Hollywood Cafe

Goodbye, dead, decaying porky-butt bits,
Though I never knew you at all...

https://www.hollywoodcafesf.com/


Place: Hollywood Cafe

Location: 530 North Point Street
(coincidentally enough, near the corner of 
Taylor Street)

Hours: open everyday[ sic ] at 7:00am

Meal: Asparagus Eggs Benedict ~ bacon (which was edited out, Mr. DeMille ), asparagus & tomato, two poached eggs on English muffin, topped with our own Hollandaise sauce, served with hash browns (which I had upgraded to Hollywood Hash Browns ~ hash browns topped with bacon [sorry, these also did not see the final cut], mushroom, onion, bell pepper, basil flakes & melted Cheddar cheese); and to drink a glassa 100% Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

(There is no EweToobular juxtaselection with these songs and today's breakfast destination. Well, there is this bit of Cliff Clavinistic Hollywoodland factoid: Marilyn Monroe was once "the Asparagus Queen of 1944".[1])


While Hollywood Cafe (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, October 29th, 2017) is not technically a part of the Taylor Street Coffee Shop-family mini-chain of restaurants, I think that it is owned by the brother of the owner of TSCS-etc. So, I figured to make it the Compleat Package Tour, I might as well head back to their "cousin-restaurant", too. 

Their online menu states that they have been open "Since 1989"; however, I am not sure if that is with the current ownership or just that a restaurant called "Hollywood Cafe" has been at this same location since then. As best as I can figure (from yet still another truly extensive-and-intensive Intro-Net search [read: checking out yelp* for the earliest reviews again]), this restaurant was open at least as far back as January 2008; whereas, the original Taylor Street Coffee Shop predates it by a few years, opened since at least March 2005.

I had arrived just a little after 7:00am and there were still several empty tables inside, which was good 'cause it was still too early, too overcast/foggy, and wayyyy too chilly to sit outside comfortably at one of their sidewalk tables. (Let all the st*pid touristas that get up after 7:30am occupy those tables!) I had arrived so early that I even scored a legal and free (well, until 9:00am, at least, 'cause, even on Sundays, the parking meters run in this part of the city to be sure to get every last penny outta the st*pid touristas) parking spot directly across the street this morning. 

This being only my fourth trip to Hollywood Cafe in about an eight-year span, there are still a few other viable ideas left for st*pid vegetarian types:

Rancheros (as in "Huevos... ") ~ two eggs over-medium with homemade (well, café-made) tomato spicy sauce, avocado, Mozzarella cheese (???; I think auténtico queso fresco mexicano would be more natural here), corn chip (listed in the singularity on the menu, mind you, but I am sure they give you more than one), lettuce, drizzled homemade (whatever) cream cheese (I think they probably meant some type of sour cream, though);

Hash Burrito ~ scrambled eggs with hash browns, avocado, ham & cheese (well, just "... & cheese" for me), our own wasabi cream sauce (this sounds intriguing), wrapped in tortilla;

Veggie Sandwich ~ grilled mushroom, tomato, onion, avocado, bell pepper, cherry pepper, sprouts & Swiss cheese on whole wheat bread;

Vanilla French Toast ~ with homemade (you know the drill) vanilla-banana sauce garnished with whipped cream and almonds;

or 

Dolce French Toast ~ topped with fried banana, mixed berries & candied walnut (once again, listed as a singular item on the menu, but I bet you get at least two whole walnut pieces) with whipped cream.

Additionally (and especially), for those of you that do partake of the dead, decaying porky-butt bits, they offer something similar to the Taylor Street Coffee Shop-family mini-chain's Millionaire's Bacon®, which they simply call Sweet Bacon (and do not feel the need to "®"-ise or "™"-ise it) ~ glazed with maple syrup, fresh orange juice, brown sugar & Grand Marnier®. I did not see it as a side dish on any of the neighboring tables, so I am not sure if it is the same thick-cut style. However, it is much cheaper ($6.99 for four slices) than the Millionaire's Bacon® (listed on their different menus from $7.50 to $9.00 for just two slices [yes, you read that correctly; hence the "Millionaire's" moniker]; smoked tofu ain't never cost that much).

