http://botasf.com/ Place: bota.[1]tapas & paella bar Location: 490 Geary Street (at Taylor Street) Hours: open for breakfast & "Brunch" (but I only saw the one Specialty Breakfastmenu) Monday - Friday at 6:30am and Saturday - Sunday at 7:00am Meal: Spanish Tortilla[2] ~ eggs, potatoes, onions, peppers, tomato toast; and a glassa jugo de toronja
(I have no idea whether Miss Cassidy[3] liked drinking wine straight out of a goatskin bag or if she liked Spanish breakfastary food items, but it is the beginning of Autumn and this song seemed appropriate enough for me. Now if the Gipsy Kings also did a version of "Autumn Leaves"... ) I happened by a new-ish restaurant a few weeks ago (apparently open only since the beginning of December 2016). I liked the looks of their Specialty Breakfast menu well enough and figured I would check them out in the future. Who says the future never arrives?! The future is today, my friend, and I had my breakfast at bota.tapas & paella bar. This is one of the house restaurants in the Warwick Hotel[4]. I like that they open up very early for a downtown location (however, I expect that might just be to attract/steal the neighboring hotels tourista business; even so, this is still a very nice early opening time). There is spacious seating for about fifty to sixty people (where most of the tables are for two). They have a really nice space and design, and there is a large wall-display of vinos españoles (hence the name bota.).
(Sorry, they did not offer a breakfast paella on the menu. Even if they did, a vegetarian/Vegan version of paella is just called "rice".) Not that I really needed to change my mind in any way (I had gone there predetermined to order the dish that I had), but they did offer a few otras buenas ideas: Picaso[ sic; now how the h*ck can you mispel the name of one of the most famous Spaniards of the 20th Century?! The Spanish must still be p*ssed that he liked living in ese c*ndenado Francia better. ] Omelet ~ select three: peppers, onions, mushroom, tomato, Cheddar, Jack cheese, ham, bacon, smoked salmon; served with potatoes (just my luck and this would come out with three eyes and four ears in it); Broken Eggs ~ over easy eggs, chorizo (which I would have ochenta-y-seis-ed, of course), spinach, house cut fries; Poached Toast~ poached egg, house bread toast, avocado spread, olive oil, sea salt (I assume that this is their version of the ubiquitous avocado toast); or possibly Warwick French Toast ~ home made [ sic; with a space between the two words (even if it is really restaurant-made) ] brioche bread; add one: bananas, strawberries, blueberries (And what have we learned about these fruits in the past, children? Bananas are the only actual botanical berry of the three.).
While this dish may not have been quite as exciting and breakfastarily exemplary as last weekend's Fried GreenTomato Benedict (trust me, not many dishes are), I always enjoy a breakfast that incorporates potatoes as a main ingredient in the dish. This was a very well prepared version of this dish. The potatoes were abundantly present in the omelette/frittata thing; they were nice and thinly sliced (think like as in an au gratin kinda dish). I liked that the roasted sweet red peppers were on the side; I ended up cutting them into small strips/pieces and adding them to forkfuls/bites of the tortilla. The tomato toast was something like garlic bread with a light tomato sauce on it; I liked it, too. I really have no idea what bota. might have had to offer in the way of any condimentary supplementation; I did not bother to ask. I just used some of my own Old St. Augustine Snake Bite Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy! [Yes, those two, again.]) on one half of the tortilla and some Hot Licks®Serrano Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian! [who does not get hardly as many "Thanks!" as he deserves]) on the other half of the tortilla. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Tortilla Española ~ 6.7 ___________________
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/etymological pointer of the day, número uno: The Spanish word "bota" (a traditional leather wineskin, typically made from goatskin) comes from Late Latin word "butta/buttis" (meaning "cask").
