Mission Mission

I saw this inside Escape from NY right next to less-interesting memorabilia from the likes of Led Zeppelin and Peggy Bundy.

So aside from “She sells tamales to drunks” and “everyone is hella chill with that” we also know that the Tamale Lady appreciates her fans and has poor penmanship. But I want to know more. Does she have kids? Does she pay taxes? Was “tamale lady” ever “tamale girl”?

I guess if you have 20 minutes to spare you can get the full scoop about Virginia (that’s her name, dude) from that documentary on youtube. Yeah, it’s a couple of years old and we sorta covered it before, but it could use some more views. Especially if crap like the Grape Lady falling down and apparently ripping out her trachea is almost up to 5 million.

Hey film school readers, can you please do a doc on Omer the guitar guy next? Thanks.

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This post is completely unrelated to the Underground Railroad; however, you can click the above image to learn about these unique 19th-century slave escape routes.

Broke-Ass Stuart points us to ForageSF‘s Underground Farmers Market, tonight from 5-11 p.m. at 2755 Bryant Street.  Local vendors will be gathering to hawk their delicious wares.  Who’ll be there, per the site:

forageSF: Acorn flour, fresh wild mushrooms, wild fennel seeds, huckleberry jam, wild Blackberry jam, and CSF gift certificates
HeartBaker: Makes some amazing baked goods
Slow Jams: Great homemade jam
Will Schrom: Homemade sarsparilla (maybe the best soda you’ve ever tasted)
Captain Blankenship: Soaps and salves
Kelsey: Gingerbread houses
Garden Fare: Edible garden gift boxes
The Golden Crust: Pies, pies, pies
The Girl From Empanada:  Homemade empanadas
Lauren & Jon Bowne: Homemade Jewish deli fare (think corned beef, not gefilte fish)
Five Flavors Herbs: Wild foraged tinctures

Yum!  There’ll be homebrew, too, and some live music.  Sounds pretty decent.

miss burritos.  (via meixellient.)

In other news, I’m still hella jetlagged.

Hey, now! Tablehopper tells me Front Porch is doing lunch now, Wednesday through Friday.  Delightful!

According to their website, the menu includes fried oysters, slow roasted meat po’ boy of the day, catfish, and seasonal veggie po’boys.

No more waiting for a table at Brenda’s for two hours for some gumbo, dudes.  Well, at least not Wednesday through Friday.

[Image from San Francisco Days]

Here’s the gchat Allan and I just had regarding tonight’s Mission Street Food menu.  We type in all caps like your Internet-savvy granny:

Kat: ALLAN HERE IS THE MENU FOR TONIGHT’S SHOW

http://blog.missionstreetfood.com/2009/12/vegan-night-for-western-addition-senior.html

PEAR SALAD IS OPENING

I DONT THINK CACAO AND BANANA HANDPIE WILL GO ON UNTIL 10 OR SO

Allan: I WAS REALLY INTO VEGAN BURGER FLATBREAD BACK WHEN I LIVED AT CLOYNE

Kat: I LIKE THEIR EARLY WORK BUT THEY SORT OF LOST ME LATER ON

GUESS YOU COULD SAY THEY FELL FLAT

Allan: BUT SERIOUSLY ANTHONY’S SESAME AVOCADO BROWN RICE IS LIKE MY FAVORITE THING ON EARTH

Kat: YOU HAD ME AT MUSHROOM DUMPLINGS IN MISO

P.S. We have no idea whether MSF is still cool, so please let us know.  Will tonight be a shit show?

In case you missed the post from the other day, bags of brew are all the rage in China these days.  For seventy two US cents, you can knock back 5 beers in a Chris Daly disapproved receptacle.  Since I know you all were curious how the hell you drank from these, you’re supposed to impale your beer with a straw and share with friends.  Beyond the style points, the real benefit of this setup is that you have a place to put your vomit in afterwards.  Bag o’ Brew: where have you been all my life?

Anyways, since this isn’t a blog about China, you can follow all the oriental action on the other blog that I otherwise never have a reason to update and no one reads in general.

P.S. – When I get back to the Mission, I want to open a bar that only serves beer in plastic bags.  Good idea / bad idea?

Oh shit, son! It’s getting hella steamy inside Cha-Ya tonight. If the vegetarian Japanese restaurant is a-rockin’ don’t come knockin’!

Btw as a representative of the Asian culture I should inform you that in fuedal Japan serving a neighboring family vegetarian sushi was an act of war.

Available now, at Bi-Rite.  ‘Tis the season!

Mission Mission received an email  this morning from Kai Hsing, founder/writer/producer/editor of The Quotidian, an ongoing documentary project that aims to capture how people are finding new ways to create change in their communities.  From Kai:

I thought you should know about our latest story that goes behind the scenes of Mission Street Food, which I know you are familiar with by now. In the video, we not only try to capture what the MSF events are all about, but also visit a couple charitable organizations to see how money donated from the event is being used to benefit the community. Finally, we take a look at how MSF’s charitable model might be replicated in a neighborhood near you, or even elsewhere in the country.

Nice.  Now on with the show:

You can read more here, if so inclined.

San Francisco is awesome because things like Mission Street Food work.  I’m curious to hear about more of these springing up across the country, so if you know a thing, don’t forget to holler.

Impending cilantro disaster at El Farolito.

Somebody should do something. Like you, chick in front of the line over-pronouncing her order en Espanol. Give it a rest, would ya?  You don’t get a discount for successfully utilizing the vosotros tense.