I think this Mission Street Food thing is working out pretty nicely.  The food is proving to be creative and delicious (more on that in a minute,) but it’s the idea and driving ideology behind it that get me really excited.  They starting taking volunteers on the website, and in doing so, are really expanding MSF from an event into a platform.  They describe as being “part of an indie cooking movement that will let talented cooks reach the public without the risks of opening a conventional restaurant.”

The first participant in this incubator is Chef Tia Harrison, who served up a great meal in the weekly home of Mission Street Food, Lung Shan.  

 

 

 

“The Dirty South Cleans Up Pretty Good” was the theme of the night, and the staffed was dressed in kind.  The drinks really set the stage: 40s and sweet tea and soju. 

 

    

 

We settled into dinner, and ordered.  On good authority, we got a double order of the beignets.  The dining room was dark, lit mostly with candles.  So after dinner, they graciously let me sneak into the kitchen and snap off a few pictures as dishes went out the door. In the back, Chef Tia was busily cooking her menu, and Chef Anthony assembled his PBQs and desserts in a side room. 

 

 

 

 

As for the food, the first thing to arrive was the PBQ – Kurobuta Berkshire Pork Belly with Quince-onion sauce, potato salad and slaw on fresh homemade flatbread.

 

 

 

The idea that started this project continues to be a winner. The creamy potatoes contrasted wonderfully against crunchy pork, and ummm… paired nicely with a Miller High Life. 

 

 

 

The Smoked Duck Beignets with sheep’s milk cheese (quadrato perfette) cherry shallot compote was crispy, and compute below was just perfectly sweet enough not to overwhelm the cheese. This was one of my favorites for the night.  The double order was a necessary call.

Then a quick succession of bowls filled our table: shrimp and grits, dirty rice, mustard greens, and a braised lamb shank. (Bitter greens?  Braised lamb? Tia, are you reading my blog?)  Everything was delicious.

 

  

  

 

Our 40′s empty, we turned our attention to dessert, and one of the surprising highlights of the meal: Butter fried cornbread with buttermilk panacotta, honey and candied sage. The crumbly-but-tender cornbread combined with a very soft pannacotta to remind of a middle eastern desert. 

 

 

 

After dinner we paid our bill at the cash only register and I ducked into the kitchen to thank them for a meal and snap a few pictures. In the cramped confines of the chinese kitchen, they were busily firing dishes while the regular Chinese staff hung out in the background. I caught a fish stew on it’s way out to a table.  It was the one dish I didn’t try – and I guess there is no next time for any of these dishes. I suppose that’s part of the excitement of it – it’s all so temporary, and gone tomorrow. 

 

   

 

Outside, the crowd had swelled to a pretty decent size, and I imagine the wait for a table was over an hour.  Mission Street Food appears to be a bona fide hit in it’s new, post-taco truck incarnation.  The questions is, will it work as a platform, idea lab and creative space?

I think it’ll remain to be seen.  How these experimentations will translate into new restaurants and dishes at existing menus will take time.  But for tonight’s southern incarnation, it’s a place serving serious food in a particularly unpretentious atmosphere. If the local chef community takes hold of the idea, the crowds in front indicate that the Mission is happy to be their guinea pigs. 

Tags: 40, mission street food, MSF

This entry was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 6:59 am and is filed under Reviews, Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.