♪ "Hot town, Autumn in the Castro, Back of my neck getting dirty and... gastro?!?" ♫
https://www.woodenspoonsf.com/ Place: Wooden Spoon Location: 2172 Market Street (between Church and Sanchez Streets) Hours: open daily at 8:00am (whereas their web-site states "'Brunch' With Us", this is actually a pretty decent place for an unsnobbish, plain ol' breakfast and they open up plenty early enough for me, too) Meal: Morning Bowl (gf) (v) ~ quinoa, cauliflower rice, pickled vegetables, kabocha squash, spinach, sesame tahini & tomatillo salsa; and a cuppa (and two half-refillas ["'Two half-refillas'? But ain't that just 'one refilla', Brian?" Yeah, so, maybe I just prefer Common Core Math. Okay?!]) Sightglass Coffee - (possibly) Banner Dark https://sightglasscoffee.com/
(There are absolutely no reasons for today's EweToobular juxtaselections. Idunno, perhaps that guy that sang the theme-song to "Welcome Back, Kotter" also likes Swedish pancakes with lingonberry jam.) I seldom get over to the Castro; however, last week I was visiting friends for Hallowe'en (Hey, Amy and Chef Joe!) over near the Duboce Triangle, and because I had gotten there about two hours earlier than the festivities were to commence, I decided to walk up and down Market Street in the Castro District. As luck would have it, I discovered a couple "new" (for me, anyway) places that looked like they might be good choices for future breakfastary fares. The first one I decided to hit (mainly because it opened an hour before the other restaurant) was Wooden Spoon. And when I say "new", in the case of Wooden Spoon, it has only been open since mid-May of this year (which would be the year 2018 for any of you anti-Semite b*stards keeping count). The restaurant space is surrounded by the entrance-ways to Cafe Du Nord and the Swedish American Hall. Seating-wise, there are two large counter seating-areas ~ one by the front door/bar-area (which is where I chose to sit this morning) that has eleven seats, and another in the back (near/overlooking the kitchen-area) with twelve more seats. Additionally, there are several real tables in the larger, main dining area (if you are that kinda person that has to pretend to be all kulcherd and stuff and feel the need to sit at a fancy-shmancy-*ss table-thing [you probably also expect to be provided with hoity-toity cloth napkins and sterling silver straws... well, the joke is on you! They use both paper napkins and paper straws.]). I really liked that there are several stupid vegetarian-friendly (and even some stupider Vegan-friendly) dishes from which to choose. A few other ideas that caught my eye (well, both of my eyes): Huevos Divorciados ~ eggs, house made Vegan chorizo, avocado, crema, queso fresco, black beans (this would probably have been my back-up choice); Swedish Society Pancakes ~ lingonberry jam, powdered sugar, lemoncurd; Buttermilk Pancakes ~ spiced apples, maple syrup (the guy two seat over from me at the counter ordered these; they came as three extra thick and HUGE pancakes; I would never have been able to finish all three myself); Granola Crunch French Toast (v) (say whaaaa'?!) ~ brioche, whipped cream, raspberries, maple syrup; or House Hash (gf) ~ poached egg, short ribs (which I woulda made sure were not only "short", but "nonexistent ribs"), kabocha squash, spinach, pickled vegetables, coconut creamed corn.
I knew immediately that I was gonna love this one from its list of ingredients: quinoa (♥), cauliflower (♥♥), AND kabocha squash (♥♥♥)! (Of course, with the small-grained quinoa and riced cauliflower, this dish oughta shoulda come with a side of toothpicks... [the only thing missing was some whole sesame seeds and flax seeds to perform the Anti-Dentite Perfecta, Jerry].) It came all compartmentalised and the idea was to mix up all the stuff after dumping the tomatillo salsa and sesame tahini all over the mess. I also liked their pickled vegetables (of the Anti-Brandtite variety): of which, there were at least carrots and red onions that I knew for sure, and, possibly, parsnipsor turnips, sweet potatoes, and white radishes. I asked one of the waitress/server lady-persons and she was not exactly sure herself; she said that the vegetables change seasonally. Whatever they might have been, they were verrrry tasty. If you go there and if these do not come as a part of your meal, I highly suggest getting a side of them (even if you order one of their pancake dishes... no... especially even if you order one of their pancake dishes). When I first saw the description of the meal that I ordered on the menu (What am I some kinda stupid rabbit with a light appetite?!), I almost thought about ordering a side of potatoes. Luckily, I did not, as this was just the right amount of food (with the added poached egg on top [let's see some d*mn rabbit try to eat a poultry zygote]) for me. Wooden Spoon offers for condimentary supplementation Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Cholula®Hot Sauce (Original). I used some of my own Old St. AugustineDatil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on top of the poached egg. Actually, their tomatillo salsa was pretty d*rn tasty all on its ownsome and I probably coulda foregone any extraneous espiciness. (not so) Strange Coffee Interlude I was only going to order a cuppa with breakfast if they offered a good or interesting brand of Coffee. The Mexican bartender/waiter/server-guy told me that they served Sightglass Coffee. However, when I asked him what specific roast/blend it was, all he could tell me was that it was a "Dark Roast". Which was good enough for me. And the Coffee also ended up being good enough for me to get a couple of half-refillas, too. "Fill'er-up!"[1] (part b) Before even heading out for breakfast this morning, I made myself a cuppa BettysColombian Fedar (Thanks, Greg & Cindy! [who are no relation to the above "Cindy & Greg" hot sauce-gifters]; I had just received a care-package from them this week that included several different bags of Bettys). As with all of BettysCoffees, this was exceptionally good. It was just not as good as any of those true African Coffees like those from Ethiopia (Ethiopian Mocha Limu and Rare Blossom Ethiopia), Kenya (Kenyan Karatina), or Jamaica (Jamaica Blue Mountain)... https://www.bettys.co.uk/bettys-colombian-fedar Wooden Spoon is gonna be a strong contender for "My Favourite 'New' Place of 2018" (along with lokma ~ see previous 'blog-entry from Sunday, August 19th, 2018).
