Kitchen Sunnyside

A(nother) breakfastary roadtrip:
Mill Valley, Marin County, CA

http://kitchensunnyside.com/


Place: Kitchen Sunnyside

Location: 31 Sunnyside Avenue, Mill Valley (home of B.J. Hunnicut, for yet another Korean-connection)

Hours: open for breakfast Monday through Sunday at 8:00am

Meal: HOTSTONEPOT ~ sautéed vegetables, egg, smoked chili sauce on rice. Sizzling stone pot!! Mix quickly and Enjoy. (more on that later), choose chicken mango, shrimp (+2) or tofu (Guess which protein I chose?); to drink with the meal, a glassa fresh-squeezed orange juice; and, aforehand, a 16 oz cuppa Equator Coffees Ethiopia Gora Kone

https://www.equatorcoffees.com/collections/single-origin/products/ethiopia-gora-kone

(Idunno. Maybe Shane MacGowan [no relation] likes him some 돌솥 비빔밥[1] and/or Millionaire's Bacon®, too, boyo.)


Continuing along on working my way through all the restaurants that are in the Taylor Street Coffee Shop-family mini-chain, I curtailed it on over (the Golden Gate Bridge) to Marin to check out Kitchen Sunnyside. This was my initial visit to this particular restaurant. This restaurant has been open only since November 2014. I think it is their #5 or #6 in the mini-chain in respect of newness. Only Surisan is newer (opened now since 2016).

What a great little local spot! By little, I mean that there are probably less than fifteen tables (ranging in size from 2-person to 4-persons). The place is bigger than Taylor Street Coffee Shop, but that is not really saying much.

There is also another Marin-based restaurant called Fred's Place, in Sausalito, that was once a part of their mini-chain. However, one of the friendly waiter/server-guy persons told me that it has since been sold to some of the workers at that location, but they maintain a similar menu. Once I have checked out all of the "official" restaurants in their mini-chain, I will probably head back over that-a-way again.

As with all of the other restaurants in their mini-chain, Kitchen Sunnyside offers many dishes that are similar (or exactly the same). Some of the other ideas that I was looking at this morning were:

MEHICO[ sic ] BENNY (there is nothing wrong with your eyesight or my typing; in keeping with their printed menu, I am trying to use the same font-size and dimensions that they had used) ~ chorizo (No way-zo, José-zo!), cherry pepper, cherry tomato (this is basically the same dish as offered yesterday at Sweet Maple, just with the moniker of Southern Benedict);

SUNNYSIDE HASH ~ Hash browns topped with bacon (which would get 86-ed, natch'), red onion, bell pepper, cherry pepper, mushroom, scallion
and mild Cheddar. Served with two eggs (sunnysided-up, I presume), toast;

MORNING TACOS ~ two corn tortillas, lettuce, scrambled egg, bacon (no!), chorizo (no-no, zo-zo!!), tomato, avocado, pickled red onion, chipotle aioli, cilantro, mild Cheddar. Served with Crispy Yukons. Side of roasted salsa and pico de gallo (this one looked interesting, and I do not remember seeing a similar dish at any of their other restaurants);

or

PRIMAVERA (Scramble) ~ egg white, sundried tomato, bell pepper, red onion, spinach, scallion, served w/ Crispy Yukons or Hash browns. A choice of ciabatta, wheat or English muffin (I think that I might have had a version of this previously at one of their other restaurants; I am just too lazy to look 'er up). 

Of course, this is not for the Vegan-feint-of-(artichoke)heart, but what many people really seem to like to order at these places is their Millionaire's Bacon® (and, yes, they actually have it as a ®egistered trademark). They have it offered four ways now: Original (thick, free range bacon, baked with brown sugar, cayenne, red and black pepper); Citron (orange and sea salt goodness); Rosemary (savory rosemary and pepper with mild sweetness); and Cinnamon (hint of chipotle with sweet cinnamon).

Today was not my first Dolsot Bibimbap rodeo. I have had this dish probably a hundred times over the years (at dozens of different Korean restaurants, too). However, I think this was the first time that I ever had it as my early morning/first meal of the day. It seems like a breakfastary no-brainer even to me. This was the exact same dish that I had for dinner at their sister-restaurant (sorry, I am not quite sure of the gender-specificity for restaurants) Surisan three weeks ago.

