You're A Wolf

Alice and I finally tried MSF's latest venture - lunchtime burgers served out of a corner in Duc Loi supermarket. After walking past the beautiful swan squash, Kern's horchata, and bottles of Mad Housewife, we patiently awaited our fried chicken sandwich and beef burger.

Now friends, this is no Bakesale Betty fried chicken. It's difficult to tell from the photo (greasy hands) but it ended up being exactly like the fried taro balls you can find at most dim sum restaurants. Kind of furry and full of oil, this sandwich was overwhelmed by the friedness and we could barely taste the chicken. We both regretted eating our entire halves after the meat sweats began.

However, Mission Burger was more than redeemed by its true star, the burger. Different cuts of meat from Harris Ranch were ground into a very coarse and perfectly molded patty. I don't think I've ever had a burger with such a coarse grain, but perhaps it's to maintain the integrity of the meat (who knows, it's SF).* The caramelized onions had a good amount of char on them which gave a lot of flavor, but almost overpowered the meat. As a whole however, the burger was delicious and I wish I had gotten only that.

We capped off the meal with a cookies n cream cookie from Anthony's Cookies. $1 is a bit steep for a small cookie, but hey there are bills to pay.

* Their explanation: "granulation is our term for the process popularized by Heston Blumenthal, a michelin 3-star chef based in London. Blumenthal combines strands of ground meat to create a loosely grained 'meat column' (not Blumenthal's phrase), then slices the column into patties. The result is, well, a delicacy."

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Rumpus!

Empanadas from El Porteno while waiting for wild things (chicken and cheese were our favorites)

Tanto, a nontraditional izakaya (I prefer Oyaji): simmered sea urchin w/ egg, roasted rice balls w/ roe

Chili/slaw burger at Five; bad choice of platter.


PI flood relief: Brazilian coconut stew that tasted like Thai curry, chicken + waffles from Little Skillet (I don't know what spices they used, but combined with the syrup, I swear this tasted like peanut butter).


Brisket from Bakesale Betty (pre-stuffed with chips), view of the bay

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Maybe Tomorrow

* Update 09Jul09: no tomato salad today (corn salad). Ryan Farr is up and running - chicken beer sausage -- best part was perfect toasted bun:dog ratio. Namu lines are getting longer than Tacolicious....

A few months ago I posted about the new Thursday market at the Ferry Building, something I've been looking forward to. Well, last week it finally came, and what an unexpected clusterfk it was! Eight word reaction: Ferry Building "street food" with Ferry Building prices. Apparently, Daily Candy was the primary source of the yuppie mob (I didn't know people actually still considered it relevant) and Tacolicious was the unfortunate target. I felt so terrible for them because they were clearly unprepared for the unending line, and the gusts of wind kept blowing their tickets away. I was one of the many victims of the lost tickets, and had to wait patiently as they scrambled around their tent.

The tacos were street-size, but the filling was pretty skimpy for $3.50/taco. I would only consider getting the short ribs again (mmm cola-braised) but I'm not sure I would wait in the ridic line for those prices. Maybe once they smooth things out.

Saturday's most popular truck, Roli Roti, was serving up some steak sandwiches (no porchetta, unfortunately) which were a little too chewy... should've been cut into smaller pieces. Their simple tomato salad was the highlight of the entire market -- fresh basil and cleanly dressed in olive oil and a little salt. Really the epitome of summer produce! No frills needed when you have tomatoes that sweet.

Namu's booth had prices more reasonable than their restaurant. Okonomiyaki - at $7 (still overpriced), it could've used a lot more filling/seafood, since it was mostly batter. "The real Korean 'tacos'" were the best deal, but were pretty much just ssam using nori, so don't expect a Kogi rival here. They tasted great, but the signage was a bit patronizing. They ran out of kimchi fried rice even before the peak lunch hour began, but it was fine with me since I didn't need to spend $8 on a cup of that.

With all that said, Thursdays have great promise once they work out the kinks. Tacolicious, please put weights on your tickets. Namu, please lower your prices or justify them by giving more food or more value in the amount of protein you put in your dishes. I'm excited to see what/who else will join the market, but in the mean time, I think I'll let the crowds die down a little. Or not. See you Thursday?

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The Animal Taco: A Dream, Realized

Awhile ago, Curtis mentioned the idea of animal style tacos. Well, that day has finally come! Seeing as there's only one In N Out in SF (Fisherman's Wharf), our plan of attack was to grab some carne asada tacos (plain, just meat + tortilla) at a nearby taqueria, then pile the goods on - cheese, grilled onions, and thousand island - while the tacos were still hot. Well, things didn't exactly go as planned.

