https://breadbellysf.com/ Place: Breadbelly Location: 1408 Clement Street (near the corner of 15th Avenue) Hours: open at 8:00am Wednesday to Monday (so, basically, they are closed on Tuesdays) Meal: Smashed Cucumber & Avocado(salad) ~ dressed with nam prik num (spicy Thai chili-lime vinaigrette)[1], sesame seeds, basils[ sics ]; to drink with the meal a glassa Mandarin Monkey ~ OrionLager, mandarin, & OJ (I kid you not, Mike D!); and, afterward, as a breakfastary dessert-thing, a Bavarian Cream doughnut from Frena Bakery https://www.orionbeer.co.jp/brand/draft/index.html https://frenabakery.com/product/dozen-bavarian-cream-donuts
(I do not care how "reet" or "new" the "skank" is, I would rather stick with a Bavarian Cream doughnut, Chrissie. And the second EweToobular video is just because I know that ol' Petey Gabbie is a big fan of orange juice-and-Beer for breakfast, too.) Yeah. It was inevitable that I would return to Breadbelly (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, June 16th, 2019) to try their version of a Brass Monkey[2]. With this morning's dish, I think that I have about now run through their gamut of st*pid vegetarian-friendly breakfast items, leaving only: Mushroom BarleyBroth ~ Maitake & Enoki mushrooms, roasted barley tea, spring peas (I have no idea what this might look like or taste like, but I will try anything once... hence the Mandarin Monkey this morning). Additionally, there are a few more drink items that I do want to try: Iced Sesame Horchata ~ oat+rice milk, Saigon cinnamon; and, off their "Specials" board, Watermelon Lychee Tea(which is served cold; I asked).
With the drink and salad, this may have been one of the stranger breakfast combinations that I have had in a while. Ya know, as disgusting as it sounds, the drink was really not half-bad (so I only drank the half-good part). Hey, do not judge me! It had both orange juice and mandarin bits in it, so that makes it breakfastarily sound. "But... Beer... for breakfast, Brian?!" Apparently, you did not see last Saturday's silly li'l 'blog-thing. This was made with a Japanese (Okinawan, to be exact) Beer, so I am not sure why it is labeled specifically as "Mandarin Monkey"; perhaps all the monkeys in Okinawa have swum over to mainland China. (And if you think this combination of Beer and orange juice is a bit strange, I would like to introduce you to a Montana Red Bird~ made with Beer [usually a light Lager-style] and tomato juice.) On a previous visit, one of the counter-server guys told me that the nam prik num dressing is made with fish-sauce in it, but they could make the salad with a different vinaigrette; so, they substituted a champagne vinaigrette for me instead. All in all, this was a pretty simple and basic dish. It was not really "smashed", but was made with a cubed avocado (about a whole half) and cucumbers, and with several halved cherry tomatoes; plus, a good amount of basils[ sics ] leaves/sprigs throughout. In my opinion, I think that it mighta coulda used just a little something extra in it: some fresh sliced jalapeños or pickled onions, perhaps. I also wonder if it could possibly be made with a poached egg on top. I still have not bothered to ask what they might have to offer in the way of condimentary supplementation. I used some of my own Dragon's Lair Extra HotCayenne & Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) all over the salad junk (mainly because it did not include any spicy Thai chili-lime vinaigrette) and a couple of shakes of McCormick®Grill Mates®Smokehouse MapleSeasoning on top, too. The Grill Mates® dealie is brand new to my condimentary arsenal; I just bought it last weekend because I was all out of both black pepper and grains of paradise and wanted to try something new. While this is not really a "salt-substitute" ~ as the first ingredient listed is "salt" ~ I did like