I had a choice of bread, so I chose sourdough, and a choice of cheese; I picked pepper jack for a little spice. The rest of the sandwich contained scrambled egg, tomato, avocado, dark greens, and a few thin red onion slices. The bread was crunchy, the cheese was melted, and the tomato was cooked and very juicy. The greens, however, were not at all wilted, the avocado wasn't smashed, and the scrambled eggs were still fluffy. I think I've taught myself something about panini sandwich construction today. I noticed that there was melted cheese on both slices of bread, with tomato slices in the middle. What I think they did was to grill the bread with the cheese and tomato only, and since melted cheese won't stick to juicy tomato slices, they were able to open the sandwich easily enough and fill it with the other ingredients. So far I've done my paninis Panamanian style where they grill everything together, but they don't use greens in theirs. For my breakfast coffee, I chose a Costa Rican pour over. They grind the beans fresh, put the coffee into a filter, and pour the hot water over it. The other pour over choices were Colombian and Papua New Guinea.
Location: Dos Palmas Cafe, 3562 Adams Avenue (Normal Heights), San Diego, California. Date: July 18, 2021.
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I have no idea if the Basques would claim this tart as theirs or not, but it was part of a noteworthy outdoor breakfast. The tart is lemon, almond, and berries, and it was garnished with three fresh raspberries. This tart is quite tart from the lemon which tempers the sweetness. The pastry was dense and chewy, and I could taste the almond. I enjoyed this tart with a good cappuccino; they use two shots of espresso at this bakery so I don't have to order an extra shot when I'm here.
Location: Black Market Bakery, 4686 30th Street, San Diego, California. Date: May 31, 2021. I remember a breakfast I had in Turkey in 1986. If my memory serves me right, it came with red lentil soup, feta cheese, olives, honey, and bread. Today at Santorini, a Turkish run Greek restaurant, I asked my Turkish friends to recreate my Istanbul breakfast for me, even though it wasn't on the menu, and they did with flying colors. The thick and flavorful honey they gave me actually came from Turkey. They also gave me sliced feta, black olives, pita bread wedges, and a cup of Turkish red lentil soup. I could have this for breakfast every day!
Location: Santorini, 68375 E Palm Canyon Drive, Cathedral City, California. Date: October 3, 2020. These ranch style eggs are a well known Mexican dish, and I always enjoy it best with eggs sunny side up easy. The Cottage Too, which is very close to home, was the favorite restaurant of my Mom and Dad, and when my Dad passed away, I continued going there with my Mom. I could have blogged about this dish many times in the past, but today is more noteworthy as it's my mother's birthday. Not only that, but this restaurant had no outdoor seating so they improvised, taking tables and chairs outside, setting up tarps for shade, and fans to help patrons stay less hot. Today's temperature at lunch time was triple digit, but Mom and I felt quite comfortable. My two stacked crispy corn tortillas were smothered in ranch sauce that had tomato, onion, and sliced serrano chiles in it; it was spicy but not too hot. This was topped with two sunny side up eggs with runny yolk, and they also had some ranchero sauce applied to them. The rest of the plate was refried beans which worked well with the crispy sauced tortillas. This is one of my favorite breakfast dishes, though I do usually eat it for lunch. This dish is vegetarian as long as there's no lard in the beans.
Location: The Cottage Too, 66230 Pierson Blvd., Desert Hot Springs, California. Date: August 31, 2020. In Argentina it's Choripan (chorizo sausage with bread), but in Peru it is, of course, Choripapa (chorizo sausage with potato). The chorizo here is artisanal; it was pink, smokey, not too salty, and sliced. The potato fries were typical of what I've had in Peru: unpeeled, medium cut, crispy exterior, dense in texture, and with a strong nutty potato flavor. The fries had melted cheese here and there that tasted like mozzarella. The eggs were perfectly fried, sunny side up, with runny yolks (which works really well with potato). I had this dish for lunch, but it's what Americans would call breakfast. I ate at the bar, and the friendly bartender gave me a few dried Aguaymento, a fruit from the Andes that tastes like sour plump raisins.
Location: San Martin Plaza Restaurant, Plaza San Martin, Lima, Peru. Date: November 27, 2019. For my Irish breakfast at Molly's in Miraflores, I got a nice cuppa tea, a slice of white toast, a slice of Irish soda bread, a breakfast sausage, a slice of spicy blood pudding, three strips of bacon, half a grilled tomato, baked beans, sauteed mushrooms, and a sunny side up egg. And this is the small breakfast! (For the regular breakfast you double everything.) Molly's only serves up the Irish breakfast on weekends, and since I happened to be there then, I took advantage of it. Comforting and tasty.
Location: Molly's Irish Bar & Restaurant, Calle Berlin 172, Miraflores, Lima, Peru. Date: November 24, 2019. Here you just see my first course: coffee, mango juice, fresh fruit (cantaloupe, banana, and mango), a slice of cheese, and fried sweet potato slices. I went back for, among other things, a bun with butter and jam. The jams here, served in bowls, looked artisanal, and there was quite an assortment: peach, pineapple, orange marmalade, mango, strawberry, and guindones (prune, I think). I mixed the guindones with orange marmalade, and it was delicious. (Mostly I've just seen a couple choices of jam in little plastic containers like the butter.) These complimentary breakfasts usually also include milk and cereal, scrambled eggs (sometimes also sunny side up), ham, black and green olives, and pastries. There's always a variety of fresh fruit and at least two fresh fruit juices (mango and pineapple seem to be most common). Only in the very cheapest hotel I stayed in did I not get a breakfast buffet; there it was a simple continental breakfast. The breakfast buffet here at the Miraflores Pacific was one of the best I had during my stay in Lima.
Location: Miraflores Pacific, Av Miguel Grau 191, Miraflores, Lima, Peru. Date: November 21, 2019. Chilaquiles, one of my favorite breakfast dishes, is torn up corn tortilla with either green or red chile sauce that's topped with crumbled dry white cheese in Mexico or shredded cheese of some sort or another in the U.S. In New Mexico they always offer either green or red chile sauce, but if you ask for “Christmas”, you get some of both. At El Tepeyac they offered your choice of green or red sauce, but I'm sure they wouldn't have known about “Christmas” so I simply asked if I could get some of both. The waitress said no one had ever asked her for this before, and so she went to the kitchen to ask about it. She came back with a favorable answer and so I had what was for this place a unique dish. The green sauce, which had tomatillo in it, was slightly tart, and the red sauce had a deep earthy flavor; both were spicy. The dish came with two eggs any style (I asked for over easy) and rice and refried beans. There was plenty of protein to go with the tasty chilaquiles and a nice dollop of sour cream to cool things down a bit (not to mention that I love refried beans with sour cream). El Tepeyac is hidden away in an industrial park, and on this Sunday, when most of the park was closed, this place was crowded.
Location: El Tepeyac, 1458 Industrial Park Avenue, Redlands, California. Date: October 27, 2019. When I arrived at the old brick building, a sign pointed me upstairs for brunch. When I got up there, it looked like a bar from another century (except for the three flat screen TVs on the wall opposite the windows). Upon entering, I immediately came across the elaborate mimosa and bloody mary station. For the bloody marys there was tomato juice and clamato, the usual veggies, sauces of all types, and cheese cubes, crispy bacon strips, and even whole shrimp. For the bottomless mimosas there was orange juice, pineapple juice, and cranberry juice, as well as a basket of fresh fruit pieces, including strawberry, melon, and pineapple, and whole blackberries and raspberries, and two syrups: hibiscus and watermelon. I sat in one of the comfortable chairs at a small table, ordered the bottomless mimosa, and perused the brunch menu, choosing the Avocado Toast. I was given a flute glass which was immediately filled to the rim with a decent California sparkling wine. I had to drink some before going to the bar for juice and fruit. The waiter with a bottle of sparkling wine came around so often that my glass was constantly refilled even before it was empty. The brunch item I chose to go with my unlimited drink was a split toasted croissant topped with fresh avocado, burrata (a cheese made from mozzarella and cream), and pickled fresno chile slices. Potato slices sauteed with onion were served on the side. I ordered the dish with a fried egg, and to my surprise it was served with two of them. The pickled fresnos added color, sourness, and heat, exactly what this dish needed. The potatoes were al dente, which isn't bad if you want a strong potato flavor. This is a brunch I would not hesitate to do again.
Location: Greensleeves Steakhouse, 220 Orange Street, Redlands, California. Date: October 20, 2019. Even if you're hungover, I found out that an Italian pastry in a Little Italy can put you right, especially if you can get it with a mug of Earl Grey tea. My infinity shaped pastry was flaky and it came with two large pools of delectable apricot preserve. It wasn't too sweet, and it tasted as good as it looked. The bakery is in the back of the cafe, and you can see them baking as you eat. They do a variety of pastries from tiramisu to fruit tarts to biscotti and so on. I'm not sure how popular it is in Italy, but I did get my noteworthy apricot pastry with Earl Grey tea.
Location: Stella Pastry & Cafe, 446 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, California. Date: September 17, 2019. |
AuthorChef Roland has been a legal resident of seven countries and has travelled in over thirty, documenting food along the way. He currently resides in the desert in Southern California. Categories
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