Now, even though I can not find any corroborating evidence to support this, I am assuming that the same Latin word root is also associated with "bodega" (originally meaning a "wine cellar") and "boutique". There is this bit of confusing information from Mary Ann Webster's(since 1828) Dictionary: Apothecary, bodega, and boutique may not look very similar, but they are all related both in meaning and in origin. Each of these words can be traced back to a Latin word for "storehouse" (apotheca), and each one refers in English to a retail establishment of some sort. Although bodega initially meant "a storehouse for wine", it now most commonly refers to a grocery store in an urban area, especially one that specializes in Hispanic groceries. Boutique has also taken on new meanings: its first sense in English ("a small retail store") is still current, but it now may also denote "a small company that offers highly specialized products or services". Of the three words, apothecary has changed the least; it has gone from referring solely to the person who sells drugs or medicines to also naming the store where such goods are sold. (See, this kinda obfuscatorystuff is why I always preferred Ginger Webster over Mary Ann Webster.) 2. Unlike its less-sophisticated Mexican cousin, an actual tortilla española does not mean a type of thin, unleavened flatbread, but is usually more of an omelette/frittata kinda dish. Tortilla de patatas or tortilla de papas is a very common Spanish tapas dish. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day (and taken directly from this morning's restaurant), número dos:
3. http://evacassidy.org/ 4. Back when this hotel used to still be known as the Regency (circa late 80's - early 90's), I knew a guy (Hey, Abu Johnson!) that was part-owner of the larger of the two restaurants there. The restaurant used to be called Regina's (this is just a coincidence, the name of the restaurant did not come from the name of the hotel; Regina happened to be the main owner/chef-person behind the establishment) back then.
"Let not the fierce Sun dry one tear of pain before thyself hast wiped it from the sufferer's eye." ~ Елена Петровна Блаватская[1]
http://www.pomelosf.com/ Place: pomelo[2] ~ REFRESHINGLY GLOBAL Location: 1793 church street (at 30th street) Hours: "brunch" (at least they have the good sense to use the minuscule for this snooty-assed word; they do seem to like the whole small letter theme and use it throughout their menu): saturday and sunday (see?) 10:00am Meal: motul (yucatàn)[3] ~ huevos motuleños - 2 fried eggs, 2 handmade crispy corn tortillas, puréed black beans, Niman (Ranch, not Leroy) ham, green pigeon peas, potatoes, fried plantain, queso fresco and spicy tomato sauce; and a cuppa (and two refillas) whatever the house Coffee was
(The juxtaselection of today's EweToobular song is simply the Latin Americaness of the "destination" of my breakfastary meal and the Lilliputian singer from República de Colombia. It's really not that bad of a song… unless it happens to be playing everywhere you go on the island of Tenerife the entire time while on Christmasary Holiday.[4]) I sojourned all the way over to Noe Valley for a globally refreshing breakfast ("brunch", whatever) this morning and went back to pomelo (see last 'blog entry from September 1st, 2012). pomelo used to be in my Breakfastary Rotation several years ago (especially back when they were still called Valentine's), but I had to DFA them due to the distance and time it took to get all the way over there. It just wasn't really worth the whole rigmarole[5] of the half-hour drive or more over there on a Saturday or Sunday (or saturday or sunday) morning. I am glad to see this place is still overly dog-friendly ("Valentine" was the name of the Scottie-dog of the human owners of the old place) as there was a small family of four humans with their two canine members (a Cocker Spaniel and a Black Lab-mix) sitting outside at one of the sidewalk tables.
