Dottie's True blue café

(I would have used a stock-photo from last Sunday's visit... but... well... Sorry, Suzanne.)

http://dottiestruebluesf.com/


Place: Dottie's True blue café

Location: 28 6th Street 
(on the corner of Stevenson Street)

Hours: open 7:30am Thursday through Tuesday

Meal: Portobello[1] Mushroom, Scallions, Jalapeños, Roasted Tomato Tart (Cooked in Champagne) ~ (two) eggs any style (I felt like egg-style identifying as over-medium this morning) + fruit; and a glassa orange juice to drink

("Hey, Brian, what gives with yet still another Ella Fitzgerald song? Didn'ja just post two of her songs, like, just last Sunday?" First off, Lady Ella never needs any excuses for me to share her music. Secondhandedly, I feel that the elegant, pitch-perfect singing of Lady Ella complements the elegant, pitch-perfect food at Dottie's True blue café poifectly. 

The reason for the second song is simply because they were playing a few Lady Day songs this morning on the house [café, whatever] stereo. I really wanted to post "Strange Fruit", which is such a great song, but did not feel that the subject matter [Hint: It ain't a d*mn song about no apple or peachy orchards.] would really fit in well, breakfastarily speaking.

"B-b-but, Brian,  the Lady Ella song about a young star-crossed lover lamenting her abandonment after being deceitfully coerced into sexual submission, shooting-down the fiendish cad in cold blood, and then summarily being hung by a maddened mob is appropriate breakfast music?" So, what part of "Lady Ella never needs any excuses for me to share her music.", did you not understand? [Besides, if you got a problem with the lyrics, take it up with that Coal Porter guy.])


"Hey, Brian, didn'ja just eat breakfast at Dottie's True blue café (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, November 27th. 2019) last weekend?" Yeah. So? What's yer point?

Eating solo again this morning, I knew that I was not going to (have room to) order one of their fresh-baked pastries, but there were a few new items that had just been updated/added by Baker Salá (I talk to him almost every visit, but have never really asked him how he pronounces his name; it might be "Sall-AH" or "Sall-AY"; maybe next time I will remember to ask him) to the front blackboard in the entryway which looked tempting.

Well, this scored another big "WOW!" from me! This is a brand new bakery item (as confirmed by Baker Salá hisd*mnself). It was not even offered on the Specials blackboard last week. Oh, and a major caveat, if'n you are one of those fungo-phobes, this is definitely not gonna be your cuppa tea (or puff-pastry tart even). It was way chock-fulla roasted Portobello (Portobella/Portabello/Portabella) mushrooms. 

I am trying to decide if I liked (loved) this new one more than their other recent new tart Mushroom, Goat Cheese, Roasted Tomato Tart, cooked in Champagne (see 'blog-entry from Saturday, September 14th, 2019). (On this week's Specials blackboard, it looks like they are now using Mozzarella in place of goat cheese, though. I am sure both work fine.) I am gonna have to give the edge to this morning's tart mainly for the profuse preponderance (which ain't a big ranch alongside Lake Tahoe out near Virginia City, Nevada, Hoss) of Portobello (Portobella/Portabello/Portabella) mushrooms. (Baker Salá  told me that the other mushroom tart-thing is made with several different kinds of mushrooms, not specifically Portobello [Portobella/Portabello/Portabella].) 

The jalapeños were a very nice underscore and added (Now, what is that phrase in French when you just can not quite put your finger [or tongue] on something precisely? Well, I do not know what it is... whatever)... some kinda nice extra flavour to the smokiness of the roasted Portobello (Portobella/Portabello/
Portabella) mushrooms. The jalapeños were diced up very finely and, if you were not aware of them being in the dish, you might not even feel their small amount of heat.

And, finally, I liked how it was all capped-off (literally) with a slice of roasted tomato.

