Another breakfastary roadtrip: Berkeley, CA ¡Feliz día de San Patricio!
https://www.cafedurantberkeley.com/ Place: café Durant Location: 2517 Durant Avenue (between Telegraph Avenue and Bowditch Street) Hours: open Monday to Sunday at 7:30am Meal: Chilequiles[ sic ][1] ~ three eggs scrambled w/ (corn tortilla) chips, green tomatillo sauce, cheese & sour cream, served with rice, beans (in this case it was a combination of both frijoles refritos y frijoles negros) & (three) corn tortillas; and, to drink, a large glass-mugga Mexican Hot Chocolate
(I have it on good authority that after driving all the Danes and snakes outta Ireland, ol' Santa Pádraig sat down to a hearty breakfast of Chilaquiles hisd*mnself! [See, the joke here being that there was probably just about as much Native American maize crops in Ireland in the 5th Century as there were any sorta d*mn snakes.] Sorry, but I could not locate any songs by Sir George Ivanen español.) I had never been to café Durant before for breakfast (I had eaten there a few times in the past for lunch and/or dinner) and decided to start una nueva tradicion for Saint Patrick's Day.[2] But why Mexican food and not Irish food you may ask? Because as a stupid vegetarian-type, there are just more options with cocina mexicana. Thankfully, Señor Solwas kind enough to grace us with his presence again this morning, so I made sure to sit outside on their second-level sun-deck in one of the tables directly overlooking Durant Avenue. It was still cool enough at the time that I kept my jacket on, but was not uncomfortable in the least (comfortable in the most?!). The entire place was pretty empty on this domingo plácido and there was only one other idiot sharing the sun-deck with me. Not that I will be probably getting back over there any time again soon (I found out the hard way that on early Sunday mornings, the BART station at Powell Street is not even open for operation until 8:00am and that there are less trains going directly to Berkeley and Richmond then, too), but there were several other viable options listed on their breakfast menu, to include: Huevos Rancheros ~ three fried eggs with rancheros sauce & cheese; Huevos Divociados[ sic ] ~ eggs on crispy tortilla; Huevos a la Mexicana~ three eggs scrambled with jalapeños, tomatoes, onions; Sundeck Combo D ~ two Chocolate chipbanana pancakes, one strawberry banana crepe, veggie (uggh!) omelet & fruit salad (if I had not already planned on getting the Chilequiles[ sic ], I would have probably ordered this one, just substituting some homefries for the boring ol' fruit salad); or Greek Omelet ~ Feta cheese, olives, spinach, tomato, & green onions (this would have been the back-up to my back-up plan; because nuthin' says "Happy Saint Patrick's Day!" like eating at a Mexicanrestaurant and ordering the Greekegg-dish).
(Ooops! I had already dug-in and messed with the dish a bit before remembering to take the requisite photo of the meal.) Whenever I eat at a new Mexicanplace, and they offer Chilaquiles (or even Chilequiles[ sic ]), I make sure to order that dish. It is sorta my touchstone (piedra de toque) with un desayuno mexicano. Now this was a very good rendition and I did like their use of a tomatillo salsa in place of a standard salsa roja (which is still my favourite) for a change of pace. The three corn tortillas came out warmed/steamed and wrapped in a red-and-white checkered paper-thing to keep them a bit warm. These may not have been fresh-made like at some other Mexican restaurants, but they were still welcomed and good all the same, and I made sure to make the best use of them. café Durant had for condimentary supplement use both Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce. Neither of these were needed (and really seemed un poco superfluo) because they offered two different fresh-made salsas of their own: a very nice salsa roja (which I used on top of the rice and beans after mixing them together) and a tomatillo salsa (which I added to the top of the eggs and chips mess; it already had the same tomatillo salsa in it when they made it, I just added more 'cause I could and I wanted to). Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Chilequiles[ sic ] ~ 6.7; the ♪ music ♫ of Sir George Ivan ~ 8.5 ___________________