There are many other goods ideas for breakfast (or "brunch"), both for stupid vegetarians and those bent on the carnivorous proclivity alike, that I still have yet to try: monte cristo (italy) (polenta sandwich with prosciutto, Mozzarella, sun dried tomato and basil, pan fried in olive oil, served with a balsamic reduction, two eggs your way and seasonal greens); makena (maui) (crunchy french toast - banana rum-stuffed egg brioche dipped in mascarpone egg batter and rolled in corn flakes, with roasted macadamias and warm coconut syrup; this was going to be my fall-back this morning, but I would have ordered it with a side of house potatoes); or masantol (philippines) (filipino style spicy sizzling tofu with chili peppers, garlic, onion, soy sauce and lemon; again, I would have had to order this with a side of potatoes). In case you hadn't noticed, each of these meals (as well as the one I actually went with) begins with the letter "M" (well, the letter "m") which would complete the whole "m-m-m-m…" of breakfastary goodness. Today's noe valley (san francisco) (which changes seasonally and can be made as either an omelette or scramble mess) was "3 organic free range eggs (I am not sure if that was supposed to mean "organic-free, range eggs" or "organic, free-range eggs"), shrimp, thai chili pepper, thai basil, tomato (they don’t specify if the tomato was of Thai origin or not), shallot and cilantro, served with multigrain toast and choice of house potatoes or organic field greens"; I suppose that I could have always ordered that without any of the dead, decaying aquatic insects.
This was all very good and reminiscent of Huevos Rancheros, just on crispy corn tortillas. Of course, I ordered it without any of the dead, decaying porcine hind leg slices, though. It had a nice enough salsa roja fresca. I liked the addition of the fried plantains (plátanos fritos) as a side-dish. However, the "pigeon peas" tasted just like "chicken peas" to me, Teddy. (Oh, come on, who didn't see that one coming?!) I just had two minor complaints with today's meal: 1) I was not given a freebie mini-muffin or mini-scone (which is usually placed in front of you as soon as you sit down). "Well, Brian, perhaps they stopped that practice since the last time you had visited two years ago." Nope. I saw them giving one to everyone else that had sat down after I did. and 2) I really could not discern any potatoes anywhere in my meal. So, I felt it absolutely necessary to steal the mini-pumpkin ornamental off my table. I am sure that all of my raccoonny and squirrelly buddies over at Raccoon Island will enjoy that small snack of fresh fruit (which, of course, we all know is actually a botanical berry). Two years ago, the house Coffee used to be Mr. Espresso®, but they may have changed the brand since then and I forgot to ask what they currently have. No matter, it was still all good. If you order tea, they bring it out in these really cool-looking wooden boxes from which to choose your preferred blend. At first, I thought that these were Backgammon board games and was about to ask for my own set, too. (Hey, I can play it solitary if I want; I just have to make sure that my opponent doesn't cheat like usual.) For condimentary supplementation, pomelo has a pretty decent selection. In addition to the Standard San Francisco Triumvirate of Hot Sauces (tSSFToHS): Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (three types even: the standard red, green jalapeño, and Chipotle), Tapatío®, and Cholula®Hot Sauce; they also have two different kinds of El Yucateco® (Salsa Picante Roja de Chile Habanero and XXXtra Hot SauceSalsa Kutbil-ik® deChile Habanero [which I also have currently in my collection of hot sauces]). Even so, I still went with just a little of my own Florida GoldPremium Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Kerry!) on top of the pile of junk (I really didn't want to overpower their own fresh salsa). As I was leaving, I think that I overheard one of the waitress/server-ladies say to another waitress/server-lady that I had taken some of their bottles of hot sauces, but the other waitress/server-lady let her know that those were just some bottles that I had brought with me… Ha! Just wait until they look for that mini-pumpkin table-garnishment.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: motul (yucatàn) ~ 6.5 (don't worry, this GBS Rating only reflects the actual meal; I never take off any points for any omissions… however, this may have been a .1 or .2 higher with the inclusion of their fresh, warm, and tasty mini-muffin and some potatoes; we will never know now, will we?) 1. Who? (or Кто?