the flavour it added... I am just not exactly sure how the "natural flavor (including smoke)" is included (there are probably some mirrors involved in the manufacturing process). https://www.mccormick.com/grill-mates/flavors/seasoning-blends/grill-mates-smokehouse-maple-seasoning Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Smashed Cucumber & Avocado ~ 6.3; Brass Monkey-thing ~ 6.5; Bavarian Cream doughnut ~ 6.7 ___________________ 1. http://thaifoodparadise.com/recipe/nam-prik-noom-recipe-northern-thai-green-chili-dip/ 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_Monkey_(cocktail)
http://www.blackwoodsf.com/ Place: Blackwood Location: 2150 Chestnut Street (between Steiner and Pierce Streets) Hours: open every day at 9:00am for breakfast and/or "Brunch" Meal: THAI SHAKSHUKA ~ Tomyum[1]tomato stew, poached eggs, pork (of course, I แปดสิบหก-ed this ingredient), onion, bacon (this ingredient also went ลาก่อน), scallion, cilantro, fried garlic, mild goat cheese; and, to drink with the meal, a large glassa Raspberry-Lemonade; and, beforehand, to enjoy wandering up-and-down Chestnut Street while waiting for the restaurant to open for the morning, a dynamo donut + coffeePassionfruitMilk Chocolate doughnut (bought at a local bodega along Chestnut Street, too) https://dynamodonut.com/menu
(Yeah, there is really no EweToobular juxtaselection here. I dunno, maybe Catherine Elizabeth Pierson loves her some spicy Tom Yum, too.) Ho-kay... onward and upward with the Taylor Street Coffee Shop-family mini-chain brought me back to Blackwood (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, October 22nd, 2017). I think that this restaurant was the third in their mini-chain to open (circa June 2012).
I sat outside again in their sidewalk/alcove-patio seating area. The morning was still a bit foggy and chilly, so I did keep my sweatshirt on; they also had the overhead gas-heaters going this morning, anyway. Their menu is similar to what is offered at most of their other restaurants, and there are a few other ideas still worth checking out ("... out worth checking"?! Nah, that does not sound right all at.): (once again, in keeping with their menu stylization, I am attempting to imitate the different font sizes used on the dish names) SNOWED SPINACHSCRAMBLE ~ baby spinach with white Cheddar, served with RainbowPotatoes and ciabatta toast; PRIMAVERA WHITEOMELET ~ roasted tomato, mushroom, arugula, served w/ berries instead of potatoes (which I would probably have tried to have substituted back with the multicoloured underground tubers instead);
BLACKSTONE BENNY (Didn't he used to be the straight-man for Eddie Anderson?) ~ poached eggs, Millionaire's Bacon® (which I would have to go all pauper on), asparagus, cherry tomato, Meyer lemonHollandaise on English Muffin, also served with RainbowPotatoes (just no toast); MARINA JOK MOO ~ rice porridge with bacon, garlic, carrots, spinach, mushroom, cherry pepper, green onion, cilantro, poached egg, sesame and tamari sauce drizzled (I am not even sure if this could even be made st*pid vegetarian-friendly, but it might be worth asking); or maybe even
POPOVERs(!) w/AVOCADO (???) ~ offered with three different toppings: Strawberry, goat cheese, avocado, balsamic glaze; Bacon, avocado, tomato, honey; or Walnut (candid)[ sic ] (or perhaps that was not a typo, just an indication of the walnut's sincerity, Frank), avocado, Parmesan (I saw these ordered at two other tables and it looked pretty interesting; as best as I could tell, there is half an avocado already baked inside the Popovers[!]; if I did get this, I would probably have to supplement it with at least an order of RainbowPotatoes).
(For those of you that do partake of the dead, decaying porky-butts. This is the kinda "Flight" that always made me want to remain on Ground-Status when I was in the Air Force, though.)
