Eats

https://www.eatsrestaurantsf.com/


Place: Eats

Location: 50 Clement Street
(on the corner of 2nd Avenue)

Hours: open Monday - Sunday at 8:00am

Meal: Divorced Eggs ~ sunny up eggs with half red sauce and tomatillo sauce, ricotta salata[1], black beans with pepper Jack cheese[2], grilled tortillas, and roasted potatoes; and, to drink, a glassa Power C ~ a mixture of orange, pineapple, and grapefruit juices

("Before"... "After"... whatever. Unseasonable [and mostly unwanted] rain is still rain.)


Because I am still running through my Breakfastary Starting Rotation, and today is also the 108th annual running of the Bay-to-Beer in San Francisco, and it had been raining earlier for most of the morning, I wanted to keep it as local as possible and not have to deal with any traffic that may have been caused due to all of that. So, I simply returned to Eats (see previous 'blog-entry from Saturday, January 19th, 2019) for breakfast this morning.

Since I last ate at Eats, there are brand new (retractable) awnings outside on both the Clement Street-side and 2nd Avenue-side sidewalk seating areas. I probably coulda even sat outside if I really wanted to, as the rain had already ceased from the earlier morning deluge and did not resume until much later this afternoon. However, I had arrived early enough this morning to still get a choice of a few different two-seater tables indoors, anyway.

By now, I have more than worked my way through their entire menu and will be repeating most of the meals again. This is fine-by-me, because they have many good items from which to choose (even for st*pid vegetarian-types) and it will take me a few years to run through all of them again (even with three to four visits a year).

Oh, noooo!!!

Sadly, it appears that along with their fancy new awnings outside, they have also changed the formula for their homefries. However, this would be in the opposite direction ("un-fancy old"?)... they are no longer including any roasted garlic cloves. (Well, there were none what-so-ever in my portion this morning, where there were normally at least three to six cloves.) I just hope this was an oversight for my meal and they do still include the roasted garlic cloves in their homefries. These were easily the best homefries in town with the garlic in them. Additionally, I did not notice any rosemary sprigs in the potatoes either. (Hmmm?! Maybe to be able to pay for their fancy new awnings, they had to cut back on a few other important items.)

Anyway... thankfully, the eggs dish was still mighty tasty itself. With the salsa roja, salsa verde, and grated white cheese (ricotta salata) on top, the colours sorta reminded me of la Bandera Mexicana, Antonio.

As far as condimentary supplementation goes, Eats offers the full Standard San Francisco Triumvirate of Hot Sauces (Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce 
[Original Red Sauce], Cholula® Hot Sauce [Original], and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce); plus, El Yucateco® three ways (Salsa Picante Roja de Chile Habanero, Salsa Picante Verde de Chile Habanero, and XXXtra Picante Salsa Kutbil-Ik® de Chile Habanero). I still went with some of my own 
Old St. Augustine Snake Bite Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on the potatoes and some H*ll's Kitchen® Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on the black beans. Both of which ended up being superfluously supplemented. I liked their salsa roja better than their salsa verde (which was tomatillo-based, and plenty good enough all on its ownsome) and happened to mention it to one of the server-lady persons, so she went back and brought me out a whole 'nother small ramekin of salsa roja, which I proceeded to dump on top of the one egg that already had salsa roja on it, the potatoes, and the black beans.


