(No official web-site*.) *(Well, there might be one, but I can not seem to get it to work and it hadn't worked two years prior; so I am just saying that there isn't one.) Place: cafébean Location: 800 Sutter Street (on the corner of Jones Street); phonicular contact: (415) 928-0888 Hours: (possibly?) open at 7:15am every day of the week (there was a sign with one of those little clock-deals on the front door that stated: "Will Return" and it was set at 7:15, which I am guessing meant "ante" not "post" midday; again, without being able to confirm or deny the actual hours of operation from their official web-site ~ or none, I am sticking with this time for now) Meal: Rembrandt (Omelette) ~ ham (ham), mushrooms (paddestoelen), olive tapenade[2] (olijventapenade), and cheese (kaas), served with whole wheat toast (buttered; the front counter/ owner-guy actually asked me if I wanted this buttered); and a medium (medium) cuppa (koppa) New Guinea "Organic" (now as to the actual brand name of the Coffee that is served there, I really have no idea whatsoever; there is a sign on the Coffee-dispensing thermoses that states "Chester's"; however, the last time I was there, the lady at the counter [whom I assume is Mrs. Owner-guy], said that was not actually the name of the brand, but just what the owner-guy had named it)
("Listen up students, the correct way to prepare an olive tapenade is to always use the choicest bits from the spleen.") (And, yes, I know that I could have linked a EweToobular juxtaselection of the Rembrandts one hit song, but haven't we all pretty much heard "I'll Be There for You" enough through reruns of "Friends"?) Ik keerde terug naar cafébean als ontbijt (see previous 'blog-entry from November 17th, 2013 ~ which was almost exactly two years ago, give or take four days; it is pretty funny, the owner-guy remembered me from my only other visit there and even remembered the seat at which I was sitting before; he said he remembered me because he saw me taking out my hot sauces and pepper grinder again today). I sat at the cool, corner booth area (which is cushioned and has large throw-pillows for back-supports) that can seat up to six or seven people comfortably. (Don't worry, I didn't hog ~ of varken ~ the space; there was only one other customer inside the entire time I was there, and she had the large table [which can seat about eight to twelve] in the center of the room all to herself, too.) There are still a few other good ideas left to try on their menu and worth going back again again:
From the Omelettes section:
Van Gogh (bell pepper, onion, avocado, and cream cheese); or De Vries (egg white, tofu, bell pepper, onion, and tomato);
Several different breakfast sandwiches (made with either whole wheat toast, croissants, or bagels);
and they also had two other omelettes on the specials chalkboard:
Michelangelo (who I am pretty sure wasn't a Dutch-guy); and Daniel's (who may or may not be/have been a Dutch-guy, Dame Elton). (Neither of which of these did I bother to copy down the actual ingredients, though.)
Of course, I ordered the omelette zonder dat de dood, rottende varken vlees. The cheese in/on the omelette was Cheddar, I am pretty sure. Why not a nice Edam or Gouda (or Limburger, even, Moe and Larry)? Ik weet het niet. Maybe Chester or Daniel would know the answer to that. I was very happy to see that the olive tapenade was made with real olives, too (quite possibly of the Kalamata variety). My one minor quibble (kleine klacht) would be that all of the ingredients seemed to have been incorporated into the scrambled egg-base and then just folded over into an omelette; I would rather have liked to have seen all the ingredients on the inside of the folded over stuff. Additionally, there are still no potato (aardappel) side-dishes offered; even though they do have a working (mini-)kitchen ([mini-]keuken) area. The Coffee (Koffie) was a very decent cuppa. In addition to the New Guinea "Organic" (whichever brand it is), they also had two other thermoses from which to choose: French Roast and Kona Mac Nut (blend). I tried a little of the Kona Mac Nut and it really wasn't half-bad (whether the cuppa was half-full or half-empty or not). From what I could see (as I didn't really bother to ask), cafébean had for condimentary supplementation just Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce. I went with some of my own Lucky Dog Medium Fire-Roasted Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the omelette. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Rembrandt (Omelette) ~ 6.3; "Chester's" New Guinea "Organic" ~ 6.8 ___________________ 1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, nummer een: This was a sign on the wall of the café (of koffiehuis). It simply means "The Coffee Is Ready!" in Dutch. 2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, nombre deux: "Tapenade" is a French word. It comes from the Provençal word for "capers", "tapenas".