What can I say? I liked it. I have had several other versions of Shakshuka (mostly at Arab or Middle Eastern restaurants) over the years and this was right up there in tastocity (yeah, so, it ain't a real word... tough!). The Tom Yum sauce was a very nice flavour-change. I coulda easily used another piece of the ciabatta toast with which to soak up more of the sauce. I bet this woulda been even better with some fresh sweet basil leaves in it (as long as they did not have to go all the way to Kirk Hammerton to procure those)[2], but that is just my สองสตางค์ worth... With my pre-breakfastary snack of the doughnut, this ended up being a lot more food than I had expected. I am glad that I did not order a side of their Rainbow Potatoes (however, with this being PrideWeekend and all, those woulda been the perfect side for the morning). Blackwood only offered Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce, which it had bottles of both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce on all the tables. The Tom Yum-Shakshuka sauce was lightly spicy enough that I did not need to mess with its flavours in any way, though. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: THAI SHAKSHUKA ~ 6.7; dynamo donut + coffeePassionfruitMilk Chocolate doughnut ~ 7.5 ___________________
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day: Here is a little-known Cliff Clavinistic fact: The spicy Thai soup known as "Tom Yum" was originally named by Yuliy Borisovich Briner when he was filming "The King and I" in Thailand. He took one taste and said "This is yummy in my tummy!". One of the native Thai waiters mis-overheard him and passed it on to the chef as "Tummy-Yummy". It has stuck to this day.* *(Nah! Did anyone really buy that one? Was I just joking there? Of course, Siam... The words "tom yam" are derived from two Thai words. "Tom" ["ต้ม"] refers to the boiling process, while "yam" ["ยำ"] refers to a Thai spicy and sour salad.) 2. Okay, there may be two people reading this silly li'l 'blog-thing that will get that st*pid reference.
Place: Madhouse Coffee Location: 402 Visitacion Avenue, Brisbane, CA; phonicular contact: (415) 467-4003 Hours: open Monday - Friday at 5:30am, Saturday & Sunday at 6:30am Meal: Chile Verde Burrito ~ scrambled eggs, (some kinda) green chilies, and potatoes (there may have been another ingredient or two in it, but I did not remember to write them down); and, to drink, a medium (which really was more of a Large, if you ask me; and if I had ordered their Large, I may not have gotten any sleep the rest of the week) cuppa Madhouse CoffeePeru (Medium-Dark Roast), made in the single cuppa pour-over style https://www.mclaughlincoffee.com/collections/products/products/peru-organic
(Yeah, I know I coulda also used Madness' "Our House", but I always felt that one was a bit too poppish for my liking.) As crazy as it may sound, I used to stop by Madhouse Coffee at least once a week several years ago when I was still working in Brisbane proper (2005-2012), mostly just for a cuppa on my way to work, but every so often also for a quick breakfast before work.
The sleepy little hamlet of Bedlam... er... I mean, Brisbane is located immediately south of San Francisco along the western shore of the San Francisco Bay. It is just a stones-throw (or name-calling distance) from where the old Candlestick Park ballpark was once located. It has boundaries to its south with South San Francisco and to its west (over San Bruno Mountain [hill, really]) with Daly City.
One really cool thing about this small town is that, somewhere along the line, someone started painting some of the fire hydrants in town. There are several working fire hydrants that are now pieces of art. Additionally, there is one little corner park dedicated to several non-working plugs, too.
Madhouse Coffee is just your standard coffeehouse, but it is the main one in Brisbane. Seating-wise, inside there are eight small tables that can seat two to four people each. Now, outside, there is a much more spacious three-tiered garden seating area with another eight tables for two to four people, too. There really are not a lot of items that are offered in the way of breakfast. They do offer a number of sandwiches and the like throughout the day. A few other ideas for breakfast would be bagel breakfast sandwiches. They have a few different items that can be requested, like scrambled (well, nuked, actually) eggs and maybe a "veggie" sausage; plus, they have the requisite cream cheese and also hummus. (However, the bagels and pastries had not been delivered yet this morning when I had arrived a little after 7:30am; otherwise, I might have gone with an egg-"veggie" sausage-bagel sandwich combination. The delivery guys did finally show up just before I had finished eating, though.)
