Airport Breakfastary Food - Part VIII Orlando International Airport (MCO)[1], Orlando, FL (Sunday, 12/23/2018) https://zazacubandiner.com/ Place: zaza™ - Cuban Café Location: Airside 3 (Gates 30-59), Orlando International Airport, One Jeff Fuqua Boulevard, Orlando, FL
Hours: open daily at 5:00am Meal: Egg & Cheese Croissant; a Cuban Guava Pastry-thing (puff pastry filled with guava jelly); and to drink, a Colada[2] (Double Espresso) ~ a double shot zaza™ Cuban Espresso, infused with cremita sugar (which I made sure to have them uninfuse)[3]
(I have been told that the Jive Aces originally all hailed from República de Cuba.) Because I had eaten large homemade breakfasts (everything from gingerbread waffles and gingerbread pancakes, to French toast, to Eggs à la Grêg, to Christmas cookies [do not judge me], to etc.) almost every day during the past week while vacationing in "the City Beautiful"[4], I decided to get a simpler and smaller meal for my early morning repast on my return trip back home. So I simply and smally chose to eat at zaza™ - Cuban Café at the airport. This shop is more of a "grab-and-go" kinda place, but there were a few seats and tables at the back along the runway-side windows. The choices of actual good "sit-down" style restaurants were limited in this part of the terminal, anyway. There were really only a few other viable options off their breakfast menu for those of the stupid vegetarian ilk: Veggie (uggh!) Scrambler ~ prepared with onions, peppers, tomatoes and cheese, served with Cuban toast; Oatmeal al Caribe ~ creamy oatmeal prepared with cinnamon sticks; or Egg & Cheese Cuban Sandwich ~ fluffy scrambled eggs prepared with cheese on our toasted Cuban bread (initially I had asked for this, but the lady at the counter [counteress?] misunderstood me and entered the order incorrectly; I suppose it would have been basically the same meal as I ended up with, but with Cuban bread instead of a croissant).
meh! I suppose this was better'n most of the breakfastary cr*p you might be able to order at your local King Wendy in the McDonald's Box fast-food joints, but it really was all still rather sadly torpid in taste. The guava pastry was okay, though. The double-shot of Espresso seemed a tad bit on the short side; I wonder if they gave me a single-shot also accidentally. In the way of condimentary supplementation, all that I saw available were those plastic one-serving packets of Texas Pete®Original Hot Sauce. Unfortunately, I did not see those until after I had already finished my meal; this banal breakfast really coulda used an extra flavour boost. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Egg & Cheese Croissant ~ 5.5; Cuban Guava Pastry-thing ~ 6.2 ___________________
1. The airport code "MCO" stands for the airport's former name, McCoy Air Force Base, a Strategic Air Command (SAC) installation, that was closed in 1975 as part of a general military drawdown following the end of the Vietnam War. 2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day: The Spanish word "colada" translates as "strained" (or "wash/laundry"). I had always (mis-)assumed that it was just the Spanish word for "coconut" ~ as in "piña colada", because I knew "piña" meant "pineapple". However, it refers to the "straining" process to extract the fresh pineapple juice used in that drink. For what it is worth, the Spanish word for "coconut" is simply "coco" (see, sometimes this cunning linguistics stuff ain't cirugía de cohetes) and another Spanish word for "pineapple" is "ananás". 3. Café Cubano (also known as Cuban Espresso, Cuban Coffee, Cafecito, Cuban pull, and Cuban shot) is a type of Espresso that originated in Cuba. Specifically, it refers to an Espresso shot which is sweetened with demerara sugar which has been whipped with the first and strongest drops of Espresso. (So, technically, I just had a plain ol' Double Espresso.)
4. Yes, this is the actual chosen nickname of Orlando, Florida, USA. I do not want to insult any of the 280,000+ residents of "the City Beautiful", but I have been to downtown Oakland, California and Council Bluffs, Iowa and even they could claim that silly moniker if they really wanted.
You know, my GoLo Ranchero did start this mornin'...