(another, not really such a) Strange Coffee Interlude

Before heading out for breakfast, I had prepared myself a mighty fine cuppa Bettys - Java Kalibaru[3] 
(Thanks, Cindy & Greg!). Now, not that I really needed another cuppa after breakfast (Does anybody truly need another lung-full of oxygen more than once a day?!), but when I got home I made myself yet another cuppa the same stuff (and once more prepared via the single-cuppa drip/pour-over method). The main reason I decided to "risk" drinking two cuppas-a-day was that, after breakfast, I once again strolled through the Clement Street Sunday Farmers Market and picked up a few interesting fresh baked-goods junk. For a mid-morning after-breakfast snack (and, because of which, I had to completely skip any lunch), I went with a Cardamom Puff purchased from Portside Bakery (outta Sausalito-town). The best way to describe this was a roundish croissant (about the size of a very large apple) filled with a cardamom custard. The cardamom custard was awe-some and really complemented (or vice-the-versa) the cuppa Coffee. So, it totally made it worth the second cuppa... even if I cannot get to bed until really late tonight... like, say, 10:30pm. I also made the second cuppa in my brand-spankin'-new "Eats" mug that I had just purchased this morning after breakfast. (I already have two "Dottie's True blue café" mugs, so I figured I would try to collect one mug from each of the other restaurants in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation... if possible; that makes two down and only three to go).

https://www.bettys.co.uk/java-kalibaru-single-origin-coffee

http://portsidebaker.com/

https://agriculturalinstitute.org/directory/listing-details/clement-st


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Huevos Divorciados ~ 7.0;
Power C ~ 6.7;
Cardamom Puff ~ 7.8;
Bettys Java Kalibaru ~ 7.4

___________________

1. For those of you that might be cheesily-impaired:

https://www.cheese.com/ricotta-salata/

2. This link is probably unnecessary, but still...

https://www.cheese.com/pepper-jack/

3. For a posh British tearoom kinda place, Bettys really does a great job with their Coffees, too. The Coffee is always top-notch and only costs about the same as the swill you can get at that St*rbucks place. This blend/roast is priced at £5.95 for a 227g bagga; with today's exchange rate, that equates to about $15.16/pound (that would be 'mercian-style measure of weight "pound", not the Britishlander-style monetary unit "pound"). 

LaLe

Haiku Day again?
Counting syllables is hard.
When does Baseball start?!

('blogging in Haiku
would be too time-consuming.
This will have to do.)

http://www.lalesf.com/


Place: LaLe

Location:  731 Irving Street 
(between 8th and 9th Avenues)

Hours: breakfast and/or "Brunch" are served daily at 8:00am

Meal: Boston (Benedict) ~ bacon (as this really is not a specific Boston-based ingredient, I skipped this today), tomato, arugula, guacamole, homemade (well, restaurant-made) English muffin topped with poached eggs and Hollandaise, served with home (well, again, restaurant) style potatoes; and, afterward, a 12 oz cuppa Snowbird Coffee Bahn Bann[1] (this is normally their batch-brew offered) which I enjoyed with an Apple Berliner (which is just a filled doughnut to you) from a German bakery booth at the Sunday morning Inner Sunset Farmers' Market

http://snowbirdcoffee.com/

(You might be asking yourself just what the h*ck is today's EweToobular juxtaselection. Simples! It is a little-known Cliff Clavinistic fact that this Derek Domino guy wrote all of his songs in 5-7-5 meter.)[2]


I am still continuing with a pre-Spring Training work-out of my Breakfastary Starting Rotation for 2018. So I continued on to LaLe (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, September 10th, 2017) this morning for breakfast.

One of the main reasons that I added LaLe to my Breakfastary Starting Rotation last year is that they offer a really diverse selection for breakfast ("Brunch", whatever). I have had several meals there now over the past few years and all have been very good. There are still many more dishes that I am planning on trying in the future. Ferinstance:

(off their Today's Specials blackboard)

Dutch Baby Pancake ~ w/ warm apples & housemade whipcream[ sic ], add bacon (no thanks) or strawberries too;

or

French Toast Sandwich  ~ Ricotta stuffed French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, avocado, chipotle aioli, & maple syrup for dipping, side salad... to keep us healthy (I have no idea how all of that is put together, but I am willing to give it a go, Joe);

and (off their printed menu)

Napa (Egg Scramble) ~ goat cheese, mushrooms, bacon (which I would have omitted), bell peppers, served with home style potatoes and homemade English muffin;

Toronto (Benedict) ~ ham (which I would also have 86-ed, ya hoser, eh?!), grilled tomato, spinach, homemade English muffin topped with poached eggs and Hollandaise, served with home style potatoes;

or

Seattle (Frittata) ~ asparagus, peppers, chicken-apple sausage (which I would also order sans), Cheddar, served with salad and fruit (this was going to be my back-up choice this morning).