I did not need to use any of the several different hot sauces provided by Dottie's True blue café. I went with a couple of my own condimentary supplements and used some H*ll's Kitchen Chipotle Chocolate Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on top of one egg and some Peaks of Otter Peppers Inca Gold Hot Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on top of the other egg. I also used some (well, a lot) of grindage from my The Spice & Tea Exchange® Earthly Delight Spice Blend (Thanks, Cindy!) on top of everything (yes, even including on top of the "Strange Fruit" bowl ~ do not question my pitch-perfect tastes!).


(another not so strange) Coffee Interlude

I skipped a cuppa Coffee with breakfast 'cause I was planning on making some of my own at home while keyboarding (It's a real word! Look it up!) up this here 'blog-entry, anyway. It got me to a-thinkin'. Just how much restaurants, cafés, and coffeehouses in general are basically (over-)charging for a simple cuppa?! (Not that I feel that Dottie's True blue café is ripping me off on a cuppa [or three refillas, which are free, anyway]. They charge $2.50 per cuppa, which is reasonable enough.) 

I did a quick Intro-Net search and a few different sources suggested that a one-pound bagga Coffee can make about forty-eight 6 oz cuppas. That translates to 288 ounces (with or without any silly Common Core Math) of Coffee. I normally make a cuppa that holds approximately ten ounces and I usually (always) make my Coffee just a tad stronger and using more grounds via the pour-over drip method; so I estimate that I can get about twenty-four 10-ouncers outta a pound. If a decent pound bagga (not any of that canned cr*p you get at your local grocery store) Coffee costs about $15.00, that comes to about 63¢ per cuppa. 

Hmmmm?! Something tells me the friendly folks at St*rbucks and your local coffeehouse are making a HUGE margin of profit for basically boiling water. Maybe they are trying to pay for all that "Free Intro-Net" service that they offer...


Thankfully, there were no regrets from Miss Otis with my meal today, Madam.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Portobello Mushroom, Scallions, Jalapeños, Roasted Tomato Tart (Cooked in Champagne) ~ 7.5;
the elegant, pitch-perfect singing of Lady Ella ~ 8.5

___________________

1. While talking to Baker Salá about his mushroom tarts, I told him (read: annoyingly bored him while he was trying to update the blackboard) a little about the history and acceptable spellings of the mature Agaricus bisporus sporocarp (aka Portobello [Portobella/Portabello/Portabella] mushroom). He was not aware of this. 

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

Dottie's True blue café

(Unfortunately, there will not be any corresponding photos of either Dottie's True blue café façade, Suzanne's smiling façade, or our meals this morning. Apparently my little Kodak EasyShare C340 has finally given up the ghost, Casper [it is about thirteen years old or older, after all]. The memory card-device does not not seem to be recording properly. When I got home, I checked it with a few different memory cards, and it was not recording to those either; so it was not just due to an older memory card itself not recording properly. Sorry, Suzanne.)


http://dottiestruebluesf.com/


Place: Dottie's True blue café

Location: 28 6th Street 
(on the corner of Stevenson Street)

Hours: open 7:30am Thursday through Tuesday

Meals: (me [and I know a "true gentleman" would report a "lady's" meal first, but I have never been labelled as one of "those kind of men"; hey, I did remove my Baseball cap at the table during breakfast at least]) Sweet Potato, Caramelized Onion, Gruyère Tart, eggs any style (I felt like styling as over-medium today) + fruit;
(Suzanne) Zucchini Cakes topped with poached eggs, Marinara sauce, fruit + potatoes;
(Suzanne and me [see, I did give Suzanne head-billing here]) a 1929 Bronze Goddess Banana Rum Roll to split (Get it? Banana-split... whatever);
and, to drink, we both went with cuppas (and one refilla each) of whatever the house Coffee might have been

(A little Lady Ella ~ pitch perfect to go with a perfectly pitched [just not perfectly pictured] breakfast! Suzanne has the good taste to know that Lady Ella is truly one of the Greatest [if not The Greatest] 'merican Voices of the 20th Century and does not need to be schooled on this fact [unlike some snot-nosed nephews who have finally come to agree with me on this acutely accurate 
assessment].)