1. Not that I am un erudito español o un epicúreo mexicano in any way, but I am pretty sure that after eating this same dish for about thirty years now that it should be spelded kerrectly as "Chilaquiles". It really is not of Spanish origin, anyway; it is actually a Nahuatl word. 2. "Now... wait... a... minute... Brian! You can not just make up a new tradition whenever you like!" Well, it is my silly li'l 'blog-thing, and I can do whatever I d*mn please! If you have a problem with that, you can write yer own d*mn breakfastary 'blog-thing. Besides, I think turn-about's fair play: Wayyyy back in 1986, when I was still living in Omiehaw, Neebraskie, a bunch of us Air Force types stationed at Offutt AFB decided to have lunch at one of the only good Mexican restaurants in town on Cinco de Mayo. Mind you, the restaurant was about a good twenty to thirty minutes drive away from the airbase. Well, when we got there, there was a sign on the door stating that they were closed to observe this Mexican holiday. (How do you say "D'oh!" in Spanish?) Rather than settle for any of the cr*mmy food at a local Taco Bell or waste more time driving around trying to locate another decent Mexican restaurant (trust me, back in the 80's, Omiehaw was dearly lacking in any kinda auténticos restaurantes mexicanos), we all decided to simply head over to a nearby Chinese restaurant. For several years after that, I maintained this "tradition" and would normally try to remember to eat Chinese food on May the Fifth. (Hmmm?! Looks like next year to celebrate Chinese New Year, I might need to find a decent Irish pub for breakfast.)
https://boogaloossf.com/ Place: Boogaloos Location: 3296 22nd Street (on the corner of Valencia Street) Hours: open daily at 8:00am Meal: Soyrizo Hash & Eggs ~ 2 eggs any style (wherein my style this morning felt like "over-medium") in a pile of our own vegan chorizo hash with cilantro and corn tortillas; and, to drink, a glassa Mexican Hot Chocolate... with a paper straw (Chocolate Caliente Mexicano... con paja de papel)
(Because I could not find a "Taste of Mexican Hot Chocolate Boogaloo" EweToobular video.) Volví a visitar Boogaloos (see last 'blog-entry from sábado 26 de mayo, 2018). I was lucky enough to park directly across the street again. Of course, that early on una plácida mañana de domingo, a person (incluso yo también) can usually be assured of finding a close parking space. Todavía otras ideas de desayuno: Huevos Rancheros ~ 2 eggs over-easy on a corn tortilla with Jack cheese and ranchero sauce, served with black beans, sour cream and cilantro; Polenta - n - Eggs ~ grilled polenta with ranchero sauce and Feta cheese, served with 2 eggs any style, black beans, sour cream and cilantro (they also make a Vegan-friendly version of this dish, without the Feta and eggs, adding sautéed mixed vegetables instead); and they also have a few Weekend Specials (served on Saturdays, Sundays & Holidays) Eggs Flor-n-Tom~ spinach and grilled tomato, 2 poached eggs on an English muffin with Hollandaise sauce, served with your choice of homefries or fresh fruit; or Eggs Valencia ~ avocado and grilled tomato, 2 poached eggs on an English muffin with Hollandaise sauce, served with your choice of homefries or fresh fruit (this might have to be my choice on my next visit).
¡Mano, was this muy bueno! It was also a very YUGE mess o' food... luckily, I did not need to have a wall built around it. It is exactly junk like this why I like going back to Boogaloosand why they were once ensconced in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation. There were three warmed-up corn tortillas on the side; these were just the plain ol' store bought kind; this would probably have earned an extra Glen Bacon Scale Rating point of 0.1 or 0.2 if'n these were fresh-made corn tortillas. This also mighta coulda used some kinda cheese product sprinkled on top of it (queso fresco woulda been good and gone nicely with the theme); of course, that would have negated the whole Vegan-friendly aspect of the dish. As far as condimentary supplements, Boogaloosnow offers solamente Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce on the tables. I went with some of my own Punch Drunk™Chocolate Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce (¡Gracias,Seanalito!) on top of one of the eggs that was peaking up from under the pile. Glen Bacoon Scale Rating: Soyrizo Hash & Eggs ~ 7.0; Chocolate Caliente Mexicano ~ 6.8
Would you bring anthracite with you when visiting that Geordie city upon Tyne?
