https://persysplace.com/ Place: Persy's Place Location: 3198 Cranberry Highway, East Wareham, MA Hours: open at 7:00am every day of the week Meal: (me) Harvest Benedict ~ 2 dropped eggs (or as you like) on a bed of zucchini, summer squash and tomatoes sautéed in olive oil blend on toasted English muffin topped with Hollandaise sauce; (Sean) Breakfast Crêpes ~ 3 sweet crêpes rolled and filled with scrambled eggs, ham, Swiss cheese, mushrooms & topped with Hollandaise sauce; (Nick) Portuguese Chourico Benedict ~ 2 dropped eggs (or as you like), with spicy Portuguese chourico, sautéed onions and peppers with Hollandaise sauce on toasted English muffin; (Mom) raisin toast; and to drink: (me & Sean) the Coffee Special of the month (or possibly week) ~ Chocolate Peanut-butter (I kid you not); (Nick) a glassa orange juice (I think; I forgot to write it down); (Mom) a cuppa plain ol' tea No trip to Wareham would be complete without a visit to Persy's Place (see last 'blog-entry from Wednesday, May 31st, 2017). That is not just hyperbole; it is the actual law in Wareham (Massachusetts really needs to rescind some of their stranger Blue Laws). The worst part about eating at this joint is trying to decide what to order off of their ridiculously humongous menu ~ they offer everything from Breakfast Sandwiches to Egg Basics to House Specialties to Burritos to Egg Favorites to Legendary Egg Creations to Scrumptious Scramblers to Bombs to Omelets to Crêpes to Buttermilk Pancakes to French Toast... and they also offer five different types of Belgian Waffles (and who humongous has not waffled a bit while ordering breakfast?). They even offer thirteen different ('cause thirteen of the same is not really much of a variety) Sunrise Sides from which to choose. I could list several other breakfast dishes that I was eyeing on the menu, but that could take several days and probably cost many lives. Just click on their d*mn web-site link above and check out the menu yerd*mnself!
Yeah, this was a messa gooey Hollandaise mess, but I liked it all the same. There were lots of zucchini and summer squash in the mix, and luckily I like both of them a lot. I did not notice until I was keyboarding up this 'blog-entry, but you may substitute an English crumpet for toasted English muffin. D*rn it! If I had known that, I would have done that for sure. Next time, perhaps? All Legendary Egg Creations (that would be Eggs Benedict dishes to you and me) are served with your choice of 2 Sunrise Sides. I went with baked beans and homefries (I thought about going with double-potato sides and ordering the hashbrowns, too); Nick went with homefries and cornbread. Nick's choices were great for the rest of the table as the serving of cornbread they give you is absolutely HUGE and the rest of us got to enjoy about three-quarters of what he could not finish. I am always game to try new and interesting-sounding (read: disgusting-sounding) Coffees. I thought this Coffee had more Chocolate flavour than peanut-butter, but the aroma was definitely Reese's® reminiscent. I really do not quite remember what Persy's Place might have had to offer for condimentary supplementation. I think that I used some Frank's®RedHot®Original on my homefries. (See? This is where it pays to write stuff down, kids.) Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Harvest Benedict ~ 6.6; Chocolate Peanut-butter Coffee ~ 6.5 (however, I did not poll [or Czech with] the rest of the table for their Glen Bacon Scale input for their respective meals... or toast)
Airport Breakfastary Food - Part V San Francisco International Airport (SFO) (Saturday, 07/14/2018) https://www.flysfo.com/content/potrero-grill Place: PoTRERO GRiLL Location: International Terminal, Main Hall Food Court (near Boarding Area G), SFO Hours: open daily at 6:00am Meal: Garden Omelet~ zucchini, bell peppers (red, green, & yellow), mushrooms, onions, served with toast & potatoes; and a medium cuppa Jamaica Blue Mountain from Roasting Plant Coffee https://roastingplant.com/ An army may travel best on its stomach, but I much prefer travelling in an airplane. (And what kinda silly army marches along like a worm, anyway?) As such, on my most recent trip back to Massachusetts (and Cape Cod and the like), I had to pass through San Francisco International Airport once again. My initial intent was to eat at Samovar® (see previous 'blog-entry from Sunday, July 1st, 2018). However, I rudely found out after heading all the way over to the International Terminal, Main Hall Food Court (via AirTrain from Terminal 2) that they do not open for breakfast until... well, according to their web-site, they may not even be open for breakfast or lunch or dinner without a reservation. A reservation for an airport food-joint? Really?! Anyway, as long as I was already in the International Terminal, Main Hall Food Court, I decided to make do with whatever else might be open before 7:00am. Luckily, that whatever else was PoTRERO GRiLL and they were open and serving breakfast... without any reservations! I had specifically gone to this food court because the choices are normally better and offer more from which to choose than at the other terminals. I even made sure to get to the airport two hours early to make sure I had enough time to get there and have a decent breakfast before the six hour non-stop plane-ride.
This turned out to be a pretty simple ~ but surprisingly good (for airport grub-fare) ~ omelette. All of the "garden" vegetables were grilled before putting them inside the omelette. I went with whole wheat as my toast choice. Once again I was mysteriously served three halves of toast. I do not know why, though. The potatoes were of the homefries variety and were also very good. These were also made with bell peppers (red, green, & yellow) and onions in them. For condimentary supplementation, PoTRERO GRiLLoffered Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and two different brands of Sriracha hot sauces: Huy Fong Foods Inc. (in squeeze-bottles) and Shing Kee® (in single use packets). I singularly used three packets of the Shing Kee® on the homefries. (not so) Strange Coffee Interlude The major discovery at the International Terminal, Main Hall Food Court was a new(-ish?) Coffee joint called Roasting Plant Coffee. Not only do they make every cuppa fresh-ground for you, they have some very excellent varieties from which to choose. For only $2.00 more per cuppa, they even offer a Jamaica Blue Mountain (and if you know how much a standard pound of this stuff goes for, $2.00 extra per cuppa is a great bargain). Now this particular blend/roast may not have been as tasty as what Bettys sells, but it was far superior to most other Coffees which you might find at your local coffeehouse (especially if your local coffeehouse starts with an "S" and ends with "ucks"). So this more than made up for not making reservations for tea... Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Garden Omelet~ 6.3 (this is factoring in their very good homefries); Roasting Plant Coffee Jamaica Blue Mountain ~ 7.7
Sure, and I still have never learned how to drive a stick...
http://outerlandssf.com/ Place: Outerlands Location: 4001 Judah Street (on the corner of 45th Avenue) Hours: open Monday - Friday 9:00am for breakfast, Saturday & Sunday 9:00am for "Brunch" Meal: (the simply-enough named) quiche ~ celery root, niçois olive, ricotta salata (they like to print everything in the minuscule on their menu); a side of (again simply-enough named) potatoes ~ filipino adobo[1], aioli, scallion; and to drink with the meal, lemon ginger apple cider Outerlands (see last 'blog entry from Sunday, March 10th, 2013) is not really that far from where I live, so I have no idea why it has been over five years since my last visit. It may have been that they did not use to open until 10:0am on the weekends (for "Brunch"). However, it was an easy and quick drive over there this morning. Even with the new (well, it is "new" in the five years since I last ate there) expansion into the space next door (which used to be a little Chinese restaurant), they really did not add too many extra seats because they also extended their kitchen area into the middle of the restaurant ~ and, sadly, there is no more Winnie-the-Pooh hole (which was their office space, I believe) above the kitchen area.
I sat outside this morning ('cause I was the first idiot to arrive early enough this morning and was the first to put my name on the waiting list, and 'cause I could) in one of the tables along 45th Avenue (in front of the stupid, extra-long parklet [uggh!] there). There are three tables for two and two tables for four on the sidewalk. I had the space to myself for almost the entire time that I was eating breakfast ("Brunch", whatever). There really are not an awful lot of items from which to choose on their "Brunch" menu (be you a dead, decaying animal flesh-eater or a stupid vegetarian). A few of the other possible ideas I saw for breakfast this morning were: (another simply-enough named) chili ~ summer squash, pinto bean, tomato, scallion, goat yogurt, cornbread (if I had ordered this dish, I would probably have also ordered a sourdough peach fritter as a starter); eggs-in-jail ~ bacon (which I would have had excised), aioli, spinach, garlic sunflower kernels; or dutch pancake baked in a cast iron pan ~ sweet with strawberry and walnuts or savory with bacon, pickled onion, and parsley (house made ricotta can be added to either; this would have been a repeat of my first meal there).
This was a HUGE slice of quiche. It was extra fluffy and eggy; it had almost a soufflé quality to it. It came with a large side of some silly rabbit-greens (which mostly went uneaten to make sure that I had enough room for all the other good stuff). I was told that the side of potatoes usually can be split between two people, but it did not prove to be that big of a side-dish and I was able to finish it all myself. As best as I can figure, the preparation for these potatoes was probably deep-fried and then roasted off. These were whole small(-ish) potatoes that had been smooshed (for lack of a better culinaristic term, Emeril) a bit and allowed for some of the deep-frying to penetrate into the potatoes for maximum crispiocity (which I have been assured by Bobby Flay is an actual culinary term). These were some truly excellent homefries. The lemon ginger apple cider was also very good and really went well with the meal. It can be served either hot or iced; I went with it iced, which turned out to be the smart choice because mean Mr. Sun was beating down on me. It can also be ordered with a shot of Bourbon, Whiskey, or Gin in it; I just kept it virginal 'cause I still had to drive back home. Even so, it still looked like some kinda faux Bourbon breakfastary cocktail. I am not sure what Outerlands may or may not have had to offer in the way of any condimentary supplements; I did not ask nor need any. I used some more of my Hot Licks®SerranoHot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the potatoes and some Sunbelt Plantations Vidalia® Onion & Jalapeno Pepper Hot Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on the quiche. (another not really so) Strange Coffee Interlude Knowing that Outerlands did not open until 9:00am (which is an improvement over their old opening time of 10:00am) for "Brunch", I arrived in the neighborhood about forty-five minutes early with the specific intent of walking the four blocks over to Andytown Coffee Roasters on the corner of Lawton Street and 43rd Avenue for a decent cuppa. This location offers Wind & Sea blend as their only drip-style Coffee, and does not do any specific roasts/blends as pour-overs like they do at their other two locations in the Sunset. This was fine by me, as Wind & Sea is still a mighty fine cuppa (but it is just not their single origin Ethiopia Natural Banko Fuafuate, which was one of my favourite Coffees ~ not named Bettys Jamaica Blue Mountain ~ from 2017). http://www.andytownsf.com/purchase/wind-and-sea-blend Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Andytown Coffee RoastersWind & Sea ~ 7.2; quiche ~ 6.6; potatoes ~ 7.2 ___________________
1. I was going to do a whole "stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day", but found this explanation already intact from our friendly friends at WikipediA: Philippine adobo (from Spanish adobar: "marinade," "sauce" or "seasoning") is a popular dish and cooking process in Philippine cuisine that involves meat, seafood, or vegetables marinated in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and black peppercorns, which is browned in oil, and simmered in the marinade. It has sometimes been considered as the unofficial national dish in the Philippines.
"Miss Otis regrets she is unable to lunch (breakfast-bagel, whatever) today, Madame... "
http://wisesonsdeli.com/location/fillmore/ Place: Wise Sons ~ Bagelry Location: 1520 Fillmore Street (between Geary Boulevard and O'Farrell Street) Hours: Monday - Friday 7:00am, Saturday & Sunday 8:00am Meal: (Kinda) Spicy Egg (Toasted Bagel Sandwich) ~ spicy harissa shmear[1], hippie greens, & scrambled egg; three rugelach[2]: Apricot, Chocolate, and Cinnamon Walnut; and a 12 oz cuppa Stumptown Coffee RoastersHouse Blend (Bagelry Blend, whatever) https://www.stumptowncoffee.com/products/house-blend
(Firstly, Mumford & Sons... Wise Sons... close enough for government work [especially with this current musically-challenged administration]. Secondly, I never need an EweToobular juxtaselection justification for Lady Ella, Madame.) Because it had been a few years since I last ate at Wise Sons (see last 'blog entry from Saturday, June 11th, 2016), I thought it time for another visit. This trip I went to their newer Bagelry on Fillmore Street, which has been opened since late-February 2016. There are several other locations that have now opened around the Bay Area (currently, in San Francisco proper there are five shops and one shop in Larkspur); and there is even a location in Tokyo now, but that is too long of a breakfastary roadtrip for me. There is not a lot of available seating (I suppose, like many a New York Jewish deli, they just want you to order your bagel "to take with" and to get you the h*ck-outta their joint in order to serve the next hungry/paying customer) with just eight stools at a counter-table in the middle of the front room, four more stools at a window-counter, and eight more stools wayyyyy in the back (which I did not discover until after I had already noshed my meal, or I woulda probably sat up there) in a second-level mezzanine overlooking the baking area. This location is used as their main bakery/bagelry facility now, which they supply to all of their other locations (well, probably not the one in Japan; even the Japanese would know a stale bagel when they bit into one). It was pretty cool being able to see the bagels being made (and the joke that most of the bagelry bakers were Mexican was not lost on this goyish gringo).
(This bagel-artwork was in their bathroom. I honestly was trying to decipher which Hebrew letters/symbols were in the middle of the circles... then it dawned on me that they were just the bagel-holes. How do you say "D'oh!" in Yiddish? [Is that possibly: "D'ough!"?]) While I liked that this location is much closer (by at least fifteen-to-twenty minutes with city-driving) than their original/main delicatessen in the Mission, there are a lot more breakfastary offerings at their Mission location. Otherwise, some of the possible breakfast ideas that I could have ordered today were: Bodega Egg & Cheese (Toasted Bagel Sandwich) ~ melted cheese, aioli, & scrambled egg (this can also be ordered with crispy pastrami ~ think Kosher bacon ~ for those of you that do partake of the dead, decaying bovine flesh, but are trying to maintain a no dead, decaying swine flesh diet); East Coast Veggie (uggelach!) (Toasted Bagel Sandwich) ~ scallion shmear, radish, cucumber, tomato, red onion, & hippie greens; or maybe just one of their (six different types of) bagels with one of their (eight different types of) shmears.
They offer a choice of six kinds of bagels for these sandwiches: Everything, Sesame (which is what I went with this morning; this is your prototypical Jewish deli bagel in my opinion... and if'n you do not like my opinion, why in the h*ck is you reading this 'blog-thing?!), Salt, Poppy, Plain, or Onion Bialy. This was a good bagel-sandwich (much better than you will ever get at any of them McDonaldberg's delicatessen places), but it was still just a bagel-sandwich. As best as I can figure, the "hippie greens" were some kinda micro-greens (including probably arugula, sprouts, etc.). If I had one minor complaint, it was that this was all a bit on the unwieldy side. With the first bite I took, half of the scrambled egg stuff (which they have formed into a roundish patty about the size of a standard burger) spilled out the other side. I ended up putting it all back together and just tried to keep it together as best as possible. I was going to order it with added tomatoes and "smashed avocado", but that would have made it even more messier, Monsieur Mark. Of the three mini-rugelach/rugelachen/rugelachs, I liked the Apricot one the best. These were all very good, though. They all were just one-to-two bites apiece.
Wise Sons offers their own homemade (deli-made, whatever) hot sauce for use as condimentary supplementation. Additionally, I saw bottles of both El Yucateco®EXXXtra Picante Salsa Kutbil-ik® de Chile Habanero and Huy Fong Foods, Inc.Sriracha Hot Chile Sauce in the upstairs mezzanine. Not really having anything else on which to try their hot sauce (and because their shmear was only "(Kinda) Spicy"), I used a good amount of it in my bagel-sandwich. It really has a nice flavour; the dill pickle juice in it really comes through (Sorry, Karl!). They even have bottles of it for sale. If I did not already have... and let's face it... wayyyyy too many bottles of other hot sauces in my refrigerator, I would definitely have pick(l)ed up a bottle for my own collection.
(not really so) Strange Coffee Interlude I have had Stumptown Coffee Roasters at a few other restaurants throughout town and have always like what they offer. This House Blend was another winner with me. The last time that I ate at their main Mission delicatessen, they were selling Intelligentsia Coffee exclusively (which they may still sell at some of their other locations); both are very good Coffees, anyway. I also bought a 12 oz bagga (Why do so many places now-a-days sell these in 12 oz sizes instead of a full 16 oz-pounda?) as a gift for your 2018 Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award - Linda Miller Award for Fan Artist of the Year, Mr. David G. Hardy[3]. He stated that he would send me a print of my choosing in exchange. I explained to him that because it only came in a 12 oz bagga, he can just send me 3/4 of a picture. "In the clearing stands (lies? lays?) a bagel... and a glorified doughnut by its trade... " (Would I... lie la lie [please provide your own cymbal-crash sound effects here]... lie la la la lie lie... lie la lie [ditto above]... lie la la la la lie la la lie... to you?) Glen Bacon Scale Rating: (Kinda) Spicy Egg (Toasted Bagel Sandwich) ~ 6.4; rugelach/rugelachen/rugelachs ~ 6.9; Wise Sons "Pickle Brine Spiked" Hot Sauce ~ 6.8; Stumptown Coffee RoastersHouse Blend ~ 7.1; the esteemed artwork of Mr. David G. Hardy ~ 8.0 ___________________
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, number oy-vay: They have this spelled as "shmear". It can also be spelled as "schmear", or according to my trusty, go-to lexicon for anything Yiddish-related (TheJoysofYiddish by Leo Rosten) as "shmeer": shmeer Pronounced as it is written; rhymes with "shear". From German: Smiere: "grease", or "bribe". 1. To paint. 2. To smear. 3. To spread. "Shmeer it on the bread." 4. A spread or paste. "With drinks, a caviar shmeer on crackers goes well." "Smoked fish, cream cheese, sour cream, and chives make a wonderful cocktail shmeer." 5. To bribe; a bribe. This is the most interesting usage, and has long been part of American slang. It is related to "greasing the palm". "Do the officials expect to be shmeered there?" "Do they take a shmeer?" There is a saying: "Az men shmeert nit, fort men nit." (If you don't bribe, you don't ride" - or, less literally, "Without bribery, you'll get nowhere.") 6. To strike or beat. "He landed a shmeer between the eyes." 2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, number two-vay: So... here we go... the word "rugelach" may or may not already be in the plural form. So, to say "I ate three rugelachs." might be incorrect. I initially assumed that the pluralised form in Yiddish might be "rugelachen" (adding a standard German plural ending of "-en"); however, it appears that in Hebrew the "-ach" ending already symbolises the plural. I even discussed this with a couple of the workers at the bagelry (read: bored the h*ck outta these polite workers). One of the guys suggested that maybe like "fish" and "sheep" it is already singular and plural. This sounds like the simplest (and probably closest to the etymological truth) answer, so I am sticking with it until proven otherwise.
"Hey, baby... we forgot all about the... Bi Bim Bop Veggie Omelete[ sic ]... "
(No official web-site-type-thing.) Place: Art's Cafe Location: 747 Irving Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues); phonicular contact: (415) 665-7440 Hours: open at 7:00am Tuesday through Saturday; open at 7:30am on Sunday (??? ~ this is where an official web-site-type-thing would be helpful) Meal: Bi Bim Bop Veggie (uggh!) Omelete[ sic ] ~ with spinach, zucchini, bean sprout, carrot, and Swiss cheese, served with hashbrowns or rice (you would be surprised how many people go with this choice instead of Art'sstellar hashbrowns) and toast; (to drink with the meal) a large glassa orange juice; (afterwards, for a breakfastary dessert) a cuppa Snowbird CoffeeZatarra (via pour-over/drip-method) and a corn-cherry scone at Arizmendi Bakery http://snowbirdcoffee.com/ https://www.arizmendibakery.com/
(What's the EweToobular juxtaselection here today? Simples! Ol' Davie-boy Alvin [Theodore and Simon were not available for comments] is a big gochujang fan, too.) I wanted to go to a (somewhat close/accessible) place for breakfast that opened early (or hopefully was even open on the 4th of July) and because it had been a while since I last ate at Art's Cafe (see last 'blog entry from Sunday, November 6th, 2016), anyway, that was where I ended up going this morning. Once again, I simply parked in Golden Gate Park (directly across from the entrance to San Francisco Botanical Garden), where there is normally ample (and free) parking that early in the morning. (The extra-added bonus was that after breakfast I strolled through San Francisco Botanical Garden to work off some of those breakfastary calories.) I arrived at the restaurant around 7:15am and had the entire counter-space to myself for a while. There were two take-away customers ahead of me. But, otherwise, only two other customers came in to eat the entire time that I was having breakfast.
(Again, their entire diner-counter-top is covered with postcards from customers sent from all over the World ~ which are under some Plexiglas to keep the spillage from crudding up the pictures. To my left this morning, I could see London [the one in Englandia, not the much more popular town in Arkansas], Hong Kong, and some far-away place called "Wis-Con-Sin", which I believe used to be a province in that old Czechoslovakia place.) I have been going to Art's Cafe since some time in 2010 now. Surprisingly enough, there are still a couple of other items on their menu that I need to get back to try: Hashbrown Melt (Sandwich) ~ served with melted Cheddar cheese on hashbrowns, two eggs, and toast; or Four Cheese Omelete[ sic ] ~ American (so, technically, this should be called a "Three Cheese Omelete[ sic ] with some other kinda faux cheese-like product-stuff"), Cheddar, Jack, and Swiss cheese, served with hashbrowns or rice and toast. Additionally, for you meatetarian types, they offer the interesting sounding Samurai Omelete[ sic ; and if you are getting [ sic ]k of seeing me type "[ sic ]" every time I have to mispel "Omelette", just think of how [ sic ]k I am of typing it, too ] ~ beef teriyaki, onions, and cheese, served with hashbrowns or rice and toast. Now if they only offered a Hashbrown Bi Bim Bop Veggie (uggh!) (Sandwich)...
(This was exactly how it was presented to me. Really. [Yeah, and today is Cinco de Mayo.]) I have had this same dish once before (I think it was the very first meal that I ever tried there) and knew that I was going to like it (again). Sure, the ingredients may all sound kinda strange for inside an omelete[ sic ], but if you have ever had the Korean dish Bibimbap, you know it has most of the same items in it (well, less the Swiss cheese) and usually includes either a raw egg or fried egg on top. These guys (well, Art, at least) are truly "Masters of the Hashbrowns". Trust me, I am a Potato Doctor; I even have a PhD to prove it (well, if "PhD" stood for "Potato-h*ckova-Doctor"). Why anyone would choose plain ol' white rice over these crispy golden-brown delights is beyond me. For condimentary supplementation, Art's Cafe has both Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Crystal®Louisiana's Pure Hot Sauce along the counter-top. In my opinion (trust me, I also minored in Hot Sauce at Doctoring School), both of which are superfluously redundant when they have a great gochujang sauce/paste for use instead. As can be seen in the above photo, that is exactly what I used on both the omelete[ sic ] and hashbrowns. (not so) Strange Coffee and Pastry Interlude As has been my habit lately whenever eating breakfast in that area of the Sunset, I headed around the corner after the meal for a mighty fine cuppa at Snowbird Coffee. And because I still had a little room left, I also got a fresh-baked good at Arizmendi Bakery[1], too. The scone was a little bit on the dry side (I am just chalking that up to the use of cornmeal), but it was still very good; it had lots and lots of whole dried cherries in it. I bet a savoury-sweet scone made with cornmeal, cherries, and jalapeños would be excellent, too. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Bi Bim Bop Veggie (uggh!) Omelete[ sic ] ~ 6.5; hashbrowns (on their ownsome) ~ 7.0; Snowbird CoffeeZatarra ~ 7.1; corn-cherry scone ~ 6.8 ___________________
1. Normally, I avoid this bakery like the plague because they are supporters of a very large (three car-space-length) p*rklet in front of their building. (Need I point out that this is only a block-and-a-d*mn-half away from Golden Gate Park?!) I decided that because it was the 4th of July today, I would do like George Washington did on this very day in 1776 and emancipate the slaves... that's the Spirit, Brian! (Besides, when was the last time you heard of a plague outbreak in the Sunset District, anyway?!)