They also have an interesting-sounding Korean breakfast/health drink listed that I have never heard of or tried before: Misugaru[2] Legume Latte ~ homemade (again, café-made) multigrain drink with steamed soymilk & honey. I wanted to keep it simple this morning, so I chickened-out (or, as is the case with being a st*pid vegetarian, I "Tofurky®-ed-out"). Next time, perhaps.

There was nothing extremely special about this version of ol' Benny's eggs on English muffins, but any time asparagus is included in a dish, it is a given that I will automatically like it. This was made with fresh, sautéed asparagus, not frozen, too. 

The Hollywood-ised hashbrowns was (were?) definitely the way to go. I probably coulda made a whole meal outta a side order of those with some toast and an egg over-medium atop the heap. Thankfully, I am not a fungophobe as there were more mushrooms than most of the other ingredients. (Can you imagine being a st*pid vegetarian that does not like mushrooms? That would be almost as bad as not liking br*ccoli... ) Now if they only had an option to also add some diced-up, fresh, sautéed asparagus to the mess, they could call it Millionaire's Hash Browns® and make a real killing...

Hollywood Cafe offered both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce and Greeñ Jalapeño Sauce) and Cholula® Hot Sauce Original for use in the way of any condimentary supplements. I used some of my own H*ll's Kitchen Sriracha Chili Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) all over the hash-stuff and some Old St. Augustine Snake Bite Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on top of both poached eggs (I made sure to taste the Hollandaise sauce first; it was okay, but it didn't hurt any to have it spiced-up some). I also used some more sprinklings of my McCormick® Grill Mates® Smokehouse Maple Seasoning all over both the potato-mess and the egg-piles (the flavours might not exactly have been a match, but I bought the d*rn thing, so I am gonna use the d*rn thing).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Asparagus Eggs Benedict ~ 6.6;
Hollywood Hash Browns ~ 6.9

___________________

1. Nah, not really. But Marilyn Monroe was crowned "Artichoke Queen of 1948" in Castroville ("the Artichoke Heart of the World"), Callie-for-nee-ya.

https://artichokefestival.org/about-festival/

2. This is not some kinda unattainable training exercise for Starfleet Academy cadets. I asked.

https://mykoreankitchen.com/korean-multigrain-shakes-misutgaru/

Surisan

https://www.surisansf.com/


Place: Sursian

Location: 505 Beach Street 
(on the corner of Jones Street)

Hours: open for breakfast weekdays at 8:00am and weekends at 8:30am

Meal: Boosted Jook[1] ~ rice porridge with carrots, spinach, mushroom, bacon (which I, of course, had un-boosted), scallion, cherry pepper, poached egg; and a glassa fresh-squeezed orange juice to drink (which came with the now-ubiquitous California paper straw)

(There is no direct EweToobular juxtaselection between today's meal and the Birds of Chicago. [Well, none of which I am aware.] I just like the song. I may have even posted it once or twice before here.)


To continue on with the Taylor Street Coffee Shop-family mini-chain tour, I revisited Surisan (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, October 14th, 2017; plus, I ate dinner there just a little over a month ago). This restaurant should be the newest (#6 or #7) in the mini-chain; it has only been open since December 2016. I think that there is just one more restaurant left to check out now in their mini-chain ~ Berkeley Social Club, which is in Berkeley, natch', so that will probably need to be made at a later date when I feel like doing another 
mini-roadtrip "all the way" across to the East Bay.

Unfortunately, it was another li'l-bit foggy and chilly morning, so I wimped-out, J. Wellington, and sat inside once again. However, I was not the only one to do so, I was happy to see. The Sun did start to break out (a little) by the time I had finished eating, but it still would not have been very comfortable sitting outdoors.