(No hay sitio-web oficial.) Place: Chava's[1] Mexican Restaurant Location: 2839 Mission Street (between 24th and 25th Streets); phonicular contact: (415) 282-0283 Hours: open every day of the week at 8:00am Meal: Chilaquiles[2] ~ 3 (tres) huevos revuellos, cebolla, tomate, chile verde[3], queso, y tortilla chips; a glassa mango agua fresca to drink with the meal; and, beforehand, a cuppa Ritual Coffee - Gicherori AA, Kenya https://www.ritualroasters.com/ I am glad that I am finally revisiting some places that I have not been to in quite a while. Today's visit is a major oversight (I think that will be Captain Obvious's new name when he gets that well-deserved promotion). I can not believe that it had been over three years since I last ate at Chava's Mexican Restaurant (see previous 'blog-entry from Domingo, 5 de Abril, 2015). At one time, Chava's was a mainstay in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation for several years (circa 2002-2007). They also used to open much earlier during the week (at least 6:00am, possibly earlier), as I used to stop by there once in a while for un desayuno abundante before work when I was working nearby (well, a few blocks away at the bottom of Potrero Hill ~ the corner of 17th and Connecticut Streets to be exact) for many years. That was when they were still at their original location on 18th Street (on the corner of Shotwell Street), this is where Gallardo's ~ Mexican Restaurant in presently located. Chava's closed their original location way back in 2002 due to a fire (ironically, just one block down the street [that would be Shotwell] is the San Francisco Fire Department training facility) and moved to their current location along Mission Street later that year.
As always, any meal there starts with being presented with a bowl/basket of corn tortilla chips and salsa. Sometimes they bring out two different types of salsas (e.g. pico de gallo and salsa roja). Today there was just a salsa roja (but it was very tasty all the same), and I ended up using the entire ramekin between the chips and all over my plate of food. No fooling, Chava's is truly my "Touchstone" for Chilaquiles, as it has been for twenty-five-plus years of going there now and eating their wonderful Chilaquiles for twenty-five-plus years, too. The first time that I ever had the great dish of Chilaquiles was there (possibly as early as 1990 or 1991). I had made a special trip over there once to try it and have not been disappointed since. In my opinion (and that is really the only opinion that matters here), theirs is still one of the best versions in the City. (Today's meal was very good as always. Please do not let the above fotografía fool you. While this may not be very pretty to look at, unlike them snotty-*ssed "chefs" over on food network, I eat with my "mouth" [and stomach], not with my "eyes"!) Another great thing about eating weekend breakfasts at Chava's is that they also offer you hot and fresh-off-the-grill corn tortillas. I was asked how many I would like, and knowing the size of their portions, I asked for sólo dos, which turned out to be a very smart decision. (The waitress/server lady-person was doubling today as la tortillarera. Normally, during a busy morning, they will have another person making the hot, fresh tortillas, as it can be a full-time job.) "Buttered toasts?! We don' need no stinkin' buttered toasts!" I am not sure what Chava's might have had to offer in the way of bottled hot sauces (normally, most places en la Misión will carry either Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce or Cholula®Hot Sauce - Original or both). However, with their own hecho-en-casa salsa muy sabrosa, do you really need anything else?! I did not even bother packing any from my own collection this morning (hence the titular query above). (another not so) Strange Coffee Interlude I purposefully arrived in the Mission about an half-hour before I knew when Chava's would be opening so that I could get a decent cuppa at the Ritual Coffee shop on Valencia Street. I was hoping that they might have an Ethiopian available this morning... but, unfortunately, the barista-lady turned out to only be Eritrean. (hahaha!) Of the three different roasts/blends that they were offering as single-cuppa pour-overs, the Kenya one I went with sounded the best (not that all of their Coffees are not usually top-notch, anyway). While they were doing the pouring-over/dripping down of my single cuppa, I asked to smell it (the aroma-therapy of fresh-brewing Coffee can not be matched). I swear it smelled just like artichokes (but, luckily, it tasted nothing of the sort). The barista-lady even agreed with me about my take on the initial aroma (probably just to amuse a doddering old customer, I assume). I doubt even those b*stages at St*rbucks would ever try and pander off a Coffee tasting of artichokes, Stymie.
