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Back-to-back nights at Mission Chinese Food
By Jennifer 8. Lee | September 22, 2010
Went to Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco two nights in a row when I was in San Francisco. Upscale Chinese in a downscale setting, which has been getting a lot of attention. It’s cohabitating with Lung Shan, an old school Chinese restaurant. It’s like a hermit crab, living in someone else’s shell, except the other folks are still living there.
Definitely worth going to. Heavy Sichuan and Western Chinese influence. Lots of cumin, lamb, coriander and hot peppers. Very fresh. Justin Osofsky (who was a national high school debate champion, I remembered recently) mentioned it to me.
Here is the storefront, not worth looking at.
Inside they have a Christmas light decor thing going. Which is interesting. I kind of like doing lights like that at home. It’s great also, we were always able to get a table.
A vegan mushroom wonton soup in miso.  $5 for four wontons. My friend loved it so much, she ordered two.
Lamb + greens + Shanghai noodle and coriander. “Tingly lamb noodle soup.” Not sure where the tingle was supposed to come from, but it was very good.
Fried chicken wings buried in peppers and jalepenos. Not availble for delivery, not sure why. Maybe they grow soggy.
Sizzling cumin lamb with stream beans. The first shots of this were foggy beause of all the sizzling steam. Would have preferred the onions to be cooked more to bring out that oniony goodness.
Char siu pork belly with noodles. Preferred the second night when they did a crispy thing to the skin. (more coriander!)
Danny Bowien, one of the chefs and co-founder. From Oklahoma originally. Not Chinese, Korean adoptee.
Ma po tofu. Very nice and fresh.
Beef cheek. Slow cooked. Totally never knew what I was missing. Why isn’t there more beef cheek used in cooking?
I assume this was the tiger salad with seaweed and peashoots we ordered, though the description had nothing about the summer roll-style skins. (The coriander continues its hegemonic role)
Cold tofu with a lot going on. White beans on top were eh.
Anthony Myint, other founder.
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