Richmond (District) Coffeehouses ~ Teil Zweiunddreißig/Rész Harminckét
(No official web-site thing.) Place: the Blue Danube[1]Coffee House Location: 306 Clement Street (just about at the corner of 4th Avenue); phonicular contact: (415) 221-9041 Hours: open at 7:00am every day of the week Meal: Greek (Breakfast) Wrap ~ grilled flour tortilla w/ steamed eggs, spinach, portabello, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, Feta, pesto & side of fruit cup; and a very large cuppa House Coffee ~ which, coincidentally enough, happens to be Mr. Espresso®Viennese Blend Medium-Dark Roast http://mrespresso.com/
(I will leave it to you to figure out just what today's EweToobular juxtaselections might be.) Continuing along with my Richmond (District) Coffeehouses Series (and there may be just one more coffeehouse to check out now), I backtracked over to Clement Street to fill in a blank with the Blue Danube Coffee House. They had recently reopened (after about a year of being closed due to a "plumbing problem" ~ I am sure that could have been rectified with a hot Coffee high colonic ~ hold the cream and sugar, of course) in May this year. This place is one of the oldest coffeehouses on Clement Street (and, in my opinion, one of the best along Clement Street and in the Richmond); they have been open since at least 1987 that I know about. the Blue Danube Coffee House is a medium-sized neighborhood coffeehouse with seating of twelve to thirteen tables for two; plus, two large couches where two to three people can sit and enjoy their Coffee. Additionally, there are four tables for two outside on the sidewalk. I had thought about sitting outside at one of those tables, but I was the only customer there when they had first opened and didn't want to look like a crazy person sitting outside all by myself; they later opened up the large windows at the front of the coffeehouse, anyway, and I got plenty of fresh air then.
One pretty cool thing about this coffeehouse is that most of the coffee(house)tables have artwork or designs of some sort on them. My table this morning was reminiscent of Monet or Van Gogh or some other Impressionist/Post-impressionist artist. That a coffeehouse even offers cooked egg dishes (in the form of wraps, bagels, and sandwiches) is very cool; and that they offer several (well, four ~ but still) different wrap versions is even cooler. The other options were American Wrap (ham or bacon, Cheddar, salsa); California Wrap (lox, cream cheese, capers, avocado; I suppose that I could have ordered this one without any of the dead, decaying piscine junk); or Western Wrap (bacon, grilled onions, Cheddar, bell peppers). They also offer French Toast ~ brioche, cream cheese, caramelized apples, almonds, berries; I have absolutely no idea how they might cook that dish, though. I also overheard one of the workers state to another customer that anything on the menu can be ordered all day long. I could see getting for breakfast either Arugula & Fig (Salad) ~ roast beef or beets, onion, Feta, vinaigrette (now they don't actually state it in the ingredients listed on the menu, but I can only assume that this salad also includes some arugula and figs in it), or Danube (Salad) ~ spinach, Bleu cheese, almond chips, dried cranberries, pears, sesame dressing (a sesame dressing sounds a bit strange to go with the rest of those ingredients, but it might just work).
This was an all-around decent wrap. (Get it, "all-around wrap"? Whatever!) They call these "steamed eggs", but, as best as I can tell, they were just the nuked-microwave-preparation scrambled variety. This had lots of spinach and sundried tomatoes (I mean A LOT) in it. I would have liked more Feta, but that is generally my complaint, anyway. And how many coffeehouse joints do you know that would use portobello (or portabello) mushrooms as an ingredient?
This cuppa (bowla?) had to be at least 16-20oz worth. They have packaged bags of Coffee from Mr. Espresso® (of this specific Viennese Blend and a few other blends/roasts) for sale. They also offer a few other blends/roasts that can be made as a single-cuppa "pour-over" style; I asked what they were, but when I heard that they offered a Viennese Blend as their House Coffee, I knew right away that I was going to go with that Coffee juxtaselection. The small fruit cup side included: cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and grapes[2]. the Blue Danube Coffee Househas both Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce for use as condimentary supplements. I had even brought a few of my own hot sauces with me; however, I didn't feel it necessary to use any this morning. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Greek (Breakfast) Wrap ~ 6.4; Mr. Espresso®Viennese Blend ~ 6.8 ___________________ 1. The Danube is Europe's second-longest river. It stretches from Germany (Deutschland), through Austria (Österreich) ~ right through the middle of Vienna (Wien), through Hungary (Magyarország) ~ splitting the old twin cities of Buda and Pest, and ending at the Ukraine (Україна) into the Black Sea (Черное Mоре/Чорне Mоре). Of course, the Danube is known by various names in other languages for the countries through which it passes. Hence, stupid, useless cunning linguist (well, mostly geographical) pointer of the day, number one: German (for both Germany and Austria): Donau Slovak: Dunaj Hungarian: Duna Croatian: Dunav Serbian: Дунав (Dunav) Romanian (for both Romania and Moldova): Dunărea Bulgarian: Дунав (Dunav) Ukrainian: Дунай (Dunay) I have walked across several bridges spanning the Danube (Donau/Duna) both in Vienna (Wien) and in Budapest (Budapest). The resort hotel that we stayed at in Hungary was actually on an island (Margaret Island/Margit-sziget) right in the middle of the Danube (Duna) with the old cities of Buda on one side and Pest on the other side. 2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist (two-fer) pointer of the day, Nummer Zwei/második: a) Auf Deutsch: Cantaloupe, Honigmelone, und Trauben b) magyar nyelven: kantalup dinnye, sárgadinnye, szőlő
"We had some ham and eggs and took our time saying goodbye to the bright lights." ~ Stanley Kubrick, "Killer's Kiss"
(No official web-site.)