(yet still another) d*mn p*rklets mini-rant Every other block along Valencia Street seems to have one (or more) of those st*pid, ubiquitous parking obstructions (which the City has the audacity to euphemistically call "p*rklets"). There was one smack-dab (and I would like to smack-dab some of the City Council members that had ever approved of these) in front of Ritual Coffee. At least this one was a kinda cool-looking, ship-wrecked version d*mn p*rklet, Mr. Gilbert Egan[4]. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Chilaquiles ~ 7.3; hecho-en-casa salsa~ 7.0; hecho-en-casa corn tortillas ~ 7.5 Ritual Coffee - Gicherori AA, Kenya ~ 7.0 ___________________
1. Not really a stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, but more of a stupid, useless etymological pointer of the day: The name "Chava" is the Spanish nickname for anyone that is named "Salvador". This is not meant to be a feminine slight in any way. (However, in Hebrew, the word/name "Chava" means "life/to give life", and it is the biblical given-name for that "Eve" lady-person.) 2. ¿Qué? Para los desinformados: http://breakfastatepiphany.blogspot.com/2013/12/chilaquiles.html 3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer del día: They have this listed as "chile verde" on their menus, where they have it translated into inglés as "bell peppers". These were not meant to be espicy jalapeños or serranos. I think a better translation en español might be "pimientos dulces", but I really ain't no espeaker nativo de español. (Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer del día, la segunda parte: From many years of ordering it as an agua fresca, I know that the word for "cantaloupe" is "melón" [or "cantalupo"] en español. One time at a local taqueria, I asked the guy behind the counter what is the Spanish word for "honeydew melon". He told me they simply call it "melón verde" ["green melon"]. However, I think the actual Spanish word[s] may be "melón dulce" ["sweet melon"]. That works for me, too.) 4. Let us see how many people can get that perfectly ambiguous joke. (You do not have to be a professor and/or Mary Ann to decypher it, though.)
My (little ditty) Breakfast with Jack and Diane (well, technically, with Steve and Lisa... but there is no EweToobular juxtaselection for their names)
http://m.sanjalisco.com/ Place: SanJalisco Location: 901 South Van Ness Street (on the corner of 20th Street) Hours: open at 8:00am(??? ~ ygiagam) every day of the week (their web-site still does not show their hours on it anywhere) Meal: (Little Johnny Cougar/me) Chilaquiles Verdes~ tortilla bits scrambled with two large eggs, cheese, nopales, onions, and green salsa(this was a tomatillo-based salsa); (Jack/Steve) Chorizo con huevo ~ Mexican-style pork sausage scrambled with two large eggs; (Diane/Lisa) Chilaquiles Remo ~ tortilla bits scrambled with two large eggs, cheese, onions, and red salsa, complemented with sauteed chicken and fresh Mexican-style sour cream; all breakfast entrees are served with home-made (well, restaurante-made) [¡¡¡]corn tortillas[!!!], Mexican rice, and your choice of refried pinto beans (frijoles refritos), whole pinto beans, or whole black beans (I think we all opted for the refritos beans); y beber, (Steve and Lisa) cuppas (and a refilla or two) Café de la casa, (me) a large glassa Tamarindo[1]
One of my favourite go-to spots (not named "Dottie's True blue café" or "Baker Street Bistro") to take out-of-towner-types for breakfast (or, in this case, desayuno) is SanJalisco (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, July 9th, 2016). It was a pretty sure bet that this would not be a typical Cornhusker or Mainer (ey-yah!) breakfast for either of them. All day long we were extremely lucky where the Parking Gods were with us and it started first thing in the morning when we found a great (legal) spot just a half-block down the street from the restaurant.[2]
(Creciendo se fue hasta el cielo, y como no fue violín, tuvo que ser violoncello. [Growing it reached the heavens, and since it wasn't a violin, it had to be a cello.]) There have been a few changes/upgrades since I last ate at SanJalisco. There are all new (colourful) tables and chairs. Each chair has an image from Lotería (basically Mexican Bingo) on the back of it; mine this morning was "El Violoncello" ("the Cello" ~ no stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer needed there). They have also printed new menus (and they have changed the wording a bit on many of the entries ~ probably to make them a bit more gringo-friendly) and these are also muy colorido. Thankfully, they still are serving the same ol' great food while providing extra-friendly service!
(I did not want to bother/embarrass Steve and Lisa by taking pictures of their meals. Besides, I would have had to be pretty quick to get a photo of Steve's dish, as it was gone before I was half-way through my own breakfast.) I have had this tasty take on chilaquiles once before (and it was the very last time that I had eaten breakfast there, too). I actually prefer the (más tradicional) salsa roja for chilaquiles, but it is nice to have a salsa verdeoption once in a while, too. I probably shoulda mixed it up and ordered Chilaquiles Veronica (which I think I have also had before, anyway) ~ tortilla bits scrambled with two large eggs, cheese, onions, and red salsa, complemented with chorizo (¡De ninguna manera José!), nopales, and fresh Mexican-style sour cream. There was so much food on my plate that (sadly) I only had room for two of their extremely-good homemade (well, restaurante-made) warm (as in hot off the grill) corn tortillas. SanJalisco only offers Tapatío®Salsa Picante Hot Sauce for bottled hot sauce condimentary supplement use, but those are ridículamente superfluo, redundante, y inútil, anyway. Their homemade (well, restaurante-made) salsa roja is always so much more fresca y sabrosa. We used up almost the entire small bowl that was on our table. (Like most Mexican places, this salsa is brought out almost immediately when you sit down and served with some corn tortilla chips as a pre-meal snack.) Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Chilaquiles Verdes~ 6.8 (once again, not wanting to really bother my breakfast guests any while they were eating, I did not poll them for their Glen Bacon Scale input); homemade (well, restaurante-made) warm corn tortillas ~ 7.5; San Francisco Giants ~ 6, PhiladelphiaPhillies ~ 1 ___________________
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-horticultural pointer of the day: "Tamarindo" is simply the Spanish word for "tamarind"* (proving once again that this cunning linguist stuff ain't always necessarily ciencia del cerebro or cirugía de cohete even). This is typically made into a drink as an aguas frescas and served all day long. It is usually a bit on the sweet side for my liking, but it does go well with the espicy Mexican foods. *(¿Que qué, Brian?... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarind ) 2, The furthest away that we ended up parking all day long (and the only time that we had to actually pay for any parking, too) was three blocks away from AT&T Park when we went to the San Francisco Giants game later in the day.
www.still no official web-site.com Place: Eats Location: 50 Clement Street (on the corner of 2nd Avenue); phonicular contact: (415) 751-8000 Hours: open for breakfast (not "Brunch") every day (not "everyday") of the week at 8:00am Meal: MexicanScramble (well, that is what they call it; they gringo-ed this down for us estupido 'mericanos; this is technically just your cada día chilaquiles[1]) (v) ~ scrambled eggs cooked with fried (corn) tortilla chips, pepper Jack, black beans, pico de gallo, ricotta salata[2], avocado, cilantro; and a glassa Power C ~ (fresh-juiced) orange, grapefruit, pineapple As I am still making my way through my Breakfastary Starting Rotation, I went back to Eats (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, January 20th, 2018) again this morning for... well... breakfast eats. With my previous visit, I think I had finally successfully eaten my way through the entire vegetarian-friendly portion of their menu. So, happily, it was time to start all over again.