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Blavatsky 2. Oh, my (Pig-)Dog! Verdammt Billy-boy Gates and his group of Nazi Spell-checkering Schweinehunde at Microsoft do not even recognise this common English word!!! I wonder if they even know the difference between a "shaddock" (of which, I see, they have absolutely no problem with the spelling) and a "grapefruit". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomelo 3. Where? (or ¿Dónde?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motul,_Yucat%C3%A1n 4. And sometimes even when you are whale- and porpoise-watching off the coast on a large tourista catamaran. Back in 2002, I went to Tenerife (which should always be pronounced "Tenner-EEF-ay", not "Tenner-REEF") with my North Yorkshire hosts (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) over Christmas week. We had gotten there on Christmas Eve day and it was a sweltering 95° (that would be Fahrenheit, not Celsius/Centigrade, Baron William Thomson). Luckily it cooled off big time for Christmas Day and was only 85° all day. The strangest part of all was that we did a day-trip during the week up to the highest point on Tenerife to Mount Teide (kinda pronounced as "Mount Teddy") and there was still plenty of snow on the top peaks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teide Here's a little-known Cliff Clavin factoid: The next closest island in Islas Canarias archipelago is now called "La Gomera", but it was once known as "Elevenerife". The story goes that the entire island voted for the name-change in the late 1960's as they were all huge fans of Jim Nabors.* *(Please tell me that no one actually bought any of that idiotic joke.) Because of these un-winter-like temperatures, I really expected that I would have bragging rights that year over all of my family that were stuck in snowy Massachusetts still. However, my brother Kerry saw it fit to trump my good weather with a Christmas vacation trip of his own to the Bahamas that same year. Some people just hate to see you gloat over them! 5. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/(mostly) etymological pointer of the day: Per the definition taken directly from my edition of A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language by the Reverend Walter W. Skeat: Rigmarole. (Scandinavian; and French - Latin) Well known to be a corruption of ragmanroll, originally a deed with many signatures, a long list of names; hence, a long stupid story. Literally 'coward's roll' - Icelandic ragmenni, a coward, from ragr, a coward, and maður ( = mannr), a man; with the addition of roll, for which see Roll. The Icelandic ragr seems to be allied to Icelandic argr, a coward, Anglo-Saxon earg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIdIqbv7SPo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fezrsTAf5x0&ob=av3n http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_vsvX2qiLM (The first two songs were actually playing on the house stereo while I was eating breakfast, and in that order, just not consecutively, I think there were a few songs between them. As this morning was a pretty dismal, rainy day, I asked my server if this was a weather theme; I half expected "Here Comes the Sun" to play next. The Bill Withers song is one of the best ~ but little heralded ~ songs to come out of the 70's. The third song by McKinley Morganfield[1] is self-explanatory if you keep reading where I went for coffee this morning.)
I have been meaning to get to Andalu (I am really not quite sure what the name means, perhaps it is a reference to the Andalucía[2] region of Spain; I asked my very friendly and helpful server, but she didn't know either) ~ over in the Mission, on the corner of 16th and Guerrero ~ ever since last year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 11 (see 'blog-entry from October 1st, 2011). Andalu runs a food wagon at the local festivals and the food is really much better than your run-of-the-mill corndog (if a mill ran corndogs, that is) or veggie-burger; not many restaurants also have roach-coaches at festivals, so I was intrigued to try their actual restaurant food.
Andalu is basically a hipster tapas joint at night and definitely a "Brunch" place (due to the atmosphere, location, and time that they open on Saturdays and Sundays ~ 10:30am is a little later than I normally go out to eat breakfast). They have very high 20-foot ceilings and orange velvet(?)[3] curtains hanging down all around (covering the walls mostly and not the windows), and they also have a balcony/mezzanine[4], which they use for private parties or overflow when they fill up (and by the looks of the crowd that was there this morning, that is every day). The old brick building is probably from the turn of the 20th Century and looks like it may have once been an old pharmacy from the ornate, gilded overhang out front.