First of all, the closest taco shops were all closed since we were scouting after 11pm, so I decided to drive towards the Mission until we found something. As expected, the Columbus/Broadway intersection delivered, and I waited patiently in my car in front of a strip club while Curtis popped in next door.

Our second obstacle was getting the "animal style," in quotes as the noun form. After patiently waiting in the long line of drunkards, the cashier wouldn't let us get animal fries minus the fries, even after explaining our glorious plan. Thus, we just ordered 2 fries and hoped the cheese wouldn't set too quickly.

Once they called our number Curtis immediately began transferring the "animal style" onto the tacos. He is obviously not a food blogger because he wouldn't wait for me to take a picture! Unfortunately, the cheese was already congealed and stuck onto the fries, so we made half of them California animal tacos (think California burrito).

And?? The verdict: epic drunken food. Too bad we weren't drunk. Curtis was quite the opposite, and already stuffed with San Tung chicken wings. The California version was much better, really just because of the cheese. It would've been perfect had we gotten the tacos topped with "animal style" directly, but we just had to work with what we could get. Super super heavy (as expected), but regardless, mission accomplished!

We got a lot of stares, and only one group asked us what we were eating, but I imagine that this would be really popular if a late-night taqueria opened up next door. One can dream.

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Salumi Cycle

On my way back from Crocker, I passed by the Boccalone bike (or salumi cycle, if you prefer that alliteration). I walked by at exactly 12:30pm and there was already a line about 30-deep. I also noticed people loitering at different corners of the intersection about 15 min before. I would've been one of them if I was in the mood for a prosciutto panini.

The bike is cute!

Photo from their twitter.

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SAVE THE DATE

Umm, can you say YESSSSSSSSSS

Start it up: July 2 is a red letter date for the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. It marks the premiere of a new permanent Thursday market that will focus on sustainable street food. The market will be open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on the south side of the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

The theme is "sustainable street food meets the best local produce," says spokeswoman Christine Farren of CUESA, the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture, which operates the Ferry Plaza markets.

There will be a handful of farm stands, including Dirty Girl and Swanton Berry Farm, along with food trucks and carts that will use ingredients from market vendors. Prepared food will come from Ryan Farr's 4505 Meats, Laiola, Pizza Politana, RoliRoti and Cap'n Mike's.

via sfgate

This makes me really happy. You know where I'll be on Thursdays!

Also, as a brief update to the street food craze, I checked out the creme brulee cart, and it's actually really good! I was surprised that the burly street merchant could achieve such delicate, smooth texture ha. His broham, however, was super slow and took like 30 min to serve up 5 plates of curry. I will have to go back another time. You can also add Little Skillet to the list! The French guy with the frog legs doesn't appeal to me though. French take-out is nothing new, anyway.

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Kitchenette SF

While I'm at it, I will continue my lunch posts. A few weeks ago I found myself in the Dogpatch to pick up some hydrangeas from the generous Nancy Liu Chin. I rarely venture to that neighborhood despite frequenting other parts of Potrero, so I surprised myself by remembering that Kitchenette was only a few blocks away (probably because I had written this post only a few days before).

I remembered that it was in a garage of some sort, but I really didn't imagine a large warehouse space near shipping/loading areas. It almost felt like some parts of meatpacking in new york... very industrial, but in a more down-to-earth creative/craftsmanship sorta way. I digress. Food was tasty (super super buttery/oily reuben, but yummy). The menu changes daily, but I doubt I will be returning any time soon. They only operate M-F for lunch... and it's super far from Financial, and not a place I would go out of my way for. If I ever have to get more flowers, I will definitely stop by.

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Just You Wait

This post is dedicated to Curtis. With all this taco-truck-fusion insanity, especially in LA, why not make a good thing better? Animal style tacos anyone?

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Bandwagon (bandcart?)

Good grief this food cart thing is getting ridiculous. Street food, food carts, street vendors... whatever you want to call it... this type of food has been lacking in SF, a thought that I've mentioned before and have felt for a long time (long before MSF came around). The concept is obviously nothing new, and if you ever go to other big cities (outside of LA), you'll see non-taco-truck food vendors everywhere.

Well, it's finally happened. I'm sure the recession has a lot to do with this sudden surge (less money = people want cheaper food, people can't afford renting restaurant space, people need extra cash, etc), and maybe the whole immediacy of the twitter craze, but I think the bigger influence is MSF. I just hope this fad is about serving good food, and not just about being hip and catering to the Dolores Park scene. If only! I'm sure there will be plenty more popping up around the city, but here's the running list:

Magic Curry Kart
Creme Brulee Cart
Amuse Bouche Guy (this guy doesn't have any permits = Amuse Douche? har har that was cleverrr)
*Correction* Apparently none of these guys have permits, and there's also a spring roll guy now.

