose on their menu, but seeing as we were in Cranberryville, USA, I had to go with something with cranberries in it: Cranberry Stuffed French Toast ~ made with Texas Toast; a glass of cranberry juice and a cuppa coffee; and a side o' home fries (no cranberries in it, though). My brother Sean joined me and had the Irish Benedict ~ Corned beef hash on an English muffin, 2 poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, & home fries; and an orange juice. (What do you expect? He's from New York and just didn't get with the whole cranberry idea.)

I really liked the French toast and it was over-stuffed with lots of sour cranberry goodness; it was a lot to eat as they give you four halves. I probably shoulda got the "Combo" which included Granny Smith apples in two of the halves instead of cranberries. I blame Sean for his negligence and not pointing this option out to me until after we had already ordered. The coffee was really nothing much of which to speak, but the flavour of the French toast more than made up for the bland coffee.

Sean's meal looked pretty good, too. I like that they had several "Benedict Selections" from which to choose. He seemed to enjoy it, but did mention that the corned beef seemed out of a can, not fresh. It was an original idea, still.

They offer as condimentary supplementation both Tabasco® (the standard red) and Frank's® RedHot (Original). Sean and I both went with some Frank's® on the potatoes; and I used just a little maple syrup (which I assume was 100% pure Vermont) and butter on the French toast.

Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Cranberry Stuffed French Toast ~ 7.0; Irish Benedict ~ 6.6

*(Wareham is in Plymouth County and was named after the town in Dorset, England. While not technically "on the Cape", Wareham is known as "the Gateway to Cape Cod".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wareham,_Massachusetts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wareham,_Dorset

Wareham is also the Home of your Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod Baseball League:

http://www.gatemen.org/

http://v2.capecodbaseball.org/

I always try to take in a game or two when I am visiting there. It really is the best value for your dollar ~ free, but they do ask for donations ~ and what is Summer all about if not live, local Baseball and Cape Cod beaches.)

**("The Cranberry Highway" is actually Route 28 which takes you to Cape Cod, not Route 6, where the restaurant is located ~ but what fun is there in calling it the "Marion Cottage on the Marion Road". Route 28 was called "the Cranberry Highway" because there were many ~ and still are some ~ cranberry bogs all along the side of the road.

One time while driving to the Cape, my brother Nick mentioned to his step-children to keep an eye out along the way for any cranberry bogs. When they had reached their destination, his step-daughter refused to get out of the car. When Nick asked her why, she said she was afraid of all the "raspberry bugs".

And for relating that story, I am sure that my step-niece, Christina Greena, will de-Friend me on defacedbook now.)

***(The headquarters of Ocean Spray® is actually in Middleboro/Lakeville, MA, which is just a town or so away from Wareham.)