I was very happy to see a "sunnyside"-up egg already prominently displayed on top. A lot of times, the egg will be placed raw on top of the dish and the idea is to "cook" the egg with the residual heat from both the hot vegetables and especially from the hot stone pot. Now here is where I will comment on the "Mix quickly and Enjoy." mentioned on their menu description of the dish. No, no, no! That is just wrong! Because the "hot stone pot" really is a-sizzlin' hot (do not even think of touching the stone pot... seriously... fool me three times... ) what you need to do is let the bottom layer of rice get nice and extra crispy ~ it will get all deliciously browned and caramelized if you play your cards right. Then you can enjoy that bottom layer as a "rice crunchies" dessert; trust me on this one, Mr. Will Keith Kellogg!

There was one minus for me with this version of Dolsot Bibimbap, it was served with a Thai Sriracha-style hot sauce, not a true Korean Gochujang hot sauce. Both provide about the same amount of heat (a little picante, not a lotta picante), but I prefer the sweeter flavour of Gochujang. One of the waiter/server-guy persons told me that this was part of their American-Thai-Korean-fusion idea. I remember that they did serve us regular Gochujang at Surisan; so , it might just be a particular quirk with a few of their restaurants.

I'll tell ya one thing, this was definitely the first time that I have ever eaten Dolsot Bibimbap with a fork! I actually asked if they had any chopsticks to use, but they do not provide them at this location. I know they do have them at both Surisan and Blackwood, though. If these st*pid waygoogin[2] do not know how to use chopsticks by now, they should refrain from eating at any places that serve "Thai" or "Korean" cuisines.

Kitchen Sunnyside had Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce for use as condimentary supplements. I had even brought along a couple of my own hot sauces bottles, but, once again, none were needed/used. I did ask for a second ramekin of the Sriracha hot sauce to pour over the rest of the meal when I was about half-way done.

'cause I got into town about a half-hour before the restaurant was due to open and 'specially 'cause I knew this coffeeshop was located on the town square, I made sure to stop in at the very local Equator Coffees for a mighty fine cuppa. I think the story goes that the founders started roasting their Coffees out of a garage in Mill Valley. They have since moved to a much larger (and real) roastery in San Rafael (which is still very local, all the same, Mr. Peet and Mr. St*rbucks!).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
HOTSTONEPOT ~ 6.5;
Equator Coffees Ethiopia Gora Kone ~ 7.1;
the "city" (if a population of about 14,000 designates it as a "city") of Mill Valley, Marin County, CA, USA ~ (17)7.6 (That's the Spirit!)

___________________

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

"돌솥 비빔밥" (pronounced "Dolsot Bibimbap", or close enough for gubbmint-work) is Korean for "stone pot" ("돌솥" ~ "dolsot") and "mixed rice" ("비빔밥" ~ "bibimbap").

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, part 두:

That is not the actual/official transliteration of the Korean word for "los gringos" ("외국인"), but it is the best that I could come up with for sound-alike purposes.

Bayside Cafe

Another breakfastary mini-roadtrip[1]:
Sausalito, Marin County, CA

http://www.baysidecafe-sausalito.com/


Place: Bayside Cafe and Juice Bar

Location: 1 Gate 6 Road, Sausalito, CA 
(by the Kappas Marina, in the Harbor Center)

Hours: open seven days a week at 6:30am 
(closed every other day of the week)

Meal: the Spinach Poacher ~ poached eggs on top of sautéed (I added the "é" there; please note: no 
G£êñ Bäçòń §čåłē points are ever deducted due to spelling/accentuation preferences) spinach, topped with pico de gallo and Feta, served with tortillas or toast; and a cuppa (with two refillas ~ it was a smallish cuppa) of whatever their house (café, whatever) Coffee might have been (I forgot to ask; the Coffee pots had Peerless Coffee & Tea® on them, but those may just have been promotional leftovers from when they might have served that specific brand of Coffee)

(This EweToobular video/song is just a reminder that we should all make an effort to get to and to see the World outside our window once in a while.)


