Here’s a must-see for any aspiring chef looking to succeed in the city: an all-star panel featuring a bunch of the Mission’s hottest chefs spilling all their secrets about making it big in such a tumultuous industry.
It’s all going down at the Commonwealth Club this Thursday, as Anthony Myint (Mission Chinese), Richie Nakano (Hapa Ramen), Iso Rabins (ForageSF), and Craig Stoll (Delfina) recount all their best stories on how they climbed the SF food chain to get where they are now, moderated by none other than Rice, Paper, Scissors‘ own Valerie Luu. And the fun continues right afterwards in the form of a panelist-created guerrilla dining experience across the street at Foodlab, hosted by the other half of RPS, Katie Kwan.
Oh wait, I forgot to mention the best part–we’re giving away two free tickets to the panel to the two commenters who can tell the best story about the most bizarre meal they’ve ever had here in the city. The contest ends promptly at noon on Wednesday, and winners will be judged on merit as well as general sauciness.
Check out all the details for the event and get tickets for the panel or dinner here.
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, Richie Nakano (Hapa […]</p>
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I’d say the most unusual meal I’ve had in the city was about five years ago at this tiny Japanese place somewhere at the end of the Richmond; I’ve never been able to find it again because it was so far away and hidden in the fog. I was with a group of ten or so and we were seated in a sort of closet or barn stall. The waitress brought us an absurdly tall bottle of sake. And then the food began to arrive. And continued to arrive for the next three hours! Tiny bowls of assorted goodness poured out of the kitchen: delicious Japanese fried chicken (just like American fried chicken, only smaller); jellyfish salad (one of the jelly-ist and most amazing things I’ve ever tasted!); those awful fermented soybeans that look like snot and smell like death; a gazillion slice of assorted raw fish; tiny rib-like things that seem too small to be from any typical meat-source animal (maybe hamster?); and a bunch of things at the other end of the table that I didn’t get to taste because my greedy other-end-of-the-table friends ate everything first. This whole decadent Japanese feast only came out to something like $30 a piece. I’m telling you, this place was amazing!
I had a corndog that was over cooked to the point that the batter shattered when I bit into it. Then the chicken I got was pink and raw on the inside. This was at Mission Bowling Club. Though my wife and myself live around the corner, and go there quite often, we have never eaten there again. If a corndog can’t be done right why bother.
Did you pay $15 for it?
my most bizarre meal in this city came last summer while walking home prematurely from the dore alley street fair. i happen to live on the same block as mr. pollo. i also happen to have left dore alley early because i was tripping on acid. so yes; i wandered into mr. pollo’s dinner seating with 2 friends on acid. we sat right at the station and watched him cook quail and dandelions in one pan french laundry style for the whole place (3 tables).
it was fascinating to say the least. the flow, the dance of cooking, the confidence in the hustle. i was especially (especially) pleased with his music choices as well. it was more than food. it was a show. i remember the texture of eating something classified as a ‘weed’ while the setting sunlight warmed my back through the window.
i remember being in awe and thinking that mr.pollo (which is definitely not that dude’s name) cooking and flowed, focused on every detail, like a dj or producer, and served up an experience one should really just walk into (no reservations allowed).
To this day when i walk by that place after work I always chuckle at the tourists waiting impatiently in line to get a seat. I can only hope ‘mr.pollo’ is rude and scares them off with arrogance so that more unsuspecting people can wander in just as I did last August.
I just want Craig to help keep the sidewalk on 18th around the twin Delifinas clear. Some people just want to get by without walking a yuppie gauntlet. I’m sure the event will be super cool though!
Delfina needs a parklet to get the people off the sidewalk!
6 raw onions … 4 white and 2 red . im sure everyone has a good story and deserves to go….. but!… just let me have em! I really want to go and I’m hungry