Mission Chinese Food, San Francisco

I can't remember how I first heard of Mission Street Food or Mission Chinese Food -- perhaps it was the cookbook published by McSweeney's, perhaps it was from Bon Appetit's list of Best New Restaurants 2011 -- but a great story sticks in your head.

The short version of the story is that first-generation Chinese-American Anthony Myint (parents immigrated to Virginia by way of Burma) took a trip eating his way around the world, came back, moved to San Francisco, and started running a food truck with his wife.  After that came a pop-up restaurant inside an existing Chinese restaurant Lung Shan in SF's Mission district.  Mission Chinese Food went from one night a week to guest chefs to now basically existing as a restaurant inside a restaurant. 

I loved it the second I walked in; I loved that they hadn't changed the old-school wood-paneled decor, that they had a New Year's parade dragon hanging from the drop ceiling, that the staff were all pictured family-style on the top of the menu.  I believe it was "Auntie" who brought us menus.

I really wish it was more than just Redneckhunter and myself, because I wanted to order one of everything on the menu.  We opted instead for one cold dish, one hot dish, and one noodle dish. Our cold dish was Savory Egg Custard with Sea Urchin, Cured Trout Roe, Rice Wine and Shiso.  The egg custard was the perfect smooth texture like silken tofu, the urchin and roe were wonderfully fishy.  Not sure why there was a ninja next to this one on the menu, but I liked it!

I was so disappointed when the noodle dish I wanted was not available -- Numbing Lamb Face Biang Biang Mien, so we opted for Thrice-Cooked Bacon with Rice Cakes, Bitter Melon, Tofu Skin, Scallion, Black Bean and Chili Oil.  For those Chinese readers, it was like niang gao crossed with hui-guo ro, but with the interesting addition of ku gua -- a much more traditionally Chinese dish than the egg custard.

Our last dish was Pork Belly with Soy-cured Egg, Ginger Scallion Rice Noodles, and Cucumber (pictured on top).  I think I would have preferred the pork belly to be slow-braised like dong-puo ro rather than fried, but I can't complain too much about pork belly.  But mostly I like the deconstruction of this dish from its traditional antecendents, with a more Western-style presentation, yet all the great Chinese flavors.  And, it was great to have a soy egg that was soft-boiled.

Mission Chinese Food will definitely be one I return to next time I'm in San Francisco.  I'm far more into this place than his fine dining establishment Commonwealth (though I do like how both restaurants donate a percentage of their profits to charity).

Mission Chinese Food
Inside Lung Shan Restaurant
2234 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA
(415) 863-2800

Incanto, San Francisco, CA

 If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that we at TIGBG love nose-to-tail eating.  So when we had to go out to San Francisco a couple weeks ago, we made a reservation at Chris Cosentino's (www.offalgood.com) place Incanto, in the Noe Valley neighborhood.  The restaurant is on a quiet corner in a residential area, and is warm and inviting inside.  We were really looking forward to our meal because of the strong porky aroma emanating from the kitchen.

There were two appetizer specials that night, so we ordered both of them -- trotter cake with foie gras, served with a red wine reduction;  and testa (head cheese) ravioli with pig's blood in the pasta, in a sauce that had cinnamon, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, dried fruit.  The trotter cake was the best dish we had that night.  You can't go wrong with a lobe of seared foie gras.  The cake was a bit like scrapple with more meat - chunkier (I got a nice chunk of cartilage in one bite).  I appreciated the use of grapes and wine - a nod to the local region.  The ravioli, though, were a bit disappointing -- I didn't really get any offal-ness - no satisfying funk from the head cheese or blood.  The waitress had described the sauce to us as "kind of like a mole" so that was disappointing as well.  It had none of that concentrated richness of a mole - I mean, yes, it had cinnamon, and pumpkin seeds etc., but not ground in, reduced for hours, had it been a true mole.  One thing the Top Chef judges have dunged people on was calling a dish something that it really wasn't.  If they hadn't said "mole" I wouldn't have been disappointed that it wasn't one.

