This was my first breakfastary visit to the Corner Store, located "down on the corner" of Masonic Avenue and Geary Boulevard. They are a slightly new-ish place; they have been open for less than six months now or I probably would have included them in my "Breakfast on Geary" series earlier this year. This is an easy location for me to get to ~ right down Geary Boulevard ~ with lots of free parking in the general vicinity, too. There is a nice, inviting, neighborhoody feel to the joint; they are not really a "Sports Bar", but they do have a large-screen TeeVee at one end of the bar (where there is an additional seating for food for about ten to twelve people).
Even though the rain had not let up yet this morning, I sat outside on the sidewalk patio, where there is seating for twenty-four or more (which is almost as many seats as they have inside). There is a retractable covered/tented roof and it is heated for just such inclement weather. I really was impressed with the job they did on the canopy and making it wind/rain resistant; it was completely dry and warm and I took off my coat when I sat down (and I wasn't even sitting near one of the two wall heaters).
One of the big minuses about the place is that they only offer 7-8 items on their "Brunch" menu from which to choose, and, of these, there really are only three items for stupid vegetarians. I ordered Ricotta[2]Pancakes ~ honey butter, berry compote[3]. I also had a side of homefries and a cuppa French-pressed Blue Bottle Coffee Three Africans (Ethiopian/Ugandan blend).
This was just one extra large pancake, but due to the ricotta in the batter, it made it not only extra moist, but extra heavy, so one was really more than sufficient for my appetite. The berry compote was a blackberry one, and there was the subtlest of undertones from the honey butter. I liked the composition of the homefries (nice spices and lots of diced onions in the mix); however, I would have liked them a little crispier (read: burnt), but that is just me.
The Corner Store has as condimentary supplements Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) and Tapatío®. I had brought a few bottles of my own hot sauces and used some Cholula®Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the homefries. They did have copper mini-pepper grinders (for mini-peppercorns?) on each table and I put this to good use on the homefries also. The pancake really needed no extra flavouring.
Sorry, Willy, as good as this pancake was, I doubt that I will be going back again any time soon to unwind and lay my money down, due to the lack of choices on their "Brunch" menu and that they don't open until 10:00pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Ricotta Pancake ~ 7.0; Blue Bottle Coffee Three Africans ~ 7.2
1. A Gibson Kalamazoo Electric Guitar was a budget model, but I am still sure it would have been way too expensive for a buncha poor boys playing street music.
2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer del giorno, numero uno: "Ricotta" literally means "recooked" in Italian. It comes from Latin "recocta", the feminine of "recoctus", which is the past participle of "recoquere" meaning "to re-cook".
3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer du jour, numéro deux:
"Compote" is French for "mixture". It comes from Old French "composte", which comes from Latin "composita", the feminine of "compositus" meaning "put in place" (see: composite, compost).
But it has nothing to do with the author of "In Cold Blood".
(As this entry is a Saturday breakfastary two-fer, I decided on making the music interlude a two-fer, too.)
I went back to Kate's Kitchen (see last 'blog-entry from February 18th, 2012) for breakfast this morning. They are located over on Haight Street near the corner of Fillmore[1] Street. Kate's Kitchen opens at 8:30am on Saturdays, but I thought that they opened at 8:00am (this is due to the fact that their official web-site does not state their hours… Really?!). So I had an extra half hour to kill this morning. Unfortunately it was a crummy, rainy morning and not even worth walking around the neighborhood, so I just sat in my car for thirty minutes listening to the Beatles on the radio (a local station plays two hours of the Beatles every Saturday at that time). This explains the Beatles two-fer above.
I had never really noticed the underside of their awning had artwork of the Old West on it. I probably wouldn't have noticed it this morning, but I was hiding out from the rain while waiting for them to open up and happened to look up.
I really like their breakfastary selections, and they always have several interesting specials (which change weekly with what is seasonally available) on their chalkboard menu. In addition to their standard French Toast selections, this week they also offered a few other versions: Pumpkin French Toast (w/chocolate chips & whipped cream); and CranberryChocolate French Toast (w/strawberries & chocolate butter). They also had a great selection of interesting looking pancakes: Strawberry, Banana, Lemon Curd; Bacon & Cheddar; Blueberry; Banana & Walnut; Pumpkin! (they added the "!", not me; however, it does sound good!); Strawberry & Granola; and Oatmeal w/Banana & Almonds. I just had the Irene's Wrap (which is their take on a breakfast burrito) the last time I was there and knew it to be good (Irene was my server again this morning and even remembered that I had ordered it the last time I was there).