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguistic/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day (refresco): (Once again, I am sure I have posted this [and probably more than once] translation/definition/description for "Chilaquiles" before, but here ya go again, anyway.) chilaquiles n. a Mexican dish of fried softened (generally corn) tortilla chips covered with salsa or mole and cheese and broiled The Spanish word "chilaquiles" comes from the Nahuatl word "chilāquilitl", which is a combined form from two separate Nahuatl words "chilātl" (meaning "chilli water") and "quilitl" (meaning "edible plant"). 2. https://www.cheese.com/ricotta-salata/ (I just love that there is even a cheese.com!) 3. I still consider Chava's (see previous 'blog-entry from Sunday, August 8th, 2010; which reminds me, I really need to get back there again soon) version of chilaquiles to be my touchstone (piedra de toque) for this muy sabroso desayuno, Salvaje Guille. Their version is usually going down for the third time in their thick salsa roja. There was a time back in the early 2000's when Chava's was part of my Breakfastary Starting Rotation specifically due to their excellent chilaquiles.
Tamales ta-day! Mr. XV Pay-It-Forward Memorial Weekend #8 (continued)
http://www.greenchilekitchen.com/ Place: green chile kitchen Location: 1801 McAllister Street (on the corner of Baker Street) Hours: open for breakfast Monday - Friday at 10:00am; "Brunch" available Saturday & Sunday at 9:00am (now why they call the early morning meal that they serve during the week "breakfast" when they open an hour later than on the weekends is beyond me) Meal: Migas ~ eggs, crispy tortilla strips, green chile, tomatillo avocado salsa & cotija w/ black beans; one Cheese Tamal (see, the correct singular form of this word en español is actually "tamal"; consider that a freebie stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day); and a large glassa Horchata[1]
(Okay, sorry, but the completely un-PC-ocity of the first song notwithstanding, it did fit nicely into the whole EweToobular[2] juxtaselection of "tamales"/"tomorrow"for me. [Are Mexican Liberals that are easily b*tt-hurt called "Copos de Nieve"?]) Because I wanted to "wrap it all up" (corn husks or not) nicely this weekend with "tamales", etc. (see yesterday's silly li'l 'blog-entry-thing for that explanation), I made a purposeful decision to go back to green chile kitchen (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, March 18th, 2017 ~ almost exactly a year ago... well, if "almost exactly" means give-or-take a week or two). This is such a great place for desayuno ("Brunch"-ayuno, whatever)! (Why did it take me nine years to "discover" it, though?!) If I lived in the Haight (or Lower Haight or Western Addition), this place would easily be in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation; it is just that good and tasty. I have not had one bad meal there yet (granted, it has only been four visits thus far, but even in Baseballese, that is still batting, like, .400 or such, right?!) and there are still a few more dishes that I want to try; ferexample: Eggs & Greens(¡Pero no jamón, Sam, yo soy!) ~ scrambled eggs, sautéed greens, brown rice, avocado, & pico de gallo (add chicken / pork 2, add steak 3... ¡No, gracias! to all of those for me); Healthy Breakfast Bowl ~ scrambled eggs, beans, chile, lettuce, guacamole & pico de gallo (add chicken / pork 2, add steak 3... again, ¡No, gracias! to all of those for me); Huevos Rancheros ~ corn tortilla, 2 fried eggs, chile, cheese & crema, served w/ refried beans; Flat Enchilada Plate ~ housemade (well, kitchen-made) corn tortillas, eggs, meat, chile, cheese & sour cream served w/ posole & beans (this one intrigues me the most, and if it can be made vegetarian-friendly [I am sure they can always omit any dead, decaying animal flesh, but I am not sure how they make their posole], I will most likely order this on my next visit... hopefully not in a year [or fifty weeks] from now).
I like that their tamales (which is the pluralization of "tamal") are made with blue corn and this one had a nice surprise of a New Mexico green chile in the middle, kinda like a New Mexican version of Twinkies® (well, if Twinkies® were made with corn and cheese and not some kinda plastic with silicon filling)... I would normally go with a side order of potatoes, but wanted to make sure and order some kinda tamales side-dish for this specific weekend.
