http://dottiestruebluesf.com/ Place: Dottie's True blue café Location: 28 6th Street (on the corner of Stevenson Street) Hours: open 7:30am Thursday through Monday (therefore, closed Tuesday and Wednesday) Meal: Black Bean Cakes and Eggs any style ~ served with grilled chili-Cheddar corn bread and home fries, topped with sour cream & pico de gallo; and a glassa orange juice
(These were the kitschy salt-and-pepper shakers sitting on the counter in front of me this morning.)
[1]
(See, for some people, Friday the Thirteenth is a lucky kinda day.) It takes a "special kinda idiot" to get up early on a scheduled day-off (Doesn't everyone make a three-day weekend outta Friday the Thirteenth, Mr. Voorhees?) just to go out to eat breakfast, but my momma always said I was "kinda special" (and my father always called me an "idiot"). So, there ya go... Thankfully it was not raining again this morning, because even a "special kinda idiot" like me does not relish (nor mustard, nor ketchup... and, e"special"ly, never m*yonaisse [it is vile white goop!]) standing in the rain for about a half-hour while waiting for Dottie's True blue café (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday [not Friday, though], January 13th, 2018) to open their doors. (I had arrived there this morning around 7:05am and was the only "special kinda idiot" waiting in line for about ten minutes until another "special kinda idiot" lined up behind me. It did not take much longer for several more "special kinda idiots" to queue up ~ and eventually around the corner ~ behind us.) For a change, I sat at the other end of the diner-counter area overlooking the kitchen/prep-area, and sat at ("lucky"?) "Seat #7". I had come fully prepared on ordering exactly what I did; however, I may have been tempted to go "sweet" again this morning (with an added two eggs over-medium more than likely) if I saw the perfect item on their fresh-baked pastries blackboard. I thought I did see the perfect item of Pumpkin Sweet Potato Custard Cake(!), but, while I was still waiting in line, the chef-baker-guy came out and updated what was actually available this morning and removed that item. Perhaps next time...
This dish is probably my second favourite dish at Dottie's True blue café. I have been ordering it for well over twenty (possibly twenty-five) years now; so I am sure I have had it juuuuust a few times over the years. It has been available for much longer than their stellar Zucchini Cakes. My "any-style eggs" preference was over-medium (which is normally my choice, anyway). I still think that these black bean cakes would make a great base for an Eggs Benedict dish, where instead of the same-ol'-same-ol' Hollandaise sauce, a nice chipotle or mole sauce would be dumped on top of the poached eggs. As has been pointed out many times before by me, Dottie's True blue café has one of the better condimentary supplementation offerings. Even so, I still used some of my own Palo Alto Fire Fighters XXX Ghost Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the potatoes and some of my brand-new (as in this morning was its maiden voyage) Trader Joe's®Rainbow[2]Peppercornswith grinder all over everything (and a few extra times around/a-grind to boot). https://www.traderjoes.com/digin/Post/Post/the-spice-of-life (not so Strange) Coffee Interlude To complete my Breakfastary Triskaidekaphobia Trifecta (well, okay, so maybe it only includes "two" of my favourite places/things, but I could not come up with a decent term for "just two" that sounded quite as alliterative), I made myself a cuppa (méthode drip-down/pour-over) BettysChristmas Blend (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) to enjoy while keyboarding up this here silly li'l 'blog-entry. "But, Brian, ChristmasCoffee in April?!" For anyone that drinks Coffee outta a can (personally, I enjoy drinking my Coffee outta a nice ceramic mug), I will have you know that you have no idea how long it had been sitting around in a warehouse before sitting around even longer on your local grocery store shelves, anyway. Besides, apparently this is still available "In Stock" (I am not sure if that is an abbreviation for the capital city of Sweden and only available there, though) from Bettys on-line. I really (always) like this blend/roast. However, I seem to remember liking last year's batch just a little more than this year's. It is still a very nice, drinkable cuppa in any case (or bag). https://www.bettys.co.uk/christmas-coffee-pack Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Black Bean Cakes and Eggs any style~ 7.2; BettysChristmas Blend~ 7.4 (this is my initial GBS Rating so far; it may go up a 0.1 point or 0.two after a few more tastings) ___________________
1. And that ain't even my favourite Joan Armatrading (from a long list of favourites of hers) song. That would be:
http://www.joanarmatrading.com/ 2. Does anyone else think it is ultra- (or infra-) cool that there are the perfect amount of letters in the word "Rainbow" to use each of the colours in the standard Rainbow-spectrum?