Like many small, family-owned coffeehouses, a lotta the food is already prepared (there were three or four different types of wrapped burritos from which to choose; I did not remember to get the local brand name, though) and displayed in a front counter refrigerated case, and only needs to be reheated. My burrito was tasty enough, even if it was not freshly made for me. The barista/counter-person guy told me that their Coffee is provided to them by McLaughlin Coffee Roasting Company (local guys outta Emeryville... well, for now, until they are either swallowed up by those bastages at St*rbucks or the almost equally greedy folks at JAB Holding Company/Peet's/Keurig Dr Pepper). They do offer two other pour-over options: Italian (Dark Roast) and Island (Medium Roast). I did not ask what they might have to offer in the way of any condimentary supplementation. Once again, I just used some more of my own Old St. Augustine Snake Bite Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) all over the burrito. I left my Coffee unscathed by any hot sauce, though.
(Here is a little Cliff Clavinistic fact: Paul Simon happens to be a HUGE doughnut fan, but Art Garfunkel can not stand them. There would normally be powdered sugar all over the recording studio and Art would occasionally storm out fuming. This was one of the main reasons that they parted ways in the early 70's. You can look it up yerd*mnself if'n you don't believe me!)
(not really such a) Strange Doughnut Interlude The newest and nearest Dunkin'Donuts® in the Bay Area (and, yeah, I am well-aware that their current corporate name is simply "Dunkin'®", but that just sounds rather silly to me) opened up in South San Francisco back in late January 2017. Today was my initial visit and it was totally a premeditated one. Knowing that I was going to be in the area, anyway, I finally was able to use a freebie $5.00 gift-card that I had received back during Christmas vacation while waiting in line for Cirque du Soleil in St. Petersburg (the one in Florida, not the lesser-known village in Russia). Using the entire $5.00-balance, I was able to purchase a small cuppa Original Blend (which is a bit of a [too] Light Roast for me) and three doughnuts: one Boston Kreme (which I ate there with the Coffee ~ I did not really need another cuppa that soon after breakfast, but it was "free", so I was not going to pass it by), one Jelly (good luck trying to determine exactly which fruit flavour is used in this one; is "red" a fruit?), and one Bavarian Kreme (the latter two I will eat later today/tonight). (Do I really need to provide an Intro-Net link to Dunkin'Donuts® web-site?!) Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Chile Verde Burrito ~ 6.5; Madhouse CoffeePeru ~ 6.9; Dunkin'Donuts®Original Blend ~ 5.8 (and I am being very generous with this rating); Boston Kreme doughnut ~ 6.0 (just barely; I grew up on these "fat-pills" and still enjoy 'em whenever I am Back East, but they are really wayyyyy too sweet for me now) ___________________
1. The thriving megalopolis of Brisbane, California was actually named after the much smaller town in Queensland, Aussie-Aussie-Aussie-land. https://brisbaneca.org/ (hahaha! I find it very humourous that they actually call Brisbane "the 'City' of the Stars". How many "Cities" do you know that have a population under 5,000?!)
Because I really could not see myself eating breakfast without a cuppa Coffee and a doughnut afterward...
http://www.toasteatery.com/ (This web-site is more site-specific for their Noe Valley locations, but they offer a lotta the same dishes at their West Portal restaurant.) Place: Toast Eatery Location: 160 West Portal Avenue (between Vicente Street and 14th Avenue); phonicular contact: (415) 566-200 Hours: open at 7:00am every day of the week Meal: Huevos Rancheros ~ 2 eggs any style (mi estilo this morning was sobre medio) on corn tortillas with black beans, sour cream, salsa ranchera and a side of chipotle coleslaw; and, to drink with the meal, a large(-ish) glassa grapefruit juice (which came with an old-timey paper straw even) Whenever it is time for my annual eye exam (hence, the silly "see myself" pun in the 'blog-title today), I usually like to have a nice breakfast aforehand at one of the restaurants along West Portal (which, coincidentally enough, happens to be where my optometrist is also located). So, I headed back once again to Toast Eatery(see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, April 28, 2018 ~ so, yeah, basically-exactly one year ago). Dining Tip o' the Day: If you happen to be right-handed, do not seat yourself on the side of the table that is right up against the wall making your dominant hand mostly inoperable. Luckily, there really was not a lotta junk that needed any knife-action on it (at first, I did attempt cutting up the eggs on top of the tortillas with my knife, but just ended up cutting through them with my fork instead), and I have somewhat mastered the trick of eating Britishlander-style with the fork (as sinister as this may sound) in my left hand. I have eaten at all four of the Toast Eaterylocations several times now over the years, but, even so, there are still some other good ideas yet left to try: California Scrambler ~ egg whites, tomato, fresh basil, avocado and Cheddar, served with hashbrowns and choice of Toast; "Veggie" Omelet ~ mushrooms, spinach, tomato and Provolone, served with hashbrowns and choice of Toast;
or Wet "Veggie" Burrito ~ flour tortilla filled with scrambled eggs, grilled "veggies", black beans, Cheddar cheese and sour cream; topped with salsa ranchera and avocado, served with hashbrowns (this one was my back-up plan).