(Still no official web-site type-thing any more... or any less.) Place: Cafe GoLo ~ Boutique Cafe Location: 1602 Lombard Street (at Gough Street); phonicular contact: (415) 673-4656 Hours: open every day of the week at 8:00am Meal: (to start) a raspberry-mango tart/pastry-thing; (for the main meal) GoLo Ranchero ~ corn tortillas topped with eggs, (black) beans, cheese, spicy salsa verde, served with sour cream and avocado (and some of their tasty tomato-corn salsa/relish thing); and (to drink) just a glassa orange juice (I am still fighting a cold from earlier in the week ~ this is about Round 13 and the judges have it scored 7-6 in my favour so far ~ and need all the extra Vitamin C that I can consume)
(There really is/are no EweToobular juxtaselection/s between this morning's breakfastary destination and Lightnin' Hopkins' Texas Blues. I had just posted some of ol' Sam's songs the last time that I visited Cafe GoLo and felt like it once again.) In concluding the pre-Season work-out of my Breakfastary Starting Rotation, I finished up back at Cafe GoLo ~ Boutique Cafe (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, October 2nd, 2016). I got a chance to finally question Miss PeeBee why there is no mention of their great baked goods anywhere on their menu. She told me that they are printing new menus very soon and that omission will be addressed (or no longer omitted, I suppose). They have really been missing out on these not being on the menu and relying solely upon stupid tourista-types to notice that they even have a large glass bakery shelf display in the back of the restaurant. As I have said this many times before in the past (because "before in the future" makes no sense, what-so-ever, even if you do own a hover-board), "These pastries are really worth a visit all for their-d*mn-selves!"
This dish is easily the best breakfast along Lombard Street (not that there are really that many places from which to choose for breakfast directly on Lombard Street, but still), and, if not for the most excellent Pain Perdu at Baker Street Bistro, I might even go as far to say, that this is the best breakfast in the entire Marina District/Cow Hollow area, too. I like that they give you an option of how you would like your eggs on top of the pile (and smothered under a great amount of spicy salsa verde ~ which is really the killer key to this entire dish); I went with my eggs "over-medium" this morning. I also love the amount of black beans that this sits atop. This would probably not be a good dish for any of you legumophobes (So, it's not a real word. Start your own d*mn 'blog-thing then.); however, black beans/black turtle beans[1] have been a favourite of mine since I first tried them wayyyyy back in 1983 at a Cuban restaurant in Miami, Ef-el-ay. (Thanks, Jordie & Pamela!) Don't worry, for those of you that do like to partake of the dead, decaying animal flesh (well, in this case, the dead decaying paltry poultry flesh), this meal can also have chicken added to it (Sorry, Mr. Hunt.). (So, which would come first? The "over-medium" eggs in the GoLo Ranchero or the chicken in the GoLoRanchero?) Having predetermined that I was going to be ordering the GoLo Ranchero before I had even left my apartment this morning, I did not bother schlepping any of my own hot sauces with me (for which Miss PeeBee did notice and mentioned to me). After all, only a true heathen (or true alcoholic) would bring their own Brown Ale to Newcastle upon Tyne! Because I could (and because they were seasonably available), I made sure to get an extra mixed-fruit tart/pastry-thing and a sweet potato tart/pastry-thing to take home with, to enjoy later this afternoon (or tomorrow while watching the NFL Conference Championship games ~ Go Patriots! Go Packers!). Glen Bacon Scale Rating: GoLoRanchero ~ 7.4; raspberry-mango tart/pastry-thing ~ 7.2 ___________________
1. An entire web-site dedicated to black beans?! Just what can't you find on these World Wild Webs? http://blackbeans.me/
http://boogaloossf.com/ http://parada22.com/ Place: Boogaloos Location: (well, for Parada 22 Comida Puertorriqueña) 1805 Haight Street (between Shrader and Stanyan Streets) Hours: open at 9:00am for "Pop-up" breakfasts only on Saturday and Sunday Meal: Vegan Chorizo & Eggs ~ 2 scrambled eggs with white beans, salsa, and green onions; a "side kick" of home fries; a large glassa orange juice to drink with the meal; and, for afterwards, while just walking up and down Haight Straight, a cuppa pour over-style Counter CultureLa Golondrina from Stanza Coffee https://counterculturecoffee.com/store/coffee/la-golondrina (Sorry. I could not locate an official-type web-site for the coffeeshop itself.)