♪ "All around, people looking half dead Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a hatch-med[2]... " ♫ Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Morning Bowl ~ 7.1; Sightglass Coffee - (possibly) Banner Dark ~ 7.0; BettysColombian Fedar ~ 7.3 ___________________
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day: From asking (pestering... potato-tomato) in the past, I knew that to order just a half-cuppa/warm-uppa in Spanish you say "la mitad", which simply means "half/middle". I had to ask what was the Spanish for "Fill'er-up!" and was told it was "¡Llénala!" (pronounced something like "YENala", but the bartender-guy-person pronounced it more like "GENala" [with a hard "G" as in "guarantee"], which just might be more of a Mexican dialectal thing). 2. Okay, let us see who can figure out just why I "murposefully paid" that particular metathesis in that phrase.
(There is no correlation between today's EweToob link and either Balompié[1a], Fútbol[1b], or Soccer[1c]. I just couldn't think of any good songs that were either Soccer-related ~ Really? You wanted to listen to another rendition of Gerry and the Pacemakers "You'll Never Walk Alone"? ~ or had anything to do with El Salvador.)
I had desayuno this morning at Balompié Cafe; they are located on the corner of 18th and Capp Streets over in the Mission. Balompié Cafe has been in business since 1987, and they will be celebrating their 25th Anniversary this year on Día de los Muertos(while that is actually a Mexican holiday, I don't know what they call Hallowe'en locally in El Salvador). There are three locations: two in San Francisco (both in the Mission) and one in El Salvador (in the city of Metapan).
Balompié Cafe is mainly a Salvadoran pupusas[2] joint and Balompié/Fútbol/Soccer fan hang-out. This is probably one of the best places in San Francisco to get pupusas. They offer several varieties of pupusas, including seven (siete, 7!) different vegetarian versions even. Balompié Cafe has several large flat-screen TeeVees with Balompié/Fútbol/Soccer games always going. Most everyone sits at the long table in the middle of the restaurant which has seating for twenty or more (which is really just five tables of four lined up) and have good views of two of the TeeVees. There was a match on this morning at 8:30am when I got there; however, I am not quite sure which teams were playing ~ with all of the ads and crap on players' jerseys now-a-days, it may very well have been the Barcelona Fiats vs. the London Fuller's Prides, for all I could tell. Who was winning? It looked like the blokes in the bright yellow jerseys were winning to me…
The rafters are covered with Balompié/Fútbol/Soccer scarves; from many countries, different teams, and even both types of "Football".
I had thought about ordering some pupusas with breakfast, but knew that they have a minimum order of two pupusas ~ you can mix and match any type you like, but it has to be two total ~ and that would have been way too much food to eat for me with an egg dish. I suppose I probably could have paired those with a simple breakfast of Plátanos, frijoles, queso, crema (fried plantains, beans, cheese, and sour cream). I ended up ordering Huevos con loroco[3] ~ eggs with loroco, a native Salvadoran vegetable, rice, and beans; served with two homemade corn tortillas. I also had a cuppa house coffee. (I made this into café el mexicano ~ with two sugars and lots of cream/leche. I have never been to El Salvador, so I don't know how they drink their coffee.)
This was a decent enough scrambled egg dish; I liked the unique flavour of the loroco in the dish. I do like nopalitos in a scramble/omelette better, though. The corn tortillas were excellent: very thick and hot off the griddle (which is to be expected, as a place that specializes in pupusas will usually have fresh corn tortillas, too). The coffee ended up being no charge with the meal. I tried pointing out to my server that they didn't charge me for the coffee; I am not sure if something was lost in the translation, as she kept pointing to the "Tax" part of the bill. Maybe it was just easier to comp me the coffee than to ring it up again. So, what is the flavour of loroco? It's kinda similar to spinach, but not quite; something is also lost in translation with the flavours.