(No official web-site.) Place: Village Market Location: 4555 California Street (on the corner of 8th Avenue); phonicular contact: (415) 221-0445 Hours: open Monday - Friday at 7:30am and Saturday & Sunday at 8:00am Meal: Fried Egg Sandwich ~ Judy's organic egg, organic wild arugula, herbed butter (org. butter, cilantro, & parsley), NY extra sharp Cheddar, pickled onion (org. r. onion & r. wine vinegar); a cinnamon roll/bun and a raspberry bombolino (which I only discovered after I had already ordered and had finished half of the cinnamon roll/bun); and a cuppa (single-serving/fresh-dripped) ARTíSButtondown Blend http://www.artiscoffee.com/ My originally planned destination was going to be a return visit to Rocco'sCafé; however, it had been raining most of the morning (and only stopped about an hour before I left the house) and I really didn't feel like dealing with wet, city streets. So, instead, I decided to keep it local and continued on with the Richmond (District) Coffeehousesseries. Next up along California Street (and that leaves just two more further down California Street, I believe; after which, I will start at the westernmost end of Clement Street and head back eastward, Clint): Village Market. "Hey, Brian, what gives?! Are you plannin' on reviewing all the neighborhood markets that sell cups of Coffee to go?!" Well, no. This place is going away from being an actual neighborhood corner-market and seems to be transitioning (for the most part) to a coffeehouse only. The market used to be larger, but now it is more of a wine shop/boutique bodega[1]. They have replaced most of the grocery shelving now with tables and chairs: four tables for (one, two, three, or) four; two bench seating areas for two-to-three people; and there are a few sidewalk benches and tables (weather ~ or whether ~ permitting). For a little corner market-coffeehouse, they have a pretty interesting breakfastary selection (which they call their "Brunch Menu"). A few other nice ideas: Kamron's French Toast (all org. eggs, milk, cinnamon, vanilla extract, powdered sugar, maple syrup, & fruits, with Semifreddi's bread); Brad's Special (three Judy's org. eggs scrambled with org. avo, org. arugula, org. pickled onions, & Prather sausage ~ this plate is served w/o bread); Veggie Sandwich (all org. pear, arugula, & pumpkin seeds with Redwood Hill goat cheese on Semifreddi's bread, a touch of fresh ground pepper & white Balsamic); and (off-menu/ handwritten) Veggie Special Sandwich (org. Winesap apple, org. arugula, NY white extra sharp Cheddar, spicy plum chutney [Italian plums, sugar, raisins, vinegar, onions, spices, garlic, mustardseed, salt] on Semifreddi's bread; this looked interesting and would have been my second choice).
This breakfast sandwich can be made with org. avo, bacon (Hobb's) or suasage [ sic ] (Prather) (however, it was noted that they were out of avocado [or avo] today; the irony of a market being out of a produce item was not lost on me). It was interesting how they actually fry the eggs; they do so on a skillet on top of an electric hotplate. The arugula and pickled (r.) onions were a nice touch; plus, the Semifreddi's bun/roll is soooo much better than what Mr. Thomas usually has to offer. I would liked to have had the bun/roll toasted, though (they have a couple of toaster ovens in the small "kitchen" area, so I know they can do so). Sorry, there is no supporting photo of the raspberry bombolino. I scarfed it up (or scarfed it down) almost as quickly as I picked it up (or put it down). Needless to say, I liked it a lot. This was a nice cuppa. I am not sure if I have ever had ARTíS before (and that would be "before today", Mr. Nose E. Brandt). This place used to serve Blue Bottle Coffeeexclusively, but, since April (I asked), they have been selling ARTíS only. Their reasoning is that Blue Bottle has raised their prices and, with Blue Bottle's own coffehouses opening up all over (in an effort to go National/International), is making it harder for smaller local places to obtain their Coffee. I did happen to notice that they are still using the Blue Bottle cone/funnel drippers to make the single-drip cuppas (I have one of my own to use at home, too). For condimentary supplements (over by the sugar and cream area), Village Market has bottles of Pain is good.™Habanero Pepper Sauce (which they also have for sale in the actual market). I only noticed their hot sauce offering after I was done eating and wandering around the market-area. I had come with some of my own hot sauces and simply used some (well, a good ketchup-serving size) Palo AltoFirefighters Pepper Sauce on the sandwich. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Fried Egg Sandwich ~ 6.3; raspberry bombolino ~ 6.9; ARTíSButtondown Blend ~ 6.9 ___________________ 1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day: It is interesting to note (well, if you are a linguistics-geek) that both "boutique" (French) and "bodega" (Spanish) have the same word root: from Latin "apotheca" (meaning "storeroom" or "winecellar"), from Greek "αποθήκη (apothíki)" (meaning "depot" or "store").
http://www.sparrowbarandkitchen.com/ Place: Sparrow Bar & Kitchen Location: 1640 Haight Street (between Clayton and Cole Streets) Hours: open for breakfast Tuesday - Friday at 10:00am; open for "Brunch" Saturday & Sunday at 10:00am Meal: Quinoa Cake ~ spiced Brussel [ sic ] sprouts, Romesco[1], garden herbs; a side of Fried Cauliflower ~ sage and garlic; and a cuppa (or would that be a "pressa" ~ as this came in a 12oz French press pot) Sightglass CoffeeBlueboon Blend https://www.sightglasscoffee.com/coffees/blends/blueboon
(Just as an exalted lark[2], I am using this song today. Besides, I have already used "Maybe Sparrow" by Neko Case, "Lark" by Linda Lewis, "Blackbird" by the Beatles, and "Black Vultures" [Twice now?] by Daniel Norgren. There really aren't that many good "bird" songs left, anyway.) I went back to Sparrow Bar & Kitchen (see previous 'blog-entry from May 3rd, 2014) for "Brunch" this morning. Other than the use of that snooty early morning meal nomenclature and that they don't open until 10:00am, I like the food and location of this place. I sat outside in the backyard patio/garden area once again. They had several of those tall gas-lit standing heater things going, but I made sure to sit in the corner as far away from them as possible. What is the point of eating outside if you have to be warmed by some kinda contraption? However, I did keep my jacket on, all the same; I am not an idiot, after all. They have a pretty decent selection (even if it is called "Brunch" on the weekends) of items from which to choose (for both stupid vegetarian-types and those that partake of the dead, decaying animal flesh). The menu changes seasonally and some of the other meals that I was leaning toward were: (from the Savory section) French Omelette (Brie and Prosciutto with vanilla bean poached apple salad; the salad thing sounded interesting, but I would have nixed the Italian ham-stuff, of course); Huevos Rancheros (salsa verde, Iacopi [Farms][3] gigante beans, house hot sauce, red pepper crema, corn salsa); Spring Soft Scramble (brown button mushrooms, oven dried tomato, basil, & Humboldt Fog[4]; I didn't have the heart to tell them that "Spring" was six months ago); or Cheddar Grits (grilled broccoli rabe, poached egg, and paprika; I was originally going to get this one, but was informed by the friendly, attentive waitress/server-lady person, Chelsea, that it was a larger dish, and I may not have been able to order the Fried Cauliflower as a side, and I really wanted to try those). (or from the Sweet section) Mini Souffle Pancakes (Bartlett pear compote and vanilla bean whipped cream; I will definitely have to get back there again to try this one ~ insert Homer Simpson-ish moaning/drooling here) or French Toast (hazelnut Chocolate, caramelized banana, and pure maple syrup; and while this may not be as Homer Simpson-ish moaning/drooling-inducing, it sounded pretty darn tasty, too).
The Quinoa Cake was a nice idea (and probably way too healthy for me). It had lots of roasted Brussels (please note: correct spelling) sprouts on it. The Romesco sauce was pretty nice, too. They used to offer this dish with a poached egg on top; I think they stopped doing that to make this a 100% Vegan-option. I liked the Fried Cauliflower well enough, but I would have liked to have seen (and tasted) more garlic and sage in it. There is no such thing as "too much garlic" in my book. And unlike David Lindley's hair, this was not "way too greasy" in the least, but I think that if they had roasted the cauliflower instead this would have been even better still. This was a pretty good-sized portion and probably would have been too much food for me if I had ordered the Cheddar Grits. (Thanks for the tip, Chelsea! Hey, wait... aren't I supposed to be tipping her?) The cuppa was good, but I have had better roasts/blends from Sightglass Coffeebefore. This was a bit on the weak side for my tastes. It was either a mild blend or possibly there was not enough Coffee grounds in the French press to begin with. (And, yes, I am fully aware that one should never a sentence end a preposition with. However, "... there was not enough Coffee grounds in the French press with which to begin." just sounded even more awkward.) I didn't bother to ask this morning, but from my last visit there, I had noted that Sparrow had Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and some form of a Sriracha sauce (probably Huy Fong Foods Inc.) for condimentary supplementation. Unlike Wednesday morning's breakfastary sojourn, I had come prepared with a few of my own hot sauces. I used a little Pope's Whiskey River Hot Sauce (Thanks, Amy and Chef Joe!) on the Quinoa Cake dish and the last of my Fairhope Favorites, Inc. Moonshine Hot Sauce XXX (Thanks, Phyll!) on the fried cauliflower (and because garlic is one of the ingredients in it, it aided a bit in the lack of garlic provided by the restaurant). (Not Necessarily) the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude I had parked over on Cole Street on the northern side of the Panhandle and walked over to Haight Street hoping to espy some of the Wild Parrots of San Francisco in the tall Eucalyptus trees along the way. Unfortunately, I didn't see any of the little red-and-green chatterboxes, but I did see a small murderous bunch of Crows[5] enjoying their own breakfast on the ground (I am pretty sure they were Crows, and not Ravens, because Ravens don't usually congregate in groups of more than six at most ~ besides, the only murderous Raven is retired and now works for ESPN). Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Quinoa Cake ~ 6.6; Fried Cauliflower ~ 6.7; Sightglass CoffeeBlueboon Blend ~ 6.5 ___________________ 1. "Hey, Brian, just what the heck is 'Romesco'?" Well, it ain't some kinda despotic Romanian dictator, if that was what you were thinking. Sometimes it is just simpler to cheat and use a WikipediA link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romesco 2. All of two people may get that awful pun. For what it is worth, the Term of Venery for a group/flock of Sparrows is called "a host". 3. http://www.cuesa.org/seller/iacopi-farms 4. http://www.cypressgrovechevre.com/our-cheese/soft-ripened-cheeses/humboldt-fog-grande.html#.VketB3arSM8 5. See stupid footnote #2 above.
http://www.toasteatery.com/ Place: Toast Eatery Location: 1748 Church Street (on the corner of Day Street) Hours: open daily at 7:00am Meal: (me) Sicilian (Omelet) ~ spinach, sun dried & fresh tomato, pesto, onions, & Feta; (Shannon) Southwestern (Omelet) ~ peppers, olives (which she skipped), onions, & Pepper Jack - topped w/ sour cream & avocado (all Scramblers & Omelets served with hash browns & choice of toast); and we both had a cuppa the house Coffee (whatever it may have been; didn't ask) My niece Shannon (seen in above photo) is in town visiting for a few days and I actually had Veterans Day off this year for a change (you would think that they'd treat us WWII Vets better). So, before we headed out on my50¢ Tour for the day, we decided to start the morning with a little breakfastary repast and went to Toast Eatery (see previous 'blog-entry from May 24th, 2014). We went to the one on Church Street in Noe Valley which is just around the corner from where she was staying. I have eaten at that specific location in the past. There is also their newest location on West Portal that I need to check out one of these days, too. They offer a pretty nice variety from the Omelets and Scramblers sections of their menu (stupid vegetarians and Vegans take note: "All Scramblers Can Be Substituted with Tofu"). Additionally, there is a House Favorites section that offers some more interesting choices: Hash Brown Hill (a mound of hash browns covered with melted Cheddar - topped w/ sour cream, avocado, & green onions; I know I would like that one and would probably order it with an egg laid[?] on top) or Wet Veggie Burrito (flour tortilla filled w/ scrambled eggs & served w/ black beans, avocado, salsa, sour cream & Cheddar, topped w/ Ranchero Sauce - served w/ hash browns; a burrito and hashbrowns? Yeah, that is for me!).
I liked my omelette. I knew ahead of time that I would with spinach and Feta being two of the main ingredients. I went with sourdough for my toasty choice and Shannon went with whole wheat. I have stated this before, for a place with "toast" in their name, you'd think that they would offer their own homemade (restaurant-made, whatever) breads or at least a better/more interesting selection of toast choices. For condimentary supplementation, Toast Eatery only had Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red), which I used on my hashbrowns (mainly because I didn't feel like schlepping any of my own bottles of hot sauces around with me all day long). Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Sicilian (Omelet) ~ 6.6 (I didn't ask Shannon for her GBS Rating for her omelette, but she seemed to enjoy it well enough to scarf the whole thing up)
(Nessun sito ufficiale.) Place: Caffé [ sic ] del Sole[1] Location: 4342 California Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues); phonicular contact: (415) 386-1800 Hours: open at 7:00am every day (welllll... despite what the sign in the front door states: "We Are Open Everyday [ sic ] 7AM to 7PM", I suspect it may be more like 8AM-ish on the weekends, as they looked like they had just opened and were still setting up when I arrived at 8:20am this morning) Meal: Breakfast Bagel ~ egg (uovo), ham (prosciutto), cheese (formaggio), tomato (pomodoro); un cannolu[2] (to start); and a medium cuppa LAVAZZAPremium House Blend http://www.lavazza.com/
(I suppose that I could have gone with the classic Richie Havens cover of the Beatles song, "Here Comes the Sun", but I am pretty sure that I have used that at least once here already.) Continuing along (as systematically as possible) with the Richmond (District) Coffeehousesseries, I had to backtrack a bit to Caffé del Sole on California Street. This was supposed to have been my destination last Saturday, but they hadn't opened yet when I was there last. I am assuming (from the likes of the counter-guy person/owner-guy person[?]) that this is an Italian (or possibly Sicilian, as the counter-guy person/owner-guy person[?] said he was from Sicily) -owned and -run coffeehouse (o Caffè). I have stopped in here a few times in the past, but never for una colazione reale. It's a standard (read: smallish) neighborhood coffeehouse. There are just five tables for two, one window/front seating booth for two-to-three, and two sidewalk tables for two (for use on days unlike this morning when il Soleis actually shining). There really are just other bagel selections per una scelta prima colazione. There was a Veggie Bagel (which was explained to me by the counter-guy person/owner-guy person[?] to include tomato, onion [cipolla], and possibly lettuce [lattuga] or such). There were also the usual suspects for bagel toppings: butter, cream cheese, and hummus (hummus); as well as a few suspect non-usuals: butter & Parmesan (I have no idea what that might be, but I like the sound of it) or nutella®, both plain or with bananas (banane) (that combination might be worth trying on my own at home). They also have a Vegetariano (Panino) ~ fresh tomato, marinated artichokes (carciofi), and hummus; and while not really a breakfastary choice, I am sure I could have ordered that one and would have liked it, too.
This was a very good way to start the morning. It was Chocolate coated (inside) the cannoli tube (and, yes, I am well aware that saying "cannoli tube" is akin to saying "shiitake mushroom", but I am using it here specifically to distinguish the pastry shell from the entire finished product). Plus, they have added candied orange peels/rinds on the ends: Cioccolato, arancione, e Caffè ~ una combinazione molto buona! The counter-guy person/owner-guy person(?) told me that they get their pastries from un panificio locale italiano.
Once again, as with many coffeehouses without a full (actual) kitchen area, the scrambled eggs were cooked in one of those new-fangled microwave oven things. All in all, this was a nice enough bagel-sandwich. Of course, I got this senza la carne di maiale morto e in decomposizione. I was glad to see that it wasn't made with any of that falso formaggio 'mericano; it was made with Cheddar cheese, but I would have expected either Mozzarella, Provolone, or Fontina (or one of the other hundreds of autentico formaggio italiano). I am sure it would be even better made with either Roma tomatoes or sundried tomatoes, too. The Coffee (Caffè) was a decent Italian brand. LAVAZZAis not as well-known in the States as illy® might be. I am not sure which is the more popular Coffee (Caffè) in Italy, though. Also, once again, I didn't bother to find out what Caffé del Sole might offer for condimentary supplements. I did use a little of my own Fat Cat Strawberry Serrano Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the scrambled eggs in the bagel-sandwich. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Breakfast Bagel ~ 6.0; Cannolu ~ 6.6; LAVAZZA Premium House Blend ~ 6.5 ___________________ 1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day: The name of the Caffè (and please take note that this is the correct Italian spelling) simply means "Coffeehouse (or Coffee) of the Sun". I questioned the counter-guy person/owner-guy person(?) why they have "Caffè" mispelt con accento acuto e non con accento grave. He stated that when they had originally contracted to have the signs made, the sign-maker/artist-guy (who also happened to be Italian) decided to just go with the ubiquitously incorrect spelling (taking its cue from the Frenchy "Café" spelling). And, luckily, unlike yesterday, Google Translate does actually offer an Italian-English or English-Italian service. I suppose there are more than 20-30 million native Italian speakers in the world. 2. Hey, Brian, why are you spelling "cannolo" (which is the singular form of "cannoli") like that? Well, this pastry dessert is originally from Sicily and the correct sicilianu word is spelled "cannolu" (singular) or "cannula" (plural). And I, for one, would never go against the family's way of spelling these.
(No official web-site thing.) Place: Ro Cafe[1] Location: 2739 Geary Boulevard (between Masonic Avenue and Wood Street); phonicular contact: (415) 340-9765 Hours: open at 7:00am every day (however, this might be questionable; with no actual web-site to confirm the times, I have to rely on the Intro-Net and the times seem to differ with some sources) Meal: Scrambled Egg Sandwich ~ cheese, eggs, zucchini, bell pepper, onion, Ro sauce; some kinda carrot-blueberry(?) pastry thing; and a medium (12 oz) cuppa America's BestCoffee Roasting Company House Blend http://www.ambestcoffee.com/
(Today's EweToobular juxtaselction is simply from the coffehouse's name, or, at least, I hope that is so.) Ro Cafe used to be located over on California Street in the little corner location where ★ The ★ Richfield is now located (see 'blog-entry from October 17th, 2015). I think that I had only stopped in to the old joint once or twice before. They have been at this new(er) and large(r) location now for about four months. It is definitely larger than their old space, but not really by much. There is just seating of eight tables for two, with two additional chairs on each side of an electric fireplace-hearth thing. I like how it is in a cool, sun-room kinda spot at the bottom/front of an old Victorian (Are there really any "new" Victorians?).
From the items offered on the breakfast menu (and the standard menu), I am pretty sure that I will be making future visits back to Ro Cafe. A couple of other (stupid vegetarian-friendly) breakfast sandwich selections that caught my eye (both of them, actually), were: Avocado Egg (avocado, fried egg, toasted bread[2]); Morning Fresh (cream cheese, pepper, onion, mint, cucumber, yogurt; how all this can be made into a sandwich, I have no idea, but anything that sounds like a Tzatziki sandwich is alright with me); or Sthara (jam, cream cheese, baby spinach, Mozzarella; this is another strange combination of ingredients, and one that I am sure I will like). They also have a nice offering of bagels with interesting toppings (e.g. hummus, avocado, capers, sundried tomatoes, and, especially, their signature Ro sauce). Two items that really aren't of the breakfastary category are Vash (sp? I am not exactly sure what this is, but the counter-lady person said it was suitable for stupid vegetarians; she also told me what was in it, but I forgot to write it down) and Kurdish Couscous (salad) ~ couscous, pepper, tomato paste, onion, parsley, tomato, cucumber, lemon. Both of these I know that I will like a lot.
I am not exactly sure what the pastry thing was. I thought the counter-lady person said "carrot-blueberry". She did inform/warn me that it was not really a "sweet" pastry. That was okay with me. It looked good and I am happy to say that it also tasted good. There was a sign in the display case stating that their pastries are (coffee)homemade and baked fresh daily. Otherwise, I was going to go with a piece of Kurdish baklava (also [coffee]homemade); the sign stated that these weren't as sweet as normal baklava (I don't see how that could be as they were oozing honey) and are made with a little lemon added to them. Next time, I am getting one of those.
The size of this sandwich alone puts that Eggamuffin thing from Ronald's Rainbow Room to shame. That it included a good amount of fresh sliced zucchini (and other fresh ingredients) only added to the quality. Unfortunately, like most coffeehouses, the scrambled eggs were nuked in a microwave to be cooked. (Yes, I feel the same way about microwave ovens as I do mobular devices.) The Ro sauce was a great find here and worth a return visit all on its lonesome; it was not really that spicy, but it was very tasty and I made sure to use-up the entire small ramekin that was provided. I didn't bother to check what Ro Cafe might offer in the way of condimentary supplementation. I had come with a few of my own hot sauces, but it really didn't matter, as their Ro sauce was more than condimentarily sufficient. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Scrambled Egg Sandwich ~ 6.4 (6.6 factoring in the most excellent Ro sauce); carrot-blueberry(?) pastry thing ~ 6.4 ___________________ 1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day: I had to ask the counter-lady person what the name of the coffeehouse meant. She told me that "Ro" means "river" in Kurdish. (I am pretty sure that the "Cafe" part of the name just means "café".) However, I can neither confirm nor deny this with either GoogleTranslate or bing Translator* because neither of them offer an English-Kurdish (any of the three major dialects) or Kurdish-English selection. This seems completely unfathomable to me, as there are 20-30 million native speakers of Kurdish worldwide. (Apparently none of them use Googleor bing.) This is a shame, too, for I was planning on making several more "stupid, useless cunning linguist pointers" with Kurdish-to-English words. I did ask the counter-lady person how to say "Coffee" in Kurdish and it sounds something close to "Kawa" or "Kava", I believe. Coffee is a pretty universal word after all. *(However, bing Translator does offer two [yes, 2!] Klingon options. Seriously. What I can only surmise from this is that there must be more than 20-30 million native speakers of Klingon using the Intro-Net.) 2. "Toasted bread" must be Kurdish for "toast". Maybe this ain't such a hard language to master after all.
http://rosescafesf.com/ Place: Rose's Café Location: 2298 Union Street (on the corner of Steiner Street) Hours: open Monday thru Friday at 7:00am (for Breakfast), Saturday and Sunday at 8:00am (for "Brunch") Meal: Yukon Gold Potato Hash ~ with mushrooms, onions, Cheddar, & (two) organic poached eggs; an Orange Roll/Bun for a breakfastary starter; and a cuppa (with two refillas) Caffé [ sic ] Roma™ (a blend/roast made specifically for Rose's Café) https://www.cafferoma.com/
(Today's EweToobular juxtaselections should be quite evident from today's restaurant's name. Everyone knows that Ryan Adams' real last name used to be "Café".) This makes two days in a row (or is that "non in ero", Mr. O'Neil?) that my originally planned destinations have been thwarted. (Once again proving that old adage: "The best-played lands o' small rodents and male humans, goes daft awry.", or something like that. Who could ever understand what that drunk, Robbie Burns, was mumbling about, anyway?) I drove over to Cow Hollow early (well, an hour later than it would have been as "early" as it would have been last week ~ due to the whole d*mn Daylight Saving Time change stupidity) specifically to get back to La Cucina Restaurant (see last [as in "final" now, sadly] 'blog-entry from November 2nd, 2013 ~ interestingly enough, almost exactly two years ago now) again. However, they have closed operations (and apparently they have been closed now since October 2014). I walked by the place twice and didn't even recognize that it was once there. Luckily, I wasn't parked that far away from Rose's Café (see previous 'blog-entry from May 1st, 2010) and went there again. This ended up being fine with me, as this restaurant needed a return visit, too. The last time that I ate at Rose's Café, I also had the weekend Yukon Gold Potato Hash special. Luckily, they change the ingredients seasonally, so this wasn't the exact same dish as before. There were also a few other good ideas on this weekend's "Brunch" menu: Breakfast Pizza (with smoked ham, Fontina, & eggs; as a recent report from the WHO[1] has stated that smoking meats can cause lung cancer, I am sure they would have allowed some kinda substitution in place of the thinly-sliced, dead, decaying porky bits); another dish that looked interesting (I was sitting at one of the seats in the counter area overlooking the cooking area/massive stone Pizza oven and I saw it being prepped for many orders) was Soft Scrambled Eggs with Spinach & Prosciutto on Toasted House Bread (again, I would have requested this without the cancer-inducing porcine junk ~ as it is, I am down to smoking two packs of meat-products a day and really do need to watch my intake; I would also have had to order a side of Fried Potatoes, because it didn't look like it would have been enough by itself even for my meager appetite); or Grilled Chicken-Tarragon Sausage, Organic Poached Eggs, Polenta & Spicy Tomato Sauce (which I would have also ordered without the dead, decaying paltry poultry stuff; even if the Who haven't written a song about the dangers of that one yet).
I started with an Orange Roll/Bun mainly because the display case of all their fresh-baked goods was directly in front of me. There were way too many tempting choices there, too. I probably could have skipped ordering a main dish (I wouldn't, but I could have) and just went with a few of those for my entire meal.
This was a very good meal. The hash was nice and browned/crispy on the outside, just like I like it. I always like it when potatoes are the main focus of a breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) dish, too. And unlike yesterday's major omission, there were plenty of potatoes in this dish (and expectedly so). I am not sure what Rose's Café normally has for condimentary supplements (I didn't look or ask), but my friendly and knowledgeable server-person guy (Sorry, Mrs. Huneycutt, I didn't get his name, but as far as knowledge, friendliness, and service goes, this was easily a 7.5 on the Glen Bacon Scale. Of course, if he also happened to be a "very cute server-person lady" like my last visit, I would probably rate the service at 8.5.) gave me a small ramekin-thing of Arizona Gunslinger®Chipotle Habanero Pepper Sauce to use. As usual, I had brought a few of my own hot sauces with me (which was what initially caught the eye of the server-guy person), but I always like to try new ones and the smoky heat of this one proved to be a nice addition to the pile o' hash stuff. http://www.azgunslinger.com/index.php?p=product&id=4 Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Orange Roll/Bun ~ 6.9; Yukon Gold Potato Hash ~ 6.8; Caffé Roma™Coffee ~ 6.7 ___________________ 1. And just since when do Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, and Roger Daltrey start dictating what we can or can not eat? Stick to fighting for your own meals out there in the fields! (Sub-note: There is no truth to the rumour that Keith Moon had overdosed on too much Prosciutto di Parma back in 1978.)