("Hey, Brian?! What's up with these the BeatlesEweToobular juxtaselections here? I thought this place was supposed to be some kinda Comida Puertorriqueña." Well, first off, there was no way I was ever gonna link any m*ldito Ricky Martin songs on MY 'blog-thing. Secondly, the restaurant was playing the Beatles songs exclusively this morning. It was very interesting, too; all the versions that they were playing sounded like the standard album versions, but seemed to have been enhanced[?] to sound like they were being played at a live concert or something. When I asked my waitress/server lady-person [who was una salvadoreña, by the way] about it, all that she could tell me was that they were being played off a Pandora® radio station. And, yes, I suppose that I could have done a mucho betteroEweToobular juxtaselection by linking the Richard Starkey, MBE solo song "back off boogaloo", but, let's face it, everybody knows that the REAL the Beatles drummer was the much more talented Pete Best! the Beatles music went straight downhill after he left the group. Just look at the history: they only lasted another eight years or so after he left the group, and they have never recorded together ever again!) I headed over to the Haight for breakfast this morning and ended up at Boogaloos (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, February 8th, 2015) "Pop-up" at Parada 22 Comida Puertorriqueña. I can only assume that there is some kinda relationship between these two restaurants (same ownership?). I have been meaning to get back to their original location over in the Mission, but it is still closed due to a fire from several months back (May-ish 2016). I confirmed with my salvadoreña waitress/server lady-person that they should be opening again... one of these days. My original point-of-attack was going to be to revisit Sparrow Bar & Kitchen (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, November 14th, 2015). I had arrived on Haight Street a little after 9:00am and was just planning on walking around a bit until Sparrow Bar & Kitchen opened at 10:00am. I then remembered that Parada 22 Comida Puertorriqueña was now doing a "Pop-up" breakfast for Boogaloos and decided to go directly there instead; it ended up saving me about forty-five minutes of waiting, anyway. I have eaten at Parada 22 Comida Puertorriqueña a few times before for lunch and dinner and knew that I liked their food, anyway. It is not a very large restaurant; it only has seating of five tables for two (three of which could have been made into one long table for six because they had those wing-extensions on the sides of each table), one table for four people, one large table for ten people (which could also have been used to seat five couples if they didn't mind table-sharing), and seven stools at a counter-seating area. As I was the only person eating there the entire time that I was there, it was plenty enough space for me. The "Pop-up" Boogaloos menu that they offer is not the entire normal Boogaloos menu, but it still offers many good choices. Additionally, there was a separate menu with three versions of Eggs Benedict from which to choose. If I hadn't gone with the choice that I did, I would probably have gone with Eggs Valencia ~ English muffing [ sic, I kid you not, and it was mispelded that way for each of the Eggs Benedict dishes descriptions ] topped with poached eggs, avocado, bacon (which I would have had omitted, of course), and Hollandaise sauce (I think a nice salsa ranchera would work better here, though).
Yeah, I mucho liked this desayuno. I really liked that this came with a side of habichuelas puertorriqueños (hence the silly subtitular remark above); these were braised white beans with green olives, potatoes, carrots, sweet peppers, and pumpkin. I have had this side dish before when I had lunch at Parada 22 Comida Puertorriqueña and liked them then, too. I was also very happy to see that it came with a side of Tostones (fried traditional pressed green plantains with salsa rosa); I was even thinking of ordering a "side kick" of those in place of the homefries. Of course, this all ended up being waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much food for me; I did finish it all, but just barely. Like Boogaloos, Parada 22 Comida Puertorriqueña offers their own fresh-made salsa habanera in bottles on all the tables. I asked my salvadoreña waitress/server lady-person if it was the same as the one that was served at Boogaloos, but she stated it was similar, but a different recipe. However, if her knowledge of las salsas was anything like her knowledge of la música, I am not so sure that it wasn't exactly the same. It tasted a lot the same to me, anyway. Because I was originally planning on going to a different restaurant, I had brought a few of my own hot sauces with me this morning; I ended up using just a skosh[1] of my own Florida GoldPremium Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Kerry!) on top of the scrambled eggs and Vegan chorizo stuff. I suppose the usage of both of today's habanero-based hot sauces could be in honour of the passing of ol' El Presidente hisdammself(but don't count on it)[2]. Today's Coffee input was truly exceptional. I am not sure if I have ever had any Coffee from this particular roastery before. I liked this cuppa so much that I even bought a different 12 oz bagga their Tairora to check out for later use at home. I haven't tried any yet, but when I was grinding up the whole beans, it smelled realllly good. My kitchen still smells great (for a change). https://counterculturecoffee.com/store/coffee/tairora Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Vegan Chorizo & Eggs ~ 6.7; Parada 22 Comida Puertorriqueña's fresh-made salsa habanera ~ 7.2; Counter CultureLa Golondrina ~ 7.3 ___________________
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day: It is well-known that "skosh" is Spanish for "just a smidgen". I have no idea how to say "skosh" in Japanese, though. 2. You can look up the origin of the word "habanero" yerdammself! Now this is pretty funny. I saw several posts and references about "Fidel is dead!" this morning on defacedbook; it never occurred to me that it might be Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz. I was reading "Fidel" as if it were a Hebrew or Israeli name in origin and was pronouncing it as "FIE-dle" (rhyming with "bridal") in my head and really couldn't understand whom they meant. Hey, don't judge me before I have had any Coffee that early in the morning! "Let ye who is without Coffee cast the first bean!"