Because we still had five more days in the Bay area and wanted to conserve our appetites, for our main dishes we each order a half portion from the pasta section rather than one of the larger meat dishes, though we did go all pig (after all, it is their specialty).  Redneckhunter went traditional with handkerchief pasta with pork ragu.  I went with the Corzetti, cotechino, mizuna & pangrattato.  First off, I liked that I didn't know what any of those words meant!  Here's what it was - corzetti are flat round pasta (Incanto's were imprinted with their piggy mascot), cotechino is an Italian sausage sliced thin like salami, mizuna are mustard greens, and pangrattato are breadcrumbs.

 I thought Redneckhunter's was just ok - personally I think he makes a better pork ragu (but then again we get some really delicious ground pork from the Asian market in Plainsboro).  I liked mine, the slight bitterness of the greens and the texture of the breadcrumbs were nice, and I got how they were going for similar flat and round of the sausage and pasta.

For dessert, we also ordered the special which was an ice cream float in strawberry verbena soda.  It was light and refreshing.  All in all, we had a good meal, but not one I'm going to dream about.  Though they celebrate the pig here, it's a far cry from the temple of pork indulgence of the likes of Au Pied de Cochon, by any stretch.

Incanto
1550 Church Street
Noe Valley, SF
415.641.4500

Koi Palace, Daly City, CA

While in San Francisco, the family went to get Dim Sum on a Sunday morning at the Koi Palace in Daly City.
We were told to get there early, which meant around 9:30 am, and would you believe, the place which was the size of a basketball court was already packed.
We were excited that they had soup dumplings which were good. We ordered a few standards- turnip cakes, shrimp dumplings, and the sticky rice dumplings with sesame.

We ordered 2 kinds of tofu: the first was salty and savory, and the second, was served with a sweet syrup.






We got some starch in the form of sticky rice and noodles.










We tried two kinds of BBQ pork buns, one with a baked wheat exterior and the other with a steamed rice exterior. Both were delicious. According to Fougoo's dad, they are always eaten last in order to not fill you up at the start of the meal.


365 Gellert Blvd
Daly City, CA 94015
(650) 992-9000

Bi-Rite Creamery, San Francisco

We went to the Bi-Rite Creamery in San Francisco for some seriously good ice cream made from local and organic ingredients. We tried a few flavors, coffee toffee, balsamic strawberry, and honey lavender. I don't go for strawberry ice cream normally, but theirs was delicious.

3692 18th Street
(@ Dolores)
San Francisco CA 94110
415.626.5600

Pancho Villa Tacqueria, San Francisco

Fougoo and I went to Pancho Villa Tacqueria in the Embarcadero neighborhood of San Francisco. I knew I had to try their lengua taco as well as a carnitas taco. Both were delicious and chock full of meat.
I also ordered a chile relleno plate which was also good.

Fougoo ordered a nice tamale.
We were really impressed by the selection of salsas at Pancho Villa- they pulled no punches.

3071 16th St
San Francisco, CA 94103
Tel: (415) 864-8840
Fax: (415) 864-3484

Ferry Building Marketplace, San Francisco

Last time I was out in San Fran, I tried to go to the famous Ferry Building Market but it was closing - at 6 pm on a Saturday! This time we head there in the morning to make sure. The Ferry Building Market calls itself a "people's marketplace," but it sure isn't like most of the city markets I've been to, Reading Terminal Market (Philadelphia) or Lexington Market (Baltimore) or the Marche Jean Talon (Montreal). Don't expect to do your daily shopping here - the Ferry Building is gourmet, gourmet, gourmet.


We did a turn through the market surveying the culinary delights - mushrooms at Far West Fungi, meats at Boccalone salumeria, the happy dungeness crabs at Ferry Plaza Seafood, and the lovely pastries at Miette. I had wanted to grab breakfast at Boulette's Larder, but we just missed the 10:30 am cutoff.

At Lulu Petite we got a Baked Egg and Sausage sandwich with Fontina Cheese, and Lulu's Twice Baked Brioche with Meyer Lemon Marmalade, Mascarpone Cheese and Lavender Honey.

At I Preferiti di Boriana, we got this Italian version of redneckhunter's beloved malasada.

Then to take with us for later, we bought bread at Acme Bread Company and a sampler of cheeses from Cowgirl Creamery. I can't remember what all 3 were, but the creamy Mt. Tam was divine!