Toast Eatery (West Portal)

Because I really could not see myself eating breakfast without a cuppa Coffee and a doughnut afterward...

http://www.toasteatery.com/

(This web-site is more site-specific for their Noe Valley locations, but they offer a lotta the same dishes at their West Portal restaurant.)


Place: Toast Eatery

Location: 160 West Portal Avenue 
(between Vicente Street and 14th Avenue);
phonicular contact: (415) 566-200

Hours: open at 7:00am every day of the week

Meal: Huevos Rancheros ~ 2 eggs any style (mi estilo 
this morning was sobre medio) on corn tortillas with black beans, sour cream, salsa ranchera and a side of chipotle coleslaw; and, to drink with the meal, a large(-ish) glassa grapefruit juice (which came with an old-timey paper straw even)


Whenever it is time for my annual eye exam (hence, the silly "see myself" pun in the 'blog-title today), I usually like to have a nice breakfast aforehand at one of the restaurants along West Portal (which, coincidentally enough, happens to be where my optometrist is also located). So, I headed back once again to 
Toast Eatery (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, April 28, 2018 ~ so, yeah, basically-exactly one year ago).

Dining Tip o' the Day:
If you happen to be right-handed, do not seat yourself on the side of the table that is right up against the wall making your dominant hand mostly inoperable. Luckily, there really was not a lotta junk that needed any knife-action on it (at first, I did attempt cutting up the eggs on top of the tortillas with my knife, but just ended up cutting through them with my fork instead), and I have somewhat mastered the trick of eating Britishlander-style with the fork (as sinister as this may sound) in my left hand.

I have eaten at all four of the Toast Eatery locations several times now over the years, but, even so, there are still some other good ideas yet left to try:

California Scrambler ~ egg whites, tomato, fresh basil, avocado and Cheddar, served with hashbrowns and choice of Toast;

"Veggie" Omelet ~ mushrooms, spinach, tomato and Provolone, served with hashbrowns and choice of Toast;

or

Wet "Veggie" Burrito ~ flour tortilla filled with scrambled eggs, grilled "veggies", black beans, Cheddar cheese and sour cream; topped with salsa ranchera and avocado, served with hashbrowns (this one was my back-up plan).

(Yes, I am well-aware that there was no actual "Toast" with my meal this morning, but you can not make a "tostada" without corn tortillas.)

Now, there really is not much to a standard Huevos Rancheros dish: (in today's case) two over-medium eggs on top of some corn tortillas; so, not much really going on there. What makes a standard Huevos Rancheros dish stand out from restautante to restaurante is how their salsa ranchera is made. This salsa ranchera at Toast Eatery was una muy buena y sabrosa salsa ranchera; it was not very espicy, just very etasty. Of course, the real standout for me this morning was the side of chipotle coleslaw; now that was extremely etasty!

I was not planning on messing with the flavour of their salsa ranchera in any way, but I did notice that they offered the Standard San Francisco Triumvirate of Hot Sauces™: Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce 
(Original Red Sauce), Tapatío® Salsa Picante 
Hot Sauce, and Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original). 
Of which, none was needed, nor was none used.

(Yeah, yeah, yeah... well, this was the best EweToobular juxtaselection that I could come up with for "Ballast©".)

(not really such a) Strange Coffee Interlude

What has also become a mini-tradition whenever visiting West Portal, I will usually stop by 
Ballast© Coffee (which happens to be directly across the street from my optometrist's office, anyway) either before or after breakfast for a truly fine cuppa. This morning, I had a cuppa Wild Boar (made especially with imported Filipino 100% Barako[1] beans) prepared as an 'mericano (unfortunately, they do not offer any single cuppa pour-over/drip-style for any of their Coffees). I also had a mango-passionfruit mochi doughnut. It was okay, but it turned out to be more fun to say "mango-passionfruit mochi doughnut" than to eat it. Once again, I made sure to sit outside in their backyard patio area; I ended up being the first and only idiot to do so this morning.

https://www.ballastcoffee.com/product-page/wild-boar-100-barako


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Huevos Rancheros ~ 6.5;
chipotle coleslaw (all on its ownsome) ~ 7.0;
mango-passionfruit mochi doughnut ~ 6.3 (for flavour and exhibition; however, as a concept: 7.0);
Ballast© Coffee Wild Boar ~ 7.2

___________________

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

This particular cultivar of Coffee beans was not named after the 44th President of these here United States. The word "Barako" in Philippine languages is equivalent to the English term "stud" (both literally and figuratively), from Spanish "varraco" (meaning "wild boar"). The word is associated with connotations of masculinity and machismo in Filipino culture. 

Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, ikalawang bahagi:

The Filipino word for "Coffee" is simply "Kape". I was once told by a native Filipina that the "F" in many Filipino words is usually pronounced like a "P", anyway. How pucking silly is that?!

Boulevard Cafe

Do you know the way to Daly City*, Fielding Mellish?



http://www.theboulevardcafe.com/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqWt49o7R-k&feature=related

(You try finding a song that references Daly City; besides, anything south of the City is San Jose as far as most locals are concerned.)


On the recommendation of a co-worker, I had breakfast this morning at Boulevard Cafe. They are located in the old Lyons restaurant building in the Westlake neighborhood of Daly City along John Daly Boulevard; and while their address is not technically on John Daly Boulevard, calling it (Poncetta) Drive Cafe may have confused many people.

They have a pretty extensive breakfast menu selection from which to choose, but as soon as I saw this entry I knew what I was going to get: Bananas Foster French Toast ~ Texas French toast, caramelized bananas, and fresh cinnamon cream. I also ordered a side of Yukon Gold Hash Browns (because you can never have too many carbohydrates) and a cuppa coffee.



The meal comes with three thick slices of French toast, lots of bananas, and the large dollop of cinnamon cream was very good, too. Now this was not quite as good as Merchants Way version of their Bananas Foster French Toast, but seeing as they have been a defunct restaurant for several years, I would highly recommend this place instead, and it is definitely worth a return visit.** The only minus I can think of was that they did not provide any (extra) maple syrup to use on it; however, this really didn't matter as it was very tasty on its own and especially with the cinnamon cream on top (there may have been some maple syrup in the caramelized bananas sauce, though). The Yukon Gold*** hash browns were very good, too. I doubt I would have known they were "Yukon Gold" other than the standard "Russet potatoes" if they hadn't noted it on the menu.

The condimentary supplements at Boulevard Cafe are just Tabasco® (the standard red) and Tapatío®. So I went with some Big Papi En Fuego Hot Sauce ~ Monster Double Medium Hot (the green one) on the hash browns (Thanks, Kerry!).

Note: no actual bananas were harmed in the eating of this meal… well, some of them did get their egos bruised a bit, though.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Bananas Foster French Toast ~ 7.0


*(Daly City is known as "the Gateway to the Peninsula". I am just assuming that is the San Francisco/San Mateo Peninsula and not the Yucatán Peninsula.

http://www.dalycity.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Donald_Daly

People call San Francisco "Fog City", but both Daly City and Pacifica ~ just to the west of Daly City and due south of San Francisco ~ are really much foggier all year long, Mr. Tormé. As San Francisco is peninsular-based, I always tell people it is almost impossible to get lost in San Francisco: you just drive until you either hit the water ~ in which case you are either at the Pacific Ocean, Golden Gate Bridge, or the San Francisco Bay ~ or the fog ~ and you are in Daly City. However, I did know of two Air Force buddies that actually got lost in West Berlin, and this is when it was still a walled city…

Some notable Daly Citians: John Madden, NFL Coach and NFL Hall of Famer ~ "Bam!"; John Robinson, NFL Coach; and Sam Rockwell, actor.

Here's a little known fact: John Daly was actually from Maynila, Republika ng Pilipinas; his real name was Juan Dalycito, he just anglicized his name when he moved to 'merica.)

**(It just goes without saying that this wasn't as good as the Pain Perdu at Baker Street Bistro, either, but that comparison is unfair to most French Toasts and breakfasts in general.)

***(Yukon Gold info/link:

http://potatoassociation.org/Industry%20Outreach/varieties/White%20Rounds/yukon_gold.html

This is the "official" information from the Potato Association of America… Really?! Who knew such an organization existed? I wonder if this is where Dan Quayle went to work after his political career ended.)