Non-cart "street food"
John's Snack and Deli: I actually ate here a few days ago*, and eater finally got word today
Kitchenette
Kasa (it's been around for awhile and actually is a restaurant, but they've been having special street food nights featuring different regions of India)

* John's Snack and Deli has been around Financial for awhile, serving up "home-cooked" Korean food for cheap, like dok boki, bibimbap, etc. After LA's Kogi cart exploded, John and wife followed suit and started making kimchi burritos and tacos. I had both (pictured above), and let's just say that it wasn't for me. I haven't tried LA's Kogi, but I'm going to assume it's better than this. Don't get me wrong, John's Snack and Deli is great, but I don't think kimchi and cheese mix very well.

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Mission Street Food: Take 2

My second visit to Mission Street Food was for Ryan Farr's (Orson, Fifth Floor) guest menu. If you ever take a look at his blog, it's filled with detailed photos of how-tos, mostly involving meat. Vegans, stay away!

We got there a little before 7pm and waited about 10 minutes. When we left after 8pm, there were seriously crowds outside. Ridiculous! The menu was fun - a little beef tongue, some pork rinds, some fried-ness... not very diet-friendly, but just about everything was quite tasty. No dessert - none of us were very interested in the 2 options. Plus, the food was so heavy we probably wouldn't have been able to eat it even if we tried!

Photos (courtesy of Gigi) and details of our meal after the jump!

We started off with the chicharrones, nicely fried and melt-in-your-mouth. We all pretty much agreed that the "spicy dip" didn't do it for us - tasted a little too much like Panda Express sweet and sour sauce, which really made us feel like we were eating Chinese shrimp chips. The sausage w/ the persimmon/brussel sprout salad was a bit lackluster... didn't have much flavor.

The buttermilk fried cauliflower w/ carrot aioli (not pictured) was a really great vegetarian dish. Alice thought it was too heavy, but I really liked how meaty it tasted. It was also seasoned very well. The mushroom flatbread was a table favorite, where the consensus was that the wrap was very similar to a Chinese spring onion pancake (I'm not sure how I would spell that phonetically... tsong yo bing?).

This was my first time having lengua (same with Alice and Stacy), and it was really not what I expected. The texture was a lot like normal beef, except it had a gamey/almost livery aftertaste. Not bad at all. The accompanying pork belly rice was very comfort-foody, especially with the slightly runny yolk of the fried egg tying it all together. The terrine was probably the biggest disappointment. It tasted a bit too much like the CCA's buffet of mediocre meat jellos. Was not a fan, sorry.

Overall, we had a great meal. The prices weren't as mind-boggling cheap as last time, but at $14 a person (without drinks or dessert) it ain't bad at all. Let's see what they come up with next!

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Mission-Street-Food

After weeks of waiting (Alice!), I finally made it out to this fairly new Thursday nights only pop-up restaurant, no longer a Mission Street-Food taco truck. Now Mission-Street Food, the team has been using this Chinese restaurant between 18th + 19th the last 2 Thursdays (they will be closed the rest of November). At first I was hesitant about the move away from the fun and laid back appeal of the taco truck, but the whole pop-up concept worked out just fine. The only real advantage from the customer's point of view is not having to brown-bag it. You can still BYOB, or get one of theirs for a buck.

Tan and I shared 4 of the 5 available dishes, where the one we didn't try was a vegetarian version of the smoked rice. The smoked rice had a very nice char flavor - I normally don't like smoked things, but it was also seasoned well which brought out other flavors so it wasn't just concentrated on the smoke. The coconut curry soup was my fave - very rich, lots of depth, and just really tasty.

The week's special was a rare beef and glass noodles app, served with fried lotus chips. It wasn't really what I expected - instead of the traditional thinly sliced pieces of raw beef, we got ground meat, like a steak tartare. It was OK - pretty basic. I think it needed some (or more?) acid.

The PBJ (pork belly + jicama wrap), their signature thus far, was actually disappointing for me. Maybe because there was a lot of hype around that dish so my expectations were high... but I just didn't like my pieces of meat. They were overcooked - dry and almost completely fried fat. I know pork belly is all about the fat, but it shouldn't taste like fat - it should taste like yummy pork goodness, which it didn't. I'm sure if I got better pieces of meat it would've tasted better, so it isn't just about execution.

Overall, the food was good - comfortable and in a relaxed environment. It didn't blow my mind, but this type of food isn't necessarily supposed to. And for $9? Yes, that's right. HELLZYEAH I'm going back!

P.S. Sorry for the horrible photo - it was REALLY dark in there and I don't like using flash in restaurants. That's the best one I had (soup + rice).

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