This restaurant also has several of the same items offered at some of their other locations. A couple of remaining items left might be:

Hemingway Benedict ~ smoked salmon, avocado, fried capers, lemon, pickled onion, Wasabi Hollandaise (where I would have to, in earnest, have them rescind the dead, decaying, nicotine-induced, 
old-man-and-the-sea piscine junk)

or

Blueberry Stuffed Crunch French Toast w/ caramel sauce (this was going to be my back-up choice if the Jook could not have been made st*pid vegetarian-friendly).

I happened to notice on their menu that they specify that they "happily serve Snowbird Coffee" at this restaurant. I asked one of the Thai waiter-server-guys about this, and he told me that they also serve this same local brand of Coffee at Blackwood. (However, when I asked him which specific roast of Snowbird Coffee they serve, he could only tell me that it was a "Dark Roast"... so that narrowed it down... not so much.) Although, I do not think they serve this brand at the original Taylor Street Coffee Shop and did not see it specifically mentioned on some of their other restaurants' menus. I am very familiar with (and a big fan of) Snowbird Coffee; they have a near(enough)by coffeeshop in the Sunset, just on the other side of Golden Gate Park, that I have been to many times. Interestingly enough, I think that Snowbird Coffee is also a Korean-owned establishment; I am not sure if there is any other relationship. Good Coffee knows no jingocity, after all.

https://snowbirdcoffee.com/

Ha! I actually talked the couple at the next table (who happened to be from Oaktown; we talked a bit about the Coffee served at this location and about some of the other restaurants in this mini-chain; they have also eaten at Sweet Maple themselves) into ordering a side of the Rosemary Millionaire's Bacon®. Why would anyone be foolish enough into taking porky-butt bits suggestions from a st*pid vegetarian-type complete stranger?!

(If you can believe it, this overly bokeh-ed photo is actually the best of the three that I took this morning. Eh?! What'r'yagonnadoo?!)


I do not think that I had ever had Jook (or any similar Asian rice porridge dish) before. I liked it. There was plenty of spinach and (possible) shiitake and one other type of mushroom in the mix. (I am pretty sure that Quaker guy that has been serving 'merica with his own brand of oat-porridge for all these years has never thought about adding any spinach, mushroom, or bacon to his breakfast bowls.) This had a strong soy sauce base to it, so I would not recommend this dish for anyone that is gluten-intolerant (or just dislikes soy sauce in general). Thankfully, they served the bowl with a spoon sticking out of it... I was having the dickens of the time trying to eat this with chopsticks. All in all, this was a pretty d*rn healthy meal and easy on the digestion for me.

As far as any condimentary supplements, like most of the other restaurants in the mini-chain, they offer both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce. I just used some (well, 
a lot, really) of my own H*ll's Kitchen® Whiskey Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) all over the top 
of the poached egg.


Yesterday I had breakfast at "Yooooouk's!".
This morning I had "Joooook!". 
It all makes perfect RED SOX sense to me.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Boosted Jook ~ 6.5

___________________

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

"粥" (transliterated/pronounced "Jook"; also transliterated as "Juk" or "Jug") simply means "porridge" in Korean.

This dish is normally a rice-based porridge/gruel dish and it is eaten in many Asian countries either warm for breakfast or as a recuperative "get-well" meal.

Kitchen Story

http://kitchenstorysf.com/


Place: Kitchen Story

Location:  3499 16th Street 
(on the corner of Sanchez Street)

Hours: open daily from 8 a.m.

Meal: Athenian Omelet ~ tomato, mushroom, arugula, Greek olives, mild goat cheese,[1] served with butter croissant and rainbow potato[2] (they actual have this option on their menu: "Add $4.5 for mixed berries instead of potato"; Say wha'....?! ... four-and-a-half bucks for just a buncha chopped up fruit-junk?! No way, especially when their rainbow potato 
are already so good. I can chop up my own d*mn fruit-junk at home myd*mnself!); and a glassa fresh-squeezed orange juice to drink

(I have posted this song by little Davey Alvin before, just not this particular duet-version with the Texas Whippoorwill.)


