Mission Mission

Duc Loi Market at 18th/Mission officially kicked off its brand new kitchen today, and the star of the show is the “Authentic Vietnamese” sandwich, which owner Amanda Ngo serves piled high with cured ham, pork belly, chicken liver pâté, and head cheese. How does it compare with the $3.50 banh mi’s you’ll find elsewhere in the city? The quality of ingredients, proximity to the Mission, generous portions, and overall flavor package make it well worth the extra buck and change.

The menu also has a good breadth of variety – including a fried chicken sandwich, a BBQ menu, and a veggie portobello tofu sandwich that can be made vegan if you ask for no mayo. According to Helen Tseng, “It’s as big as your head and contains about half an avocado”. Hit the jump for a closer look!

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I took my bike to the Heavy Metal Bike Shop today, and noticed this sign outside newly opened Rock Bar next door. Here’s a closeup:

Looks like Rock Bar is throwing an opening party next Wednesday, March 21, and of all things, a donkey is involved. I’m not entirely sure what that’s about, but I know one thing for sure — if it’s anything like this, I’m there.

This Sunday, Rice Paper Scissors will be serving up Northern-style beef pho, corn sticky rice, Vietnamese yogurt, and other brunchable delights at their first popup since returning from Vietnam. They’ll be setting up shop around 14th and Folsom from 11am to 4pm; the exact location is yet to be announced, so follow them on Twitter for the tip.

Here’s their blurb on what “Northern-style” pho entails:

There’s nothing more satisfying than a steaming bowl of pho in the morning — and while we were in Vietnam, we held off on eating it until we reached Hanoi — the place where it all originated.

After a late night and waking up Vietnamese style (that means at 6am!) we ventured down Xuân Diệu Street and came across a streetside pho house where locals and taxi drivers go for breakfast. We know about the latter group because one car almost ran over Katie to park and get his morning pho fix.

It was very simple: beef, noodles, damn good broth. Northern-style pho has no frills (aka no herbs and bean sprouts) and simply leaves you to the good stuff. That’s the way we like it.

Full menu and more details here.

The bánh mì-nification of the Mission continues, as this recent upstart at 2788 Mission Street near 24th Street BART pops up seemingly overnight. Formerly known as Mission Sub, this new Quickly USA venture aims to please, with a 3 for $10 deal. However, not everyone thinks this deal is worth going for, considering the newly opened swank Saigon sub setup at Duc Loi six blocks down Mission Street. Who will prevail in the bánh mì battle?

I was all excited to review Ken Ken Ramen for all you nice people but last night when my friends and I arrived at their doorstep, we found, much to our surprise, that the restaurant was closed. Apparently it’s only open Thursday through Saturday each week at the moment, though they have plans to open for business on Wednesdays soon as well.

What made this particularly maddening was that a) I was so hungry I was almost hallucinating, and b) there were people in there eating pizza, taunting us. Oh, the pain! the suffering!

We decided to take a cue from the Ken Ken employees and get some pizza for ourselves, scooting over to Little Star as fast as our soggy, wet feet would carry us.

Hey Little Star! You know what you could do that would make me soooo happy? If you could give us vegans the opportunity to partake in your famous deep dish pizza! As I understand it, the only thing that makes the deep dish non-vegan-friendly is that they grease the deep dish pans with butter. Why they can’t set aside a few to grease with olive oil each night boggles my mind, and every time I go, I always ask them to confirm that this is still non-negotiable. It still is. As they say in Italy, il sigh.

The flat crust is still good though! Lots of flavor from the sweet sauce, roasted garlic, and kalamata olives. See?

Our pal Pavla made us VIPs for this showcase in which Carson Daly was gonna be introducing Thee Oh Sees. I don’t go to many official showcases, but Carson Daly introducing Thee Oh Sees? C’mon. So we get there and he introduces them and it’s awesome, and then they place and it’s awesome — and THEN, for their traditional closer “Dead Energy,” for which they sometimes invite up a guest drummer (such as Nick from White Fence or someting), they invited up Carson himself. I thought it was a joke but it was not. I almost died. Best night ever! Oh Sees rule!

Our colleagues over at Rolling Stone were in the house as well (albeit they didn’t manage to get as close as us) and managed to shoot some video. Watch it here.

There will be more thorough video on Carson’s NBC show next week.

[Photo by Lizbones] [Thanks, Pavla! Thanks, Sony Music Unlimited!]

Not quite as catchy as a Liger, but these American automobile companies have been kind of desperate lately so I suppose you have to at least give them credit for trying to resuscitate the luxury SUV market.

Dust off those Big Lebowski quotes and those shoes you snagged from Albany Bowl, Mission Bowling Club is opening next Monday, March 17. For the first week, hours will be 6-11pm. It’s located at 3176 17th Street between Shotwell and South Van Ness.

Here’s a draft of the Anthony Myint-curated menu. Glad to see it contains such bowling alley classics as Blackened Catfish and Bucatini:

And here’s a making-of video to tide you over for the next few days:

[via Mission Loc@l]

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.