(Yes, I am well-aware that there was no actual "Toast" with my meal this morning, but you can not make a "tostada" without corn tortillas.) Now, there really is not much to a standard Huevos Rancheros dish: (in today's case) two over-medium eggs on top of some corn tortillas; so, not much really going on there. What makes a standard Huevos Rancheros dish stand out from restautante to restaurante is how their salsa ranchera is made. This salsa ranchera at Toast Eatery was una muy buena y sabrosa salsa ranchera; it was not very espicy, just very etasty. Of course, the real standout for me this morning was the side of chipotle coleslaw; now that was extremely etasty! I was not planning on messing with the flavour of their salsa ranchera in any way, but I did notice that they offered the Standard San Francisco Triumvirate of Hot Sauces™: Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce), Tapatío®Salsa Picante Hot Sauce, and Cholula®Hot Sauce (Original). Of which, none was needed, nor was none used.
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, unang bahagi: This particular cultivar of Coffee beans was not named after the 44th President of these here United States. The word "Barako" in Philippine languages is equivalent to the English term "stud" (both literally and figuratively), from Spanish "varraco" (meaning "wild boar"). The word is associated with connotations of masculinity and machismo in Filipino culture. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, ikalawang bahagi: The Filipino word for "Coffee" is simply "Kape". I was once told by a native Filipina that the "F" in many Filipino words is usually pronounced like a "P", anyway. How pucking silly is that?!
(I could not locate an official web-site thing. This was the best that I could find.) Place: Jerry Remy'sSports Bar & Grill Location: 1 Harborside Drive, Logan International Airport, Terminal C, Boston, MA; phonicular contact: (617) 567-5379 Hours: ??? (your guess is as good as mine; without an official web-site thing, I have no way of knowing; it was open after 8:00am for breakfast when I had arrived there, at least) Meal: Veggie Omelet ~ fresh mushrooms, bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, and Vermont Cheddar (or more colloquially [or "co-locally"]: "Ched-dah") cheese, served with home fries and (wheat) toast; and a glassa orange juice with the meal; afterward, for a breakfastary dessert, a Boston Kreme doughnut and a small (12oz) cuppa Original Blend (black-no-sugar, thank you) at Dunkin'Donuts® (which was also located nearby in Terminal C) https://www.dunkindonuts.com/en/food-drinks/donuts/donuts
(I have heard that this James Vernon Taylor-person also likes Boston Kreme doughnuts. I guess they will let just about any street-busker perform from the Dugout in Fenway Park.) I have traveled through Logan International Airport, Terminal C many times before and have been meaning to try eating breakfast at Jerry Remy'sSports Bar & Grill; I finally completed that try. I was not quite sure that I would actually have time to eat a sit-down breakfast, as we had left Wareham at almost exactly 7:00am. However, due to light-to-little Sunday morning traffic (and, thankfully, the torrential rains of Summer were holding off) all the way to the airport, I was dropped off (Thanks, Kerry! Another successful "Pick-up & Drop-off" completed!) with more than ample time for breakfast (and even breakfastary dessert, too). I am not quite sure of the status of this last remaining location of the Jerry Remy'sSports Bar & Grill franchise. I do know that the two other freestanding locations ~ one in Boston (right next to Fenway Park) and one in Jerry's birth-town of Fall River ~ have closed permanently due to financial problems (the one in Boston closed back in 2016 and the one in Fall River just closed earlier this year in May). It happens to the best of them, I suppose. Even Sam "Mayday" Malone could not save the Bull & Finch Pub from going out of business. If this restaurant is still in business the next time that I am heading home through Boston, there were a couple of other ideas that I would possibly like to check out: Brioche French Toast ~ made with thick cut brioche, served with pure maple syrup ('cause that un-pure stuff just ain't worth serving), add seasonal berries for only $1.00 (which is probably the way I would go); or Florentine Benedict ~ poached eggs, tomatoes and spinach on an English muffin topped with Hollandaise sauce, served with home fries. I also noticed on their menu that they "Proudly Serve" Peet's Coffee & Tea[2]House Blend Coffee. I probably mighta went with a cuppa that if I had not already been thinking on getting me the cuppa Dunkin'Donuts®Original Blend.