50 Clement Street (on the corner of 2nd Avenue)
phonicular contact: (415) 751-8000
(Just a few more Boston-related EweToob songs for the weekend.)
This morning's breakfastary repast was once again at Eats (see last 'blog-entry from February 9th, 2013). I got there just as they were opening this morning (8:00am, daily) and was one of the first customers there. Even though I had a choice of tables from which to choose, I chose to sit at the window-counter seats which look out onto Clement Street. I had never noticed before that they have transoms[1] above these windows, but as this morning was actually pretty nice, they had them open and it was a pretty comfortable warm breeze coming in.
I have had most of their breakfast choices already so far and was thinking about either the Farmer's Scrambled Eggs (I have had this once before when it used to have kale in the mix, now it has cauliflower instead) or the Spicy Tomato Skillet (which I have also had in the past and really liked; I even renamed it the Spicy Kale Skillet as it had tons of kale in it). However, instead, I ordered something that I had never had before, the Waffle Bacon ~ bacon pressed in a waffle, Cheddar, Hungarian peppers[2], sunny up eggs; potatoes or salad.
I ordered this without the dead, decaying pork belly bits (so, I guess I just got the "Waffle"). I was expecting both the Cheddar and
Hungarian peppers to be mixed in the waffle batter already, but this
was actually prepared with the cheese and peppers just underneath the
eggs that were laid on top (these were just placed atop the waffle, no
chickens had to actually sit upon the hot waffle griddle, as that would
just have been cruel). This was still very good, I just thought it would
have been cool to have them pressed into the waffle maker.
Of course, I chose the Excellent! Roasted Home Potatoes over a stupid side salad, as this is one of the main reasons I keep going back and put Eats into my Breakfastary Rotation. The Excellent! Roasted Home Potatoes only had one (1, eine, une, egy) garlic clove in them this morning (insert stupid frowny-face emoticon here if you like). They were still Excellent!, but they would have been even more Excellenter! with more garlic. I suppose that it really didn't matter as I had no toast to spread them on this morning, anyway.
Eats provides the standard San Francisco Triumvirate of Hot Sauces(SFToHS) for condimentary supplements: Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red), Tapatío®, and Cholula®. However, I still used some from my own collection. I used a good amount of Serious Food… Silly Prices Sweet Heat(Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the Excellent! Roasted Home Potatoes and a little Cherry Republic® KaBOB's Kick’en Hot Sauce(Thanks again, Cindy & Greg!) on the eggs.
Lastly, tomorrow is Earth Day, so please be nice to your Mother.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Waffle (ohne/sans/nélkül) Bacon ~ 6.5; Excellent! Roasted Home Potatoes ~ 7.45 (these are normally a 7.5 GBS Rating, but I am docking them .05 points for just giving me one garlic clove this morning)
1. I have already related this stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer before in the past about "transoms":
"Transom" in Hungarian is "keresztfa" and "What is that?" in Hungarian is "Mi ez?". The first word really never came into play while I was in Budapest in December two years ago, but I am sure that the second phrase was probably used about ten times a day.
2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, a második: "Pepper(s)" in Hungarian is simply "paprika". This is a diminutive of the Serbo-Croatian word "papar" (meaning "pepper"), which in turn came from the Latin "piper" (“pepper” also).
I really don’t know what a typical Hungarian breakfast actually consists of, as my only point of reference was having breakfast at Platán Restaurant while staying at the Danubius Health Spa Resort Margitsziget[1] in Budapest, Hungary with my annual Christmas hosts, Greg and Cindy Kipe (Jó napot, guys!), a week ago; and then we only ate at the extensive breakfast buffet provided. I can only assume it would be like most European countries and consist of some sort of egg dishes with meats, cheeses, and breads; which is basically what I had for the four mornings I was there (hús nélkül).
Now a little Hungarian history/language lesson is in order here before I continue. (Consider this stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, number egy.) I can pretend to get by in many European cities with the little bit I can remember of Russian, German, French, Spanish, Greek, and even Latin helps some; however, I have absolutely no point of reference for anything Hungarian. Heck, the Hungarian word for "Hungary" is actually "Magyarország" (pronounced "MYarorsag") or "Magyar Köztársaság" ("the Republic of Hungary", pronounced just like it looks), where we got "Hungary" from is besides me. Luckily, many people in Hungary speak either English, German, or Russian as a secondary language.