(They play some pretty cool music here. The original Bobby Womack 70's classic "Across 110th Street" was playing at one point. I just like this "cover" version with Bobby and Los Lobos better.)
(No web-site available, and somehow I really don't think they care.)
(LONG AFTER THE VISIT EDIT: Avoid this "establishment" at all costs ~ even if it is free. I know that I will never darken their door ~ even a deeper burgundy or maroon ~ again. If a "straight" or "Yuppie" restaurant ever attempted to exclude customers in this way, you can be sure that the ACLU would be on them faster than you can say "blue-haired tranny Nazi". The food was good, but not that good. If you would like a list of at least ten places in San Francisco that have better French toast ~ and all bitchy attitude-free ~ just ask me. For an explanation, please see my 'blog-entry from August 26th, 2012: http://breakfastatepiphany.blogspot.com/2012/08/cafe-golo.html Mick Jagger had it right.)
I had heard some pretty good things aboutRed Door Cafe (I am not sure if that is avec ou sans accent aigu; it wasn't designated on their menu, nor on their sign above the entrance) and finally got around to going there for breakfast this morning. They are located somewhere in the no-man's land over on the corner of Bush and Franklin Streets, near all the old car dealerships on Van Ness (which is somewhat triangulated between the Western Addition, Pacific Heights, and Nob Hill neighborhoods).
It is pretty easy to locate along Bush Street as there really aren't many other places around there to eat and there is normally a line waiting on the sidewalk to get in. That is because this is one of the tinier places I have been to for breakfast in a long time. They only have five tables of two seats and one table of four seats… and that is it! Someone came in while I was eating and kiddingly asked for a party of sixteen to be seated. So, be prepared for a bit of a wait. I got there just before they opened this morning and was lucky enough to be seated with the first group of diners (breakfasters?).
Their menu is mainly a Cuban-inspired one with a French twist. They have many good things on their standard menu for a vegetarian; plus, they have a few other items on their specials menu that looked pretty tasty, too.
However, I skipped most everything on the menu(s) as I mainly came here to check out the French Toast Josephine ~ Delicious Ginger, Cinnamon Dipped French Toast with Powdered Sugar, Shaved Almonds (or maybe they were just prepubescent), and a Hint of Seduction*. I had it with added banana, and they even threw in a slice of mango and some berries (blue-, rasp-, and straw-) without my even asking for them. I also had a cuppa their House Coffee ~ which is from a good local roastery, Capricorn Coffee ~ in a "Smiley-face" mug at that.
Now, this was good French toast, but it really doesn't compare to the Pain Perdu at Baker Street Bistro; and I really didn't expect it to, as that is an unfair comparison to most eggy-bread dishes. This also wasn't as good as the coconutty French toast I had last Summer at Neighborhood Restaurant & Bakery (see 'blog-entry from July 10th, 2010), but I would recommend checking it out if you are a French toast aficionado (sorry, I don't know how to say that in either French or Spanish). I had expected the banana (singular and whole) to have been sliced and sautéed (à la the most excellent Bananas Foster French Toast that they used to serve at the now-defunct Merchant's Way restaurant in downtown Wareham, MA), but I did find out that I really liked this flavour combination: Maple, Mango, and Mint ~ this is the real 3M (those miners up in Minnesota be damned).
