December 18th: Mash-Up Night

The last Mission Street Food of 2008 will feature a mash-up of cooks and ideas. We’ll be offering dishes by Ian Muntzert, Carlo Espinas and Amy Kurtz (biographical details below the menu).

* * MENU * *

PALERMO vs. TOKYO (Ian)

Nigiri: Marinated Monterey Bay Sardine on Arancini with Romesco. $5

MARIN vs. MONTREAL (Carlo)

Poutine: Marin Sun Beef and Marrow Gravy, Cowgirl Creamery Cheese, Fried Kennebec. $7

The MISSION vs. PHILLY (MSF)

Cheesesteak: Aged Angus Ribeye with Pasillas, Onion, and Cheese on a fresh homemade Flatbread. $6.50

DUCK vs. TOFU (MSF)

--MSF Rice: Smoky Rice fried in Duck Fat with Liberty Duck Confit, Duck Cracklins, Shitake, and Cauliflower. $7

--VSF Rice: Smoky Rice fried in olive oil with Shitake, Cauliflower and Tofu Tempura. $6

DESSERT vs. DESSERT (Amy)

--Grilled Pumpkin-Bread with Mascarpone Cream and Maple-Glazed Pepitas. $7

--Meyer Lemon Sherbet with Pomegranate-Cranberry sauce, Thyme Shortbread and White Chocolate. $6

* * ABOUT our GUEST CHEFS * *

Ian is the sous-chef at Bar Tartine and has also worked at Zuni Café, Yoshi’s, Pizzeria Delfina, Nopa and many more. He enjoys reading cookbooks and unicorn porn.

Carlo is the chef of Piccino--the Dogpatch café hailed by the Examiner as executing “San Francisco’s iconic meal…with conviction” and by the Chronicle as serving Perfection in the form of pepperoni pizza.

Amy Kurtz recently moved to San Francisco from Chicago, where she was a pastry cook at Charlie Trotter's. She is almost as excited as we are for Thursday's sneak preview of her desserts.

* * NOTES * *

Cash only.

We will be closed for the holidays and reopen in 2009. See you then.

We found a few items (clothing and accessories) at the restaurant after the last two Thursdays—if you lost something, let us know by email or in person this Thursday.

By Farr

Mission Street Food is very pleased to announce that our guest chef for Thursday December 11th will be Ryan Farr, formerly of Orson and Fifth Floor. Most recently, Ryan has been helping people get back on their feet (C.H.E.F.S. - Conquering Homelessness through Employment in Food Service). On the side, he won the award for best creative preparation at the Amuse Cochon in Napa and has been providing the city with Turduckens. Follow his endeavors and consummate butchery skills on his blog (http://bestbyfarr.wordpress.com/).

Menu:

Chicharrones and Spicy Dip 3.50

Honey Baked Ham and Pork Terrine, Sauerkraut, Mustard, Celery and Date Chutney 9

Buttermilk Fried Cauliflower, Roasted Carrot Aioli 5

Corned Lengua, Fried Farm Egg, Spiced Pork Belly Rice, Fennel Sprouts 12

Pork and Kumquat Sausage, Curry Brussels Sprouts, Persimmon, Herb Salad 12

King Trumpet Mushroom, Triple-Fried Potatoes, Garlic Confit, Scallion Sour Cream on Homemade Flatbread 6 (or add Benton's bacon for an additional dollar)

Bacon and Apple Cinnamon Cookie, Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich, Maple Sherry Carmel 7

Reconstructed Pecan Pie, Bourbon Cream, and Lines of Bacon "Snow" 7


P.S. if anyone wants to cover me in the kitchen this week, I kind of want to sit down and eat this menu.

Butter fried cornbread with buttermilk panacotta, honey and candied sage

photo credit: Jesse Friedman of beer and nosh

December 4th - Mission Soul Food

Mission Street Food is happy to announce that Tia Harrison—of Sociale and Avedano's--will be our guest chef on Thursday, December 4th. We'll be collaborating on a southern-style menu inspired by butter, hip-hop, and gentrification: "The Dirty South Cleans Up Pretty Good."