I know, I know, arugula and poached eggs again?! I thought about that only after I had placed my order, but I have not had an Eggs Benedict dish in a few weeks (well, last Saturday, but still...); besides, I wanted to make sure to get some potatoes as a side dish. I am not so sure what exactly the connection between Boston and tomato, arugula, and guacamole might be, though. I really like that they use their own English muffins as the base for all their Benedicts; that is refreshing and unusual. While those may not have your standard "crooks and nannies" that Mr. Thomas' faux crumpets do, they are much fresher and simply better.

I only noticed bottles of Tapatío® Salsa Picante 
Hot Sauce on the tables for use as condimentary supplements. I had one last Christmas gift that I wanted to check out, anyway, and used some of my own tin of Charlie's Chili Stuff by Thyme Farm Vinegars (Thanks, Sharon! [at least I think this was gifted to me by my sister]). This is a dry powder combination consisting of chili powder, paprika, Cajun seasoning, salt, cumin, cayenne pepper, and red & black pepper. I sprinkled it generously all over the homefries. I probably didn't really need to do so, as the potatoes seemed to have been seasoned well enough, anyway. It has a nice flavour, not too spicy, and I am looking forward to bringing it with me again in the future as a change from always schlepping bottles of hot sauces.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Boston (Benedict) ~ 6.6;
Snowbird Coffee Bahn Bann ~ 7.0;
Apfel Berliner ~ 7.1

___________________

1. This is made with a blend of light- and dark-roasted beans.

Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:

Apparently, "Bahn Bann" is a play on the Korean for "half-and-half"/"반반의". 

2. Because I felt that it would have been very cool, I tried to find a cover of this song by little Georgie Harrison, but to no avail. Some guy named Eric Clapton does an okay slower, acoustic version of it, though.

LaLe

"I just had a Berliner[1]... 
and now I am stuffed!"[2]

http://www.lalesf.com/


Place: LaLe

Location:  731 Irving Street 
(between 8th and 9th Avenues)

Hours: breakfast and/or "Brunch" are served daily at 8:00am

Meal: (off their weekend "Brunch" specials board) Polenta w/ Mixed Veggies (uggh! [I added that exclamation; it is not part of the actual meal name.]) 
& 2 Poached Eggs; and a glassa (very re)fresh(ing) lemonade with mint; and (afterward, as a breakfastary dessert) a Black Forest Berliner (from 
a German bakery booth at the Sunday morning 
Inner Sunset Farmers' Market) with a cuppa Snowbird Coffee Zatarra 

http://www.pcfma.org/

http://snowbirdcoffee.com/

(There really are never any excuses needed for any EweToobular juxtaselections when it comes to 
Lady Ella, but this first song just happened to be playing while I was enjoying my cuppa and doughnut at the coffeeshop, so I figured I'd play the second song[3] to go along with the doughnut, too.)


As a last-minute September Call-up to my Breakfastary Starting Rotation, I headed back to LaLe (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, January 29th, 2017) this morning for kahvaltı/Frühstück. 

The reason for this emergency addition is that, sadly, it seems that Cafe GoLo has closed their Lombard Street restaurant ~ I am moving them to the 40-Day DL until I know better. Their phone has been disconnected and without an official-type web-site, I can not determine if/when they may re-open at the new location in the Tenderloin (which they have been attempting to open now for the past four years). Hopefully this is just a temporary closure. So, until I know for sure, LaLe will be the Fifth Starter starting today. (Hmmm?! I wonder if someday in the future Cafe GoLo will show up on a Japanese breakfastary 'blog-entry.)

One of the main reasons that I have no problem with adding LaLe to my Breakfastary Starting Rotation is that, in addition to all the great meals that I have had there already, there are still several other good ideas from which to choose: 

Dutch Pancakes (this is also off their weekend "Brunch" specials board, but it has been available for most of my past visits; they state that this has a 20-minute wait-time to prepare, so I will have do try it some other time when I feel like waiting that long);

Mexico City (Egg Scrambler) ~ chorizo, green onions, mushrooms, guacamole, sour cream, cheese (I am sure I can always order this sin salchicha);

Napa (Egg Scrambler) ~ goat cheese, mushrooms, bacon, bell peppers (which I would also order without any of the dead, decaying, crispy pork-butt stuff);

Toronto (Benediction) ~ ham, grilled tomato, spinach (this is another one from which I would have the back-bacon omitted, ya hoser);

or

Ricotta Stuffed Almond French Toast.


(Ooops! Unfortunately, there are no corresponding photos of the actual meal or subsequent German jelly-stuffed pastry and Coffee. The batteries seemed to have died on my camera after I had taken the photo of the restaurant sign above.)


Oh, my! (to be read in your best George Takei-an voice)

It is exactly stuff like this why I like coming back to this place (and another reason why I have absolutely no qualms with placing them on my Breakfastary Starting Rotation). Now if you could see a photo of this dish (someone needs to remember to check their battery-power before leaving the house), you would see that this was a big bowl of polenta as the base, then lots of grilled "veggies" (uggh!), and topped with two poached eggs (themselves topped with some Hollandaise sauce). The "veggies" (uggh!) included: zucchini, tomato, (red and green) bell peppers; (white) onions, and mushrooms (there might have been another "veggie" [uggh!] or two, but those were the ones that I immediately recognized). And all of this was atop really good, creamy, cheesy polenta! In my opinion, this dish didn't even need any Hollandaise sauce on top of the two poached eggs (and I bet it would have been even better still with a nice Marinara sauce [à la Dottie's True blue café Zucchini Cakes]). This also came with one of their warm, fresh homemade (restaurant-made, whatever) English muffins on the side of the bowl.

LaLe only has Tapatío®  Salsa Picante Hot Sauce on all the tables in way of condimentary supplements. I used some of my own Punch Drunk™ Chocolate Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce (Thanks, Sean!) on top of one of the poached eggs and some Dat'l Do-it® Spicy Jalapeno Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on top of the other egg. Additionally, LaLe does have their own homemade (restaurant-made, whatever) jams and preserves on all the tables; today's choices were strawberry[4] and orange[5] marmalade ~ I used some of each on each half of their homemade (restaurant-made, whatever) English muffin.

Whenever I am in the neighborhood (and that would be the Inner Sunset in this case), I like to head over to Snowbird Coffee (which is just around the block from LaLe, anyway) for a very decent cuppa after breakfast. On my way over to the coffeehouse, I stopped in at the regular Sunday morning Farmers' Market (which I had to pass by on my way). I really wasn't planning on getting anything more to eat while there, but I saw one booth that was selling German pastries and really couldn't pass up buying a few ~ especially when I saw they offered both a Mango, Passionfruit, and Orange and a Black Forest (which I was told was filled with cherries, a cherry liqueur/brandy [Kirshwasser auf Deutsch], and a cream filling) Berliner. The really funny thing is that the two Berliners may very well have been "frei"-bies, too; I got to talking to the guy selling the products and walked away without paying. I remembered right off and went back straight away to pay for the two pastries, but the guy told me that I had already paid him. I am pretty sure that I had not, but he was nice enough to not worry about it. The Black Forest Berliner really went well with the Zatarra (which is one of my favourite local Coffees, too).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Polenta w/ Mixed Veggies & 2 Poached Eggs ~ 7.3;
homemade  jams and preserves ~ 7.2;
Black Forest Berliner ~ 7.3 (especially at the price);
Snowbird Coffee Zatarra ~ 7.4

___________________

1. Okay, this has been mentioned before by me on this here 'blog-thang as a stupid, useless cunning linguist (and urban legend-debunker) pointer of the day. When President John F. Kennedy said "Ich bin ein Berliner.", he was not stating that he wanted to be thought of as a German jelly-doughnut. He was correct in his translation. Plus, in Berlin-town, I was informed by a native Berliner that they actually call jelly-doughnuts "Französisch" ("French-style" doughnuts).

The owner-lady of the German pastry booth was from Germany and told me that people in Berlin call "Berliners" ~ "Krapfen" (which is a standard name for a doughnut/pastry in German). However, the lady that I spoke with was not from Berlin herself, so I am sticking with the information that I obtained from an actual Berliner (who was also not a jelly-doughnut in any way).

2. For a change, do not blame me for this completely awful corn-bally joke. I am just paraphrasing one from Greg Kipe. If you have any complaints or groans, please direct them to/at him.

3. Coincidentally enough, Leonard Cohen's (in memoriam) birthday happens to be upcoming on September 21st.

4. Unlike both the ghost pepper and jalapeño pepper, strawberries are not botanically a berry. 

5. However, strangely enough, oranges are actually a kind of modified berry (called a hesperidium). Crazy stuff like this is why I would never cut it as a botanist.

cumaica® ~ Artesanos Del Café

Richmond (District) Coffeehouses ~ 23

http://www.cumaica.com/

(WARNING: 

Please make sure that your anti-virus software is enabled before clicking on the above business hyperlink! 

I am providing their official web-site link here mainly for informational purposes only. This morning when I first attempted to bring up their web-site, my Kaspersky Anti-Virus popped up with the highlighted warning "ACCESS DENIED" and another pop-up stating that there was a "Phishing Link Blocked". I am not sure if it was from the above hyperlink or from the way in which I was trying to enter the web-site [which was via a Gaggle Chromium search and link].

I did another search and entered their web-site from a link on yerp* and no such warning popped up. However, better safe than sorry. 

Thus, you have been duly [or dully] warned, Will Robinson.)


Place: cumaica® ~ Artesanos Del Café
Location: 200 Clement Street (on the corner of 3rd Avenue)
Hours: open daily at 6:00am
Meal: Breakfast Bagel ~ egg and cheese on a bagel of your choice, with added avocado (which was a smart move); a slice/piece of Morning Glory (which is from City Baking Co; this is a bread/cake thing made with raisins, coconut, sunflower seeds, carrot, zucchini, and walnuts[?]); and a small (12 oz) cuppa Cumaica Coffee® House Blend (This blend is a combination of Indonesian and Central American beans, separately roasted for a perfect balance of flavor.)

http://citybaking.com/

(Just, FYI: No similar anti-virus caveats popped up when I brought up and linked this web-site.)

(If you liked the first EweToobular juxtaselection, I suggest checking out more of Tanita Tikaram's music on EweToob. She is very good. Some suggestions [favourites] of mine: "Twist In My Sobriety", "I Might Be Crying", and "Dust On My Shoes".

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

The second video juxtaselection is from some guy that had some minor success doing movie soundtrack music. If you ask me, he'll never amount to much as a real musician and should just stick to the commercial stuff.)


With this morning's visit to cumaica® ~ Artesanos Del Café, this concludes all of the coffeehouses on Clement Street for my Richmond (District) Coffeehouses series. Next up: westward (Ho!) along Geary Boulevard from Arguello Avenue to Ocean Beach (however, I am pretty sure that there are only one or two left to check out, so it will be on to Balboa Street pretty quickly, too). cumaica® is a local (mini-)chain of coffeehouses; there are four shops throughout San Francisco right now.

This place was a-hoppin' this morning with many locals and others (mainly due to the Sunday farmers market[1] getting started just outside on Clement Street). It is a standard-sized coffeehouse, with seating inside for about twenty; they also have a few small tables outside along 3rd Avenue that seat two to four people.

cumaica® does not really have too much that they offer in the way of food (breakfastarily or otherwisary), but I could have gone with a bagel with hummus and cucumbers (which did sound good if you want a simpler, lighter breakfast). They do have four different pre-packaged commercially-made burritos (like many coffeehouses offer these-a-days) in the front refrigerated case (but just two that would be suitable for stupid vegetarian-types: Spinach & Onion or Green Chile).