https://www.samovartea.com/ (Unfortunately, this web-site is rather useless when trying to look at their food menu items.) Place: Samovar®[1] Location: 1910 Fillmore Street (between Wilmot Street [which is really just a two block alley] and Bush Street) Hours: open at 7:00am Sunday - Saturday Meal: Egg Jar ~ sous-vide[2] egg, smoked salmon (which I skipped of course), brown rice, sauerkraut, sesame oil, and tamari; Cinnamon Almond Butter (Toast); and, to drink (it is a tea shop, after all), a large cuppa Tumeric Golden Milk
(Here is a little-known Cliff Clavin-fact: Lady Ella's actual birth-name was "Samantha O'Var". Not many people know this. You can now share this information with your friends and completely amaze them [if they are the gullible type]. You can tell them it is true because you read it on the Intro-Net. They can even verify it themselves with those Scopes-people.) Last weekend while strolling along Fillmore Street in the afternoon, I came across a new tea shop there: Samovar®. Apparently this location has been open since late Fall 2017 or such. They have two other (older) tearooms in the city and another one at the International Terminal of San Francisco Airport. I have never been to any of the other shops, but when I saw their (even though it was rather limited) food menu, I figured this would be a nice place to check out. Their signage at the front door actually states "Samovar® Tea & Chai"[3]; however, if you ask me, that wording is a superfluous redundancy, in my opinion. The word "chai" is almost universally the word used for "tea" in many other languages already. However, when most 'mericans think of "chai", they automatically think of a spiced Indian tea drink that is more like a "Tea-Latte". This location on Fillmore Street does not offer a lot of seating/eating area inside. I had to make do with a bench and kinda shelf/table-thing to eat at. I suppose most people just order tea drinks and either lounge wherever possible or take them to go. They have their own ceramic mugs/cups made for them locally and are for sale as gifts. If someone had taken a picture of the meal, you would have been able to see the nice design for this particular shop. When I had stopped in last Sunday, I pretty much had made up my mind what I was going to order today. They do have a few other interesting ideas that I will try to stop back and test out one of these days: Sweet Singapore (Toast) ~ condensed coconut milk, sous-vide egg (if I had not already ordered a dish with a sous-vide egg in it, this was going to be my second choice; it sounded just disgusting enough that I know I will love it); White Truffle & Egg (Toast) ~ sous-vide egg, white truffle oil, salt, pepper (another one that sounded too disgusting [read: interesting] not to give it a try]); Chia Chai Pudding (In A Jar) ~ chia-chai pudding (I asked; they soak the chia seeds in a cold chai mixture/liquid overnight to get them to gel), raw almonds, coconut, pumpkin seeds, cranberries, blueberries, bee pollen, honey; or Warm Greens (In A Jar) ~ steamed greens, olive oil, tamari, lemon juice, nutritional yeast.
(Ooops! It looks like someone had the camera set to "Video" and did not get any photos of the actual breakfastary meal. [In my defense, the "Video" setting is right after the "Close Up" setting on the dial and I must have overshot it unknowingly. Plus, I could not seem to get the videos to open properly or I probably woulda inserted one here.]) This came served in an actual Ball®Mason jar (which I was told after I had already bused my table-space and placed it in their plastic tub to be washed/cleaned that you can keep it if you like; oh, well, next time... ). If you have never had a sous-vide egg before, its consistency is somewhere between a soft boiled egg and a poached egg. This made it easy to incorporate the cooked egg into the rice and other ingredients. As strange as it all sounds ~ sauerkraut, poached (sous-vide-d, whatever) egg, and brown rice ~ it all seemed to work very nicely with me. The toast was good, too, but nothing really special. It was a thick slice of Texas-style toast with a thick layer/slathering of cinnamony almond butter on it. Now the real winner for me with this whole meal was the drink. It was made with some kinda tumeric tea base ( I can only assume it was their Tumeric Spice, which is made with tumeric, ginger, lemongrass) and milk (which they have in large heated pots at the counter all ready to serve out). It really has to be tasted to best describe it. (Well, I tasted it, of course, but you would need to do so yourd*mnself to really get what I mean.) Additionally, I was not quite sure how all the flavours of tumeric, cinnamon, almond butter, and tamari might work together, but they also all did work out as a quite nice flavour complement. I did not bring any of my own condimentary supplements with me this morning because I was pretty sure that I would not be needing any with the choices I had (pre-)made. Now what were the odds of finding a good tearoom in the midst of Japantown?! Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Egg Jar ~ 6.6; Cinnamon Almond Butter(Toast) ~ 6.3; Tumeric Golden Milk ~ 6.9 ___________________
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, номер один: The Rooskoe word "самовар" ("samovar") means "self-brewer". It is the combined form of two Rooskie words "само" (transliterated as "samo"; meaning "self"/"itself") and "варить" (transliterated as "varit'"; meaning "to cook/boil"). I explained this most interesting factoid to the two guys working behind the counter this morning. They did not seem very impressed, though. 2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, numéro deux: "Sous-vide" is a new(-ish) fancy cooking term which means "under vacuum" in French. 3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, номер три: The Rooskoe word for "tea" is "чай" (transliterated as "chai" or "chaj").