I really don't know why it has taken me over two years to make a return trip to Bayside Cafe and Juice Bar (see previous 'blog-entry from Sunday, March 22nd, 2015). I remember that I really liked my first visit there. I love that they open up at 6:30am... every day... and for breakfast (minusculed and un-italicized, thank you; I hope they never learn of that odious word "Brunch" here). Plus, breakfast (minusculed and un-italicized still, thank you) is served all day long (it even says so right on their web-site thing: "where breakfast is served all day" ~ of course, there it is italicized, but it's still in the minuscule, at least). And with a very extensive breakfast menu, this place is certainly Breakfastary Starting Rotation-worthy... if only they were a bit more local.

This morning, I sat at one of the seats at the long diner-style counter. However, I probably shoulda sat outside at one of the tables in their covered/screened patio seating area (overlooking the marina/houseboats). The weather was perfect for it. Plus, no other idiots were even out there yet that early in the morning, I woulda had the entire space to myself.

As I mentioned above, Bayside Cafe has a lot of other great-sounding breakfast entries, such-as: 

the Heart Breaker (omelette) ~ artichoke hearts, mushrooms, spinach & cheese;

the Veggie Volt (if we can overlook the dreaded "Veggie" moniker) ~ scrambled eggs, zucchini, tomatoes, spinach, & Swiss cheese;

Munga, Munga! (yeah, I have no idea what that means; I wonder if it was simply a misinterpretation of the Italian "Mangia, Mangia!" ~ "Eat, Eat!") ~ scrambled eggs, Italian sausage (which I would have omitted), mushrooms, Feta cheese, & salsa;

Mediterranean (omelette) ~ spinach, tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, avocado, & Feta;

or

(off their weekend specials board)
Breakfast Quesadilla ~ with eggs, bacon (No gracias.), cheese, and spinach, served with sour cream and salsa.

I really did have a hard time deciding on which meal to go with this morning. There are way too many good choices; hence, I need to make more return trips oftener.

I knew that I was going to like this meal from the description, but I enjoyed it even more in conception. Feta and spinach?! Needless to say (but I am needlessly keyboarding it, anyway), I enjoyed this dish immensely. This ended up being sorta Eggs Benedict-estilo mexicano for the gluten-free crowd (those people really don't want to pay for their gluten) with a bit of an ελληνικός-twist to it, too.

I like that they  offer a choice of (corn or flour) tortillas or toast. I opted for the corn tortillas option, as I thought (correctly so) that it was the best way to go. I bet this dish would have been interesting with the tortillas under the spinach and poached eggs, too. It may have been a bit too soupy-wet, but I would liked to have tried it that way, anyway.

For condimentary supplementation, Bayside Cafe
had just Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce). I used some of my own Punch Drunk™ Chocolate Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce (Thanks, Sean!) on top of one of the poached eggs for some extra flavour, but their fresh pico de gallo was pretty tasty all on its ownsome, anyway.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
the Spinach Poacher ~ 6.8;
Golden Gate Bridge and Bay views ~ 8.5

___________________

1. The round-trip time there and back (including a forty-five minutes to one hour side-trip to the Golden Gate Bridge in an [unsuccessful] attempt to spot ol' Humphrey and friends) was exactly two hours. H*ck, I spend more time than that most times driving to a location just on the other side of town.

the Dipsea Café

A(nother) breakfastary roadtrip:
Mill Valley, Marin County, CA

http://www.dipseacafe.com/


Place: the Dipsea Café
Location: 200 Shorline Highway, Mill Valley, CA
Hours: open for breakfast at 7:00am every day 
(but probably not tomorrow morning)
Meal: Vegetarian[1a] Frittata[1b] ~  mushrooms[1c], tomatoes[1d], onions[1e], spinach[1f], zucchini[1g], and Jack cheese, served with home fries, homemade (well, restaurant-made) buttermilk biscuit or toast and homemade (again, restaurant-made) jam; a side of Tzatziki (which really isn't offered on their breakfast menu, but I ordered some, anyway); and a glassa Homemade (Do I really need to say it?) Lemonade[1h]


♫ Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla Wash., and Kalamazoo! ♫

Because the traditional Day-After Festivus meal should be Greek in origin[2], I headed north this morning across the Golden Gate Bridge back to the Dipsea Café 
(see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, March 30th, 2014; it seems like I get there every second year now, but this place really deserves more-often return trips) for breakfast.

