Lunch with Chowzter at Mission Chinese (San Francisco, CA)

In anticipation of the Chowzter Global Awards in London this week, I thought I'd blog about the lunch I had with them in San Francisco (where Langer's #19 won the Tastiest Fast Feast for North America).
Our big group went over to the recently popular Mission Chinese Food - too early, they haven't even opened yet when we arrived. Being bloggers, we just took photos outside and studied the menu until they open. Mission Chinese had taken over the Lung Shan space, where they used to do pop ups, and they left the old sign.

Throw a bunch of out of town bloggers here and we will end up ordering the whole menu x 3, pretty much ... Of course, we had to try the popular Chongqing Chicken Wings ($11)

The crispy chicken wings were buried in peppers! As good as they were, the most surprising and addictive component of the dish was the crunchy tripe slices scattered at the bottom.

You can take a break from all the spiciness and tingly feeling the chicken wings left you with dishes like Tiki Pork Belly (in soy caramel, mandarin, pickled pineapple, shaved coconut, macadamia nuts - $10). And a tiki umbrella, natch.

The pork belly was rather sweet. It may be too sweet on its own, but how wonderful to have it after all the Szechuan peppers.

Danny Bowien didn't completely cover up his non-Chinese origin in his menu, as you can see with his mashup of Kung Pao Pastrami (with peanuts, celery, potato, and chili - $12)

There's also Schmaltz Rice on the menu, though we didn't try it.

Another non-spicy dish turned out to be one of my favorites. Silky and briny squid ink flat noodles are topped with tender lamb meat. Lamb broth is served on the side for dipping. Combining squid ink with gamey meat may sound too much for some, but I absolutely loved it.

We tried so many other dishes that day, though unfortunately many of my photos were blurry. The rice noodles with peanut sauce and tofu skin were amazing, but the mapo tofu fell flat. The cumin lamb ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender. We had a great time at Mission Chinese trying all the different dishes. Don't complain about it not being authentic - the food is great, and that's all that matters.

Mission Chinese Food
2234 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-2800
http://www.missionchinesefood.com/