This was also made with blue corn tortilla strips. While this is not exactly the same dish as Chilaquiles, it is close enough for this gringo (See? My b*tt never aches when someone calls me a "Gringo!"... besides, I have to laugh and tell them I am not of Greek ancestry.[3]) and I liked it mucho. Surprisingly, even with the addition of the tamal, this was just about the right amount of food for me. I had thought of also ordering another one of their Vegan Sweet PotatoTamal(which I had on a previous visit and really enjoyed), but that probably would have "exceeded the limit, sir!" for my appetite. For condimentary supplements, green chile kitchen offers just Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce. Not that it really needed it (and I did not know ahead of time that it had the surprise filling of a green chile in it already), but I used some of my own Palo Alto Fire Fighters XXX Ghost Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on top of the tamal. Additionally, I used the last amount of their tomatillo avocado salsaon it, too. I left the rest of the meal unencumbered (Have you ever heard of anyone "encumbering" something?) with superfluous additions as their standard green chile salsaon the Migas was plenty tasty enough without me m*cking-it-up in any way with unnecessary modifications. Mr. XV Pay-It-Forward Memorial Weekend #8 (continued) Interlude For today's paying-it-forward activity, I gave away two boxes of Girl Scouts Cookies. They were still selling them in front of a local Safeway and I decided to buy two more for myself. While I was inside, I had the great idea to use these as my "random acts of kindness" for the day. (Well, knowing that I still had about 6-1/2 boxes left over from the nine boxes that I had already purchased over the past three weekends. Sure, it is illegal to sell drugs in a school-zone, but how do Girl Scouts get away with selling these addictive treats in front of stores to unwitting dupes like me?!) Anyway, after doing my weekly grocery shopping, while at the check-out counter I asked the cashier-lady if she would like a box of cookies and she accepted one (I gave her the choice of either s'mores or do-si-dos, she wisely went with the s'mores). I then asked the bagger-guy if he would like the other box, but he politely declined. (Who passes up on free Girl Scouts cookies?!!!) No worries, I figured I would just have to "suffer" and bring them home to eat myself. As I was leaving, I could not resist picking up yet still another box (for anyone keeping count, this made my twelfth box of cookies from these street-side baked-goods pushers!) of s'mores for myself. Then I saw a homeless guy on the sidewalk in front of the store and asked if he would like one of the boxes of cookies. He wisely (for me, at least) chose the box of do-si-dos (leaving me with another box of s'mores all to my ownsome! Yay!). As for yesterday's paying-it-forward activity, I simply gave $10.00 to the barista/counter-person-lady at one of the Andytown Coffee Roasters shops and told her that the next two or three drinks were on me. ("$10.00, Brian? But wouldn't that pay for more like four to five Coffee drinks?" Trust me, that may barely pay for two or three drinks there. I love Andytown Coffee Roasters drinks, but they are NOT cheap.) http://www.andytownsf.com/ Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Migas ~ 6.6 (this is factoring in the side of black beans and their really tasty tomatillo avocado salsa); Cheese Tamal ~ 7.3; Horchata ~ 7.0 ___________________
1. ¿Qué? Now here is where I could go into a long, boring "stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day", but that would probably take several days and cost thousands of lives. So, instead, I am just "borrowing" this explanation from from the friendly folks at WikipediA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horchata In most Mexican restaurants (well, at least most of the ones here in San Francisco that I have frequented), Horchata is generally made of rice, water, sugar, and cinnamon. (Sideways-note, to anyone suffering from Spring-Summer cravings: Horchata makes for a very tasty hot beverage on a bitterly cold Nor'eastery kinda night.) 2. Okay, so just exactly when did EweToob change the looks of their logo? Also from the friendly folks at WikipediA: "On August 29, 2017, EweToob launched a new logo, typeface, color scheme and other changes to the appearance of its desktop and mobile app." Well, I don't care, I am sticking with the older version as it looks cooler to me. 3. I wonder if people in Greece say, "It's all Spanish to me!" (Look it up yerd*mnself to get that stupid joke[?]!) (Hmmmm?! On second thought, maybe I shouldn't oughtta have used a "b*tt-ache" reference in the same sentence as "Greek" above.)