I opted for this weekend's Veggie Scramble: Avocado, tomato, red onion, cilantro, cauliflower[2], roasted red bell pepper, Cheddar; topped with salsa & sour cream; all egg breakfasts are served with homefries (noted as one word, thank you) and choice of toast (I went with light rye; I only noticed later that I could have gotten one cheese green onion biscuit instead). I also had a cuppa (well, three refills) of their house coffee, which is a very good N'Arlins-style with roasted chicory.
This was a very good scramble with lots of fresh ingredients (and no scrimping on the avocado, I am happy to state). I like cauliflower, but really dislike "the vile weed" ~ go figger! This had a very good pico de gallo on top. The homefries were very good, too, with chunks of onions (white) and bell peppers (green) nicely caramelized throughout.
Kate's Kitchen offers for condimentary supplementation Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce(the standard red), Tapatío®, and Mezzetta Brand Habanero Hot Sauce (and possibly a few others). I was basically aware of this, but I had brought a few of my own and used some Palo Alto Fire Fighters Pepper Sauce (the original version; Thanks agains, Amys and Brian!) on the homefries and some Serious Food… Silly Prices Sweet Heat Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy!) on the scramble. Irene even asked to sample some of the PAFFPS(after I insisted it is the absolute best local hot sauce out there to a guy at the next table over, he said that he had tried it before but preferred plain ol' Tabasco®); she mentioned that it was very good, but thought it was a bit salty (of course, it is not anywhere as salty as Tabasco® which has salt as one of its three ingredients).
By the way, there is absolutely no truth to the rumour that this place used to be named Kate's Kulinary Kitchen, but it might explain why all the staff wear those really cool white hoodies…
1. Fillmore Street is named after the 13th President of the United States, Millard Fillmore, not after the Rock-and/or-Roll theatre of the same name. You know the one that spawned the additional 60's Rock-and/or-Roll venues called Millard East and Millard West.
2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-horticultural pointer of the day:
Of course, cauliflower is in the same family as "the vile weed"; they both belong to the cabbage family. "Cauliflower" was originally called "cole florye" (see: cole slaw), from Italian "cavoli fiori" (meaning "cabbage flower"), which is the plural of "cavolo" (cabbage) + "fiore" (flower). Both Italian words come from Latin "caulis" (cabbage) and "flos" (flower).
(I am pretty sure that I have used this EweToob link previously ~ probably just last Summer when I last visited Wareham, but you try and find a good Cape Cod-y song or even a Wareham-referencing one.)
I found myself back in Massachusetts earlier this week on family business (it seems that some guy that my mother slept with for the past 58 years up and died) and found time to have breakfast with some of my remaining family before returning home. We again ate at Quintal's Crack O' Dawn (see past 'blog-entry from July 22nd, 2010) in my mother's hometown of Wareham (the Gateway to Cape Cod and home of the 2012 Cape Cod Baseball League Champions Wareham Gatemen).
http://www.gatemen.org/ http://capecodbaseball.org/ Crack O' Dawn is a pretty decent little diner place along the Cranberry Highway, and one of the better breakfast places from which to choose in Wareham. There really are a dearth of breakfastary joints in this town, anyway. I have eaten there a few times in the past and usually order off of the "Power Breakfasts" portion of the menu, which offers some very good and varied choices.
There were six of us today, but only my brother Sean ordered off that portion of the menu and got the Country Breakfast ~ 2 eggs, biscuit & gravy, sausage, bacon, or ham, homefries (which they had as one word on the menu), or grits. My sister Sharon ordered the Georgia Toast ~ peaches & pecans w/wheat. My brother Kerry had a cheese and mushroom omelette; all omelettes are served w/toast & home fries (which was now two words here on the menu) or grits. My nephew Cam simply had two pancakes, bacon, and homefries (I prefer the one-word spelling, Aaron); he may also have had some eggs of some kind, but I didn't really pay much attention to what he ordered or ate (he can start his own damn 'blogs if he wants to write about his breakfasts). My mother ordered just a plain ol' biscuit (she was paying, so we really couldn’t complain about what little she ordered). I had the Denver Omelette, but substituted Swiss cheese for the dead decaying, porcine butt bits.
I ordered my meal with homefries and chose the marble rye for my toasty side (I was very happy to see that it wasn't the last two slices available and no "old bag"-calling or loaf-filching was necessary, Mr. Schnitzer). This was a decent enough omelette. I liked their homefries a lot, but some of the others at the table thought they were a bit too salty.
Sean sat across from me and gave me the best input of his meal (read: I really couldn't be bothered with everyone else's meal details); he chose the bacon and homefries sides; and he seemed to enjoy it all well enough to clean his plate. Kerry's omelette looked cheesy and mushroomy enough (after an initial mishap of our waitress/server lady bringing him a ham and cheese omelette by mistake ~ Kerry is one of those whinging people that are pretty picky about what types of meat they will eat and he doesn't partake of the dead, decaying pork-flesh; what a wimp); I think he got the grits as a side, but I don't remember what kinda toast he ordered. Sharon's French toast was French toast with peaches and pecans on top, just like it sounded and you would expect; she passed up the offer of whipped cream on top ~ big mistake in my opinion. Cam's pancakes were huge ~ about the size of a large plate each ~ and he really only ate about 1-½ of them; I ended up finishing off his homefries, even. My mother ate all of one-half of a biscuit with butter and jam.
Crack O' Dawn only offers as condimentary supplementation Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) and Frank's®RedHot Original. I judiciously used some of the Frank's® on both my homefries and on the omelette.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Denver Omelette ~ 6.0; Country Breakfast ~ 6.3 (per Sean; he is fully aware of the GBS and can be trusted with this rating); Georgia Toast ~ 7.3 (per Sharon; I really didn't have time to go into the intricacies of the GBS with her and we will just have to take her word for it; she is a woman, after all, and, as such, is prone to major exaggeration)
(I didn't query any of the others at the table for their intake, but who really cares what they think, anyway?)
I wanted to check out a new place (or at least one at which I had never eaten before), due to which I went to Morning Due Café this morning. They are located on the Corner of 17th and Church Streets in the Castro (borderline Mission District, which is just a block away really), and right next door is Due Drop In, owned and operated by the same people. I am not sure where I had heard about them (probably off some "Best of San Francisco" list), but they are on a list of my own breakfast places to check out and I finally got around to eating there.
They open up pretty early (7:00am), but only for coffee, pastries, or bagels; the kitchen doesn't open until 8:00am for real food. As I had gotten there just a little after 7:00am, I had some time to kill, so I got a small cuppa coffee to go and walked around the neighborhood (I hardly ever get to the Castro and found another new place that I will need to check out one of these days). I came across yet another one of these San Francisco "parklets" at the end of 17th Street, where it meets with Castro and Market Streets, right where the F Line streetcar/trolley car (but not a "Frisco Cable Car") turnaround is. For a change, this parklet actually makes some sense, as that corner of 17th Street was always pretty crazy for traffic, anyway.
Morning Due Café offers a pretty decent breakfastary menu for what is really just a large coffeehouse. They have several omelettes, scrambles, and other hot breakfast items on the menu. Like a lot of coffehouses you order and pay at the counter first (giving you no chances to chew and screw, dammit), and then they bring the food out to you when it is done. I ordered the Buffalo Mozzarella, Tomato & Basil Omelette ~ which strangely enough contained Buffalo Mozzarella, tomatoes (they allowed me to substitute the fresh tomatoes with sundried tomatoes), and basil; served with Cajun potatoes (which are home fries with Cajun spices, red and green bell peppers, and onions) and toast (I went with sourdough). I also had another large cuppa coffee.
This was basically a Pizza Margheritaomelette. It was made frittata-style with the tomatoes and basil mixed in the egg batter and the large dollops of Mozzarella on top. There were lots of sundried tomatoes and fresh basil (most places usually go pretty cheap on both ingredients). I wasn't quite sure if my idea of using sundried tomatoes would work or not (these usually overpower most other flavours), but they actually worked very well and complemented both the basil and Mozzarella.
I don't know what the actual brand of coffee that they serve was (they state that it's Fair Trade Organic is all), but it was good enough for me to order another large cuppa after I had finished off the small cuppa while walking around.
Morning Due Café has for condimentary supplements just Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red). I had come prepared and went with some of my own Cherry Republic® KaBOB’s Kick’en Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy!) on the omelette and a little HP™Guinness® (Thanks again, Cindy!) on the potatoes. Neither really needed any extra flavouring, but I figured that I had schlepped the stupid things with me, so I was gonna use some.
(I would just like you to try and locate another good "Baker"-, "Street"-, or "Bistro"-themed EweToob video. This one with Peter Edward Baker[1] on drums will just have to suffice. Now if only the Pain Perdu included ginger[2] as one of des ingrédients secrets…)
Continuing my way through my Breakfastary Line-up before year's end, je suis retourné à Baker Street Bistro(see last 'blog-entry from August 18th, 2012). As it was a bright, sunny day, I sat outside once again on the sidewalk/patio café area, where there is seating for twenty-two people and at least 4-6 dogs (however, there were no other people or dogs this morning that joined me on the patio, so I had the entire area all to myself).
The Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude I had parked over by the Presidio's Lombard Gate again and heard several of the fine-feathered pests, but didn't actually see any, either in the trees or flying around this morning.
As for breakfast, once again I ordered (Quelle surprise, Mme Terry!) Pain Perdu ~ A brunch favorite! ~ Two slices of cinnamon French Toast, fresh fruit, strawberry coulis & crème fraîche (this can be ordered as a half portion ~ one slice instead of two ~ but why would you ever do that?). I also had a side of home fries and a cuppa coffee.
I have stated this many, many times over: this is not only the best French Toast in San Francisco, it might just be the best French Toast in all off the U.S. of 'merica! And, quite possibly, the entire World!! It is unnecessary for me to review again the exquisiteness of how the French Toast is prepared or stress how the strawberry coulis/crème fraîche pairs expertly with the maple syrup on top. All you need to know is if you ever go there, just get ce petit déjeuner damnés!
Les fruits de la journée: pommes, ananas, oranges, raisins, pastèque, et cantaloup.
Baker Street Bistro a tout simplement des condimentary supplementation Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce(the standard red). Knowing that, I used some of my own Serious Food… Silly PricesChunky Habanero Hot Sauce on the home fries. If anyone tries to mess with their perfect Pain Perdu, they will have me to answer to (and, yes, I know that grammatically correcturally this should be "they will have to answer to me" ~ so start your own damn 'blog if you are gonna be the Grammar Gestapo[3]).
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Pain Perdu ~ 8.2
1. Apparently, this Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker person used to be some kinda drummer in a few Rock-and/or-Roll groups in the 60's and 70's. He simply obtained that sobriquet due to his red hair; however, there is no truth to the matter that he got the nickname just because the Skipper preferred him over Jack "Mary Ann" Bruce.
2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer de la journée, numéro un:
"Ginger" comes from French "gingembre", from Old English "gingifere", from Medieval Latin "gingiber", from Latin "zinziberi", from Greek "ζιγγίβερι", ultimately from Tamil "இஞ்சி வேர்" or Malayalam "ഇഞ്ചി വേര്" meaning "horn + body" due to the shape of its root.
3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer des Tages, Nummer zwei: "Gestapo" is the abbreviation of German "Geheime Staatspolizei", meaning "Secret State Police".
This should never be confused with that other horrible Nazi organization the Political Police, "Politische Polizei" or "Popo" for short. Believe me, you would never want to be caught by them with any political infractions as they would ream you good!
"'There's no use trying', she said: 'one can't believe impossible things.' 'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.'" ~ Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", Chapter 5
(Still no official website.)
50 Clement Street (on the corner of 2nd Avenue)
Phonicular contact: (415) 751-8000
(I was running out of "Eat"-themed EweToob videos to link when dining at this particular restaurant. I think I may have used Blondie's "Eat To The Beat" twice already. So, I reached out to my defacedbook friends and family, and, I am happy to say, as in real life, they were a major disappointment. I got three crummy suggestions, and one was not even a real suggestion. Well, this is the best of the two other suggestions. If anyone has a problem with today's video link, you can take it up with Karl Brandt; he's only 6'5"and about 250 pounds.)
Before the end of the year, I am trying to work my way through my Breakfastary Line-up again, so today I went back to Eats (see last 'blog-entry from August 12th, 2012). They are located over in the Richmond District… yada, yada, yada… (I have eaten and reviewed this place several times already within the last few years. All you need to know is that the food is great, and that they have Excellent! Roasted Home Potatoes. Also, get there early, as they are a rather small joint and tend to fill up pretty quickly on the weekends.)
I think that I may have tried just about all of their egg/omelette dishes by now and decided to finally order something from their "Off the Griddle"section of the menu. I ordered AppleWalnut Cinnamon French Toast stuffed w/cream cheese (This used to be listed on their menu as Apple Walnut Cinnamon Raisin Brioche French Toast, which sounded good, too). I also ordered a side of Excellent! Roasted Home Potatoes (it's a "sweet-and-savoury" thing) and a large glass of Power "C" ~ grapefruit, orange, and pineapple juices.
I really liked this dish and it is good to note that I have a fall-back to order there if I ever get tired of their other egg dishes (I probably won't ever get tired, though). The French toast is made with four slices of bread stuffed with cream cheese and topped with sliced apples and walnuts. The apples were Golden Delicious (I asked) that were thinly sliced and sautéed in butter (pears would be great in this dish, too). Even the cream cheese got in on the flavour business as it was cinnamon cream cheese.
I can't believe that I almost forgot to order a side of the Excellent! Roasted Home Potatoes; this would be like going all the way to Vienna and forgetting to order Apfelstrudel mit warmer Vanillesoßefor dessert (or getting there and they say they are all out, so you just settle for a cuppa coffee instead, Jerry). This is not really a complaint, just pointing it out: there were just two large cloves of roasted garlic in the Excellent! Roasted Home Potatoes this morning; normally, there are anywhere from six to ten cloves.
The Power "C" is made with all fresh-squeezed (or blendered) juices. Today it had the perfect balance of grapefruit-orange-pineapple percentages: just enough tart grapefruit to counter the sweetness of the pineapple.
Eats condimentary supplements are the typical San Francisco Triumvirate of: Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red), Tapatío®, and Cholula®. That is a pretty decent selection; however, with their Excellent! Roasted Home Potatoes only another as Excellent! hot sauce can be used, so I went with some of my own Palo Alto Fire Fighters Pepper Sauce(Thanks agains, Brian and Amys!) on them.
Just so that today wasn't a total failure, I believed at least three impossible things before I left the house this morning (and it took me no longer than fifteen minutes, Mr. Dodgson).
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Apple Walnut Cinnamon French Toast ~ 7.2; Power "C" ~ 7.0; Excellent! Roasted Home Potatoes ~ 7.5
(The name of the group should be self-explanatory for today's EweToob video selection.)
I would never have even thought about having breakfast at the Buena Vista (Cafe) ~ I write it as such as the official name of the restaurant is "the Buena Vista Cafe", but most of their signs and napkins just state "the Buena Vista" ~ but it was suggested by Karl Brandt (an old Air Force buddy and fellow cunning linguist ~ in this case, also Russkij ~ that was stationed with me at Tempelhof Central Airbase, in what used to be West Berlin). I think the last time I was even at the Buena Vista was when Karl and his mother were passing through a few years back. The Buena Vista is a San Francisco and tourista tradition alike as a must-go-to place (explanation to follow).
The Buena Vista is located on the corner of Hyde and Beach Streets, right across the street from the Powell-Hyde "Frisco Trolley Car" turnaround, and that locale alone would make them a good spot for hungry (and thirsty) touristas to frequent. They open at 9:00am Monday through Friday, at 8:00am on Saturday and Sunday, and are closed the rest of the week. The restaurant can accommodate a good amount of folks. Today I sat at the bar/counter area with the round wooden rotating stools.
It always sucks trying to find legal and cheap parking in the Fisherman's Wharf area. However, I parked over on the end of Van Ness, next to the tall trees in Fort Mason which house some of the Wild Parrots of San Francisco; unfortunately, I really didn't see or hear any of them this morning due to the constant rain (on and off drizzle to hard rain).
Tourista tip of the day: this is a great place to park if you are planning on walking around Fisherman's Wharf for a while. You can park for free for four hours, which should be plenty of time to walk up and down Fisherman's Wharf and get something to eat as well as buying all the normal, useless tourist crap that you will never really use ever again. Keep in mind it's much easier to find a spot early in the morning (there were still probably 20-30 open spots when I arrived about 8:30am), and always much easier during the off-peak tourista season. (One of these days, I really need to get me a Tourista Hunting License. I hate having to pay all those fines when I shoot a tourista when they are not in season. Please be considerate to the next hunter and remember to only take your limit, too.)
There really is a limited amount of places to have breakfast on or near Fisherman's Wharf, Mr. Dorn. So I was very surprised to find out that the Buena Vista was open in the mornings, and they actually have a pretty decent breakfastary menu. I ended up ordering the Mexican Omelet ~ green chilies, Monterey Jack, green peppers, onions, sour cream, & guacamole; all breakfasts are served with hashbrowns and toast (for an additional charge you can get sourdough toast, which I thought is kinda lame for a Fisherman's Wharf joint; but I did opt for this and it turned out to be a grilled sourdough baguette, so that made it worthwhile after all). And no visit to the Buena Vista would be complete without ordering a cuppa Irish Coffee, which has been historically made with Tullamore Dew® and currently with Peerless Coffee®.
The omelette was just okay, but it was served with ramekins[2] of guacamole, pico de gallo, and sour cream on the side. Both the guacamole and pico de gallo were fresh and very good, so I am giving it extra points because of these (the sour cream was just plain ol' sour cream, no points were added or taken away for this). The hashbrowns actually were more of the homefries variety (just diced in a lot smaller chunks) and very good.
The Buena Vista is World-Famous for their Irish Coffee. Now I could go into a long and boring story about the history of Irish Coffee, but why do that when they have already gone into the long and boring story themselves?
http://www.thebuenavista.com/home/irishcoffee.html Just be forewarned, as with most drink "inventions" there are other stories and claimants to be the authenticators. So take that story with a grain of salt… or a dram of Legendary Irish Whiskey.
The Buena Vista even has one bartender that is solely dedicated to making Irish Coffees. He has a small assembly line of glasses (waiting with hot water in them already to keep the glasses warmed-up until they need to have coffee poured in them) ready to go for whenever someone orders them. Even this early in the morning I would say one-out-of-two people were ordering them; and please, people, children under ten really shouldn't be drinking alcohol before Noon.
The Buena Vista has as condimentary supplementation just Tabasco®Brand PepperSauce(but both the standard red and Chipotle). I used some of the Chipotle on the omelette to compliment all of the other Mexican flavours, and I used some of my own CaJohns Fiery Foods OaxacanHot Sauce on the potatoes.
Now, I don't really like Whiskey (or Whisky, even), or any cream and sugar in my coffee normally, but an Irish Coffee is mandatory when eating or drinking at the Buena Vista (I can usually drink at least one, but I must say that Mrs. Brandt really shamed me with three or four to my one the last time we were there). I heard that even Mitt Romney has been known to tip back a few when dining there. (In five to ten years no one will even get that joke any more.)
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer del giorno/del día, numero uno/número uno:
"Vista" is simply Italiano or Spanish (or Portuguese, also) for "view". It is the Italiano noun use of the feminine of "visto", the past participle of "vedere" ("to see"), which comes from Latin "videre" ("to see"). Many people are familiar with the Julius Caesar saying: "Veni, vidi, vici." ~ which loosely translates from Latin as "I came, I saw, I had breakfast and some Irish Whiskey in a coffee drink."
Interestingly, the Russkij verb for "to see" is "видеть", transliterated as "videt'" and pronounced as "veedet". The Latin root is similarly used in other Slavic languages:
(The only song I could find that actually is called "Armistice Day" was by Paul Simon, but it is a pretty lame song. So, for your listening pleasure, I am including this EweToob video instead. It is also by Paul Simon and off the same album; plus, it's a lot more fun. You know you'll be whistling this all day long now.)
It's not often that you find a good breakfast place that opens very early (before 8:00am) and also serves a great cuppa coffee. I had the pleasure of eating at one such place this morning: the Grind Cafe, on Haight[1] Street (near the corner of Scott Street). They open up at 7:00am Monday-Saturday, and at 8:00am the rest of the days of the week. They are very large for a "coffee joint", but don't let the name fool you, they have an extensive menu (both breakfastary and otherwise). There is lots of seating inside, and, most notably, they have a large outdoor/sidewalk patio that can accommodate another eighteen people or so. (However, it was still a bit too cold to sit outside early this morning, so I wimped out and ate inside. The only occupant outside was a solitary Dalmatianpatiently waiting for his humans to stuff their faces; they had better have gotten him a Vanilla Latte at least.)
Like most coffee joints, you order at the counter/coffee-making area, they give you a number to place on your table, and bring your food out to you when it is ready (well, if they brought your food out to you before it was ready that wouldn't really make much sense). The Grind Cafe offers several different scrambles and omelettes, buttermilk pancakes, French toast, and Belgian waffles, as well as several other House Favorites. I was thinking about getting the Breakfast Burrito ~ flour tortilla filled with scrambled eggs, Cheddar, avocado, salsa, sour cream, and choice of bacon, sausage, ham, or Chorizo (vegetarian sausage available for substitution). I ended up getting the Mediterranean Scram ~ spinach, onion, tomato, artichoke hearts, & Feta; served with hash browns or home fries (both noted as two words, Herr Gates) and choice of toast. Now what would be breakfast at a coffee joint without a cuppa coffee? So, I made sure to order a cuppa the house coffee.
The scramble had lots of fresh spinach and Feta (and particularly of note, the Feta was in large chunks, not crumby little crumbles); and the artichoke hearts were the brined, not the marinated type (this really makes a difference to me, as the marinated type can sometimes overpower the rest of the flavours with the vinegar, oil, and spices). You gotta love a place that offers two different types of potato side dishes. I conferred with the barista taking my order and she suggested the homefries, as it was her favourite ~ with onions and peppers; this seemed like a good pairing with my main egg dish. The homefries turned out to be a very good choice as they were excellent; very crispy and burned just right (I like to be able to see all the black crumblies).
The Grind Cafe doesn't roast their own coffee, but I was informed the blend/roast that they use as their standard house coffee was developed especially for them by a local Berkeley roastery (they told me the name, but I forgot who it was). It was a very good cuppa: full, rich, and dark.
What the Grind Cafe offers for condimentary supplements is Tabasco®Brand PepperSauce, Tapatío®, and Huy Fong Foods®Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, which is actually a pretty decent offering for a coffee joint. I ended up using some of my own Palo Alto Fire Fighters Pepper Sauce (Habanero) on the homefries and some El Yucateco®XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik®de Chile Habanero on the scramble.
For those of you out there reading this that are surviving Military Veterans: Happy Veterans Day!
For those of you out there reading this that aren't surviving Military Veterans, but know someone that is: Happy Veterans Day!
For those of you out there reading this that are non-surviving Military Veterans: Thank you for your dedicated service and ultimate sacrifice, and Happy Veterans Day!
(This EweToob video is in reference to all of this weekend's Military holidays. While it really is more of an anti-war song, I am using it anyway; let's just see you try and find a good song about World War I. Today happens to be the 237th Birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps ~ Semper Fi and Oo-RAH! Tomorrow is Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations ~ celebrated with a moment of silence on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. And Monday is Veterans Day in the United States.)
While still working my way through my Breakfastary Rotation, once again I had breakfast at Q Restaurant and Wine Bar (see last 'blog-entry from August 19th, 2012), which is quite a mouthful so I am shortening it to just Q Restaurant from here on. There is some construction going on outside to the façade[1] of the building, but they are open for business all the same. As can be seen from the above sign on their door, they are also (your 2012 World Champion) San Francisco Giantsfans.
I sat at the Wooly Willy table again; however, there was still no magnet around to play with it. One of these days I need to remember to bring a strong magnet of my own to use.
Q Restaurant has a pretty varied "Brunch" (their term, not mine) menu; plus, they offer several "Brunch Specials" that change every weekend. I thought about getting the Black Bean Corn Cake Benedict (off the weekend specials menu), but I think I have had that before (and it was good) and wanted to try something different for a change. I ended up getting the Bowl-O-Spuds-N-Eggs, with White Cheddar, Salsa, and Sour Cream; however, I substituted their homemade Tater Tots for the standard Home Fries. I also had a large glass of orange juice.
I had this with two eggs over medium. "Nice Tots!" (which is their actual slogan, not my poor spelling and chauvinistic comment on my female servers… but now that I think about it…); which are homemade and kind of their signature side dish. A huge pile of crispy potato products with lots of melted cheese… what's not to like? They make a good pico de gallo salsa, too.
I knew from past visits that Q Restaurant offers several different bottled hot sauces for condimentary supplementation, but I just used some of my ownSerious Food… Silly Prices Mango Hot Sauce mostly on top of the heap, and I also used just two to three drops of Blair's After Death®Sauce with Liquid Fire on a portion of the mess. I also used a little of their dry spice mix which they have in shaker jars on all of the tables.
With the check today came one Tootsie Roll® (the standard cocoa) and one Frooties® (fruit punch).
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Bowl-O-Spuds ~ 6.3
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer du jour/del giorno:
"Façade" comes from French, which comes from Upper Italian "faciada" and Italian "facciata", equivalent to "facci(a)" (meaning "face") plus "-ata" ("-ade").
This is a follow-up 'blog-entry to one that I had done a while back (see 'blog-entry from August 27th, 2010).