Suzanne Bergeron, a very old friend (and by "very old", I mean I have know her since way back in Medway[1] High School [Go Mustangs!]; and by "friend", I mean my first real girlfriend in high school [Go Mustangs!]), was in town for a conference and suggested that we get together for breakfast. Knowing my penchant for Dottie's True blue café (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, September 15th, 2019), Suzanne suggested that we head over there this morning. As much as I tried talking her out of it, she was adamant, Mr. Goddard, and forced me to take her there...

As Suzanne was staying at a nearby downtown hotel, it was only a short five-minute walk over to Dottie's True blue café, anyway. When we arrived there (probably a little before 9:00am), there was not the normal "line-around-the-corner-wait" for a change. There were only about four groups in front of us and we were seated inside within fifteen minutes. (I had caveated her beforehand that after 9:00am the wait can be anywhere from forty-five minutes to an hour.)


(Please see above photos of Suzanne's pretty smile, our meals, and the 1929 Bronze Goddess Banana Rum Roll... oh, wait... never-mind! I guess I am going to be forced to schlep-around a real [much heavier] camera from now on. I wonder if I should look into getting one of them there mobular-devices that are all the rage with the kids these days; I have heard that you can make telephony calls AND take photographic pictures with those contraptions.)


The tart was a slightly different version of the same meal (which Kurt always used to call a "Gallette") which I have had many times in the past. Today's entry was a circular, single-serving tart; whereas in the past, it was a pie-slice from a larger tart (Gallette). I think I liked the older version just a bit more, the crust seemed a bit flakier when it was from a larger whole.

Just because I was paying for the meal (my town, my favourite breakfast-joint, my treat!), I did not tell Suzanne that she had to order the Zucchini Cakes, but she is pretty d*rn smart on her ownsome (she is a perfesser or something like that at Michigan State[2]... or some such higher learning facility thereabouts in the Mid-West) and did see the ultimate intelligence in this choice. I was very glad to see that she did enjoy it as much as I always have, too. To me, this dish is Dottie's True blue café flagship item (if there is such a thing at restaurants).

However, I did "force" Suzanne into sharing the 1929 Bronze Goddess Banana Rum Roll. There is no way either of us were going to be able to finish that on our own (and, as it turned out, both of us could not finish it entirely either). When we ordered this, it was meant to be a pre-breakfastary starter kinda-thing, but they seemed to have forgotten that we ordered it and had to be reminded twice. It was all good, all the same, as it proved to be a perfect middle-of-breakfast/end-of-breakfast dessert thing. Suzanne mentioned that this reminded her of a Bananas Foster in a ramekin. (Perfect call, Suzanne! See, I told ya she was wicked smaht. You do not get to be a perfesser at the University of Illinois if you ain't.) I could definitely taste some cinnamon in the spices, and, per Suzanne's discerning taste-buds, she noticed some nutmeg, too. I was wondering if there was possibly some allspice it, too  (like I really have any kinda discerning palate).

We both skipped any of the offered condimentary supplementations by Dottie's True blue café. I used some of my own H*ll's Kitchen® Smoky Bourbon Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on top of both eggs. Suzanne also used some H*ll's Kitchen® Smoky Bourbon Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on top of one of the poached eggs and some Tijuana Flats Tex-Mex Smack My *ss and Call Me Santa (Thanks, Rick!) on top of her other egg. We both used generous grindings from my The Spice & Tea Exchange® Italian Street Fair Spice Blend (Thanks, Cindy!) all over our plates.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
(Suzanne was genuinely interested in how the Glen Bacon Scale worked and I gave her a quick course [and a bit of history] in this highly scientific rating-system.)
Sweet Potato, Caramelized Onion, Gruyère Tart ~ 6.6 (I think I normally would rate the old-style version as 6.7 or 6.8);
Zucchini Cakes ~ 7.4 (per Suzanne's very intelligent assessment ~ did I tell you that she was a perfesser at some Wisconsin kolledge?);
1929 Bronze Goddess Banana Rum Roll ~ 7.4 (where we both agreed on this rating)
the eloquent singing of Lady Ella ~ 8.5 (I did not ask for Suzanne's input on this one, I just trust that she would agree with that rating; after all, she is some kinda perfesser at Ohio State University or something)

___________________

1. Where the h*ck?!

aka "Cupcake, Massachusetts":

https://www.townofmedway.org/

2. Actually, I am well aware of the university where Suzanne professors at:

https://umich.edu/

As they say in Ann Arbor: "Go Spartans!"

Dottie's True blue café

I hope that I never become superstitious. Knock on wood.

http://dottiestruebluesf.com/


Place: Dottie's True blue café

Location: 28 6th Street 
(on the corner of Stevenson Street)

Hours: open 7:30am (well, still not quite; at least they opened up earlier this morning than they did yesterday... if only five minutes earlier) Thursday through Tuesday

Meal: Three Egg Omelet - Feta, Kalamata Olives, & Spinach ~ with home fries and toast (where I went with their own fresh-baked buttermilk dill bread); and a glassa orange juice to drink


I figured I would just make it into a Breakfastary Starting Rotation Double-Header and simply headed right on back to Dottie's True blue café (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, September 14th, 2019) this morning.

Once again, I sat at "Seat #1" at the dining-counter overlooking their kitchen area. There was a guy from München[1] sitting at the next stool over from me and we got to talking about Deutschland (von München nach Berlin), Biere, and Frühstück in general.[2] 

There was nothing really special about this omelette; it was just a good omelette with the ingredients of my choosing. I did like that it was made with lots of Feta and even more-so spinach, both of which I like in abundance (just not in any Chocolate desserts, Sharon). As always, their homefries were exemplary and also overloading my plate.

Dottie's True blue café condimentary supplements did not change any since yesterday's visit. I used some of my own (just a few dashes... and dots, Samuel) 
Old St. Augustine Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, 
Greg & Cindy!) on top of the omelette, some (a little more; about your standard ketchup-portion) 
H*ll's Kitchen Chipotle Chocolate Hot Sauce 
(Thanks, Mom!) all over the potatoes, and The Spice 
& Tea Exchange® Earthly Delight Spice Blend (Thanks, Cindy!) (several grinds-worth) all over everything.

(not really such a) Strange Coffee Interlude

I purposely skipped any Coffee at breakfast this morning as I was planning on utilising one of the newest Coffees in my arsenal (well, in my refrigerator), TLC Coffee Roasters - John Wayne (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!). When I got home, I prepared me a single cuppa via the pour-over drip-method. I must say that it was not a bad cuppa at all, Pilgrim! I even enjoyed it outta my "retro" (from their original Jones Street location) Dottie's True blue café mug, too. 

https://www.tlccoffeeroasters.com/product-page/john-wayne


the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

After breakfast, while heading to catch my bus back home, I heard several Wild Parrots in the Union Square area. However, I only saw a solitary pair ("a solitary pair"?) flying overhead at the corner of Powell and O'Farrell Streets (they were probably waiting to hop on one of them "Fr'isco Trolley Cars" that I have heard so much about).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Three Egg Omelet ~ 6.5;
TLC Coffee Roasters - John Wayne ~ 7.2;
the Wild Parrots of San Francisco ~ 8.5

___________________

1. And, no, contrary to popular belief, people from München are not called "Munchkins", Dorothy.

2. I am sure that I impressed die H*lle outta him with both of the useless German phrases that I could remember:

"Ich glaube ihre Ente hat die Tollwut."
and
"Brennt meine Nase?"

(If you would like a stupid, useless cunning linguist translation of either of those phrases. You can blame... er... ask one Lowell Skelton. He was the genius that taught both of them to me over thirty-five years ago in some verd*mmte Kneipe off the Kurfürstendamm.)

