Happy New Year!

Year of the Horse! How to celebrate? Perhaps brunch tomorrow with Rice Paper Scissors at their new permanent home in the Mission! Just look:

Starters

Fried Daikon Cakes – 6
crispy rice cakes made with daikon, Chinese sausage and dried shrimp

Pho Bao – 6
steamed buns filled with beef pho broth, ground beef, scallions, cilantro, and lime

Banh Chung – Tet Sticky Rice Cake – 7
sticky rice with ground pork and mung beans, steamed in banana leaves

Mains

Chicken Xiu Mai Banh Mi – 9
chicken meatballs in a ginger-tomato sauce pate served with housemade mayo, chicken liver pate, cucumbers and cilantro

Pho Ga – Chicken Pho – 13
fresh rice noodles in ginger chicken broth, served with poached chicken, shaved onions, culantro, scallions and lime leaves.

Pho Ga Dac Biet – Special Chicken Pho – 15
same as above plus confit gizzards, quail eggs and chicken feet

Buddha’s Delight – 13
cellophane noodle stir-fry with tofu, shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, lily buds and roasted ginko nuts

Thit Heo Kho – Caramelized Pork and Egg Rice Plate – 13
caramel claypot baby backribs braised in star anise, coconut water and fish sauce, served with a soft egg and broken rice and dua gia.

Banh Bia – 5
Vietnamese mooncake with flaky crust filled with mung beans and a salted egg yolk

Drinks

Jasmine Tea – 3

Vietnamese Iced Coffee – 3
slow-dripped Trung Nguyen coffee with condensed milk

Kumquat Ginger Beer – 3
housemade ginger beer with candied kumquats
Kumquat trees are often used to decorate the house for the Lunar New Year.

Daaaang that is a legit menu! RSVP and invite your friends!

Planet ping pong

I saw this variation on the Ping Pong Nite poster just now and I immediately thought of Planet Hillary. Right?

Planet Hillary:

Regular Hillary:

Regular Ping Pong Nite:

[via Ping Pong Nite]

UPDATE:

Thanks, Helen!

After being closed for literally 1 million years, La Rondalla finally set to reopen

Mission Local reports:

Carlos Barrios and his daughters, Betty and Luna, said Tuesday that the restaurant has passed all its building inspections and is now awaiting clearance from the Health Department.

They expect to be open at the end of February. [link]

Finally! Gosh, whole generations have come and gone, whole industries have boomed and busted — and La Rondalla just laying there dormant. Can’t wait!

That being said, we’ve reported that La Rondalla “is about to reopen” like a million times over the years. Hopefully this time it’s forreal.

The titillating secret messages hidden within Mission street names

Bernalwood, our favorite neighborhood blog, yesterday published a guide to the anagramified secret messages hidden in the names of all the streets up on the hill. Today, we submit that the Mission’s secret messages are even better. Check these out:

Harem Ship = Hampshire
Air Horns = Harrison
Tater = Treat
Shaven Snouts = South Van Ness
Anal Vice = Valencia
Albino = Albion
Red Baron = Dearborn
Carnal S.O.S. = San Carlos
Rod Fail = Florida
Czar Have Sec = Cesar Chavez
Doe Cub = Duboce
Two Hells = Shotwell
Carpet Pest = Capp Street
In Carol = Clarion
Tart Belt = Bartlett
Ably Lamely = Balmy Alley
A Goner = Orange
Lava Road = Alvarado
Pig Deal = Lapidge
Old Sore = Dolores

Highlight the list to see the translations. Killer titillating anagrams, am I right?

[Photo of my friend Carol by American Tripps]

San Francisco’s Restaurant in Anjuna, South India

Serving “lasagna’s, pasta’s, spaghetti, sizzlers” and more. This place looks great and I really wanna go.

Sizzlers??

[via Hanna Quevedo]

A night of chocolate, bacon, booze, loud music, sultry performers and giveaways

Our pal Broke-Ass Stuart is helping throw this multifaceted rager tonight. My New Year’s resolution was to party harder, so I don’t know if I can actually attend this in good conscience, but it sounds like a good time:

- PLEASURABLE SOUNDS (DJs) -
J-Boogie (Om Records)
Richie Panic (Lights Down Low)
DJ Omar Perez (Popscene)
Kimmy Le Funk (Monarch)

- TEMPTING TREATS -
Fera’wyns Artisan Chocolate Tastings
Bacon Bacon Truck
Glen Grant Single Malt Scotch Whisky
- complimentary cocktails from 9-10p (while supplies last)

- SULTRY PERFORMANCES -
Dark Garden Corset Fashion Shows
Circus Artistry from Golden Gate Dolls

- NAUGHTY GIVEAWAYS -
Spin Good Vibrations’ “Wheel of Pleasure”
Giveaways from Crave by Lauren Stewart, Pleasure Ambassador

RSVP and invite your friends!

Epic transit nerdout today on Burrito Justice Radio

Tune in, noon-2pm: BFF.fm

Sky breakers

Our pal Greg S. snapped this shot while riding Caltrain down to work the other day.  Apparently, this phenomenon is referred to as Helmholtz Wave clouds, and while not quite as notorious as the Aurora Borealis, you’ve got to admit that they’re still quite rad.

Driving your car through a BART station

[via Mission Local]

How many kites can these Palestinian children get into the air at the same time?

Our good pal Roger Hill recently came back from the Gaza Strip where he worked with local children to help them create a movie about some of the things they do to cope with the harsh realities they face, and it’s being shown at 7pm this Wednesday night at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts!

Flying Paper is the uplifting story of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip on a quest to shatter the Guinness World Record for the most kites ever flown. It showcases the creative resilience of these children making and flying kites despite the difficult realities they face in their daily lives. The film has been co-produced with young Palestinians in Gaza trained by the filmmakers through a youth media program called Voices Beyond Walls.

http://vimeo.com/flyingpaper/short-trailer

Check out all the details here.