Like most Mexican restaurants in the Mission, Balompié Cafe has for condimentary supplementation the ubiquitous Tapatío® and their own homemade salsa. I skipped the bottled stuff and generously used a lot of the homemade salsa all over the eggs and rice and beans; it was pretty tasty, but really only Gringo[4] hot.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Huevos con loroco ~ 6.0; Papusas (which I have had a few times in the past and am rating from memory) ~ 7.5
[1] Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer del día, número uno:
a. "Balompié" in Spanish is another name for what 'mericans refer to as "Soccer".
b. "Fútbol" in Spanish is also another name for what 'mericans refer to as "Soccer". This one is easy enough to translate, as it comes from two English word roots "Fu" (meaning "Don't even think o' steppin' on me shoes, ya fargin' bastage!") and "Tbol" (meaning "That ball on a pole that no one ever knew how to play with in the schoolyard.").
c. The 'merican term "Soccer" (this really isn't a "stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer", more of a "stupid, useless cultural differentiation") comes from a shortened form of "(As)soc(iation Football)" plus "-er". This was originally 19th Century British university slang and was called "socca", and later "socker".
[2] Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer del día, número dos:
"Pupusas" are a traditional Salvadoran dish made of a thick, handmade corn tortilla. The name comes from the Spanish word for the Pipil word "pupusaw".
By the way, the correct term for a place that specializes in pupusas is called a "pupuseria", much like a place that mainly serves tacos is called a "taqueria", and a place that mainly serves diet foods is called a "dieria"*.
*(Okay, I made that last one up, but it may even be true for all I know. I was just seeing who *cough-Cassy-cough* really reads these stupid, useless pointers of mine.)
[3] Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-horticultural pointer del día, número tres:
"Loroco" is an herbaceous vine with edible green flowers, which is indigenous to El Salvador. Unfortunately, I really can't find any word origin of "loroco" on any on-line searches. Perhaps, it was just an old Spanish word meaning "herbaceous vine with edible green flowers".
[4] Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer del día, número cuatro:
Most people know that the word "Gringo" is a Spanish and Portuguese slang word used to denote foreigners (big secret there). However, not many people know that it is probably an alteration of the Spanish word "griego" meaning "Greek". Much like we have the expression "It's all Greek to me."**, the Spanish have an expression "Hablar en gringo." which means much the same. **(Also a common phrase heard throughout the Y*nkees locker-room.)
(No official web-site. They are located at 88 East 4th Ave.)
What is better than Chinese breakfast for lunch?[1]
Here's a little known fact, Cliff, "dim sum"[2] in Chinese actually means "breakfast rolls".
I skipped an "official" breakfast this morning as I knew I was going to have an early lunch with the Hallowe'enie Birthday Girl, Amy[3]. It was Amy's choice as it was her birthday meal, after all (don't worry, I made sure she paid for the entire meal at least), and she decided on a popular, local dim sum place (within walking distance of her apartment, which is always nice).
Now the name of this place is either Joy Luck Place or Champagne Seafood Restaurant. Amy says it is called Joy Luck Place, but their menu says Champagne Seafood Restaurant. The Chinese symbols above their entranceway do not look anything like the symbols on their menu. As the extent of my Chinese is limited to pointing at stuff on the menu, I have no idea what the symbols actually mean, but the name really doesn't matter as this place is a very popular place and people know how to find it easily enough.
As one of their names would imply, they are not just a dim sum place, but a seafood restaurant. This was evident by several large fish tanks in the back of the restaurant. They had tanks filled with prawns, lobsters, crabs, and a few different types of fish (that I have no idea which kind they were). It was very interesting to see the size of the prawns. I had never seen them live and swimming before. Many of them were at least six inches long or larger. I know you can usually pick out a specific lobster or crab for your meal, but I am not sure if the same thing goes for prawns, though.
They have a regular menu that you can order off, but most people just end up getting what the numerous servers, who are walking around with trays and carts, are serving. We were offered Shark's fin soup several times, among other exotic dishes, while we were waiting and eating. We came for the dim sum, however, and made sure we got a few different types.
Amy is not a stupid vegetarian, but she went along with my dietary restraints all the same. The first thing we recognized off the servers trays that was sure to be vegetarian was the Chinese Broccoli[4]w/ Oyster Sauce. Luckily, this comes with the oyster sauce on the side for dipping; I forewent this fishy sauce and Amy tried a little bit of it and really didn't like it and joined me in the aforementioned forewental. We both ended up just dipping them in the Chinese hot mustard and red pepper sauces that they had provided us.