Smoked Duck Beignets with sheep's milk cheese (quadrato perfette) cherry shallot compote. $10

Gulf prawns with anson mills grits, kumquats, blood orange, bacon, scallions. $11

BBQ Lamb Shank with vermouth braised cabbage, sweet potato gratin. $14

Creole Catfish Stew with local radish, watercress, spicy roasted tomato broth, ozette potato, sesame seed. $12

PBQ - Kurobuta Berkshire Pork Belly with Quince-onion sauce, potato salad and slaw on fresh homemade flatbread. $6.50

Dirty Rice with rare grass fed beef, mint, sweet onion, chiles. $5.50

Mustard Greens with garlic and chili flake. $4.50

Dessert - Butter fried cornbread with buttermilk panacotta, honey and candied sage. $5

Tia is the chef of Sociale, an Italian restaurant in Pacific Heights, which has been described by the Chronicle as "epicurean pay-dirt." She is also co-owner of a charming butcher-shop in Bernal Heights called Avedano's Holly Park Market, where she offers first-rate meats and teaches classes on breaking down whole pigs. We're honored to have Tia as a guest chef and amazed that she has the time.

Closed for the rest of November

We apologize for the inconvenience, but Mission Street Food will not be at Lung Shan this week (or next week, which is Thanksgiving). We are working out the logistics of a new prep location and hope to re-open in December. We're still accepting proposals from guest chefs/cooks and at this point, we also want to hire a part-time prep or line cook.

The bottom line is that we want to keep doing Mission Street Food, but we're outgrowing our current kitchen and staff. Thanks again for your enthusiasm and support.

Up Next

Thanks for coming to our first night indoors. The owners of Lung Shan have agreed to another week, so Mission Street Food will be open again this Thursday at 6pm. Special thanks to Jason Fox, chef of Bar Tartine, who has allowed me to prep in his kitchen for so many weeks. Thanks also to the McSweeney's crew, who wrote our fortunes and saved our asses.

We learned a lot last week and hope to deliver better service and shorter waits. Our guest chef for this week fell through…hopefully next week. We’ll keep you posted including a detailed description of his or her dish(es). This week, we’re adding a “guest dish” of our own—a rare beef and glass noodle salad with lotus chips—in addition to the dishes that debuted last week.

photo credit: Jesse Friedman of beer and nosh

Big Night

It's finally Thursday, and we'll be setting up shop at Lung Shan for the first time tonight. We hope that if you enjoyed our food out on the corner, you'll come inside with us. See you soon.

Grand Re-Opening

This Thursday, Mission Street Food will make its indoor debut at 2234 Mission St (between 18th and 19th). We will be open from 6pm until midnight and will now offer beer and wine. The sign outside says “Lung Shan”—a Chinese restaurant that has agreed to share their kitchen with us.

As part of the move from griddle to wok, and from taco-truck to Chinese restaurant, we will offer some new items, but will continue to offer the PB&J. This week’s special is a Burmese coconut-curry soup that my grandmother used to make, and I am particularly excited to introduce MSF rice (Meated-Smoked-Fried rice).

This week, we’re going to fly solo as we get a feel for our new environment, but we look forward to featuring guest cooks in the coming weeks. Send us your proposals or stop by after work to chat about a guest appearance.

We hope to see you Thursday.

From Mission--Street Food to Mission Street--Food

We’re announcing a new format for Mission Street Food: each week, we’ll feature a local guest chef/cook, who will offer his or her own dishes in addition to our regular menu.

To make this change possible, we’ll be moving from the truck into an actual restaurant. We’ve been talking with some local restaurants about sharing space, and we’ll announce the details in a few days. We’ll be closed this week for planning and will re-open somewhere in the Mission on November 6.

We’re really excited about this new set-up. We’re inviting all local chefs and line cooks to submit ideas for one or two casual-but-innovative dishes via email to missionstreetfood@gmail.com (click here for details). The guest cook can keep the profits from his or her dish, and the public will get a chance to try something new. Operating indoors will also allow us to keep going through the winter (we’d been planning to take a hiatus for the rainy season), and perhaps more importantly, we’ll be able to serve beer and wine—that means we can maintain the festive atmosphere we had out on 21st, but no one will have to worry about getting a ticket for brown-bagging it. Finally, moving down the street will help the truck’s owners avoid conflict with their neighbors; we want to emphasize that their permits are valid, and we remain on very good terms with them.