Some other good ideas (and more-often reasons for a return trip): 
Mill Valley Omelette ~ egg whites, mushrooms, avocado & Feta (it's a strange-sounding combination, but I am game for anything with Feta and avocado);
Pear-Walnut Omelette ~  with Brie cheese and balsamic onions (another strange-sounding combination, but I am also game for strange-sounding foodstuff); 
or the authentically Hellenic Huevos Rancheros ~ two poached eggs on a fried corn tortilla with red and green salsa, Jack cheese, pico de gallo and sour cream, served with black beans, chips and steamed tortillas. 

This was a very decent version of a frittata. I had asked to have Feta substituted for the Jack cheese, but they must have forgotten to do this. This was no biggie, I just think this would have been much betta (like most everything) with Feta. I went with the homemade (restaurant-made, whatever) buttermilk biscuit as my bread-option, because even I know how to make "homemade" toast. This was deceptively a lot of food. At first glance it was misleading and I thought that I would have no problem finishing it all. As it was, with the homemade (restaurant-made, whatever) buttermilk biscuit and extra large portion of potatoes, I could barley clean my plate. The frittata itself was no slouch (I prefer my frittatas made with chicken eggs and not slouch eggs, anyway). I also liked that they went with the moniker of "Vegetarian (Frittata)" versus the ubiquitously odious name of "Veggie".

As for the side of Tzatziki, I made sure to use it all wisely on top of the potatoes.

For condimentary supplementation, the Dipsea Café 
offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce). I just used a little of my own El Yucateco® XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik® de Chile Habanero on top of the frittata. One of the Mexican waiter-server-guys even complimented me on that choice; he said that he uses that same brand at home himself.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: 
Vegetarian Frittata ~ 6.7 (this mighta even been a 7.0 if they had remembered the Feta);
Τζατζικι ~ 7.5

___________________

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, νούμερο ένα:

Here are the corresponding words in Greek:

a) χορτοφάγος (pronounced: "hortoFAgose") or φυτοφάγος (pronounced: "feetoFAgose"; I am not really sure of the distinction between the two, though)

b) ομελέτα (pronounced: "omeLEta" ~ see, this cunning linguist stuff ain't always επιστήμη πυραύλων)

c) μανιτάρια (pronounced: "maniTAria")

d) ντομάτες (pronounced: "toMAtess" ~ and sometimes this cunning linguist stuff ain't even εγχείριση εγκεφάλου)

e) κρεμμύδια (pronounced: "kremMEEthia")

f) σπανάκι (pronounced: "spaNAkee")

g) κολοκύθι (pronounced: "koloKEEthee)

h) λεμονάδα (pronounced: "lemoNAtha" ~ simples)

2. If you don't believe me, just check out the Official Festivus Handbook that is provided annually by the Human Fund.

the Bistro Restaurant at Cliff House

http://cliffhouse.com/bistro/

Place: the Bistro Restaurant at Cliff House
Location: 1090 Point Lobos (at the end of the Earth/Ocean Beach, "Where San Francisco Begins")
Hours: open for breakfast Monday - Saturday at 9:00am; open Sunday at 8:30am
Meal: Sautéed Vegetable Scramble ~ scrambled eggs (hence the "Scramble" portion of the name), red peppers, tomatoes, scallions, button mushrooms (for all four previous ingredients: hence the "Vegetable" portion of the name), melted goat cheese (which isn't mentioned in the name of the dish, but it is a pretty important element all the same); a large(-ish) glass of orange juice; and a basket (of three) of (World) Famous Cliff House Popovers(!)

(There is no EweToobular juxtaselection between this song, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Cliff House, or Popovers[!]. I just happen to like it. Besides, we are all just starting this year's journey "Spinning 'round the Sun..."

If you ever get the chance to see Jimmie Dale perform live, I suggest you do so. He is great in concert. I have probably seen him about a half-dozen times now performing solo or with the Flatlanders.)


