Mission Mission

What’s better than an afternoon of enjoying guacamole? Nothing. There is none a better social option between the hours of 2pm and 5pm on this particular Saturday in September.

Guacamole. It’s made with avocados, lime, bacon, excitement, tomatoes, onion, cilantro, love, and several dozen other food companions. It’s the tastiest green dish to eat on a Saturday with a beer, and sharing it is a proven way to make good friends, better. This Saturday, we’ll eat as much guac as we possibly can consume. We’ll laugh, listen to festive music, and devour what is assuredly sure to be a outstanding interpretations of the word ‘guacamole.’ The winner to be crowned with the guacamole glory trophy, bragging rights until next Indian summer, the title of official “Guacamole of San Francisco”, and a kickass prize!

So if you think that you’re guacamole has what it takes to be crowned champion, or if you simply enjoy guacamole & good weather, go sign up! We’ll provide the chips!

Details from the competition’s are located at the appropriated titled website guacamole.expert.

Check out these other wonderful guacamole related posts!

-Chris Bunting

Sidewalk seating, beer and wine, Southern fare, lunch and dinner and brunch? Sounds good to me. Eater SF reports:

Housed in a 1,200-square-foot space, Buttermilk will feature an open kitchen and 49 seats in-house, plus additional sidewalk seating. In keeping with the character of the neighborhood, De Ocampo stresses that entrees will be affordable, with nothing over $18, and most dishes averaging about $15. “Our business model is honest food, affordable prices,” he told us. “We’re not trying to price anyone out.” [link]

They’re located kitty corner from the beleaguered Local’s Corner restaurant, is maybe why he’s stressing that point. (Although he should be fine since he didn’t name it “Local’s Buttermilk,” right?)

[Photo by Google Maps]

In the comments section of our post over the weekend about Taqeuria Cancun being in possible danger of eviction, an interesting discussion has developed. Commenter Chris says:

La Taqueria, La Cumbre are 2 examples of popular taquerias that had foresight to buy their buildings. They are here to stay.

To which small donkey responds:

That’s a funny pair. La Taqueria has stayed awesome, maybe even gotten awesomer over the years. So you’d say that owning the building has freed them to focus on making good carne asada.

La Cumbre has really gone to shit — it used to be really good 20 years ago. Now it’s all meat dried out and not tasty, poorly steamed tortillas, and the staff doesn’t appear to give a crap. So maybe owning the building has freed the owners to sit home running the numbers on their exhilarating property appreciation while the business becomes no sabroso.

Hmmmm. It’s like these two taquerias are trying to tell us something about the human condition or something.

[Photos by Google Maps]

I don’t mean to be too alarmist — chances are, no landlord would be dumb enough to dump a beloved landmark like Cancun — but this news is a bit alarming. Eater SF reports:

Taqueria Cancun may be in danger of disappearing. Co-owner Gerardo Rico says that Cancun’s flagship 19th and Mission location has been without a lease for more than a year after the death of their longtime landlord, and is currently going month-to-month until the landlord’s family decides what to do with the space. Asked what would happen to Cancun, he responded, “Who knows?” [link]

[Photo by Chenoa LeBlanc]

Note to self: since this week’s hot dog stunt was so popular, liveblog eating a 3-day-old leftover That’s It Torta Cubana sometime soon.

[via Lucky Peach on Tumblr, a really good Tumblr]

They’re taking over the El Zocalo space, right on Mission Street, a little closer to the Mision. It’ll be bigger, and it’ll have a bigger menu too. Bernalwood, which claims this new Emmy’s location will complete the Bernal/La Lengua Liminal Zone ”Bermuda Triangle of Yum,” has the scoop:

Restauranteur Emmy Kaplan, a native of the neighborhood and a fixture in the local culinary scene since opening her original location 13 years ago, is excited about both expanding the restaurant’s square footage as well as helping preserve the character of the neighborhood by remaining at the juncture of the Mission and Bernal Heights.

“The current location of the Shack is over capacity, the lines are long and we’re constantly turning away large parties,” says Kaplan. “I’m really looking forward to sharing more of what we love with the people who love us with more legroom for our regulars and new friends as well.”

Yeah I popped in at about 8:30 last night and there were five parties waiting ahead of me. On a Tuesday! (So I went to PizzaHacker.)

Read on for lots more on Emmy’s, and what’s happening with El Zocalo.

Late Saturday night my buddy Malcolm bought nine bacon-wrapped hot dogs for a party of four people, only two of which were actually hungry. I ate half of one and took another to go. I popped it in the fridge and forgot about it until just now. And now I’m hungry.

Let’s talk logistics: I’ve got a can of Tecate and a bag of maple-bacon Kettle Chips on the side, and a vintage KronnerBurger placemat/menu in case there’s any spillage. And I’m listening to the Gooch Palms album for moral support.

I’ll update this post as the project progresses. Okay here I go…

UPDATE (12:54): All the fixins’! Looks not too bad. Smells great! Feels real cold, fresh from the fridge.

UPDATE (12:58): First bite! Tastes great! Plenty of mayo, which is a must. Cold hot dog basically tastes like bologna, as you know. Not bad! Into it!

Yum! It even looks good!

DAMN, the Gooch Palms rule! You should read my post about them from over the weekend in case you missed it.

UPDATE (1:01): Uh oh, a momentary twinge of heartburn!

UPDATE (1:03): First bite of jalapeno! Still nice and hot!

UPDATE (1:04): I’ve got two likes on my Instagram post about this undertaking, and two comments, one of which, from my pal Christina, who always tells it like it is, is: “Gross tho.” Yup!

I’m really glad I’ve got this Tecate.

UPDATE: (1:06): Just kidding, I’m totally loving this. I’m really surprised the bun is totally intact. Virtually zero sog. Even though there is a LOT of mayo (and other sauces and vegetable-related moisture), none of it got into the bun! Science!

UPDATE (1:08): The heartburn comes and goes.

The maple-bacon Kettle Chips pairing was unplanned, I just happened to have them lying around, but it’s pretty good. Contrasting the savory bacon dish with the sweeter bacon dish is fun.

UPDATE (1:09): I just burped! And man, it was a big one!!

UPDATE (1:13): The burp cleared out plenty of room for my to finish the rest of the dog. Here’s proof I’m almost done:

UPDATE (1:15): I had to spit out some inedible bacon gristle, no big deal. About to take that last bite!

UPDATE (1:16): Taking the final bite as, appropriately, the Gooch Palms beautiful album closer “Don’t Cry” plays. Yum! Swallowed it and burped again!

Okay, I did it! No ill effects really. I can’t believe it took me a whole 31-minute album to eat a hot dog, but whatever. Seriously, listen to this album, it’s on Spotify and stuff.

I guess I’ll update again if there’s any blowback, but I don’t anticipate any.

Thanks for your support!

I was at a party in a backyard yesterday and I watched five people in a row (myself included) eat a Casa Chicas organic yellow tortilla chip and immediately go, “Daaaaamn, what kind of chip was that??” They were really good. You can get them at Rainbow Grocery.

Our pal Jess is on a mission. I thought I was doing pretty good with the $8 toast I found in LA. But Jess found some $9.50 toast. (She’s in Australia.) And now this:

To be fair, I added the haloumi which was $4, so technically it was $14.50.

To be fair, $18.50 AUS is $17.23 US. Looks like great toast! Thanks, Jess!

Fucking beautiful right? Mmmm.

[via Tegan]