Their "Brunch" menu isn't that extensive, but they do offer a number of interesting sounding egg dishes (scrambles and Benedicts ~ if I ever go back and order the Benedict, I definitely would have it with the Cambazola fondue, which is a mixture of Camembert and Gorgonzola cheeses!), French toast (or the Spanish equivalent), varieties of waffles, and salads and such. I ordered the Ultimate Veggie Scramble ~ Artichoke Hearts, Mushrooms, Tomato, Spinach, Onions; served with toast and choice of Hashbrowns (Ha! They have it as one word, Herr Billgates!) or Polenta Fries. I also ordered a glass of Raspberry-Lemonade.
As Andalu really doesn't open until I usually have been awake for several hours already, I headed over to the Mission a bit early and stopped at Muddy Waters Coffee House, where I had a very strong cuppa; it was good enough, but had a bit of a burned flavour to it. I have been there many times before and knew the coffee to be pretty decent, so I will chalk up today's cuppa as just a bad batch.
"Brunch" comes with four fresh (mine were still piping hot, Peter) donut holes, dusted with cinnamon-sugar. These were very good and more than enough for me (the guy at the next table offered me his four as he said he needs to watch his carbohydrate intake, but I really couldn't have eaten another four and finished my meal). You can order these as an appetizer, too, and they would come with a thick cuppa Castilian Hot Chocolatefor dipping them in.
There was lots of fresh, baby spinach leaves and brined (not marinated) artichoke hearts in the scramble (I know, as a vegetarian, I should not really be eating anything made with hearts, but I also love ears of corn and heads of lettuce and cabbage). For my choices, I chose sourdough toast and Polenta Fries. The Polenta Fries were an "excellent" choice as they really were; crispy/crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside.
The Raspberry-Lemonade was not really on the menu as a non-alcoholic drink (they probably don't get too many Mormonians going there for either "Brunch Libations" or tapas, Brigham), but my server had them make one without the Vodka for me; it seemed to have been made from fresh raspberries. They even added some fresh-mulled mint, which really was a nice addition and perked it up even more. My server said they should name the drink after me; I told her that no one would want to buy something called "Lame-ass Lemonade", though.
Andalu has just Tabasco® for condimentary supplementation. I kinda figured on that and used some Sylvia'’s Restaurant® Kickin' Hot Hot Sauce (Thanks, Sean!) on the Polenta Fries and some Palo Alto Fire Fighters Pepper Sauce (Thanks agains, Amys!) on the scramble. I shared some of the PAFFPS with the guy at the next table, he also agreed that it was very good.
Seeing as I have never really been to Spain proper other than one week in Tenerife, Canary Islands (and, even then, we spent most of the time in a British resort hotel) and an all-night layover in Madrid/Torrejón Air Base (where we played Uno all night long) on my way to Saudi Arabia, I still don't know what a desayuno español auténtica entails. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Ultimate Veggie Scramble (especially with the inclusion of the Polenta Fries) ~ 7.0; Raspberry-Lemonade~ 6.8; Muddy Waters Coffee House coffee ~ 6.4
[1] Here is some more information on Muddy Waters courtesy of (stolen from) our friends at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muddy_Waters How many 'merican music legends can say they had both a Rock-and/or-Roll band and a Rock-and/or-Roll Magazine named after one of their songs? [2] Andalucía is located in the southern part of Spain:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andalusia [3] Not that I could ever really tell the difference between velvet or corduroy*, Mr. Reed. Stupid, useless cunning linguist and pseudo-fabrician pointer du jour, numéro un: "Velvet" comes from Old French "veluotte", from "velu" meaning "hairy", from Vulgar Latin "villutus" (unattested), from Latin "villus" meaning "shaggy hair". *Which leads us to the stupid, useless cunning linguist and pseudo-textilian pointer du jour, numéro deux: "Corduroy" is of American English origin, probably from "cord" plus obsolete 17th Century "duroy", a coarse, woolen fabric made in England. Folk etymology is from "corde du roi", "the king's cord", but this is not attested in French, where the term for cloth was "velours à côtes". [4] Ha! Fooled you! I'll bet you were expecting another "stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer", weren't you? Look it up your damned self, fainéant!
