Mission Mission

Love it.

[via Travis]

Yummmmmmmm. I ate one of these the other day and it tastes even better than it looks.

[via Turner's Kitchen on Instagram]

Here’s a closeup of the Q&A:

Holy moly. Mission Street Food is returning, for one night only, this Monday night, at The Perennial, the latest in a long line of game-changing projects by the founders of MSF, Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz. I can’t believe it’s been most of a decade since I got that first tip about what would become my favorite weekly routine for the 2 years or so that they kept it up. And I’m soooooo glad they’re doing a little reunion.

Reservations are closed, but they’ll take some walk-ins.

The Perennial/MSF crew writes about it here:

Eight years ago we tried something a little different. This was before Instagram and before Barack Obama was elected President. Actually, it was during an election season, and maybe that’s what’s gotten us a little nostalgic.

In October 2008, we sublet a Guatemalan snack truck to serve something called a “PB & J”(Crispy [P]ork [B]elly & marinated [J]icama on a buttery scallion pancake-ish flatbread). There was a moment where I was standing on the corner with a cooler of mise en place, anxiously waiting for Senor Gomez to bring his little food truck and that was really the end of the innocence. I saw another dude standing not too far away also waiting for something. He was my first customer and a line was forming.

Karen ran  from BART to join the fray that was the first night of Mission Street Food. She alternated between chatting with customers and running back to our apartment to bake cookies to sell to the line. We went home, started this blog, and  crashed. We did it again the next week and again the next. We moved into a run-down Chinese restaurant and did it again, while inviting guest cooks to join us. We liked to think that we were starting an indie chef movement. We ran 2 pop-ups each week and by the end, pulled off 140 unique menus. Karen called it the equivalent of planning a wedding twice a week.

And here’s what to expect on Monday:

We’ll have dishes you can’t get anywhere else from Chris Ying, Caitlin Koether, Jordan Grosser, Ted Fleury and yours truly including some MSF classics (like PB&J) and a bunch of newbies too. Music by David Cabello and karaoke in the bar. A few more of our old compatriots have promised to help, too. Come along and feel some feelings with us. The more things change, the more they stay the same, right?

Wooooooooooo! (And karaoke too!!) Read on for more.

[Photo from that fateful first night by Burrito Justice]

You can do that now, and it was awesome.

[via Grace]

Here’s Jane Black in the Washington Post, telling us about perennial wheat:

The grain was Kernza, a new breed of wheat. Unlike the usual varieties, it is perennial, which means it grows back in subsequent years rather than being sown each spring. That matters because over time, the plant develops a deep, dense root system that helps to build healthy soil and to keep carbon in the soil, a counter to climate change. No wonder perennial grains have long been the holy grail for a certain set of agroecologists (visionaries or eco-weenies, depending on your perspective). Now here was Kernza in my kitchen. And, it turns out, in other places, too.

Patagonia Provisions, a new division of the outdoor gear company, this week releases the first commercial product made with Kernza, Long Root Ale. The Perennial, a new restaurant in San Francisco, is serving it, along with its house-made Kernza bread and crackers and a deliciously toasty Kernza ice cream. In Minneapolis, close to a large Kernza test plot, chefs and food artisans are using Kernza in tortillas, muffins, pasta and more. Minnesota-based General Mills is also evaluating the grain. [link]

Tonight in San Francisco, Kernza is having a coming-out party! Karen from The Perennial tells us about the event:

The biggest party we have on tap is actually a keg party to celebrate the release of Long Root Ale, a brand-new beer made of Kernza, from Patagonia Provisions. We’ll have kernza beer, kernza bread (with various topics from veggies to pork to housemade butter), and we’ll be screening Patagonia Provisions’ films on the food/environment connection. Eventbrite tickets ($16) are here.

See you there!

[Photo of the bread by Jane Black]

Hoodline reports:

Dear Mom, open since 2012, will be introducing some changes soon. Owner Paul Bavaro plans to revamp the bar-restaurant at 16th & Harrison by the new year, bringing in new food menus and pool tables and changing the bar’s name.

[...]

When he opened Dear Mom, his fourth and most recent business venture, Bavaro wanted to mix things up: it’s a larger space than his other bars, and is also the first of the three to offer food. A couple of Bavaro’s employees came up with the “Dear Mom” concept and name, and he ran with it. But he says the concept just isn’t working in terms of profitability, so he’s changing things up.

I always thought Dear Mom should have a sister bar named Fuck You Dad. Maybe now’s the time?

Regardless of the name though:

[T]he bar has one issue that Bavaro will be hard-pressed to change. He told us business hasn’t been helped by the frequent presence of homeless encampments on both sides of the street, which often discourages customers from sitting on the bar’s sidewalk patio—or visiting Dear Mom in the first place.

Many patrons have told Bavaro that they don’t like to walk in the area near the bar. “They say that they don’t feel safe, so they try to avoid it,” he said.

Read on.

[Photo of the Dear Mom "Mom Wall" (RIP) from like 3 years ago by Jay or me I think]

Mission Chinese Food has four (4) lamb dishes on the menu right now, so I was like damn we gotta at least order three of these, which we did – and then our server Lindsay, who is the best in the biz (and famous for comping Serena Williams’ wings that time), had the lovely idea of surprising us with the fourth, for completism’s sake.

If you haven’t been enjoying the lamb rib these past few months, you are definitely missing out. Add to that the lamb dumplings, the cumin lamb, and the lamb face noodle soup, and it’s a lambathon like no other. Highly recommend.

Here’s some okay pics:

At least a couple of these items don’t seem to be on the delivery menu, so best find a time to actually leave the house for once, you guys.

(Thanks again, Lindsay!!!)

Local blogger and photographer Tippity Change had a nice chat with longtime Missionite Curtis Williams:

He listed a number of establishments I’ve never heard of, some of which were owned by people from the neighborhood; all of them long gone- both the owners and the businesses. This story shares the stops at bars/clubs along his routined lurk in the Mission as a young man. Romanticized ? Sure maybe, but it’s pretty clear it that his present day experiences in the Mission pale in comparison as he continues lurking through life & the ever evolving Mission District as it stands today in 2016

Here’s their talk in full:

[link]