I was a bit disappointed that the serving dishes were not in the shape of Home Plate (or at least Second Base, What?). Tableware notwithstanding, this was a pretty decent omelette (as far as airport food standards go), but nothing quite gather-worthy. I liked that they actually grilled the toast and that the homefries were made with red potatoes with green bell peppers and onions in them. Jerry Remy'sSports Bar & Grill offered for condimentary supplementation both Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Huy Fong Foods Inc.Sriracha HOT Chili Sauce. I just used some (well, about as much as a normal person would use ketchup) Sriracha on the homefries. D'oh! I just thought of this after-the-fact. I shoulda ordered some of their pancakes for breakfast so I coulda shouted: "BATTER'S UP!!!" Glen BaconScale Rating: Veggie Omelet ~ 6.3; Dunkin'Donuts®Original Blend ~ 6.4; Dunkin'Donuts®Boston Kreme ~ 5.9 (surprisingly, as much as I love these doughnuts, and make sure to get at least one during my trips back eastward, Clint [and this trip I actually had them three times], they are just wayyyy too sweet, but they are still iconically Boston to me); Boston Red Sox ~ 73-33 (current record; for which, I fully expect them to finish the Season at 130-33 ~ GO RED SOX!!!) ___________________
1. Gerald Peter Remy (aka "Jerry" aka "Rem Dawg") had a decent-enough 10-year MLB career as a Second Basemen. Playing his first three years with the (then still) California Ångels and his final seven years of his career with his hometown Boston Red Sox. I am not sure what he is doing now-a-days... http://m.mlb.com/player/121064/jerry-remy 2. This is how the coffeehouse chain is printed on the menu; however, they have changed their name corporately to just Peet's Coffee® now. Sadly, they are no longer a locally (as in Berkeley, CA)-owned Coffee roaster, anyway. The company had been purchased in 2012 by the same Coffee robber-barons that now own (wholly or portionally) Caribou Coffee, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea, and even those Keurig Green Mountian people. So, they are not really much better now than the bastages at St*rbucks. Peet's Coffee® used to be my go-to local place for Coffee, but I have been cutting back on going-to there lately. Do not get me wrong, I do not have a problem with a company being successful due to free enterprise (ain't that what 'merica was born on on July 4th, 1776?). I just prefer to support as many smaller, local businesses as I can. https://www.jabholco.com/
http://www.toasteatery.com/ (As far as I can tell, there is not an official web-site for this specific restaurant location, but the menu is basically the same as in the above link.) Place: Toast Eatery Location: 160 West Portal Avenue (between Vicente Street and 14th Avenue); phonicular contact: (415) 566-200 Hours: open at 7:00am every day of the week Meal: Chilaquiles ~ house (well, restaurant) made tortilla chips in tomatillo sauce with 2 eggs any style (I stylized them as "over-medium") topped with sour cream; and a large glassa grapefruit juice
(However, I have no idea how either Gun-Marie Fredriksson or Neko Case feels about Chilaquiles or tomatillo salsa.) It had been a few years since I had last eaten at any of the local Toast Eatery restaurants (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, November 19th, 2016), so I figured a return-visit was in order. I think there are now about four restaurants (eateries, whatever) located throughout the city: this newest one in West Portal; two in Noe Valley; and one on Polk Street (basically [s]Nob Hill area). I am not sure if they are all still owned by the same person/family, though. This location in West Portal just seems to be the easiest for me to get to; plus, the parking is so much easier