The Hungarian language is neither Slavic nor Romance language based; it is closer in origin to Finnish than any of its surrounding countries (Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia). Previously, the only two Hungarian words that I was even familiar with (and most 'mericans probably, too) were "goulash" (which is spelled "gulyás" in Hungarian and actually pronounced "GOOyash") and "paprika"(which is also spelled "paprika" in Hungarian and pronounced "PAPreeka", kinda like you'd expect). The river that we know as the "Danube" is called "Duna" in Hungarian (and it's called "Donau" in German, go figger).
The Budapest tour book that Cindy had brought along had a quick lesson in Hungarian pronunciation and several helpful phrases and words in it. For example, most words in Hungarian have the accent on the penultimate[2] syllable and a single "s" is normally pronounced as a "sh", as in the capital city, Budapest (which is pronounced "BUDApesht"). I was only able to master a few words and phrases during the four days that we were there: "igen (IGen)"= "yes"; "nem (NEM)" = "no"; "kérem (KAYrem)" = "please"; "jó napot (yow NOPot)" = "hello"; "szia (SEEyuh)" = "see you soon" (this is not a joke and was really the easiest phrase to master); "köszönöm (KURSSurnurm)" = "thank you" (this is an exception to the penultimate accented rule, but I particularly like the three umlauted "o"s in a row); "vegetáriánnus vagyok (VEGetari-anoosh VOJok)" = " I am a vegetarian"; "kávé (KAvay)" = "coffee"; and, most importantly, "sör (SHUR)" = "beer". (Just never try to ask for directions to the "Opera"[3].)
As with any "ferren" country, the monetary unit is always fun to try and discern. The official unit of currency in Hungary is called the "Gabor"; this is not named after the famous sisters that became famous in 'merica, but I think it has something to do with their family, as the name "Gabor" seemed to be a pretty common name in Hungary. There are currently about 200 Gabors to one U.S. Dollar; that made it pretty easy to convert prices, just halve the price and move the decimal point two places to make a Gabors to cents conversion.
Now to the breakfast part of the 'blog (this is a breakfast 'blog, remember?). The daily buffet usually included: scrambled eggs, spicy potatoes (with a tasty Hungarian pepper sauce on it), several types of fruits (my favourite was the black cherry compote), several varieties of cheeses, breads/rolls, pastries, yoghurts, three types of juice (usually orange, grapefruit, and peach), jams/jellies, coffees and teas, and even several salad dishes (as well as many dead decaying animal flesh products). Most days I just filled up on scrambled eggs, breads and cheeses, and made sure to get some of the spicy potatoes whenever they were available (one morning they only had hashbrown triangles and another morning I even tried some roasted/baked pumpkin slices, which weren't really that bad for breakfast). The spicy potatoes were sliced, not chunked, which made them extra crispy and really tasted great with the Hungarian pepper sauce on them.
(That green thing on the side of my plate in the bottom photo is a half-eaten Hungarian pepper. It tasted great, and only was about as hot as a jalapeño or less.)
As far as condimentary supplementation with the buffet, I was surprised to see bottles of Tabasco® (just the standard red); however, they did have bowls of the fresh spicy Hungarian pepper sauce/purée, too, which I used rather liberally (Yay, our tastes buds have been freed from Soviet oppression!) on my scrambled eggs and other things.
One last stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day: "Jó reggelt!" (pronounced "Yow REGGelt") means "Good morning!"; the Hungarian word for "breakfast" is "reggeli"(pronounced "REGGeli") and comes from the same root word.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Daily breakfast buffet ~ 6.4 (mainly due to the pretty decent selection and the aforementioned spicy potatoes)
[1] The Danubius Health Spa Resort Margitsziget (Margaret Island) is right smack dab in the middle of the Danube/Duna/Donau and about a 15-minute walk across a major bridge in either direction to the cities of Buda or Pest. So if anyone is going to be a wise guy and ask me if I stayed in Buda or Pest, I can honestly say "Igen". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Island It was just easier to dine at the hotel buffet breakfast each morning while we were there. We did get off the island to sight-see and tour the city, and ate at several nice places for lunches and dinners. [2] Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, number két: Yeah, I had to ask Cindy what the heck that meant, too.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/penultimate [3] Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, number három: I was a little lost one afternoon when I went out sightseeing on my own while Greg and Cindy were at a local Photography museum/exhibit. I got turned around at an "octagon" street intersection (I was only a few blocks off course), and I asked a lady on the street in English where the "Opera" was (I knew the Hungarian word was very similar), as the museum was just around the corner from it and I knew I could find it from there. Seems simple enough, right? I had to say "opera" four to five times before she finally understood me and said "OHpera?" and pointed me in the correct direction.