Ever-continuing-on with the Taylor Street Coffee Shop-family mini-chain tour, I returned once again to Kitchen Story (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, March 30th, 2019). As best as I can figure out, this was their #4 restaurant to open ~ back in November 2012.

Unfortunately, it was way too cold and foggy yet this morning to even think about sitting outside in their spacious sidewalk-patio seating area along Sanchez Street. (This is a very large seating area all on its ownsome. There may be as many, or more, tables/seats outside as there are inside.)


Strange pseudo-Patriotic Interlude

In honour of Independence Day (and to pretend to be a bit patriotic, Mr. George Michael Cohan), I decided to wear an article of clothing from my old 
Air Force uniform. I am very pleased to say that it even still fits like a glove! (And, no, it was not a "pair of gloves", Johnnie Cochran. It may have been foggy and cold this morning, but it was not that cold. [Come to think of it, I do not think that I have even ever worn gloves in all of my Winters in San Francisco.] Well, maybe the article of clothing is just a "belt", but it does still fit... [Okay, to be totally honest, it is one of those stretchy-kinda belts, and I mighta had it stretched to-the-max, but it does still work.]... the buckle is a bit scratched-up, though, and I doubt it would meet 35-10.)


After eating at all of their other restaurants for the past few weeks, I am running outta new ideas for breakfast. However, even at this location there are still a coulpla more other ideas:

Primavera Omelet ~ egg whites, roasted tomato, arugula, mushroom, served with butter croissant and rainbow potato (this same dish is offered at a few of their other locations, too)

or

Grilled "Veggie" Morning Melt ~ mushroom, asparagus, arugula, red onion, avocado, cherry pepper, made with pain de mie bread (and, yes, I am completely aware of the redundant redundancy of "pain" used with "bread" ~ tell it anyone that uses "shiitake mushrooms" in a sentence), cilantro aioli, served with organic salad (I have no idea how exactly this might come as; I am imagining this to be some kinda open faced sandwich perhaps; if I could get a poached egg or two on top of it, it would make it even more breakfastarily-so).

Additionally (and sadly), I did not notice this Eyeopener Cocktail until after I had already ordered my (plain ol' closed-eyes) orange juice: Castro Michelada[3] ~ Thai Lager, Tapatío®, Worcestershire (which would have to be nixed, most likely), salt, lime, tomatoes juices[ sics ], secret spice. I will definitely have to check that drink out on a future visit.

"But... but... but... why would you go and order a Greeky-style omelette at a California-Asian-fusion-kinda-place on the 4th of July, Brian?!" Funny that you should ask that (well, it is only "funny" 'cause I am picturing hearing it said in an Elmer Fudd-ish voice). On this date ~ July 4th, 1979 (that would be forty 
[4-0] years ago today for those of you that are mathematically-impaired) ~ I had first arrived in the land of Greece! (I know! What kinda fool travels on the 4th of  July [or, worse, travels overnight on a plane starting on the 3rd of July to arrive at their destination on Independence Day ]?) So, I thought it more than fitting to order this dish as a bit of historical reminiscence.

As with every other meal I have already had at all of their other locations, this was another very good breakfast. However, just to pick a nit or two... pluses: they use authentic Kalamata olives (and lots of 'em) and some other kinda green olives (not sure of their Greek city of origin, though) abundantly throughout the omelette; minuses: 1) as much as I like me some good ol' "rocket", Bullwinkle, I think that spinach would have been a better Greek-match, and 2) (and this is the biggest of the minuses) they use (I "kid" you not) goat cheese instead of Feta... I... just... have... no... words... sure, the creamy goat cheese does tend to melt better inside an omelette, but it... just... ain't... Feta... How many times must I point this out: "Everything's mo' betta' with Feta!"? (Idunno, perhaps something is lost in the translation from Greek-to-English-to-Korean, or "goat cheese" and "arugula" are synonymous with "Feta" and "spinach" in Korean.) Now, this was neither a "plus" nor a "minus" with me, but it also had lotsa sliced mushrooms (I have no idea if'n they were actual Greek mushrooms or local ones, though) in it ~ so, this would not be a very good dish for the fungi-faint of heart.