https://www.ellassanfrancisco.com/ Place: Ella's American Kitchen Location: 500 Presidio Avenue (on the corner of California Street) (New) Hours: they are now open for breakfast Monday through Friday at 6:00am; and All Day "Brunch" is available Saturday & Sunday at 7:00am Meal: Avocado Omelet ~ avocado, Cheddar cheese, pico de gallo[1], country potatoes, toast (I went with their fresh-baked honey-oat); and a glassa Ginger Orange JuicePunch (which comes served with a plastic straw... the Pacific Ocean be d*mned!)
(Just a coupla seasonal songs from Lady Ella. Hmmm?! "April in Paris" may not be as nice as "October in Oxnard", but it will have to do... ) Okay, I missed eating at Dottie's True blue café yesterday morning, so I am starting off the new Baseball Season with a run through my Breakfastary Starting Rotation back at Ella's American Kitchen (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, January 14th, 2018) instead. I am not sure how often they now change their "Brunch" menu (under the old ownership, they would change it basically every weekend and it would focus on seasonally available items normally), but there are still a few other items that I have not tried yet. Ferinstance: Chilaquiles ~ slow roasted pork (which I would have ochenta-y-seis-ed, of course, to make it vegetarian-worthy), tomatillo salsa, lime crema, queso fresco, two eggs; Ella's Famous Buttermilk Pancakes (3) (with the optional bananas or blueberries added); or Kale Caesar Salad ~ organice [ sic ] kale, croutons, Parmesan, Caesar dressing (I would probably breakfastise this by adding two poached eggs on top).
This was another simple, but well-made omelette. I was impressed by the amount of avocado in it; there was at least three-quarters to one whole avocado inside the omelette! ("Avocado again, Brian? Didn't you just have some of that tropical berry yesterday for breakfast?!" Yeah, so?! What else ya gonna do with it?!) Of special note (♪) was their very good pico de gallo on top of the omelette. Not only was it very tasty, the tomatoes, (red) onions, and jalapeños were diced up much more finely than you would normally get at your taquería del barrio, and this made it so much easier to pile a bit on with each forkful of omelette. Once again, I really enjoyed their country potatoes (however, I did not think to ask which specific Country of origin the potatoes were from; probably from one of the South American Countries like Peru or Idaho... ). This is made with lots of (white) onions, and red & green bell peppers throughout. Ella's American Kitchen has Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce on all the tables for use as condimentary supplements. In an effort to try to finish up (at least) one bottle (finally) from my own hot sauce collection, I have been concentrating on using some of my own Palo Alto Fire Fighters XXX Ghost Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) for the past several weekends. I am making good progress, and have probably three-four weeks dosages left in the bottle (this stuff is pretty d*rn espicy and can only be used a little at a time). ooops! I kinda poured a little too much all over the potatoes. No matter, I still finished them all up; I never waste good potatoes. ("You gonna eat your fat?!") Étrange Interlude de Café I purposefully had skipped ordering any Coffee with breakfast so that I could drip-me-downa cuppa Brûlerie Virgin Hill Coffee RoastersMélange Gamache (Thanks, Cindy!) to enjoy while at home keyboarding up this 'blog-entry, and to comment on it here. I was given this Coffee at Christmastime with a matching literary gift of the first three books in la série mystère du Chief Inspector Armand Gamache by Louise Penny. I had saved opening the bagga Coffee until I had started reading the first novel[2], which I finally got around to start reading earlier in the week. I have been exclusively drinking this blend of Coffee all week now (probably six to seven cuppas already). I am happy to say that I am enjoying it a lot (I am never one to dis free, good Coffee, anyway). They list the blend (mélange) as Medium (Velouté); however, it seems to me that this is a lot more on the Medium-Dark side, or just Dark roast (them French-Canadianlanders must like their Coffee a bit more robuste). (I should point out that I am also drinking this Coffee outta a matching gift Coffee cup ~ more like a mini-bowl, really ~ with "Vive Gamache!" printed on one side and the silhouette of three pine trees on the other side.) https://www.virginhillcoffee.com/collections/custom-blend/products/gamache-blend-melange-gamache Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Avocado Omelet ~ 6.7 (I am giving this an additional 0.1 Glen Bacon Scale points for the very good pico de gallo); Still Life ~ 7.1; Mélange Gamache ~ 7.2; the mellifluous vocalisation of Lady Ella Fitzgerald ~ 8.9
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1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day: I am sure I have mentioned this before. "Pico de gallo" literally translates from Spanish as "rooster's beak". As to the etymology involved, there are differing versions on its origin. I prefer the simplest reason: originally people ate it by pinching pieces between the thumb and forefinger (usually with torn off pieces of tortillas). Hence, your hand would then resemble a "beak of a rooster". Sounds kinda silly? C'mon, who among us has never made shadow puppets on the wall?!
Breakfast on Geary (redux), Part 10b "I yam what I sweet potato and that's all what I tuber... "?!?
http://melsdrive-in.com/ Place: Mel's drive-in Location: 3355 Geary Boulevard (on the corner of Beaumont Avenue) Hours: open 6:00am every day of the week; Weekend "Brunch" served at 9:00am (I am assuming that means on Saturdays and Sundays) Meal: Avocado Toast~ avocado massed [ sic, I am pretty sure that they meant "mashed", whatever ] on multi-grain toast, three poached organic eggs and smoked chili flakes; and (from the Juice Bar & Fruit section of their menu) a glassa Popeye's Breakfast ~ spinach, apple, kale, parsley (sorry, it does not look like anyone saved Rosemary in time, though)
(There are no EweToobular juxtaselections [well, that I am aware of; h*ck, ol' Robert Nesta Marley, OM, might have been a big spinach-fan, too] this morning. I just felt like linking some of my favourite Bob songs.) Because it is the start of a brand-new Baseball Season, my original plan was to head back to Dottie's True blue café to make another run through my Breakfastary Starting Rotation. However, it was still raining a bit and I did not really relish the thought (or mustard or ketchup it even ~ and I would never ever mayonnaise any thoughts what-so-ever) of standing in line/waiting in the rain for a half-hour for them to open up this morning (even Mad Dogs and Englishmen know better than that... well, most Mad Dogs are smart enough). So... I just headed down Geary Boulevard a few blocks (and by a "few blocks", I mean "thirty-five blocks") and went back to Mel's drive-in (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, August 26th, 2017). I sat at one of the two-seater tables, not at the long diner-counter. The place was basically empty at 7:00am, so it was not as if I was taking up valuable table-space. A few of the other ideas that I was a-ruminatin'-over (as in the "to go over in the mind repeatedly" definition, not in the "cud-chewing" sense): El Rancho Breakfast Burrito ~ flour tortilla rolled with three scrambled eggs, chorizo (which I would have ochenta-y-seis-ed, of course), & Cheddar cheese, topped with tomato salsa, tomatillo salsa, & sour cream, served with fruit or grilled potatoes; Yuppie Joe's Scramble ~ ground turkey (no, thanks ~ yuppie or not), fresh spinach, mushrooms, & green onions scrambled with two large farm fresh eggs; or possibly off the Weekend "Brunch" insert (it states on the menu that these items are served 9:00am - 3:00pm, but I heard another couple order off it, so I probably coulda done so, too) Eggs Florentine ~ two poached eggs served over fresh sauteed spinach and toasted English muffin topped with homemade Hollandaise sauce and served with a cup of fruit salad or potatoes (this dish would have paired nicely with the drink I had this morning); Huevos Rancheros; or Chilaquiles. "Wait a minute... El Rancho Breakfast Burrito, Eggs Florentine, Chilaquiles, and Avocado Toast?! Just what the h*ck kinda 'diner' is this, Brian?!" Sorry, this ain't your daddy's 1950's-1960's diner, Mr. Lucas (or Mr. Levinson). Just take a look at this:
(Do not worry, you can still order a Cherry-, Lemon-, or Vaniller-Coke from their soda fountain. I do not think they serve Orange-, Grapefruit-, or Cranberry-Coke, though.)
As disgustingly toxic-neon green coloured as this drink was, it was still pretty d*rn tasty (and hopefully non-nookular). The one little complaint I might have is that the kale ended up overpowering most of the spinach (and I love kale, I was just not aware that Popeye was such a kale-advocate, too). All in all, the sweet greenapples were the prominent flavour, anyway.
Not much really to point out here. Poached eggs on top of some avocado toastwith some smoked chili flakes sprinkled on top. It was good, but nothing that you can not find now-a-days at every corner coffeehouse. (I did not notice if there was any olive oil on this, though.) This was served with a side of some baby arugula and cherry tomatoes. (Now, there may have been some olive oil in the light dressing on these). Wisely, I did not order a side of potatoes this morning (I was thinking about it, though); it would have been way too much food for me. For condimentary supplementation, Mel's drive-in offers both Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Cholula®Hot Sauce (Original). I used some of my own Palo Alto Fire FightersXXX Ghost Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on top of one of the poached eggs and some Smack My *ssand Call Me Santa (Thanks, Rick!) on top of another of the poached eggs. ♪ "Old sailors (pirates, whatever), yes, they rob I (eye?), Sold I (eye?) to the merchant ships... " ♫ Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Avocado Toast~ 6.4; Popeye's Breakfast ~ 6.8; the music of Bob Marley ~ 7.0-9.5 (Irie! )
Apparently, white Baseball players lives matter, too...[1]
http://www.justforyoucafe.com/ Place: Just For You bakery & cafe Location: 732 22nd Street (between 3rd and Tennessee Streets [hence the EweToobular juxtaselection of video #2 below]) Hours: open Monday-Friday at 7:30am, Saturday-Sunday at 8:00am for "Brunch" Meal: Big (and they are not exaggerating none there) Breakfast Burrito ~ 2 scrambled eggs rolled in a flour tortilla with black beans, Cheddar-Jack, green salsa (diced jalapeño & tomatillo), and your choice of bacon, chorizo, carnitas, or "veggie" (uggh!), and (optional) topped with homemade (well, bakery & cafe-made) Vegetarian Red Chili sauce; a side of Home Fries; and a cuppa (and 1-1/2 refillas) good N'Arlins-style Community Coffee® with roasted chicory https://www.communitycoffee.com/products/coffee/32-oz-ground-coffee-and-chicory
(The first two songs/videos are because today happens to be April 1st, no foolin' [plus, they just don't make Easter Carols like they did when I was a yid... er... I mean... when I was a kid]. I still have that Fools Gold album (as in vinyl, kids), too. I love the line in that first song: "Accept or deny your own existence, 'cause there's no way of living in between..." The last video is because Baseball has finally started-up again for the year... Yay! Baseball is Life... everything else is filler!)
I felt like making a bit of an Easter morn trek for breakfast this morning, so I headed "all the way over" to Just For You bakery & cafe (see last 'blog-entry from Tuesday, July 4th, 2017 ~ That'stheSpirit!). The first thing that entered my mind as I approached the building this morning was: "Woo-HOO!!! They finally got rid of that st*pid mini-parklet that was wasting space along the street." However, I overheard a few customers ask the waiter-server peoples about it and it has only been temporarily removed due to all the street construction in the neighborhood. Who knew I would actually be happy about street renovations?! It does not really matter, this place is just too good for me to boycott due to any support of a st*pid mini-parklet. I was verrrry pleased with my choice this morning. Otherwise, some of the other ideas on which I was debating: Greek Scramble ~ 3 eggs with Feta cheese, onions, spinach, tomato, and Kalamata olives (I have had this a few times before and it is always good, and Πάσχα is one of the biggest Greek religious holidays); (off the weekend "Brunch" Specials chalkboard) Blueberry Lemon French Toast (which sounded very intriguing, but I just had French toast yesterday and wanted something different this morning); or there is always their most-excellent Frittata of the Decade ~ a pan-fried Italian omelette with zucchini, onions, mushrooms, spinach, tomato, garlic, topped with Provolone (I have had this a few times and it is always great; several years ago they used to make this with Cheddar cheese instead of Provolone; however, some idiot Nose-E-Parker customer suggested on his silly li'l 'blog-thing that Provolone or Fontina cheeses would probably be a better match-up with the other ingredients and be more officially Italian frittata-esque; the owner of the restaurant [Hey, Adrienne!] actually read the comment and decided that I... er, I mean... that other idiot Nose-E-Parker 'blogster was right; I can not believe that anyone [other than family and friends] really reads these silly li'l 'blog-things).
The name of this dish this morning was not an understatement in any way. This was an absolutely HUGE burrito. As best as I could tell, the additional "veggies" (uggh!) that were in it were spinach, zucchini, and (white) onions; all ingredients that I love, anyway. In the twenty-plus (possibly more) years that I have been going to Just For You bakery & cafe, I do not think I have ever had this breakfast burrito before. Now as good and tasty (and HUGE) as the burrito was this morning, the real "topper" (Get it? I topped the burrito with the sauce... whatever!) was their most awesome Vegetarian (not, "Veggie" [uggh!], thankfully) Red Chili sauce. It came in a medium-sized ramekin so that you could pour a little or a LOT (which is precisely what I ended up doing) all over your burrito. I have had this sauce once before, I believe, with their Huevos Rancheros. On a future visit, I will have to make sure to order something (even if it is just their homefries) that I can order more of the Vegetarian Red Chili sauce to dump all over the top. Heck, I would even dump it all over the top of their fresh-made beignets! See, it is exactly stuff like this that if this joint were not located "all the way over in Dogpatch" (seriously, it is at least a half-hour drive over there on city streets), Just For You bakery & cafe would easily be in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation (and probably at #2, just behind Dottie's True blue café). I probably shouldn't have ordered the side of potatoes, but they make very good homefries. I did force myself to finish everything. I can always skip lunch today... I have stated before many times here, Just For You bakery & cafe offers an impressive array of hot sauces; they have almost as many different bottles of hot sauces for use as condimentary supplements as I currently have in my refrigerator. Of course, the restaurant happens to be a lot larger and (unlike my refrigerator normally) has actual food in it. I did not need/use any of their selections this morning, though. I just used some of my own Palo Alto Fire Fighters XXX Ghost Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on top of the homefries. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: (HUGE) Big Breakfast Burrito ~ 6.8; Vegetarian Red Chili sauce (all on its ownsome) ~ 7.4
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1. Now this was a very interesting "find" this morning. They were playing Baseball-ese songs on KFOG this morning during my drive over and back to Dogpatch. The song "Ballad of Eddie Klepp" was one of them. I had never heard this story (or ballad) before. It is just one of the myriad of Baseball lore that seems to have been swept under (the back of?) the bus... http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1998/JSH2503/jsh2503g.pdf
♪ "There's nuthin wrong with me lovin'... Challah French Toast... You know what I'm talkin' about... You don't have to worry that it's wrong... Let's get it on!" ♫
Place: the Manor~ An American Bistro Diner[1] Location: 321a West Portal Avenue (between 14th and 15th Avenues) Hours: open Tuesday - Sunday at 8:00am (they now open a half-hour later than they did last year, but this is still plenty early enough for me to be called a breakfast-joint) Meal: (main breakfast) Challah French Toast ~ with warm fruit compote (option); a side of Deviled Eggs with Togarashi[2] (this came as three halves ~ so, even using Common Core Math, basically 1-1/2 eggs); and a large glassa fresh squeezed orange juice (and afterward for a breakfastary dessert) at BallastCoffee™ a(n extra LARGE) cuppa their house "Regular" drip Coffee; and a PassionfruitChocolatedoughnut from dynamo donut
(See below for today's EweToobular juxtaselectionary-ratiocination.) I went back to the Manor ~ An American Bistro Diner (see last/previous 'blog-entry from Saturday, April 1st, 2017[3]) for breakfast this morning. Once again, I sat at the end of the diner-counter nearest the kitchen-prep area. This morning they were primarily playing on the house radio/stereo a pandora-channel (I guessed and asked, and was told it was indeed a pandora-channel) featuring cool 60's-70's Motown/Soul/R&B classics ~ suchas: the above-linked Marvin Gaye 1973 mega-hit; the Jackson Five; Aretha (no last name is really needed, is it?); Stevie Wonder; and Sam Cooke. There really are not that many different items from which to choose on their menu for breakfast, but I could have also made a meal of: Create Your Own Omelette ~ where I was thinking along the lines of either creating my own artichoke hearts, spinach, and Swiss omelette; or an avocado, roasted bell peppers, and Monterey Jack omelette creation; or possibly just getting one of their salads ~ Butter Leaf Salad with Roasted Beets, Apples, & Fried Goat Cheese or Green Goddess Salad with Little Gem Lettuce ~ and breakfastising them with either two poached eggs placed on top or (three halves) Deviled Eggs with Togarashi.