Much like last weekend wanting to end the year with a decent matutinal meal and on a high ♪ (I think this week the note was more in the Falsetto-teeth range), I decided to start the year off right and headed back to the Bistro Restaurant at Cliff House (see last 'blog-entry from September 27th, 2015) for what I knew would be a great breakfastary repast ~ even if it only included the (World) Famous Cliff House Popovers(!). 

I got there early enough (well, technically, I was the first person to be seated) so that I got one of the great-viewing window tables overlooking Seal Rocks and the water off Ocean Beach. Unlike yesterday's New Year's Day sojourn across the Golden Gate Bridge where I witnessed a small school (perhaps a kindergarten?) of porpoises[1] joyously baltering on top of the water in that part of the Bay that is just under and to the east of the Golden Gate Bridge, I was not lucky enough to see any of those big fishes this morning. However, I did espy a particular pod of pelicans[2] that were flying in V-formation above Seal Rocks. There was also a small wave of surfers[3] (about a dozen or so) waiting patiently off Ocean Beach braving the cold for that next tasty wave this morning, Mr. Spicoli!

Strange Popovers(!) Interlude

For anyone that is unfamiliar with this most flavourful bready side-dish, I figured a short explanation of these was due. 

There is this definition from Dictionary.com:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/popover?s=t

Additionally, the first cookbook to print a recipe for Popovers(!) was Mary Foote Henderson's, Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving (1876), Page 71:

Breakfast Puffs, or Pop-overs (Mrs. Hopkins).
Ingredients: Two cupfuls of milk, two cupfuls of flour, two eggs, and an even tea-spoonful of salt.
Beat the eggs separately and well, add the whites last, and then beat all well together. They may be baked in roll-pans, or deep gem-pans, which should be heated on the range, and greased before the batter is put in: they should be filled half full with the batter. Or they may be baked in tea-cups, of which eight would be required for this quantity of batter. When baked, serve immediately. For Graham gems use half Graham flour.

As usual, the scramble-mess was very good. But they could literally serve me "S.O.S" (and I do not mean "chip-beef and toast" there) as long as I get my quota of (World) Famous Cliff House Popovers(!), I am more than happy.

Today's side fruits were: grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and (one large) strawberry.

For condimentary supplementation, the Bistro Restaurant at Cliff House only has bottles of Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the Original Red). This didn't really matter as I still had one more new hot sauce that I had received at Christmas and wanted to try, Old St. Augustine Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) which I used on the potatoes side-dish. Normally, I would say that this was a very hot hot sauce (the Datil chilli is about as hot as the Habanero chilli); however, I also decided to break out a bottle of a much older Christmas gift (from like four years ago now) One Stop Hot Shop "Son of Smart Arse" Sauce (Thanks a lot, Cindy & Greg!) and used just the tiniest amount ~ about four or five toothpick tip drops (seriously, I even brought my own toothpick with me this morning so that I could be sure to dole out the smallest of amounts) ~ in with the scrambled mess. Needless to say, the flavour and heat still came through in abundance. I honestly think that this hot sauce has been banned in 27 of these here United States of America (as well as several Provinces of South Korea[4]). Does anyone happen to know what the half-life is for nookular hot sauces?

As I had purposely skipped any Coffee with breakfast (I knew that the Coffee at the Bistro Restaurant at Cliff House was just sufficiently okay) I brewed myself up a cuppa Peet's Coffee & Tea® Holiday Blend to enjoy while typing up ("computering up", whatever) this 'blog-entry. This happened to be the last of that bag, which is good, because I also received three new bags of Coffee at Christmas (Thanks again, Greg & Cindy!) from Bettys (two bags of different versions of their Christmas Blend and a smaller bag of Jamaica Blue Mountain) that I will need to start using up, too.

http://www.peets.com/


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Sautéed Vegetable Scramble ~ 6.6; (World) Famous Cliff House Popovers(!) ~ 8.2; Peet's® Holiday Blend ~ 7.1

___________________

1. The other acceptable Terms of Venery are "a pod of porpoises" and "a shoal of porpoises". Now, whyever would the British be hunting porpoises or dolphins, I have no idea. Maybe porpoises were considered the original "Chicken of the Sea"...

2. Much like porpoises and dolphins, it seems that the correct Term of Venery for pelicans is also a "pod". Again, I am not sure why the British would be hunting pelicans. I suppose if asked if you had ever tasted roast pelican, you might be able to exclaim: "Like hellican! Tastes just like chicken to me!"

