Thursday September 24th: Hunger Challenge Night for the SF Food Bank

Can you eat for just $4 a day?

That's the average amount a Californian on food stamps has to spend on a day's meals.

This week, the San Francisco Food Bank's 2009 Hunger Challenge asks how much one can eat for $1.33 per meal. If there's one thing we like at Mission Street Food, it's a challenge to make tasty cheap food for a good cause. On Thursday the 24th, the ingredients for each item on our menu will cost less than $1.33 to produce. Of course, we need to charge more than that so that we'll have something to give the hungry, so come to Mission Street Food this Thursday to support the Food Bank.

...Or even if you're a heartless wretch who doesn't care about hungry people, you can come to MSF to ease your conscience by seeing just how well you can eat on food stamps (if you buy things super-bulk wholesale and spend all week cooking). Any way you look at it, though, this is a chance to think a little more about the costs--monetary and moral--of hunger.

MENU:

Wedge salad with granny smith, bacon vinaigrette, watercress and farmer's cheese - $6

Hashbrown, egg salad, chimichurri and shaved radish - $6

Seared, oil cured chicken thigh with chicken congee, cured egg, corn, green onion, and chicken cracklins - $9

Braised sausage, kale and white bean gratin, with fried peanuts - $7

King trumpet mushroom with triple fried potato, garlic confit and charred scallion sour cream - $6

Fried catfish with curry leaf grits - $7

Lung Shan's Vegan Delight: shitake and oyster mushroom dumplings in miso soup - $5.5

Butter fried cornbread and buttermilk panna cotta with mint honey- $6

Oatmeal mascarpone creme pies with chamomile milk - $5

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Notes: if you haven't tried it yet, stop by Mission Burger, where you can support the food bank and eat a tasty burger.