Dottie's True blue café

How come no one ever complains about Saturday the 14th being unlucky?

http://dottiestruebluesf.com/


Place: Dottie's True blue café

Location: 28 6th Street 
(on the corner of Stevenson Street)

Hours: open 7:30am (welllll... they actually opened a bit later this morning for some reason and did not unchain the front gate doors until about 7:45am) Thursday through Tuesday

Meal: Mushroom, Goat Cheese, Roasted Tomato Tart, cooked in Champagne, eggs any style (where I went with "over-medium" style) + fruit; and a cuppa (and one-and-a-half refillas) Coffee (whatever the house roast/blend might have been)

(In spite of what you may think, Bessie and Lavay are not related in any way.)


As we (sadly) near the end of the Regular Baseball Season (Okay, there are those faithless pundits that say that the Boston RED SOX season was over back in late August, but I say it ain't over until Adele buys her ticket to Logan Airport and sings at the Way of the Fens!), I figured it only fitting to make one last run-through of my Breakfastary Starting Rotation. And what better way to start than returning to Dottie's True blue café (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, May 5th, 2019)?!

I happened to be the first idiot waiting in line around 7:10am, and ended up being the only one standing there until another ten minutes or so. After that, the line started forming a bit more quickly. Even so, they did not fill up immediately (even after having opened up fifteen minutes late) and everyone in the first wave got seated.

I had nothing really in mind to order this morning. I was just planning on ordering something from their specials blackboard menu if there was a decent st*pid vegetarian option. Otherwise, I was gonna create an omelette of my choosing from their list of good omelette filling choices off their standard printed menu. I was very surprised to see that there were no Zucchini Cakes on this morning's/weekend's specials blackboard menu. It has been a staple on the specials blackboard menu for so long now, I just assumed that they would someday be adding it to their everyday printed menu... someday.

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

As soon as I saw the tart special that was being offered for this morning/weekend, I knew exactly what I was going to order. This was a brand-new item (confirmed by one of the friendly waitresses/server-ladies) to be offered. At first look, I did not think it was going to be a sufficient amount of food (even for my meager breakfastary appetite), but it was rather deceptive and proved to be very filling after all. I initially thought about asking to substitute some of their excellent homefries for the small bowl of fruit-stuff; luckily, I did not, as that would probably have "exceeded the limit" for me. Now, this dish may not equal their most awesome and original Zucchini Cakes, but it is definitely return-worthy all on its ownsome. However, this one was definitely not for the fungi-faint of heart as it was truly chock-fulla sliced mushrooms. 

Today's side o' fruits: watermelon, green grapes, blueberries, strawberries, and cantaloupe.

As for condimentary supplementation, Dottie's True blue café has their "the usual suspects". I used some of my own Pepper Palace Gator Bite Hot Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on both of the eggs and several grinds of The Spice & Tea Exchange® Pirate's Bite (Thanks, Cindy!) on the eggs and tart-thing.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Mushroom, Goat Cheese, Roasted Tomato Tart ~ 7.3

Dottie's True blue café

http://dottiestruebluesf.com/


Place: Dottie's True blue café

Location: 28 6th Street 
(on the corner of Stevenson Street)

Hours: open 7:30am Thursday through Tuesday

Meal: Avocado, Tomato, Jalapeño, Corn, Scallion & Feta Frittata ~ served with toast (where I upgraded and went with a chunk of their grilled chili-Cheddar cornbread with jalapeño jelly) and potatoes (that would be of the homefried variety); and, to drink, a glassa orange juice

(There is no EweToobular juxtaselection [well, none of which I am aware] for these two songs, I just happen to really enjoy the music of Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, MBE. The first song is not only my favourite song of hers, it is also one of my All-Time Favourite Rock-and/or-Roll[-ish] Songs of All-Time.)


Because I could and because I can, I headed back over to Dottie's True blue café (see previous 'blog-entry from Saturday, January 12th, 2019) again for breakfast this morning.

Even before seeing what was listed this weekend, I pretty much had my mind set on ordering whichever Frittata was offered on their specials chalkboard (the combination of items in today's frittata was the same as I have had a few times before). However, there were a few other items off (on?) the specials chalkboard that I coulda gone with (for?), too, ferinstance:

Caramelized Onion, Gruyère, Sweet Potato Tart ~ with two eggs any style and fruit;

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese 
Stuff[ sic ] French Toast;

or

Peach Blueberry French Toast.

Additionally, I have been known to make a meal outta one of their fresh-baked goods by adding a coupla eggs on the side to ovoid out the meal. The baked goods are truly that large that they can comprise mostly a halfa meal. Today's choices offered some that I have not sampled yet:

Sweet Potato Caramel Muffin (this one intrigued me the most, and I really shoulda taken one of these to go home with me for later in the day!); 

Coconut Choco Chips Muffin;

Lemon Blueberry Custard Cake;

or

Peach Blueberry Cobbler Roll.

What can I really say about this meal? It was simply un stile italiano omelette with a buncha ingredients that I like... plus Feta! So, of course, I liked it.

The cornbread-upgrade was a very wise decision (which I knew it would be). Not only is their cornbread top-notch, but the small ramekin of jalapeño jelly that comes with it is pretty d*rn tasty all on its ownsome. I made sure to use up the entire contents.

Even though I was well-aware that Dottie's True blue café offers a diverse array of their own condimentary supplementation, once again, I just used a little of my own Old St. Augustine Snake Bite Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the frittata and some H*ll's Kitchen® Whiskey Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on the potatoes. I also made sure to use several grinds/twists of my portable grains of paradise[1] grinder on top of both the frittata and the potatoes.


the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

While waiting in line before the doors opened, I saw a small pandemonium of seven of the feather-brained chatterboxes flying overhead heading south past Mission Street.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Frittata ~ 6.7;
the Wild Parrots of San Francisco ~ 8.5

___________________

1. http://gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com/engl/Afra_mel.html

Straight outta the mouths/pages of WikipediA:

Aframomum melegueta is a species in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, and closely related to cardamom. Its seeds are used as a spice (ground or whole), and commonly known as grains of paradise, melegueta pepper, alligator pepper, Guinea grains, ossame, or fom wisa; it imparts a pungent, black-pepper-like flavour with hints of citrus.

the Cavalier

'blog-post-thing #999

https://thecavaliersf.com/


Place: the Cavalier

Location: 360 Jessie Street 
(on the corner of 5th Street; about half-way between Market and Mission Streets)

Hours: breakfast served from 7:00am (Saturday-Friday)

Meal: Breakfast Sandwich ~ fried hen (they feel the need to specify this on the menu, too) egg, crispy bacon (they do not specify if this bacon was of the porcine variety, but they were nice enough to 86 the dead, decaying fried-up pork butt and substitute it for some sliced avocado), peppercress, shallot and mustard dressing; a side of Crispy Potatoes; and, to drink, a blackcurrant, ginger and lime refresher (which came with a new-retro paper straw)


For only my third visit, I returned to the Cavalier (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, June 2nd, 2018). This is a really nice fancy little joint, but it is mostly hidden away on a dead-end alley off 5th Street, and if you are not staying at the hotel that it is attached to, you might not even know that it was there.

I have basically had all of the main items off of their breakfast menu that are stupid vegetarian-suitable now. There is one starter that I will probably have to order on my next visit: Earl Grey and Honey Scone (elderflower jelly and clotted cream).

Additionally, they do offer a Shakshuka dish on their "Weekend Brunch" menu; however, I would really have to feel like heading downtown after 10:00am on a Saturday or Sunday to order that dish.

This was not yer crazy Uncle Ronald's ol' Eggamuffin dealie. The Dijon mustard and shallot dressing really made this one stand out. Unfortunately, the size of the bun and the amount of peppercress on top of the fried (hen) egg forced me to eat the sandwich all posh Britishlander-style with a knife and fork.

The side order of Crispy Potatoes ended up being free because the manager/waiter-guy that took my order this morning forgot to initially put in my order for them and he told me that they would be comping me for those. (Nice! Free potatoes is always a great way to start the weekend.) And these are really very good homefries, and worth ordering all on their ownsome, anyway. They are extra crispy, but not greasy in the least (or the most). The manager/waiter-guy explained to me how they were made: they half-boil the potatoes first, then smoosh (his actual culinaristic term) the potatoes to break them up a bit, and then deep fry them to a nice crispy, golden brown.

For condimentary supplementation, the Cavalier 
only offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce 
(Original Red Sauce). It really did not matter as I had come packing some of my own hot sauces. I used some (sparingly, just a few drops or so) 
Chelsea Fire Wicked. Hot. Sauce.® (Thanks, Sha'!) on the sandwich and some Dixie Crossroads 
Hot Habañero[ sic ] Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) 
on the potatoes.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Breakfast Sandwich ~ 6.5;
blackcurrant, ginger and lime refresher ~ 7.0;
Crispy Potatoes ~ 7.2

Dottie's True blue café

http://dottiestruebluesf.com/


Place: Dottie's True blue café

Location: 28 6th Street 
(on the corner of Stevenson Street)

Hours: open 7:30am Thursday through Tuesday 
(so, basically, closed on Wednesday)

Meal: Zucchini Cakes ~ topped with poached eggs, Marinara sauce, fruit + potatoes; and a glassa orange juice to drink


Of course, I had to head back to Dottie's True blue café (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, September 8th, 2018) to ensure another early-2019 excellent breakfastary repast.

Once again, I scored "Seat #1" at the corner of their counter-bar (which really was not that hard to do as I was "Idiot #1" in line this morning, anyway, having arrived at 7:00am before any other idiots even thought of arriving; I ended up standing outside in a "line" all by my ownsome for about another ten minutes before the next few idiots finally did arrive).

Originally, I was planning on giving some background information on the old(-ish) brick building that houses this restaurant. However, the best that I could locate on-line about "28 6th Street" was that it was built in 1910. (Sometimes these Google-search things should best be left to the experts at WikipediA.)

There really was no decision to be made this morning for my meal choice. I knew that if the Zucchini Cakes were optioned on the "Specials Board", I would definitely be ordering them. And, luckily, they were available (as has been the norm for many years now, anyway; at this point, they really oughtta just add this item to their main menu). The only minor point that I will mention about this always excellent dish was that the Zucchini Cakes themselves were not as crispy as normal, but I am putting that down to the fact that I was the first idiot to order them today and the first idiot to be served, too.

Today's side of fruits included: grapes, strawberries, honeydew melon, and blackberries.

For condimentary supplementation, I used some of their own Cholula® Hot Sauce - Original on the potatoes. Normally I would use some Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce - Chipotle Pepper Sauce on the potatoes, but there was not a bottle to be found at my end of the counter-bar this morning.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Zucchini Cakes ~ 7.5 (normally, this would be a 7.6 GBS rating; however, due to the less crispiocity of the actual cakes this morning, I demerited it 0.1 points)

Kantine

Morgenmad/Frokost/Frukost 
på Market Street

http://kantinesf.com/


Place: Kantine[1]

Location: 1906 Market Street 
(near the canto of Laguna Street)

Hours: open Tuesday - Friday at 7:30am 
and Saturday & Sunday at 9:00am

Meal: Savory Porridge with Kale, Mushrooms and Housemade (well, restaurant-made) Farmers Cheese with an added "runny" (soft-boiled) egg; a Tebirkes[2] Danish pastry; and a cuppa heart Coffee Roasters - Guatemala El Amate

https://www.heartroasters.com/collections/beans/products/guatemala-el-amate

(Ignore the recording quality of this EweToobular video, just groove on the Scandinavian vibes of Robbie Fulkskog.)


Kantine was the second of my "new" finds from my Hallowe'en trek along Market Street in the Castro-area. It is also technically "new" as it has only been open since mid-June of this year. Supposably this is an "authentic" Scandinavian bakery/breakfast/"Brunch"/
lunch-joint. However, I have never been to any countries of Scandinavialand (h*ck, I have never even been to an IKEA® store), so I really do not have anything with which to compare it. 

The restaurant is in a cool open-space with a high ceiling. The seating consists of the standard European-style communal tables, where there were three tables with eight seats, three tables with four seats, one taller counter-table with ten seats, and five window-counter seats. Additionally, there is a large cushioned-bench in the corner (over by their on-site bakery room) that could fit about ten people easily, but probably just for drinks as there are no tables for eating there.

Their breakfast/"Brunch" menu is not that extensive, but there were still a few other interesting ideas: 

"Brunch" Board ~ where you can choose five or seven items from a list, to include: three different (bakery-fresh) breads; two egg sides (both of which are stupid vegetarian-friendly); three fish & meat junk; Havarti cheese; 3-lentil hummus, carrot salad; sweet melon with tarragon and mint; roasted cauliflower, charred corn and hay-smoked fresh cheese; hot rye porridge, lingonberry, cream; housemade yogurt, mashed berries, chamomile granola (I am sure I could find five good items from this list);

Sweet Porridge with Pears, Lingonberry, Cream and Pistachios (I was strongly thinking of this as an alternative this morning, but I would have had to order a side of something savoury to go along with it);

or

Open-faced Creamer Potato Sandwich ~ radish, bacon (which would have been seksogfirs/åttiseks/åttiosex-ed, of course), tarragon mayo (I have absolutely no idea what this sandwich would be like; is it made with mashed potatoes or potato salad?).

And because it is a bakery-kinda-joint, there were several other Danish pastries from which to choose. There was one called a Cinnamon Knot that looked very good; I was debating on trying it instead of the one I went with ("with which I went"... nah, that just sounds even awkward more).

I forgot to take a separate photo of the Tebirkes-thing all on its ownsome, but this is the description from their web-site: "This flaky pastry is a delicious classic from Denmark covered in crunchy poppy seeds on top and with a sweet and delicious almond filling inside." However you describe it, it was very velsmagende/velsmakende/välsmakande.

Now this meal would not be for any of those "healthy-faint of heart" eaters. It was mainly made with whole oats and quinoa (which I was told was the true grains of the Norse Gods). There were actually no mushrooms in my bowl, but they did add chunks of roasted pumpkin instead, which was even better. I liked this entire combination and will have to make myself a mental note to get back there again (one of these days) to try something else.

I have no idea what Scandinavian folks might use in 
the way of condimentary supplements (probably 
some kinda lingonberry-infused reindeer salsa) and 
I really did not ask for any. I had come with a few bottles of my own hot sauces and just used some H*ll's Kitchen® Whiskey Habanero Hot Sauce 
(Thanks, Mom!) on top of the "runny" egg. I also added several grinds of grains of paradise (Thanks, Brian!) all over the bowl.

(a not so) Strange Coffee Interlude

Before even heading out for breakfast this morning, I made sure to make myself a decent cuppa Bettys - Colombian Fedar (Thanks again, Greg & Cindy!), just in case the restaurant did not offer a good brand choice of Coffee. As it turned out, the cuppa heart - Guatemala El Amate was very good, too. I do not think that I have ever had this particular Portland-based (the one in Oregon, not the much more internationally-known Coffee hot spot in Maine) brand of Coffee.

https://www.bettys.co.uk/bettys-colombian-fedar


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Savory Porridge ~ 7.0;
heart - Guatemala El Amate ~ 7.2;
Bettys - Colombian Fedar ~ 7.3

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1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist (but really more of an etymological) pointer of the day:

The English word "canteen" comes from French "cantine" ("sutler's shop"), from Italian "cantina" ("wine cellar/vault"), from Italian "canto" ("corner").

The Danish word "kantine" (pronounced "kan-TEEN-eh") is a cognate of the French word.

The Norwegian word "kantine" (pronounced "kan-TEEN-a") is also a cognate of the French word.

Just to be difficult, the d*mn Swedes use the word "kantin" (pronounced "KAN-tin").

2. Say hvad?!

http://danishpastryhouse.ca/Tebirkes.cfm