3. Which is not an actual Term of Venery, but even the British didn't hunt surfers... that we know of. 

In his book An Exaltation of Larks (which is dedicated specifically to Terms of Venery and Collective Nouns), James Lipton does offer up the term "a tube of surfers", but I prefer my made-uppery Term of Venery a little more. 

4. To get that reference, you would need to (re-)read my initial 'blog-entry mentioning this Devil hot sauce:

http://breakfastatepiphany.blogspot.com/2012/01/eddies-cafe.html

Bayside Cafe

A breakfastary mini-roadtrip[1]:
Sausalito, Marin County, CA

http://www.baysidecafe-sausalito.com/


Place: Bayside Cafe and Juice Bar
Location: 1 Gate 6 Road, Sausalito, CA (located by the Kappas Marina, in the Harbor Center)
Hours: open seven days a week at 6:30am (closed every other day of the week)
Meal: the Veggie[2] Storm ~ scrambled eggs, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, spinach, & Jack cheese, all egg dishes served with choice of hashbrowns (which they have as two words, but I prefer the compound noun) or homefries (which they also have as two words, but I like to compound this word, too) and choice of toast; and something from their Juice Bar ~ Dole Express: pineapple juice, fresh-juiced apples, and fresh-juiced ginger

(I'll bet that you didn't know that the word "Sambade" in Spanish means "roadtrip". Would Carlos lie to you?)


I headed way up North for breakfast at
Bayside Cafe and Juice Bar this morning. I really like that they open up bright (well, the Sun was still not quite fully up yet when I pulled into the parking lot, but still) and early every day. This place was the complete opposite of the swanky dive that I ate at yesterday morning. This is more of a family-owned, nebby diner-ish joint. It is located in the Sausalito marina/harbour area just off Highway 101/Highway 1. 

Bayside Cafe is a medium-sized place and has seating of: six chairs (not stools) at the diner-counter; six tables for four; two tables for two; and ten extra-large booths for four (but I am sure these could accommodate a family of six if there were two small children in tow ~ if not, you can always leave the little rugrats outside to play in the low-tide mud ~ see following photo taken just around the back of the restaurant). Plus, there is a nice, large, covered patio area with an additional six tables for four and two tables for two.

The breakfast menu (which is served all day long, too) is really pretty extensive and offered lots of great choices; there were twenty different omelettes alone (well, twenty of the same omelette would not be alone, but together, I guess). Here are just a few of the dishes I was a-figurin'-on: (off their ?weekend/daily? Specials board as you walk in) Swedish Pancakes (with raspberry-blueberry butter and fresh fruit; I was really tempted by that one; maybe next time, if they have it offered again); the Heart Breaker (an omelette made with artichoke hearts, mushrooms, spinach, & cheese; which is not very different from what I ended up getting); the Veggie Volt (scrambled eggs, zucchini, tomatoes, spinach, & Swiss cheese; this was another one that I was really debating on; another time, too); the Spinach Poacher (poached eggs on top of sautéed spinach, topped with pico de gallo and Feta; served with tortillas or toast; as if there weren't enough reasons for a return trip already).

And just so those of you that aren't stupid vegetarians don't feel left out, there were a few really interesting meatetarian choices, too: the Wannabe Reuben (an omelette made with Pastrami, Swiss cheese, tomatoes, & grilled onions; if they had offered that one with sauerkraut in it, I may have even ordered it, less the dead, decaying, brined bovine product, of course); Mexican Mambo (an omelette made with Louisiana sausage, jalapeños, sour cream, salsa, & cheese); or Munga, Munga! (scrambled eggs, Italian sausage, mushrooms, Feta cheese, & salsa; I can't be sure, but I think that "Munga, Munga" translates from Italian as "internationally confusing as Hell" ~ Italian sausage, Greek cheese, and Mexican salsa?).

This was a very good scramble mess. The artichoke hearts were of the brined variety (not the kind that are marinated in an oil and vinegar base; I like those in salads, but they usually tend to make a scramble or an omelette a bit messy). Artichokes and spinach have always been two of my favourite "veggies" (Ugh!) since I was a kid.

I really like that they offer a choice of potato sides, that gets extra points for that right there. I went with the hashbrowns this morning and was glad that I did as they were prepared in a very interesting manner. These also get extra bonus points as they were made with (red and green) bell peppers and (white) onions mixed in with the shredded potatoes; I have never seen that done before and really liked that idea.

For my choice of toast, I went with a country biscuit. This seemed to just be one of those that are ready-made (as opposed to fresh homemade), but it still beats what Mr. Thomas may have to offer with his faux crumpets (nooks and crannies be damned).

The Dole Express was excellent. The juiced apples make a nice frothy head on the drink and the fresh ginger adds a nice bite to it all. I am not really much of a fan of straight pineapple juice, it's usually way too sweet for my taste (however, I really do love fresh pineapple), but the apples and ginger really tempered the overt sweetness. (The only minus that I can think of was that it came with a plain ol' straight/non-bendy straw. Bendy straws are the best!)

For condimentary supplements, Bayside Cafe has on all the tables Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (bottles of both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce). I just used some of my own The Wiltshire Chilli Farm Winter chilli sauce on the scrambled mess and smoked Chipotle chilli sauce on the potatoes (Thanks again for both, Greg & Cindy!).

This turned out to be one of the safest places for breakfast that I have eaten at in a long while as there were four Sausalito City Police officers and three California Highway Patrolmen all eating there while I was there. I would just liked to have seen Pumpkin and Honey Bunny try any of their foolish shenanigans there this morning (Vincent and Jules wouldn't even have been needed)!


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: the Veggie Storm ~ 6.5; Dole Express ~ 7.2


1. I am calling this a "mini-roadtrip" mainly because it took me less time getting there this morning (about fifteen minutes ~ it is a straight shot for me north across the ol' Golden Gate Bridge) than it normally takes me to drive to most places right here in the city. 

2. Oh, sure! Billy-boy and his spell-checkering Gestapo at Microsoft do not even recognise perfectly valid words like "breakfastary" or "condimentary", but they have no problem with such idiotic, made-up words like "veggies". Buncha brown-shirted Nazi bastages!

the Dipsea Café

A breakfastary roadtrip:
Mill Valley, Marin County, CA

http://www.dipseacafe.com/


Place: the Dipsea Café
Location: 200 Shoreline Highway, Mill Valley, Marin County, CA
Hours: open for breakfast at 7:00am every day of the week
Meal: Greek Omelette ~ Feta cheese, Kalamata olives, tomatoes, pepperoncinis, and oregano (served with home fries, homemade buttermilk biscuit or toast and homemade jam); a side of Τζατζικι
(because it was on the menu and because I could); and a large glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice

(The reason for the first EweToobular juxtaselection is because I heard it on the radio this morning on my way Way-Up-North; plus, it is Sunday still in most places. Brandi Carlile is the anti-American Idol ~ she actually is a talented singer-songwriter in her own right and didn't need any fake help from either Simon Scowls or the FAUX TeeVee network. The second video is because cousins Steven and John are both of Greek descent; additionally, it's a good song.)


I was very grateful that the Sun was out again this morning and shining its best shining, because I made the long haul all the way across the Golden Gate Bridge once again this morning to eat at the Dipsea Café, (see previous 'blog-entry from April 7th, 2012 ~ almost two years ago now). Probably because the restaurant is located all the way up in Marin County and they open up bright and early every morning at 7:00am (and, hipster doofi, please note, "for breakfast", not "Brunch"), I wasn't the first customer of the day for a change; there were already several small families (and I was very happy to see neither a pork-pie hat, nor a cravat in the entire joint) with young children eating pancakes and such. (Kids, try the Mickey Dipsea or Pigs in a Blanket.)

The walls of the Dipsea Café are festooned with all these old tin advertisement signs and there are several "No Smoking" signs in various ferren languages, and they have a few cool old stoves and coolers hanging around the place, too.

(I can't actually read the top sign. I think that it might be in Greek or something and probably reads: "Y*nkees Go Home!" ~ which is just fine with this Red Sox Fan.)[1]

When getting a "Greek" omelette, it is always great to see authentic Kalamata olives being used, and there was a good amount in the omelette, too. Another important factor is that the Feta cheese should be in large chunks (in this case, they were at least ¼" or larger pieces) and in copious amounts; and not in any minuscule amount of Feta crumblies. The tomatoes were actually grilled/roasted, which really added another depth of flavour ~ Μπράβο! My one complaint about the omelette would be that there was a inordinate amount of pepperoncinis inside it; I am not exaggerating any here when I say that there may have been a quarter of a jar of the sliced variety inside.

Of course, I went for the homemade buttermilk biscuit choice. Who in their right mind would choose plain ol' toast when there is the option of a fresh, warm biscuit? There really is nothing better than fresh, warm homemade (even if the "home" is a diner/restaurant) biscuits… and with homemade jam! Today's homemade jam was strawberry. 

The orange juice was the actual fresh-squeezed stuff, made by one of those the Jetsons contraptions that cuts the oranges in half and then makes the juice all in one machine.

This was good Τζατζικι, but like a lot of places in the States, they go way too lightly on the garlic; they always seem to temper it for the stupid Αμερικανάκι[2]. After eating Τζατζικι, one should be able to part large crowds by just breathing on them. I am pretty sure that strong, correctly-made Τζατζικι is the main secret ingredient in the chemical weapons being employed in Syria currently… oh, wait, that can't actually be happening… Obama did declare a Red Line, after all.

For condimentary supplements, the Dipsea Café has just Tabasco® Brand Hot Sauce (both the standard red and the green jalapeño). I used some of my own Youk's Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on top of the omelette. This turned out to be a highly superfluous move, as the pepperoncinis already kinda spiced the thing up a bit, but I was not aware of that until after I had cut into the omelette. The Τζατζικι was added primarily, and very liberally, I might add (I really can't stand those stupid Republicans and their stingy, conservative use of condimentary supplementation), all over the home fries. Nothing beats the combination of Τζατζικι and potatoes!

As I had skipped any Coffee beverages with my meal this morning, I decided on doing the whole
διπλό Καφές Ελληνικός ~ μέτριος at home. I used some of my Bettys Christmas Coffee for this (which was already pre-ground for standard Coffee machines; ideally, you really should use a very fine grind of Coffee to make this, but as I always say: "When in San Francisco, do as the Greeks would never think of doing!"). I had to break out my highly-technical Greek Coffee Maker (it's a little one-piece aluminium deelie) and prepare it just like my native Greek friend, Tim Fitzsimmonsopoulos, taught me: you start by adding the ground Coffee into the water (and just a λίγο amount of ζάχαρη); bring it all to a boil once (making sure to take it off the heat as soon as the Coffee starts to bubble up, otherwise it will foam-up all over the place and make a big mess all over your stovetop… or so I have been told) and remove it from the heat for a few seconds; replace it on the heat and let it boil/bubble up another time; remove from heat again; and then let boil for one last time (that would be three times in all for anyone not keeping count)… and Voila! (Okay, I do not know the Greek word for "Voila!") ~ the perfect cuppa Καφές Ελληνικός. When drinking a Greek Coffee (or Turkish Coffee or Arabic Coffee), you have to be careful to let the grounds settle to the bottom of the cup first and then sip down only as far as the grounds will let you. Another native Greek friend of mine, Bob Worthingtonassis, used to drink the entire thing to the bottom, gritty sludge and all; he swore it was the best way to stay awake during a Mid-shift.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Greek Omelette ~ 6.7 (this would easily have been a 7.0 or higher with a lighter hand on the pepperoncinis); Τζατζικι ~ 7.5


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

a) Russkij = "Не Kурить", pronounced “Nee Kooreet”, and means just that "Do Not Smoke";
b) Deutsch = "Bitte Nicht Rauchen", pronounced "Bitta Neekt Rouken”, and again simply means "Please Do Not Smoke";

and extra-added bonusary:

c) Greek = "Απαγορεύεται το κάπνισμα" and loosely translates as "Y*nkees Go Home! And Smoke In Your Own D*mn Stadium!" (No, really, look it up yourself if you don't believe me.)

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

“Αμερικανάκι" is basically Greek slang for "stupid Y*nkees". The term "Αμερικανός" is the correct term for "stupid 'mericans".