For condimentary supplementation, Kitchen Story offered both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce 
(Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce. I went with some of my own H*ll's Kitchen® Chipotle Chocolate Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) thoroughly all over the rainbow potato and a few splashes (maybe seven or eight) of Old St. Augustine Snake Bite Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on top of the omelette.

One very interesting thing that I saw on the tables was that they have Coffee beans in their salt shakers(?!?). (At first I thought that they were raisins [Hey! The lighting was poor!] and that really had me wondering why a California-Asian fusion restaurant would be pickling/preserving raisins on their tables.) I had never seen that before. I can only assume that rice must be an extremely valued commodity in Asia and they do not want to waste any to absorb excess moisture in salt shakers...

In keeping with their whole "Story"-theme, the check is presented clipped to a paperback book. My check-book today happened to be Danielle Steel's "Courage"[4] and, better still, it was printed en français!


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Athenian Omelet ~ 6.6 (now, if this had been made with spinach and Feta, it would easily have been a 
6.8 or 6.9)

___________________

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguists pointer(s) of the day:

Greek-speak for the above ingredients:

tomato = ντομάτα (pronounced just like it looks!)
mushroom = μανιτάρι (pronounced "manitARi")
arugula = ρόκα (pronounced "ROEka")*
Greek olives = Ελληνικές ελιές (pronounced "ElliniKESS eliES")
goat cheese = Αυτό δεν είναι Φέτα! (pronounced "This is not Feta!")

*(This same Greek word "ρόκα" can also be used in the sense of a rocket/missile/cylindrical projectile-thing.

Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-horticultural pointer of the day sub-set [and this is borrowed directly outta the funny pages of WikipediA]:

The English common name rocket derives from the French roquette, a diminutive of the Latin word eruca, which once designated a particular plant in the family Brassicaceae (probably a type of cabbage). Arugula (/əˈruːɡələ/), the common name now widespread in the United States and Canada, entered American English from a non-standard dialect of Italian. The standard Italian word is rucola, a diminutive of the Latin "eruca". The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first appearance of "arugula" in American English to a 1960 article in The New York Times by food editor and prolific cookbook writer Craig Claiborne.)

2. rainbow potato consists of Chilean purple, Yukon gold, Gemstone red, Russet, and Sweet yam.

3. ¿Qué?

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

4. Personally, I have never felt the urge to read any of Ms. Steel's novels, but, then again, both McDonald's and Budweiser seem to appeal aux grandes masses non lavées, aussi.

"Courage" is the Frenchy-working title for the original 'merican-titled "Leap of Faith". 

https://books.google.com/books/about/Leap_of_Faith.html?id=g06NDQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false

Blackwood

http://www.blackwoodsf.com/


Place: Blackwood

Location:  2150 Chestnut Street 
(between Steiner and Pierce Streets)

Hours: open every day at 9:00am for breakfast and/or "Brunch"

Meal: THAI SHAKSHUKA ~ Tomyum[1] tomato stew, poached eggs, pork (of course, I แปดสิบหก-ed this ingredient), onion, bacon (this ingredient also went 
ลาก่อน), scallion, cilantro, fried garlic, mild goat cheese; and, to drink with the meal, a large glassa Raspberry-Lemonade; and, beforehand, to enjoy wandering up-and-down Chestnut Street while waiting for the restaurant to open for the morning, a 
dynamo donut + coffee Passionfruit Milk Chocolate doughnut (bought at a local bodega along Chestnut Street, too)

https://dynamodonut.com/menu

(Yeah, there is really no EweToobular juxtaselection here. I dunno, maybe Catherine Elizabeth Pierson loves her some spicy Tom Yum, too.)


Ho-kay... onward and upward with the Taylor Street Coffee Shop-family mini-chain brought me back to Blackwood (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, October 22nd, 2017). I think that this restaurant was the third in their mini-chain to open (circa June 2012).

