Mission Mission

[via nomined]

I’ll get my shovel.

[via @concernedpanda]

Whenever I see a cool car around the neighborhood, I take pictures and send them to my pal Eric up in Portland who runs Other People’s Things, my favorite car blog. He responds with some knowledge and we post the results here and it’s called “Car Beat.” Here’s what Eric has to say about this sporty little ride:

That is one nice Fiat you found. It’s a late model Panda, but that’ could mean a lot- this bodystyle was made from 1991-2003. It’s also the “4×4 Trekking” model, which puts it in the the hall of fame of amazing 4WD subcompacts alongside the Subaru Justy, Toyota Corolla All Trac, Civic Wagon, and the Panda’s Russian cousin the Lada Niva.

While I am no expert when it comes to import laws, this car poses a bit of a mystery if its legally tagged, as it is newer than 25 years old, which technically makes it illegal to drive in the United States. Nevertheless, it’s an an eccentric’s dream car, slow, (relatively) reliable, durable and Italian. That’s not a combination that you hear too often. Love that grille badge as well, it almost makes up for those ridiculous Italian graphics on the rear quarter.

Thanks, Eric! Gosh, I love sporty Fiats.

SF Gate has the scoop:

How do you celebrate when you’ve just hit three home runs in a World Series game? You head to the Mission to your favorite restaurant and convince the owner to open up for you, even though the kitchen was already closed.

Pablo Sandoval, his older brother (and uncanny look-alike) Michael and a few friends went straight from AT&T Park to Limon, the Peruvian restaurant on Valencia, on Wednesday night. The restaurant closes at 10, and Sandoval wasn’t finished with his postgame demands until well after 9:30. But being a star slugger has its perks.

“You have to open up after he homers three times,” said owner and chef Martin Castillo. “He’s a great customer. We always go the extra mile for him.”

Read on.

(Thanks, TK!)

[via The Crab and Monkey]

I can’t get over the pictures of the Lung Shan staff from this week’s Vice feature on Mission Chinese Food.

I’ve always been fascinated with the dynamic between these grizzled Chinese cooks and their young, hip, culinary hot-shot restaurant-mates. In case you never bothered to look up at the sign, Mission Chinese Food rents its space from Lung Shan and has essentially taken over. Lung Shan’s menu is now largely ignored.

Mission Chinese chef Danny Bowien mentioned that the owners have operated the restaurant decades and never seemed concerned that business was slow, they just liked having a place to hang out. Sure enough, if you ever go in on a weekday during off-hours you’ll see them sitting at the round table in the back chatting and reading the papers. When you order something off their menu, one of them casually gets up, strolls to the kitchen, and cooks it.

I hear a lot of criticism of Mission Chinese Food from Asian Americans for not being authentic enough, notably from my parents who are restaurant owners themselves. But I don’t think that’s the point. Bowien has always admitted  that he’s still learning to cook Chinese food. Still, it’s clear his fresh approach has struck a chord with a generation that these old-timers could never reach.

Chinese food has sadly taken a turn towards the junk food genre in America, being generalized a cheap take-out experience. Did you know that Panda Express is in the running for the “Best of Milpitas” list in the category of “Best Chinese (overall)”? Shocking. Sometimes it takes an outsider to break out of the mold.

Me? I like both the old and the new. My grandfather was a cook in a restaurant much like Lung Shan while I was a kid. At home, his food wasn’t gourmet, but I’ll never forget such fusion creations as “vienna sausage fried rice” and “fried fish with ketchup”. Not exactly traditional. He also was fond of peanut butter and cheese sandwiches, something that I urge all discerning palates to try.

Sometimes I feel the urge to dust off my shitty 1st-grade-level Cantonese and ask these guys about how they feel about this new crop of oddly-dressed kids dining in their restaurant. But I’m sure they would answer like many folks of their generation do, with a subdued shrug and “business is good.”

Update:

Arlo tells us that the photos are by Alanna Hale. More great photos of the Lung Shan gang are on her site and tumblr.

(Thanks, @katchatters!)

Pablo Sandoval apparently ate at El Farolito last night and all I got was this crappy picture. Sorry, folks. I’m no good as a paparazzi.

I was in line by myself and the three guys in front of me started freaking out after he walked out. “Dude! That was Pablo Sandoval!” That kind of thing. I need to pay more attention.

If you want to tell your friends what you’re doing this Saturday night, just make the above hand motion and say, “FOG AND LASER.” And then shoot a laser out your sleeve.

Here’s the deal:

Our running joke for the ‘FOG’ in Fog & Laser is that it stands for “Free of Genre” and we plan to hold ourselves true to this mantra. As a kitchen sink/anything goes/party jam kind of night, one might hear anything from 60s soul to 80s crowd pleasers. Anything from 90s guilty pleasures to the best electro cuts from 2005. A large emphasis will be placed on emerging indie and electronic music but that’s not to say we’ll hold ourselves back from playing a great forgotten punk tune here or a Smiths b-side there.

[...]

Did we mention fog machines and lasers?!! Of course this is one of the reasons it was so easy for us to name the event… but we do plan to up the fun even further with special guests, laser backdrop photo portraits, and great drink specials.

LASER BACKDROP PHOTO PORTRAITS. Rickshaw Stop, this Saturday, only $7. RSVP and invite your friends here.

[Hand modeling by Dennis Kernohan] [Disco epaulet by Tag Savage]

Full press release after the jump:

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