I mainly went with the choice of Challah French Toast because Passover started last evening... and this dish really should not be passed-over as it was truly exceptional. (I bet that it would have even made a great Last Supper for some unfortunate Nazarene.) The waitress/server-lady person offered some, but I decided (correctly) to forego any butter or maple syrup on top of the French toast; none was needed at all, as their warm fruit compote was perfect all on its ownsome. While this dish may not be in the same category as Baker Street Bistro's Pain Perdu Extraordinaire, it is definitely worth checking out. For condimentary supplementation, the Manor had both Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce for use on the tables and diner-counter. I did not really need any with my particular choices this morning, though.
My original plan after breakfast was to go back to Greenhouse Cafe (as I had been doing after breakfast for the past few years whenever I was in the West Portal neighborhood ~ and I was really looking forward to two or three of the mini-macarons that were sold there); however, they have closed up (Coffee-)shop and there is a brand-new (I was told by one of the barista-dudes ~ since October 2017) coffeehouse in its place. I actually walked right by BallastCoffee™ before back-tracking to discover that Greenhouse Cafe had closed; I did not recognize the façade at all with its new paint-job. Luckily, they did retain the backyard garden patio area; however, it was still way too foggy and chilly this morning to enjoy my Coffee and doughnut out there. Both the Coffee and the doughnut were very good. Happily, BallastCoffee™'s Coffee is much better than the Coffee that they used to serve at Greenhouse Cafe (which was never bad at all, anyway). I have had dynamo donut many times before (and this particular flavour, too) and knew beforehand that I would enjoy it. One of the barista-dudes told me that they do all their own Coffee-roasting in a facility in South San Francisco. I did not grill (or roast) him on exactly what blend/type of beans that are used in their "Regular" house Coffee (I will probably do so on a future visit, though). In a musical-juxtaposition to what was playing earlier at the Manor, BallastCoffee™ was playing on their house radio/stereo (I did not bother to ask, but I can only assume that it was another pandora-style channel) mostly 70's and 80's Rock-and/or-Roll songs ~ suchas: the above-linked Jimi song (while, little Robbie Zimmerman may have penned this song, Jimi completely owns it with his version); Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Yang; (and even a solo) Noel Yang; the Rollink Stonz; ... and Johnny Cash(?!?). Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Challah French Toast ~ 7.4; Deviled Eggs with Togarashi~ 6.2; BallastCoffee™ "Regular" drip Coffee ~ 7.3; PassionfruitChocolatedoughnut from dynamo donut ~ 7.2; Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" ~ 7.5; Jimi's "Watchtower" ~ 9.5 (yes, I know, this may be the highest GBS Rating points that I have ever given here, but this song ~ tied with Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry" ~ happens to be my All-Time Favourite Rock-and/or-Roll Song of All-Time and topping it would be very hard to do in my book[4])
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1. They informed me that this was shortened from their original idea of: "An American Bistro Diner Café Coffeehouse Grill Roadhouse Canteen Eatery Dive Restaurant Kinda-thing". 2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day: Contrary to popular belief, Togarashi is not a Starfleet Academy no-win training exercise. Tōgarashi (唐辛子) is simply Japanese for genus Capsicum, or specifically the species Capsicum annuum, and commonly translated as chilli pepper. When the term is used in English, it refers to any number of chilli peppers or chilli pepper-related products from Japan, including Shichimi, or Shichimi tōgarashi, a condiment that is a spice mixture of seven different ingredients that varies by maker. 3. No foolin', this was exactly one year ago today. However, this is not necessarily a coincidence; my optometrist is directly across the street and I had to make my annual eye-appointment, anyway. 4. As I have stated many times before in the past, "my book" is just a 12-page colouring book, but I do try to stay within the lines... well, most of the time.