A co-worker (Hi, Ron!) mentioned a new place that had recently opened (well, back in April, but I just got around to finally trying it) in his neighborhood (la Misión), Radish[1]. I had to ask my server "Why 'Radish'?", she explained that it was just a play on words: "rad" + "-ish" ~ "Simples!"… it's a bit of a hipster kind of place.
Radish is not a very large space: six 2-seat tables, three 4-seat tables, and ten seats at the counter/bar (with a very decent selection of Beers on tap, I am happy to point out; I didn't take any picture of their taps line-up, but I really should have ~ they offer @ 9-10 interesting Beers). Their "Morning Menu" (thank you for not calling it "Brunch") doesn't really have that many things from which to choose, but what they do offer all sound pretty decent.
I started with a glass of Strawberry-Lemonade. I expected this to just be a watered-down, tasteless drink with some added strawberry syrup or such. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this was actually a homemade lemonade with freshly mulled strawberries in every glass (make those servers work for their tips). This was a very tasty way to start the meal.
For breakfast I ordered Migas[2] ~ A scramble of egg, onion, bell pepper, cheese, and tortilla strips. Served with avocado, pickled jalapeños, and corn tortillas. Choice of hash browns, fruit, or greens (if you have read any of my past 'blog-entries, you needn't ask which one I chose). This also came with a little bowl of fresh pico de gallo.
This was a simple enough dish, Sergei, and really just a variation of chilaquiles. The portions weren't very large; but after yesterday's dim sum extravaganza, I really wasn't that hungry still ~ and it was all more than enough for my appetite, anyhow. There was probably at least ½ an avocado on top, which is always a plus. Now, here is the major kudos part: the side of pickled jalapeños were freshly made and extremely tasty, too; I was fully expecting those vinegary, soggy, tasteless ones from a jar or can (which are fine for using in salsas or burritos, but not that great as a topping by themselves).
Radish has as condimentary supplementation Tabasco® (just the standard red) and Cholula®. I had come equipped with two favourites from my own collection: Palo Alto Fire Fighters Pepper Sauce(Thanks, Amys![3]) and Benito's Original Naranja; I used some of the PAFFPSon the migas and some Benito's on the potatoes (hash brown or home fried, they were very good, too).
Everything worked very well together on the migas (pico de gallo, pickled jalapeños, and of course my own condimentary supplementation) to make this a very nice breakfast. I would go back for this itself, and that the Strawberry-Lemonade was so good makes this a good choice for a return trip… one of these days.
[1] Here's a little know fact, Cliff: The radish is a member of the Cabbage/Mustards family, Colonel (just like it's evil cousin "the vile weed".)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radish_%28band%29 And just in case you thought you could get away without a stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, numerus: "Radish" comes from the Old English "rǣdic" from the Latin "rādīx" meaning "root". [2] Stupid, cunning linguist pointer of the day, el número dos: "Las migas" in Spanish actually means "crumbs". Traditionally in Spain and Portugal migas are a breakfast dish made from day-old bread (hence the "crumbs", Robert). Somehow, this dish in Tex-Mex cuisine has come to be made with scrambled eggs, very similar to chilaquiles, but using tortilla strips instead of tortilla quarters. [3] This was not a typo (actually I am a Type O Positive), this was meant to be "Amys" as in two ladies named "Amy". My friend Amy (the Hallowe'en Queen from yesterday's 'blog-entry) has a friend also named Amy. The second Amy had extra bottles of this stuff that she had recently purchased at a local street festival. My friend Amy knowing that I love this stuff and had recently run out, secured (as in purloined) me a bottle from the other Amy. If I only knew it was that easy to get stuff by asking… "Hey, Amys, I really like Nicole Kidman and Uma Thurman… and have just recently run out of both."
http://www.paloaltofirefighters.com/ Seriously, any local that really likes their hot sauce con mucho sabor, locate this stuff; you will not be disappointed.