I sat outside again in their sidewalk/alcove-patio seating area. The morning was still a bit foggy and chilly, so I did keep my sweatshirt on; they also had the overhead gas-heaters going this morning, anyway.

Their menu is similar to what is offered at most of their other restaurants, and there are a few other ideas still worth checking out ("... out worth checking"?! Nah, that does not sound right all at.):

(once again, in keeping with their menu stylization, I am attempting to imitate the different font sizes used 
on the dish names)

SNOWED SPINACH SCRAMBLE ~ baby spinach with white Cheddar, served with Rainbow Potatoes and ciabatta toast;

PRIMAVERA WHITE OMELET ~ roasted tomato, mushroom, arugula, served w/ berries instead of potatoes (which I would probably have tried to have substituted back with the multicoloured underground tubers instead);

BLACKSTONE BENNY (Didn't he used to be the straight-man for Eddie Anderson?) ~ poached eggs, Millionaire's Bacon® (which I would have to go all pauper on), asparagus, cherry tomato, Meyer lemon Hollandaise on English Muffin, also served with Rainbow Potatoes (just no toast);

MARINA JOK MOO ~ rice porridge with bacon, garlic, carrots, spinach, mushroom, cherry pepper, green onion, cilantro, poached egg, sesame and tamari sauce drizzled (I am not even sure if this could even be made st*pid vegetarian-friendly, but it might be worth asking);

or maybe even

POPOVERs(!) w/AVOCADO (???) ~ offered with three different toppings: Strawberry, goat cheese, avocado, balsamic glaze; Bacon, avocado, tomato, honey; or Walnut (candid)[ sic ] (or perhaps that was not a typo, just an indication of the walnut's sincerity, Frank), avocado, Parmesan (I saw these ordered at two other tables and it looked pretty interesting; as best as I could tell, there is half an avocado already baked inside the Popovers[!]; if I did get this, I would probably have to supplement it with at least an order of Rainbow Potatoes).

(For those of you that do partake of the dead, decaying porky-butts. This is the kinda "Flight" that always made me want to remain on Ground-Status when I was in the Air Force, though.)

What can I say? I liked it. I have had several other versions of Shakshuka (mostly at Arab or Middle Eastern restaurants) over the years and this was right up there in tastocity (yeah, so, it ain't a real word... tough!). The Tom Yum sauce was a very nice flavour-change. I coulda easily used another piece of the ciabatta toast with which to soak up more of the sauce. I bet this woulda been even better with some fresh sweet basil leaves in it (as long as they did not have to go all the way to Kirk Hammerton to procure those)[2], but that is just my สองสตางค์ worth...

With my pre-breakfastary snack of the doughnut, this ended up being a lot more food than I had expected. I am glad that I did not order a side of their Rainbow 
Potatoes (however, with this being Pride Weekend and all, those woulda been the perfect side for the morning).

Blackwood only offered Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce, which it had bottles of both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce on all the tables. The Tom Yum-Shakshuka sauce was lightly spicy enough that I did not need to mess with its flavours in any way, though.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
THAI SHAKSHUKA ~ 6.7;
dynamo donut + coffee Passionfruit Milk Chocolate doughnut ~ 7.5

___________________

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

Here is a little-known Cliff Clavinistic fact:

The spicy Thai soup known as "Tom Yum" was originally named by Yuliy Borisovich Briner when he was filming "The King and I" in Thailand. He took one taste and said "This is yummy in my tummy!". One of the native Thai waiters mis-overheard him and passed it on to the chef as "Tummy-Yummy". It has stuck to this day.*

*(Nah! Did anyone really buy that one? Was I just joking there? Of course, Siam...

The words "tom yam" are derived from two Thai words. "Tom" ["ต้ม"] refers to the boiling process, while "yam" ["ยำ"] refers to a Thai spicy and sour salad.)

2. Okay, there may be two people reading this silly li'l 'blog-thing that will get that st*pid reference.

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!)

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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.