in this neighborhood. There are still several other good ideas left for me to try off their (thankfully-not-named-"Brunch") breakfast menu: Huevos Rancheros ~ 2 eggs any style (fried or over-medium are generally the choice of style with this dish) on corn tortillas with black beans, sour cream, salsa ranchera and a side of chipotle cole slaw (I really need to check out this dish, if for no other reason than to try the chipotle cole slaw); Breakfast Burrito ~ flour tortilla with scrambled eggs, guacamole, Cheddar, pico de gallo salsa, sour cream, and choice of bacon, pork sausage, or ham (that would be a big no-trio for me, of course), served with hash browns; Wet "Veggie" (uggh!) Burrito ~ flour tortilla filled with scrambled eggs, grilled "veggies" (grilled uggh! if you ask me), black beans, Cheddar cheese and sour cream, topped with salsa ranchera and avocado, served with hash browns; California Scrambler ~ egg whites, tomato, fresh basil, avocado, and Cheddar, served with hash browns and choice of toast: white, whole wheat, rye, sourdough, or English muffin (however, for having such an eponym, I have always found their toast/bread all to be kinda pedestrian); egg-cetera...
I will comment on the "Pluses" of this dish first: 1) their tomatillo salsa was really very tasty (and not very spicy at all) ~ generally chilaquiles come with a red salsa; and 2) there was a good amount of food (luckily I did not order a side of hashbrowns) on the plate. Now as for the "Minuses": 1) it was rather a boring dish (kinda like those "one-note ponies" that are always singing it up in the circus) ~ just a lotta corn tortilla chips with two eggs on top; and 2) most places will normally serve chilaquiles with at least a side of rice and refried beans. It would have been nice to at least have a couple of corn or flour tortillas (which are basically Mexicantoast, anyway) to sop up the rest of their very good tomatillo salsa. (The waitress/server lady-person really gave me some strange looks when I started to lick the remainder off my plate... What?! I did not have a plastic straw handy.) As to what Toast Eatery offers in the way of condimentary supplementation, there was the San Francisco Standard Triumvirate of Hot Sauces (Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce [Original Red Sauce]; Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce; and Cholula®Hot SauceOriginal) for use on all the tables. It really did not matter this morning as none were needed or used.
(a not so really) Strange Coffee Interlude I had skipped any Coffee-intake with breakfast with the expressed (Espresso?) reason that I planned on getting myself a mighty fine cuppa at Ballast™Coffee ~ like I have for the past few times whenever I have been (bean?) in the West Portal neighborhood recently. I just got a cuppa their standard drip-filter roast/blend that is ready to pour/go. I also like that they have a variety of fresh (well, at 8:30am, at least) dynamo donutdoughnuts from which to choose... from which I choosed a nice rhubarb one. I do not think that I have ever had this particular flavour of theirs before (h*ck, I am pretty sure that I have never had a rhubarb doughnut before, anyway). I really liked that it was made with actual bits/squares/chunks of rhubarb in it. As can be seen in the above photo, I enjoyed these outside in their backyard garden-patio area (which I had all to my ownsome... well, except for an extremely noisy next-door-neighbor pupster on the other side of the fence). https://ballastcoffee.com/ https://dynamodonut.com/ Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Chilaquiles ~ 6.3 (this was factoring in their very tasty tomatillo salsa which added at least 0.1 to 0.2 GBS points); Ballast™Coffeestandard Coffee ~ 7.3; dynamo donutrhubarb doughnut ~ 7.2