Last summer my brother Kerry informed me of another alternative to standard (bovine) milk[1]: Coconut milk. This is another decent product for anyone that may be lactose-intolerant or a Vegan (or a Vegan-intolerant lactose person). Coconut milk is not really a new thing and has been available for many years (usually in canned form) and is a common product in many Asian cultures. It is just now being commercially produced for mass-consumption by different major brands in milk carton form in the United States. It is available in Original/plain, as well as other flavours: Vanilla, Chocolate, Mint Chocolate, Nog, and Pumpkin Spice (the last three being available seasonally/for the Holidays). There are also unsweetened and low-calorie versions available with some brands. It is available in both refrigerated and shelf-stable cartons.
www.silkpurecoconut.com/ http://sodeliciousdairyfree.com/products/coconut-milk-beverages Coconut milk is not to be confused with another recent trend, that of Coconut water as an alternative to Sports rehydration[2] drinks. When these are made with 100% Coconut water (with no added sugars), they are naturally high in potassium (up to five times that of other Sports drinks), but lower in calories, while still providing some needed carbohydrates. I have been drinking these for a while now, too.
Now I am neither stupidly lactose-intolerant, nor a stupid Vegan, but it has been a few years since I last bought any standard milk. I usually alternate between Almond milk and Coconut milk most of the time now. I prefer the taste of Almond milk over Coconut milk, but it is a nice option when I feel like something different. I think that Coconut milk does have a bit stronger flavour than Almond milk. You can really taste the coconut in it, more so than you can taste the almonds in Almond milk. So if you are either allergic to or don't like the flavour of coconuts, I wouldn't suggest trying it.
Both Almond milk and Coconut milk seem to work well in the morning on cold cereals, and both are pretty good in a tall glass with a snack of cookies (the cookies can be on a plate, not necessarily in a tall glass). I really can not tell you how either performs as a substitute to real milk with baked goods, as that would entail actual baking and not something that I have ever done.
Blue Diamond®Almonds even has a hybrid model (which gets twice as much mileage to the gallon): Almond Breeze® Almond-Coconut milk. It is only available in Original/plain and Vanilla; and in both sweetened or unsweetened versions. I don't think that they offer it in a Chocolate flavour yet, but that would seem to be a natural; it would be like a liquid AlmondJoy® I am sure.
http://almondbreeze.com/?navid=530 I haven't seen any yoghurt[3] products being made from Coconut milk yet. However, I do know that neither Almond milk, nor Rice milk, nor Soymilk, really makes very good yoghurt; the consistency is closer to a thick pudding than real yoghurt. I am not sure if a plain flavour would make for a good τζατζίκι or not; probably not.
One thing that Coconut milk has over Almond milk (and Rice milk and Soymilk) is that it makes a much better ice cream. Of course, the flavours are going to be very limited; Plain, Chocolate, and Pineapple are good ones.
I am neither a doctor, nor a dietician (and don't pretend to play one on the Intro-Net), but be warned: Coconut milk is higher in calories than regular milk. This is due in part because coconut milk contains coconut oil and has high levels of saturated fats.
One good thing, though, sister, I don't think they offer a Lime-Coconut flavoured milk yet.
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, number one:
The English word "milk" is similar in several other languages, Mr. Cabrera:
Dutch and Norwegian ~ "melk"; German ~ "Milch"; Swedish ~ "mjölk"; Icelandic ~ "mjólk"; Danish ~ "mælk"; Russkij and Ukrainian ~ "молоко"; Belarusian ~ "малако"; Bulgarian ~ "мляко"; Polish ~ "mleko"; Czech ~ "mléko"; Slovak ~ "mlieko"; Serbian ~ "млеко"; and Croatian ~ "mlijeko". You can feel free to look up "coconut" in other languages on your own, though.
2. The Spell-Check Nazis at Microsoft® do not seem to recognize this word; however, it is a valid word, at least according to Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language and American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary. So there, Billy-boy! It only makes sense that if there is "dehydration" there should be "rehydration", nu?
3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, iki numaralı:
"Yoghurt" (or "yogurt", or "yoghourt"; take your pick, they are all accepted spellings ~ and the stupid Spell-Check Nazis at Microsoft® don't seem to have a problem with any of them it seems) is from the Turkish word "yoğurt" and is related to the obsolete verb "yoğmak", meaning "to be curdled or coagulated; to thicken".
