[SF] Mission Street Food

[Carolyn Tillie]

The occasion of some visiting jewelers was my reason to hit Mission Street Food last night -- great to go with a group. If you are unaware, this is a restaurant which takes over a local Chinese Restaurant two nights a week with guest chefs, so the menu always changes. It is cash only with no reservations available.

Five of us each brought a bottle of wine ($5.00 corkage!) and the menu seems to have expanded. We just advised them to send out the entire menu and we would see if we needed seconds of anything later. My biggest complaint of the location is the lack of light. With candles on the table, every one of us pulled out our cell phones to illuminate the menus and, frequently, the food itself.

Mango Salad with tomatillo, black olive, fennel, and red onion. $5.50

Tomato Tart (not on the menu, served later to replace the mango salad they ran out of), price unknown.

Cheese plate - Brillat-Savarin tripe crème with fresh fruit preserves, fig, fresh herbs and toast. $6.00

Fish 'n' Chips - halibut with batter-fried lemon "chips" and homemade caper tartar sauce. $13

Aged Prime Ribeye - with maitake mushroom, shelling bean and golden chive. $14

PB&J - Berkshire Kurobuta pork belly with marinated jicama, pickled jalapeño and cilantro aioli. $6.50

MSF Rice - smoky rice fried in duck fat with duck confit, duck cracklins, shiitake, and cauliflower. $8.00

VSF Rice - smoky rice fried in olive oil with shiitake, cauliflower, and tofu tempura. $6.50

Lung Shan's Vegan Delight - shiitake and oyster mushroom dumplings in miso soup. $5.50

Sharing all this with five people meant that most of us got about two bites (sometimes three) of each dish, which worked just fine. When we finished, we ordered a second round of the rib eye and there was even a roshambo fight over the last bite of beef. The PB&J was probably my least favorite, only because I'm not as much of a fan of the cilantro/jalapeño flavors. I could have probably eaten a second helping of Fish 'n' Chips all by myself, adoring the lemon 'chips.' Both rices were fabulous.

Dessert

Butter-fried cornbread with buttermilk panna cotta and mint julep honey. $6.00

Secret Breakfast Ice Cream from Humphry Slocombe. $3.25

For dessert, we ordered two of each of the above. Hard to describe how amazingly great the cornbread and panna cotta was. Just delightfully decadent. When all was said and done, the bill came: $136 - after tax, tip and corkage, it came to be $33 a person. GREAT deal. Yes, we had an hour wait and no, we couldn't see our food very well, but what a great evening. Also of note, they were still seating people as we were walking out at 11:00. I don't think they had the whole menu available at that point, but what a great thing to know that you can get a late-night nosh in that 'hood.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I was incredibly lucky to attend the final Mission Street Food before Danny Bowien and Youngmi Mayer take time off more marriage and to consider their next project. The meal was, in fact, entitled “Wedding Extravaganza” and indeed, the chef did not fail to impress everyone in attendance. Here’s a recap of the final meal and a special farewell and bon voyage to the happy couple. We can’t wait for your return!

Aperitif – Prickly pear soda with sake granité and red shiso. Slightly on the sweet side, three of us fought a little over the glistening red liquid with its floating, icy wonder of sake. Bright and clean, this was a great start to awaken the taste buds of anticipation of what was to come.

Cherrystone Clams and Beau Soleil Oysters – Both served on the half-shell, the oysters were garnished with spiced nori and grapefruit vinegar while the clams were set off with a brunoise of green apple, white shoyu, and hackleback caviar. There were three of us dining and only two of each shellfish served, so additional orders were immediately made. The two together made a delightful presentation and provided contrasting flavors of sweet and salt and umami. The green apple with the caviar on the clams were simultaneously crisp and refreshing while enticingly rich. The dark nori in the oysters made for a darker contrast to its clam counterpart and we could have happily ended the meal right here with a continuing feast of these morsels.

Grilled Korean Hot Peppers – Served with horseradish and moromi miso, I was concerned these would be too hot for me but was thrilled this was not the case. Slightly charred and nestled around the miso for dipping, the grilling heightened the sharp pungency inherent in the pepper, while the cool miso tempered the moderate heat of the fresh peppers.

Blistered Tomato Salad – Served with Blue Fin squid, chrysanthemum, Chinese celery, and a bit of squid ink gelée. Tiny chrysanthemum flowers studded the freshly, crisp tomatoes which complemented the squid rings. A perfect rectangle of squid ink geleé stretched across the bowl of clean tastes and a light broth brought all the flavors together.

California Aji “Negitoro” – A white slab of tofu was the basis of the amazing dish. Topped with tartare of delicately-spiced fatty tuna, the seemingly similar textures of the tofu and tartare were well-contrasted with the crispy-fried won ton skins but the flavors were all heightened by wild leeks and hint of citrus with the citron. The caviar pulled in a perfect salty component to balance the rich flavors.

Milk Fed Veal Tartare – Served with sea urchin, boquerones, huitalocoche, in a wheatgrass consommé. Such an incredibly complex gathering of flavors. Like the previous dish, the textures were mostly soft and temperate, but the salty sea flavors of the sea urchin highlighted the subtle, richness of the veal. It was the huitalocoche in the wheatgrass consommé which depicted the brilliance. Combining seemingly disparate ingredients which came together with elegance and integrity was not a surprise from this chef, but a surprise to me in how well such unusual ingredients provide something so remarkably different.

Warm Egg Custard – Studded with bits of duck confit, sturgeon, matsutake dashi, and fresh peppercorn leaves, Chef Danny’s version of Chawanmushi depicted the chef’s usual flair for brilliance.

Octopus a la Plancha – This was a dish we ordered seconds of; it was that good. Perfectly grilled, tender octopus sat atop smoked yogurt, fresh baby turnips, surprisingly large fresh peas, and a scattering of finely minced black olive and ras el hanout. So often, octopus is grilled to the point where it feels as though one is chewing on rubberbands and it is clear that Chef Danny knows his cephalopods well. The char marks only brought about the heightened sweetness in the octopus meat but it was combination of young turnips and miniature explosions from the peas that elevated this dish.

Crispy Pork Jowl and Mussels – Served with fresh lettuces, mint, pickles, carrots and sliced peppers, this was served in a way to encourage wrapping the ingredients in lettuce wraps. The mussels had a very spicy red pepper in the broth and were a bit too hot on their own, but that heat was balanced by the fattiness of the pork and cool crisp mint.

Lung Shan’s Vegan Delight – One of the standard dishes on the Mission Street Food menu, a simple broth made from miso soup nestles shitake and oyster mushroom dumplings.

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