Seeing as this is first-and-foremost a Coffee joint, the main focus should be on their Coffee, anyway. They only offer one freshly-brewed roast/blend (House Roast) for standard Coffee drinks, but they do have bags of other blends/roasts of Coffee available for sale over the counter (never buy Coffee from under the counter, trust me on this one). If I hadn't already four (or five?) bags of Coffee in my refrigerator currently, I would probably have picked up a pound-bag of their San Francisco Blend ~ "This blend is made with Guatemala and Espresso blends to yield a flavorful and strong cup of Coffee. Perfectly suited for Espresso drinks." They do also offer many Espresso drink varieties, which are made with their House Espresso (Cappuccino) Blend ~ "A wonderful combination of light roasted Indonesian beans and dark roasted Central American beans. This four-bean blend is separately roasted and blended for a rich morning brew or a strong-creamy Espresso drink." I only mention the Espresso drinks because one of the drinks listed on their (hand-printed) menu on the back wall caught my eye and my fancy (or maybe just my fanciful eye... or an eyeful of fancy): Macciato [ sic (no points are ever taken off for a Tori[2])] de Caramelo. 

yet still another stupid parklet mini-rant

(and this doesn't even rate another photo of the stupid thing)

This is no fault of cumaica® (I think I had asked them once before and they stated that they didn't sponsor the stupid obstruction), but there is an obnoxiously large parklet just a door down on Clement Street that easily takes up five or six parking spaces now. I would just like to point out that this area of Clement Street is only three (3, tres, trois, tre, drei)  blocks away from a very large public park (Mountain Lake Park in the Presidio) or five (5, cinco, cinq, cinque, fünf) blocks from Golden Gate Park. If you really want people to utilize public parks, just stop with all of these stupid, useless parklets for any of these bastages that are too lazy to get off of their fat-arses while juggling their mobular devices and Decaf-Double-Latte-Macchiatos (which is the correct spelink, by the way) made with low-fat soymilk to amble a simple three or five blocks away!

(okay, mini-rant over... for now)

My choice of bagel this morning was sesame. I am glad I went with the added avocado as it would have been a little too basic otherwise. As with most coffeehouses (with no real kitchen area), the scrambled eggs were of the nukularized version once again. I was happy to see that the cheese was real cheese (Monterey Jack probably) and not that fake cardboard stuff that is usually foisted upon stupid 'mericans.

For a change, I had to wait about five minutes for my cuppa while they were preparing a fresh batcha. The bagel actually came out before the Coffee was even done. This was fine with me, as I was assured of a nice, fresh, hot cuppa. It was worth the wait, too, as it was an extremely nice blend/roast.

I am not sure what cumaica® may have to offer in the way of condimentary supplements; I didn't see any and didn't feel the need to ask for any. I used some of my own Fat Cat Strawberry Serrano Hot Sauce® (Thanks again, Cindy & Greg! I think that there may 
be just one more dose left in that bottle now.) on half 
of the bagel-sandwich and some Dragon Breath Garlic Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on the other 
half-bagel.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Breakfast Bagel (with added avocado) ~ 6.2; House Blend ~ 6.9; Morning Glory ~ 6.4

___________________

1. http://www.agriculturalinstitute.org/clement-st/

2. That would be as in "Miss Spelling".

Non-Dairy Milk ~ Part 6

beber FRESH almondmilk 

http://www.freshalmondmilk.com/

This is just yet still another quick li'l 'blog-entry and follow-up to a follow up of a few other previous 'blog-entries regarding non-dairy milk products (see last 'blog entry from June 4th, 2015).

I have been drinking almondmilk pretty exclusively for the past five or six years now and recently discovered another new(ish) brand called beber FRESH almondmilk just last weekend at the Clement St. Farmers Market[1] (after breakfast at Toy Boat Dessert Cafe). This is by-far-and-away the best of all of the almondmilks (and the non-dairy milks) that I have ever tried thus far. It is even better than my past favourite Califia Farms®, which itself is a few notches above the other products that are currently available in the industry.

http://www.califiafarms.com/

They currently offer only four flavours: PURE (made with just organic California almonds and purified water; and that is all she wrote); HONEY VANILLA (made with just organic California almonds and purified water + wildflower honey and organic vanilla extract); CHOCOLATE (made with just organic California almonds and purified water + wildflower honey and cocoa); and LAVENDER (made with just organic California almonds and purified water + wildflower honey and organic lavender). I tried all but the CHOCOLATE at the stand in the market, and, as strange as it may sound, the LAVENDER is truly exceptional and was immediately 
my favourite. That was what really twisted my arm (or twisted my tongue, I suppose) into buying a pint-bottle of it and also a pint-bottle of HONEY VANILLA. During the week, I tried both of these in a glass by themselves (well, there may have been a cookie or three involved) and also in the morning on my breakfast cereals. I must say, each of them passed both tests with flying colours. I also discovered that the two flavours combined very nicely together if you want to mix and match them.

They only sell these in two sizes: 1 pint and 1 quart glass bottles. Because these are made fresh weekly in small batches, they must be kept refrigerated and consumed within a week or so.  There is this printed statement on their labels: "Real food doesn't last read long, enjoy by:" with a batch label and use by date.

To me, the beauty of this product is the fresh, simple ingredients. It states right on their label: "unhomogenized", "unpasteurized", "no preservatives", and "no thickeners". You can't get much more simple than that.

I love how they actually have to use the caveat for an allergen statement also printed on the labels (in bold letters, too): "Contains Almonds". Really?!

There are only two problems with this great product: 
a) availability ~ other than the above mentioned farmers market, it is currently only sold at two local stores in San Francisco (and only at an additional four stores throughout the entire State of California); 
and
b) the price ~ a one pint bottle goes for about $7.00 (yes, you read that correctly: seven dollars; you don't even want to know the pricing for the quart bottles). However, it is totally worth it if you want to splurge once in a while.


Got beber FRESH almondmilk?


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
beber FRESH almondmilk LAVENDER ~ 8.2;
beber FRESH almondmilk HONEY VANILLA ~ 8.0;
Califia Farms® Unsweetened Pure Almondmilk ~ 7.6; 
Blue Diamond Almonds® Almond Breeze® Unsweetened Original ~ 7.2;
Silk® Almond Unsweetened Original ~ 7.0

___________________

1. http://www.agriculturalinstitute.org/clement-st/

Eats

"If you are ever mugged by a couple of clowns, don't hesitate… go for the juggler." ~ Phineas Taylor Barnum

(No official web-site.)


Place: Eats
Location: 50 Clement Street (on the corner of 2nd Avenue); phonicular contact: (415) 751-8000
Hours: open every day of the week at 8:00am
Meal: Chilaquiles ~ (v) fried tortillas [ sic ] chips, black beans, tomatillo salsa, pico de gallo, scrambled eggs, ricotta salata[1], sour cream, cilantro; and a glassa Fresh Strawberry Lemonade

(Again, like yesterday, there really is no reason for today's EweToobular songs; I just like Sarah Borges.)


Luckily, I was not the first one in line this morning for breakfast at Eats (see previous 'blog-entry from April 26th, 2015), so there was little chance of a repeat attack like yesterday from anyone on the sidewalk while waiting to be seated ~ there was one suspicious-looking Golden Retriever (who was waiting patiently outside while his humans stuffed their faces inside... without him). Besides, the local street-population/homeless situation in the Richmond may total all of three or four people tops, and I already know a few of them by name. 

Having eaten at Eats so many times now, there are only a few items (that are stupid (v)egetarian-friendly) left on their menu that I haven't had yet. There are still Huevos Rancheros ((v) fresh tomato salsa, beans, over easy eggs, pepper Jack, avocado, sour cream) or So Happy Hotcake ((v) lemon poppyseed pancake, strawberry compote, sour cream whip, balsamic reduction, powdered sugar).