I was kinda surprised to find out that they do not offer any side orders of any kind of potato dishes: no home fried, no hash browns, no home baked, no house potatoes, nor home fried-hash browns, even. So there was no need for any complimentary supplementation on my part. However, I did bring a few hot sauces from my collection just in case. I ended up loaning some of the Palo Alto Fire Fighters Pepper Sauce (Thanks again, Amy!) to the couple at the next table because they had egg dishes.
The one thing that I am still trying to figure out is why they named the place "Red Door Cafe"… must have something to do with communism or Castro.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: French Toast Josephine ~ 6.3
*(I asked if I could have a "Soupçon of Temptation" instead, but they strictly enforced the "No Substitutions" rule with me… fargin' bastages!)
I revisited Boogalos in the Mission (see April 25th, 2010 entry) this morning. Boogaloos is one of the places in my Starting Rotation of breakfast eateries. There are many great vegetarian breakfasts from which to choose on their menu: e.g. Boogaloo Classic (2 eggs any style, homefries and a biscuit smothered in vegetarian herb-cream gravy, topped with green onions), Polenta-n-eggs (Grilled polenta and salsa ranchero served with 2 eggs any style, black beans, sour cream and cabbage salad), or the "Make It Funky" Scram (2 eggs scrambled with your favorite ingredients from The Kitchen Cupboard: http://www.boogaloossf.com/cupboard.html ). My corner seat provided me with a nice view of an egg-lectic Rooster/Chicken tableau (see below) while waiting for my meal and listening to a little Patsy Cline playing on the house stereo ("Crazy", etc.).
I had one of my favourites of theirs, Desayuno Típico (which is Spanish for "Typical Breakfast"; however, there really is nothing típico about this meal unless you happen to be un habanero*) ~ 2 eggs any style (my style: over-medium), grilled plantain cake topped with tamarind** sour cream, served with black beans and corn tortillas. The plantain cakes are excellent all by themselves, but served with the tamarind sour cream this is really a special meal; and all go very well paired with los frijoles negros.
I also ordered a side o' homefries (just because there was not enough carbohydrates already coming) and a large grapefruit juice. (Don't let the picture fool you, their side order of homefries is usually HUGE; I just asked them to go light on me, as I knew it would be way too much food as it was.) The house coffee is Peerless Coffee & Tea®; it is usually very good and strong, and tastes great all by itself, but I added some maple syrup to it (this has become a tradición of mine whenever I eat there). It's just nice that they have maple syrup on the tables; as it was already there, I used some.
There is only Tapatío® available on the tables, so I went with some of my own Cholula® on the homefries and some Chipotle-Habanerosalsa on the eggs.
*(Stupid cunning linguist pointer of the day: "Habanero/habanera" is the Spanish word for a person from the capital city of Cuba. The fiery hot chili pepper gets its name from the same root word; it was actually native to the Yucatan peninsula, but was traded through Habana/Havana apparently and the name stuck ~ kinda like "tangerine" through Tangier, Morocco. I did find something out today ~ Isn't the Intro-Net wonderful? You look for things and can find them. ~ the correct spelling is "habanero", not "habañero" as I had always thought. This is due to something called hyperforeignism. From Wikipedia: "A hyperforeignism is a special type of hypercorrection resulting from an unsuccessful attempt to apply the rules of a foreign language to a loan word (for example, the application of the rules to a word borrowed from another), or occasionally to a native English word believed to be a loan word. The result may be 'absurd,' reflecting 'neither the… rules of English nor those of the language from which the word in question comes.' For example, habanero is sometimes spelled with a tilde (habañero), which is incorrect in the Spanish from which the word comes, and this error is perhaps influenced by the correct spelling of another Spanish-named pepper, jalapeño." Since finding this out, I will be careful to spell it correctly in the future… but there is ño way I am goiñg back añd correctiñg it iñ all my past posts here, that would just be ñuts.) **(For those of you unfamiliar with tamarinds, it is an ugly little fruit, but very tasty: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarind )
