Pancakes!

Did you know that for an entire academic quarter two years ago Fosco belonged to a Pancake Club? Indeed, Fosco and several of his friends/colleagues met once a week at a campus grill to eat PANCAKES! We even had a theme song (think The B-52's song "Deadbeat Club" with slightly different chorus). Although Pancake Club has been disbanded, Fosco and Oz still try to get weekend pancakes once or twice a month.

Today, Fosco and Oz opted for brunch at that Peninsula fixture Millbrae Pancake House, "Where Asians Eat Pancakes."^TM Millbrae Pancake House doesn't pretend to be anything but a pancake house: big red building, wood paneling inside, beanie babies for sale by the cash register... you get the idea.

The menu is just as straightforward. Now, although Fosco loves pancakes, he also needs eggs and hash browns to make breakfast complete. Luckily, all omelets come with both hash browns and pancakes!

Fosco ordered the linguica omelet. He'd never actually had linguica until he moved to California (and Oz introduced him to it). Apparently, it's a Portuguese sausage that is especially popular in Oz's home protectorate, The Sandwich Islands (I bet Obama loves linguica).

Oz chose the bacon omelet, which was lovely. Bacon is delicious when it is super crispy.

And the pancakes? Oz got the standard buttermilk pancakes (top). Fosco ordered his favorite Swedish pancakes with lingonberry butter (bottom). The Swedish pancakes are thin, like a crepe and just a little chewy. So good! Oh yeah, and that's a side order of linguica because we needed more.

Of course, the only thing you can do after a meal like that is nap. Sweet dreams, Oz and Fosco!

Quote of the Week: Branding Porn

From a Conde Nast Portfolio article about the business model of YouPorn (a site that Fosco does not intend to link to...):

[YouPorn's owner] shared his vision of turning YouPorn into a "very cool brand, perhaps the Virgin of adult entertainment."

Uh-huh.

As someone who has flown both Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America airlines once or twice (in fact, Virgin America is based in SF), Fosco doesn't quite see the connection here (other than that Virgin is a pretty cool brand). But there are lots of cool brands--why mention Virgin by name? Is YouPorn going to get mood lighting? Cheeky safety videos? Or, will there be YouPorn cola?

Actually, maybe I do see a slight connection...

Christmastime in SSF

Fosco and Oz had dinner in South San Francisco last Saturday (at Thai Satay. Yum!). Fosco had never been down the main street in SSF (Grand Ave) and he was surprised by the charming downtown district. At Thai Satay, Fosco and Oz got a window seat to look at the SSF Christmas lights.

One of the nice things about the Peninsula is that many of the smaller cities within easy driving to SF and San Jose still have vibrant, attractive downtowns with shops and restaurants. Fosco is quite fond of the downtowns of Burlingame, San Mateo, Millbrae, and Palo Alto. These downtowns are a nice surprise for Fosco, who grew up in place where downtown areas were dead and everyone within a fifty mile radius shopped and ate at the same mall/restaurant/entertainment complex built in the middle of cornfields.