mmm-yoso!!!, a blog about food and the story prefacing as well as post scripting enjoyment of said food. Today's post is bookended by food and also centralized by books. Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) are doing other things while Cathy writes.
A beautiful Saturday morning, waking while the sky was illuminated by the Supermoon and driving North to Pasadena was intervened with a quick stop for breakfast at Philippe the Original, which Kirk blogged about in 2007. (A recent post from cc here and from Elmo in 2007 here and a 2008 post from MiP here )This quintessential American Cafeteria, with a fascinating history, is famous for THE French dip sandwich.
There is also a breakfast menu. Walking up to the counter, The Mister ordered, paid and waited for our food to be prepared while I enjoyed the various miniature museum of displays surrounding the communal seating areas.
If you didn't know, Philippe the Original is within walking distance of both Union (railroad) Station and Dodger Stadium, the third oldest ballpark in the USA.
Soon enough, breakfast was ready. At the top is the Breakfast Combo Special ($7.50)- French toast, over easy eggs, bacon and coffee. The French toast batter has a bit of cinnamon in it, the bread is soft, thick and cooked just right (crispy on the exterior and soft and warm/fluffy interior). The bacon is thin and crispy and has flavor. Here's a better photo of the corned beef hash plate ($8.25)served with home fried potatoes and over easy eggs (again, coffee is included). The hash is wonderful -dry, not greasy- and has a great flavor. The Home Fries are made expertly, as are the over easy eggs and the biscuits (a classic baking powder/soda mix) - great short-order chefs.
We drove up the 110 to Pasadena and the Phoenix Decorating Company barn for the second 2015 Tournament of Roses Parade float maneuverability testing in less than six minutes.
There were ten floats being tested this day and quite a few were ready for their final tests before decorating (which begins in December) by having people on board to test weight bearing on the maneuverability as well as ability to escape efficiently in case of a fire. Above, Kiwanis International, with their float now color coded for the volunteers to decorate easily. So much prettier than when it was tested in its 'cocoon' stage last month (3rd photo).Similarly, last month's rebar/chicken wire/partial cocoon stage of the Lions Club International float, "Inspiring Challenges" (to the right in the first photo in that post), did no justice to this finalized version.
Rotary International has the theme of "Changing Lives Through Clean Water".
The Oddfellows and Rebekahs Rose float, "Never Forget" is beautiful with its colors marked.
The City of Alhambra is titled "Go For Broke" and will also have a military theme.
The theme of the 2015 Tournament of Roses Parade is "Inspiring Stories" and a good number of floats are taking that concept literally and depicting books on their floats. Above, the Donate Life float titled "The Never Ending Story".
Lutheran Hour Ministries and "The Bible...God's Story" will have a float in the parade for the 65th time.
Shriners Hospital for Children is having a float featuring a Shriner Bear reading -and seated upon- books.
There were two other floats also tested, both in rebar stage: Trader Joe's and the American Armenian Rose Float Association. Within a month, each will take on more details and be more interesting.
Back to food, since Philippe the Original is only about seven miles from Raymond Street...
The ordering cases filled with a variety of sides, ten order/serving lines (there are only five at breakfast), ordered chaos, freshly sawdusted flooring, house made HOT mustard on each table. (Philippe is right next to Chinatown, which I'm pretty certain had an influence on the mustard recipe). Lunchtime.
Double dipped (each piece of crispy fresh French bread gently run through the jus; opposed to a 'single dip' with only one piece of bread dipped) sandwiches of roast beef ($7) roast lamb ($8.50), sides of house made potato salad ($1.35) and pickle ($1.30) along with two glasses of iced tea (65 cents each).
Because we had side by side comparisons, we liked the roast lamb considerably more than the roast beef (no complaints when we tasted the beef first) (There were also some nice crusty pieces of the lamb in the sandwich, which may have been a further influence). The kosher pickle was excellent as was the freshly made potato salad.
We also served ourselves water...so reminiscent of Elementary School...
and stopped to check out the gift counter, where some old fashioned candies are sold (Sen-Sen anyone?) (this area takes credit cards; the food counter is cash only)...
while getting a roast pork sandwich, double dipped ($7) and pickled egg ($1.15) (see the gallon jar on the counter in the second photo of this post?) to go. No worse for the drive, the pork also was very good. The pickled egg has a good old fashioned pickled beet flavor.
Philippe the Original 1001 N. Alameda Street Los Angeles 90012 (213)628-1731 Website open seven days 6 a.m.-10 p.m.
Great post Cathy! So THAT's what Philippe's looks like without a million people in it! I didn't know they had exhibits and all that in there. That pickled egg looks interesting. Beet juice? I liked seeing the floats too, so much has changed from a month ago. :)
Posted by: caninecologne | Sunday, 13 July 2014 at 07:53 PM
Great float shots. French Dips. mmm. Gotta love the pickled eggs (my dad used to pickle eggs in the brine from pickled pigs' feet - bar food). Sen Sens, jeez I didn't even remember that I had forgotten about them. Thanks
Posted by: Ed (from Yuma) | Sunday, 13 July 2014 at 07:56 PM
Love that double dipped lamb sandwich from Philippe's.....makes want to jump in the car and go get one right now....
Posted by: Kirk | Sunday, 13 July 2014 at 08:25 PM
I had noticed a 'Train Museum' sign when standing at the ordering area, but didn't see the display until I walked out of the restroom; on another wall in that area was a display of clown memorabilia, but people with children were sitting near it, so I didn't take photos, cc. There are pickled beets as another side order option...it's a pretty large menu. So glad you got to see the floats last time and now the progress.
There are pickled pigs feet ($2.65) on the menu, Ed; probably part of the brine is used for the eggs here- so different than the tea eggs I've apparently ordered/made at home in a search for pickled eggs. It was a fun road trip with good food as well as sights and memories.
It's not even two hours away, Kirk! We had no idea Philippes was so close and always left Pasadena going East/Route 66 to get to the 15. This is a whole new world of food to explore-drove home on side roads parallel to the 5 and found many places to try.
Posted by: Cathy | Monday, 14 July 2014 at 05:52 AM
Delicious looking breakfast! Thanks for the cool float update!
Posted by: Soo | Monday, 14 July 2014 at 08:55 AM
It was great food to start a great day, Soo. Having a chance to try other parts of the menu made the trip interesting.
Posted by: Cathy | Tuesday, 15 July 2014 at 05:00 AM
Love the pork, wasn't too impressed with the lamb. I didn't even know they served breakfast.
Posted by: nhbilly | Tuesday, 15 July 2014 at 05:22 AM
We ate the pork with nothing to compare next to it, so will be doing a pork-beef or pork-lamb comparison on our next trip, Bill. The morning crowd looked to be locals on their way to or from work; seems like a convenient, non-fast food option.
Posted by: Cathy | Wednesday, 16 July 2014 at 05:38 AM
That's an interesting observation about the mustard.
Posted by: janfrederick | Wednesday, 16 July 2014 at 01:44 PM
You caught it, JF! I had heard the mustard described as 'pungent', 'hot', 'volcanic' and 'horseradish' and went in with an open mind, only knowing it would be some kind of spicy and to try it sparingly...and first thought (and words) between The Mister and I were 'Chinese restaurant mustard'...thanks for reading.
Posted by: Cathy | Wednesday, 16 July 2014 at 05:00 PM