Ideally, this will be part of an indie cooking movement that will let talented cooks reach the public without the risks of opening a conventional restaurant—and let the public enjoy great food without the costs of dining at a conventional restaurant.

Pleased to Meet You

Hi, this is Karen, the order-taker at Mission Street Food. Anthony has mentioned how surprised we've been by the popularity of the truck, but as the person out front talking to people, I also want to let you know how much I've enjoyed the feeling of community out there on Thursdays.
Last night, we started using names to call out the orders, and I think that's when it really hit me that I've been meeting a lot of wonderful people. As some of you may have guessed, I don't normally work in food service; in my regular life, I'm a grad student, so I spend a lot of time alone with my books, and it's been a real joy to talk with so many new people.
We've had a lot of favors done for us this month (our friends have cooked with Anthony in the truck, bought more ice for the cooler, run to our apartment for more post-its, and on and on), but above all I want to thank everyone for making it fun. You have made me love San Francisco even more than usual.

Open Tonight

It looks like another beautiful day, and we will be at 21st and Mission at 8, with more flatbreads than ever.

Week Three: Brownies, Brie, and Benton's Bacon

Thanks for your continued support. As usual, there were some obstacles to overcome while starting up for the night. Among other things, the deep fryer fell and broke, so the pre-warmed oil was lost. Anyway, sorry if it took us a little while to get rolling--we're still happily amazed to see so many people enjoying our food.

It was particularly gratifying to see so many of you take a chance on the brownies with brie. We thought we'd hear a lot of requests to omit the cheese, so we didn't bring a ton of it--but next week, the brownies will be filthy with brie.

Also next week, we're switching to Benton's Bacon, notable for its intensely smoky flavor. Benton's:Regular Bacon :: Bacon:Pork.

A Few Adjustments

Mission Street Food had another busy night in its second week. We got a little faster, but we also had more people, so the line was still pretty long. I’ve come up with some ideas for speeding things up, and I’m looking forward to trying them out next week. I think we can shorten the wait time by 50%, but given that we’ve been opening the door to a line of 30+ people, it seems like some waiting may be unavoidable, especially early on. Incidentally, wait times were under 10 minutes after 10:30.

Overall, this is uncharted territory, and maybe part of the fun is the “only-in-the-Mission” feeling. So thanks for your patience and enthusiasm for the food. I also want to make a few menu-related announcements:

a. in response to positive feedback, we’re going to make the Asian Pear Slaw a semi-permanent offering.

b. The potatoes in the King Trumpet will be a little less salty in the future (so feel free to add bacon).

c. I wasn’t fully satisfied with the cookies baked earlier in the day, so next week the dessert will be brownies (hopefully involving molten chocolate).

Pictures from Week Two: Asian Pear Slaw and more cookies

Opening Night

Thanks to everyone who came and withstood a long wait and sorry to anyone who came after we sold out.

I will definitely be ready next Thursday night, and I will try to post weekly updates here, so you can be sure that we'll be open.

See you Thursday night at 21st and Mission.

Guest Cook Proposal Form

If you are interested in being a guest chef at Mission Street Food, please email us with the information below at missionstreetfood@gmail.com.

As a guest chef, you should buy your own ingredients and prep 3-4 dishes on your own, with some exceptions (both to the number of dishes and the amount of help we can provide). Same-day prep can be done at our kitchen, but as much prep as possible should be done in advance and presumably in a commercial kitchen. Money earned from your dish will be yours to keep, less 20% for shared costs. For example, if you sell 50 orders of a $10 dish, you will receive $400 to cover your time and food costs and we will use the other $100 to pay for overhead. We will staff the front of the house and will also have one or more cooks available if you need help serving your dishes. We will donate our profits to charity and you can decide whether or not to donate a portion of your proceeds to a charity of your choosing.

Creativity is encouraged, and our typical menu items are substantive small plates. Please refer to our blog for an example of past menu items and prices. Also bear in mind that the kitchen will be shared and that space and time are often limited, so your dishes should have a fairly quick and/or easy pick-up. The kitchen has four small burners, three deep fryer baskets, a wok, another pot of boiling water on a wok burner and a small oven (can fit a 6" hotel pan or half sheet).

Name:
Phone:
Email:
Preferred Dates (Thursdays and Saturdays): (1) (2) (3)
Cooking Experience (briefly):
Proposed Dishes:
Questions/Comments: