Mission Mission

As Allan mentioned, I’m in Vietnam this week.

You would love it. It’s 90 degrees now. There are more $2 multi-colored fake Ray Bans than you can handle. Dudes just walk up to you on the street with them. Seriously, I buy two more pairs every time I leave the hotel. The pho costs about $2.50 and is as ubiquitous as McDonald’s. Banh Mi sandwiches? Like 50 cents. And then there’s the coffee…

Did you know the most expensive coffee in the world comes from Vietnam? This particular coffee goes for hundreds of dollars per pound in the US, but it’s about 10-15 bucks here. But that cute weasel on the package is not a mascot, it’s part of the manufacturing process.

You see, these are beans that have been eaten by a weasel (technically a civet), passed through its digestive system, and roasted. It’s called Kopi Luwak. Wikipedia says:

Coffee cherries are eaten by a civet for their fruit pulp. After spending about a day and a half in the civet’s digestive tract the beans are then defecated in clumps, having kept their shape and still covered with some of the fleshy berry’s inner layers.

And what exactly does that accomplish?

Research by food scientist Massimo Marcone at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada showed that the civet’s endogenous digestive secretions seep into the beans. These secretions carry proteolytic enzymes which break down the beans’ proteins, yielding shorter peptides and more free amino acids.

Whatever you say, science dude. I can attest that the beans are the strongest, richest, most chocolatey coffee I’ve ever smelled. I have not tasted it yet, but I will be bringing some back. Is anyone curious?

Now that you mention it, I can think only of one other type of person that consumes substances that have been passed through anal cavities: a junkie.

Anyone who traverses this segment regularly knows how hectic this connector between the Mission and Potrero Hill can be for cyclists, but it’s so nice to climb this hill every morning that I often take this street even though flatter routes like Harrison are available.  Now, it looks like it will be a little safer for everyone!  I noticed faint outlines last week, but this week it looks like they’ve finally gotten started.  Bike lanes!

Cowabunga Dudes!  Free pizza inside, right?

Sadly, no.  Turtle soup.  Looks like the turtles themselves couldn’t even pass this godforsaken level (can you?).  And that’s even after that blasted damn!

After seeing all of our bloody mary hullabaloo last week, Jessi from Thieves Tavern got in touch to make sure everyone knew that a tasty bloody mary without anchovy paste is being served every Sunday from noon to five (with free pita, chips, and hummus too)!

They’re 6 dollars and really good and spicy…I use vegan worcestershire sauce, and pack ‘em with pickled and spicy veggies

Sounds scrumptious!  We might have to stop by this weekend during our MM Bloody Mary Tour.  What’s that?  Haven’t yet heard?  Well, since so many different spots were described so fanatically by so many different commenters, we figured we had to try to find out which was the BEST.  To remedy that, we’re embarking on a tour this weekend to hit up all of the favorite spots.

So far, we’re thinking 500 Club, Zeitgeist, Bender’s, Thieves, the Phonebooth, the Attic, and Pop’s.  Any other ones we’ve missed?  The schedule is TBD, but rest assured that it’s happening this weekend and that there will be scorecards!  Oh, and we definitely wouldn’t mind a little company if anyone wants to come along!

[Photo by the ever-talented Ariel]

Our buddy Primo, commenting on that whole NYC hipster trap project, may have just offered up the most solid take on the age-old hipster debate. This just might end it all once and for all:

before everybody got lost

A. hipster=weird person musician artist poet etc
B . pink sunglasses+ neon bike chain + pbr +etc etc=urban outfitters clone…

the disappearence of the middle class continues to make Americans into bitchy clods but i’m a hipster and that’s why i live in the city, to make art and have fun, eat it

or move to Antioch or some shit where boring white people all get along

I’m a hipster. Eat it.

Thanks, Primo!

Thank reader Jake for bringing this fact to your attention:

Somebody dropped their keys at 18th an Bryant.

Thanks, Jake! Cool looking keys, btw.

Mission Local reports:

The potential tenant, a Mission resident who asked that his name be withheld, said he signed the lease nearly two weeks ago and is in the early stages of planning; he wouldn’t disclose the type of business that might occupy the space.

He will apply for a conditional use permit, meaning the business he’s hoping to open on 24th Street isn’t automatically allowed in this zoning district but may still open after the tenant goes through several steps, including sending out neighborhood notifications and undergoing a public hearing before the Planning Commission. The business must also be deemed “necessary and desirable to the neighborhood” in order to get a permit.

Read on for discussion of the signage problem. And be sure to read the comments.

I can’t tell if this carnage is extraordinarily fun or ridiculously foolish, but I’m adding it to my bucket list all the same.  Have any of you ever tried out something like this (and lived to tell about it)?

Link.

(Thanks Sally!)

We mentioned this one hit and run the other day, and then people started chiming in:

What gives? Supermoon? Earthquake madness? ‘Tis the season?

Like Mission Mission on Facebook if you’d like to reply to Trixie.

Here’s what we’re gonna do: Link us in the comments section to your all-time-favorite under-appreciated ’90s alternajams. Whichever five entrants blow our minds the most (either because of epic nostalgia or epic how-the-hell-have-I-never-heard-this-befores) will win pairs of tickets to the big Debaser anniversary party this Friday at 111 Minna. Contest ends Tuesday night at 11:59.

Do it to it!

RSVP and invite your friends here.