Mission Mission

Asked where to get good Chinese in the Mission, Drew answered:

For good Chinese takeout I go to Hung Yuen on 22nd between Bartlett and Valencia. Their trilingual (Chinese-English-Spanish) menu is very amusing, and the food is quite good. You can even watch Hung Granny making the pot stickers by hand.

Link. I’d like to meet this Hung Granny. I think I’ll go right now.

I love the gypsy jazz band, Gaucho. I also love Django Reinhardt. This week I have been commuting to Rohnert Park for a three week summer intensive. Hasn’t been fun. But this morning, I decided to listen to a compilation of Django’s while I daydreamed about the business that I’m planning on opening in the Mission District. And then I remembered how much I love Gaucho, but how I haven’t had time to see their free weekly show at Amnesia. I used to go every week and drink Death & Taxes, and talk about Albert Camus, like I was in a Woody Allen movie. I think I’ll go right now, now that I’m unemployed and broke.

In May, we broke the story of Dolores Burrito, a Mission-style burrito place in Berlin. Our friend Anna was very excietd to hear the news (“OMG!!!!! oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!!!! how excietd am i???? sooooo excited!!”). She finally went:

Well, it was obviously not going to be like a tacotruck burrito … but, they had Anchor Steam!! (if there’s that then maybe there’s sierra somewhere in berlin, too, and then allan would have won yet another bet). Anyway, it was kind of complicated to order – six different steps, but you could get everything from guac to sour cream. Don’t know why they don’t just have a super-burrito option. They have 5 differnt types of spicyness and the most spicy was spicy (rare for German!). The types of meat you can get are not really authentic but everything tasted good. And it’s a little pricey for Berlin. But overall it’s a really cool place to hang out when you get a certain kind of craving and it does fill you up like a taco-truck burrito.

I can’t wait to try this place out! Note: Malcolm M. swears you can’t get Sierra Nevada in Berlin because of German beer purity law, but Allan suspects otherwise, because how can they not have Sierra Nevada?! It’s fucking good!

So if anyone knows of a place where they do…

Previously on Mission Mission:

How to Eat a Mission-Style Burrito

Chopped, Screwed Mariah Carey Video Features El Farolito Chile Relleno Burrito

I don’t know, man. And that website they mention is kind of boring. Zzzzzz.

Photo by hailtothethief21. [via Mr. Saucy explains it all]

Previously on Mission Mission:

Live From New York: Wheatpaste Hillary in an Obama ’08 Hat

The Water Front screens tonight at the Roxie as part of Laborfest‘s International Working Class Film & Video Festival. Some publicist was supposed to drop off a screener, but they didn’t, so here’s the boilerplate:

This powerful film by Liz Miller tells the story of the destruction of Highland Park, Michigan, the birthplace of mass production and good paying union jobs for hundreds of thousands of workers. The destruction of this industrial powerhouse leads to corporate schemes to save the city by privatizing the water system. Homeowners start receiving bills for thousands of dollars and face the shutoff of this basic necessity. Some bills reach $10,000. The film follows Vallory Johnson who turns her anger into organizing a grass roots campaign for affordable water as a basic human right.

The literal criminal destruction of tens of thousands of homes in the Detroit area is a stain on the history of the United States. Obviously there is no oil in Detroit, just human beings.

Link to official site. [via funcheapSF]

Mission Mission pal Michelle D. recently (kind of) went to a concert at Million Fishes Arts Collective:

[I]t has the most intimate, living room feel that i’ve experience in a venue, granted i didn’t stay for the music. i was almost intimidated to go inside, because it felt like i was intruding on a private party, with a smallish crowd murmuring conversations that got absorbed into the couches and the living room aura. perhaps that’s also part of the reason i didn’t stay — i felt like once the music started, it might feel too intimate a setting to be able to relax in anonymity and leave when i so pleased without turning heads.

For the record, Michelle was trying to see Ash Reiter, but Ash had already left the stage by the time she arrived. Anyway, is she right? Is Million Fishes the homiest place to see live music here in our humble purlieu?

Photo courtesy of Million Fishes.

Over at the Free Farm Stand, Tree extends an invitation to one and all to maybe go blackberry picking this weekend:

The black berries on Bernal Hill are ripening and I was thinking of checking them out in more detail and possibly picking them if they are ripe enough on Saturday possibly in the morning. Please contact me if you are interested. I will also harvest plums and loquats in the Secret Garden the same day.

Link. In the same post, Tree also has some interesting things to say about a possible communication breakdown within San Francisco’s urban gardening community. Like why shouldn’t behemoths like Slow Food Nation join with smaller projects like Free Farm Stand or Graze the Roof to form an all-encompassing sustainability superbeast?

Photo by Top-O-Towner.

Previously on Mission Mission:

Who Wants to be an Urban Farming Intern?

Treat Street Treats

Just read that Yum Yum House is closed for good. Never ate there meself, but always liked the signage. Where’s it gonna end up? Anybody else vote for on the wall at Bender’s next to the old Leather Tongue signage?

Photo by Jeremy Brooks.

Update: In the comments, codesmith poses another question…

WTH? First Firecracker and now Yum Yum. Where’s a person to get some half decent Chinese in the neighborhood now?

Titty City’s blog announced today that some company in Seattle made them a line of high-quality Titty City t-shirts. They’re for sale here at the Hamburger Eyes store and maybe at the Photo Epicenter near 24th and Mission too.

Previously on Mission Mission:

KQED Visits Needles + Pens, Reviews Some Zines, Dismisses Blogs as Less Special

Mule Design’s Re-Elect Clay Davis Shirt

Not that Beretta needs more praise (just today it was singled out as the New York Times’ most egregious omission in its weekend Valencia Street feature) but we finally did pay a visit late last week. Katie had asked Mission Mission readers for advice (Beretta: Hype or the Real Deal?), and she got a hearty response.

Many made clear that the cocktail menu is the star of the show, and it was commenter Johnny0 that mentioned the Improved Whiskey by name. Great name, and it lived up to it. Rye, absinthe and some other stuff, dry as can be. If you like whiskey, be sure to get yourself an Improved Whiskey. Thanks for the tip, Johnny.

We’re pretty sure all the food was good. The staff was efficient. The decor was fine despite being deficient one fountain. We also had an Italian lager we’d never heard of called Menabrea. Menabrea has a funny website.