Next we ordered a simple Soy Sauce Chow Mein. This was also off the wandering servers trays; it went well with the Chinese broccoli while we were deciding on what else to order.
(I didn't take a picture of this entry. It's noodles and stuff. Chow Mein.)
We decided to order a few things off the menu so we wouldn't be unnecessarily surprised (I tried talking Amy into trying the Chilled Chicken Feet, but she was not having any of that): Vegetarian Dumplings (4) and Pumpkin Buns (3), both off the Steamed portion of the menu; and Special Spring Rolls (3) off the Pan-Fried, Deep-Fried & Baked portion of the menu.
I liked all of these a lot. The vegetarian dumplings were overflowing with a lot of junk: corn, carrots, mushrooms, and a few other tasty things. As it 'tis the season, the pumpkin buns were a very good choice, too. I really liked these a lot; Amy liked them, but not as much as I did, so I had two to her one. I would go back just for the pumpkin buns alone.
There was no way we were going to leave there without any dessert dim sum. They have a lot of really interesting choices: Coconut Pudding in Coconut (which I assume had a little coconut in it); Deep Fried Milk w/Almond (???); Deep-Fried Sesame Egg Yolk Lava Ball; and Green Bean Pudding among others. If it were my choice, I would have ordered the Green Bean Pudding, as it sounded the most interesting and disgusting. But this was the Hallowe'en Princesses' day, after all, so I had to settle for the Deep Fried Sesame Balls (4). Now some poor old sesame is walking around funny and can never have kids.
Actually, this would have been my first choice, too. They were very good and served fresh and hot. They were filled with either a sweetened black bean or red bean paste.
When all was said and done, the sum of all these dims added up to a very tasty breakfast/lunch indeed.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Dim sum (overall) ~ 6.6; Pumpkin Buns ~ 6.8; Deep Fried Sesame Balls ~ 7.0
[1] The answer is, of course, cold Chinese dinner for breakfast the next morning. [2] Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day: I was just kidding about dim sum meaning "breakfast rolls", but I could easily eat several of their dessert dim sums for breakfast; especially those pumpkin buns. "Dim sum"/點心 actually comes from two Chinese words that combined mean "touch the heart".
[4] This is actually called "Kai-lan" and is mostly a leafy vegetable, and unlike it's close relative "the vile weed", this is actually very tasty and I would order it again any day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_broccoli
There are two Noe Valley* locations for TOAST Eatery. I went to their second restaurant, the one located in "downtown Noe Valley" on 24th Street in the spot vacated by the old Herb's Fine Foods. It maintains a 50's-style Diner look to it and there are several "cartoon literalism" murals/artwork by Sirron Norris on the walls.
http://www.sirronnorris.com/ I had the Sicilian Omelet (not Frittata, nor Fritatta even) ~ Spinach, Sun Dried & Fresh Tomato, Pesto, Onion, & Feta. The choices of toast are: White, Wheat, Rye, Sourdough, or English Muffin; I went with plain ol' wheat bread toast. The side of hash browns were nice and crispy. The omelette had lots of spinach (fresh again), lots of Feta (I asked my server and she told me that she was pretty sure it was a local California Feta; it tasted very good and I assumed it was Greek), and lots of sun-dried tomatoes (I have found that places usually are a bit chintzy on both Feta and sun-dried tomatoes). The flavour combination was very nice and really didn’t even need the extra ingredient of onions, in my opinion.
They serve a good, strong cuppa coffee, Mr. Espresso® (a long-standing Bay Area roastery); it was served with a fun little milk pitcher/creamer (but good coffee should always be drank black, thank you very much). TOAST is right next door to a St*rbucks, and this coffee was much better than that corporate brand.
http://mrespresso.com/ They have the ubiquitous standard red Tabasco® only on the tables; so I used some of my own Trees Can't Dance Tree Fire Sauce ("Thanks again, Greg & Cindy!") on the hash browns.
As today is Hallowe'en, the cute female server, Colleen, (Sorry, Diane!) was dressed as one of the "Three Blind Mice"; she said two other co-workers were coming as the rest of the mousy trio. They still hadn't shown up by the time I finished eating. Guess the couldn't "see their way to coming to work"!
I like the simplicity of the restaurant's name, and much like Eats (see April 10th, 2010 entry), the food is much better than the basic name would imply. However, my only minor complaint is, with an eatery named "TOAST", I would have expected many more and some interesting different types of bread (Rosemary, Potato, or any others). But what's in a name?
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Siciliana Omelet ~ 7.0; Mr. Espresso coffee ~ 6.9
*(Just to let everyone know, Noe Valley is not named after Rudy. I looked it up. The neighborhood is actually named after José de Jesús Noé, the last alcade, or mayor, of Yerba Buena ~ present day San Francisco.)