As I have stated before, much like Tiramisù, the formula for Chilaquiles (see specific 'blog-entry from December 12th, 2013) can vary from restaurant-to-restaurant (and family-to-family). You won't see it presented the same way in different places usually. Today's version was something like a plate of breakfast nachos. I am used to this dish with more (red) sauce all over the top. This was still a great dish and they make a very good tomatillo salsa (with a nice little kick to it, too).

Before ordering, I asked the friendly, pretty waitress/server-lady (who I later found out from the guy sitting next to me was actually the friendly, pretty manager-lady; apparently they have kids in the same middle school class) if there would be too much food to also order a side of their Excellent! Roasted Home Potatoes. She told me to hold off ordering until I saw the size of the dish. She was right, but their Excellent! Roasted Home Potatoes really are great, and if that was all they had on their menu, it would still be worth a return trip a few times a year.

Since my last visit, it looks like Eats has added a few more hot sauces to its condimentary supplements
repertoire. In addition to the San Francisco Triumvirate of Hot Sauces (Tabasco® Brand 
Pepper Sauce [Original Red], Cholula® Hot Sauce, and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce), they now offer three types of El Yucateco®: Red Habanero Hot Sauce, Green Habanero Hot Sauce, and XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik®. I had come prepared with a couple of my own bottles of hot sauces; and, coincidentally enough, one of which was my own bottle of El Yucateco® XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik®. I ended up using some of their XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik® on top of the pile. I later found out that was a mistake, as their tomatillo salsa was more than picante and flavourous enough all on its own merits. The friendly, pretty manager-lady saw my other bottle of Blair's After Death sauce with Liquid Fire and asked to try some. I warned her ahead of time (as she was going to pour it on some potatoes) to try just a toothpick's taste first, as it is one of those stupidly excessive hot sauces (which I had also found out the hard way after pouring some ~ too much ~ on my own potatoes the first time I ever tried it. Thanks a lot, Sean!). Mind you, I don't mind being responsible for the accidental death of some Korean waiter-guy, but I didn't want to be (ir)responsible for the hospitalization of any friendly, pretty manager-ladies. 

Plus, after I had finished eating, I noticed that Eats now has a new line of "Sun Dried Tomato Ketchup" from a company called Traina™ Foods; apparently they are a California-based company that specialises in dried food products and specifically sun-dried tomatoes. I tried a little of both the standard ketchup and also some of the Hot Sriracha ketchup. They were both pretty good; the sun-dried tomatoes make all the difference. I happened to mention to the friendly, pretty manager-lady that they were really very good and she ended up giving me a brand new bottle of the Hot Sriracha ketchup to take home.

http://www.trainafoods.com/resources-recipes/sriracha-press-release-09-2014b

Like my last visit to Eats, afterward I took a little stroll through the small Farmers Market that they have on Sunday mornings along Clement Street (between 2nd and 4th Avenues). I stopped at the same fresh-baked goods stall as I did last time and got another Mint-Mojito (Gluten-Free and Vegan) Doughnut for a breakfastary dessert. (I don't know why so many places stress they serve "Gluten-Free" stuff. Do they expect us to pay more for it if they actually charged for the gluten?) If I had known that was the same one I had tried before, I would have gotten one that was explained to me as a Dark Chocolate-Orange (made with Cointreau® in the ganache) doughnut (I don't think that one was "Vegan", though).

Moral of today's 'blog-story: 
A free bottle o' (Sriracha) ketchup is better than a kick in the pants (or pair of sunglasses to the head).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Chilaquiles ~ 6.7; Fresh Strawberry Lemonade ~ 6.6; Mint-Mojito doughnut (even if it was both "Gluten-Free" and "Vegan") ~ 6.6


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1. Ricotta salata is a pressed, salted, dried, and aged variety of ricotta. It is milky-white and firm, and used for grating or shaving. 

http://www.cheese.com/ricotta-salata/

(I just love that there is a web-site called "Cheese.com".)