Welp, the Mission’s best-kept foodie secret is out.

I loved Popeye’s when it was more underground, but I won’t be able to deal with the crowds now. At least the McDonalds on 24th St. is still untainted. Although, who knows how long that will last.

Get the full scoop and video at Mission Loc@l.

Looks like the now open Commonwealth decided to keep the unearthed Hunt’s Quality Donuts sign for the time being. The El Herradero sign was not so fortunate.

Wanna bet that they’ll have a tribute donut dish on the menu? I can’t go there yet because they politely asked us early donor certificate holders to chill for a few weeks while they get off the ground.

Our business manager would like me to add: “As you know, cash management is a challenge for new businesses. We’d really like Commonwealth to be around for the long term, and these first few weeks are key. Ask them to wait a little bit, maybe a month, before using the gift certificates.”

[Photo by David Gallagher]

Previously:

Adios, El Herradero

Unmasking the Past

First they came for the Aztecky wraparound awning thing, and now for the last vestige of the former taqueria.  And with that, the conquest of Commonwealth is complete.

UPDATE!!! Says the Photographer:

Wish I’d got a better picture, but I was shooting through that chain-link fence. On which, the new menu is posted — yum yum.

[Photo and Title by Cranky Old Mission Guy]

Previously:

Commonwealth!

Unmasking the Past

Yeah, we’re a little late to the game, but damn… I think this is the best $8 I have spent on food in recent memory. The newly established Mission Chinese Food’s invention, the Peking Duck Chinito (also comes in Vegan!) is really, really great.

It’s duck confit, crispy skin, cucumber, cilantro, and spicy hoisin sauce. All of this is stuffed in a “chinese donut”, wrapped in rice noodle, then chopped sushi-style. What’s a chinese donut, you ask? I wasn’t sure either but once I saw it, I recognized it as the puffed, oily, bread stick that I would dip in rice porridge or warm soy milk as a kiddo, a food item that was previously known to me as (roughly) “Yao-Jok -Gwai“.

The blending of crispy duck, sweet hoisin sauce, donut, and soft rice noodle was something completely new, but still distinctly familiar. The Chinito might really catch on, and I would not be at all surprised if we see some copycats popping up within a year, much like the Korrito. Get in on the ground floor, folks.

The atmosphere at Lung Shan was interesting to say the least. The older, weathered Lung Shan staff seemed to be casually lounging in the dining area while these youngsters shuffled around their kitchen. Looks like I wasn’t the only one curious about this odd dynamic, as Chow asked about it in this recent article:

I just couldn’t get over the strange-bedfellow relationship of the old-school Chinese restaurant and nouveau Chinese restaurant. I asked Myint, who features a Lung Shan dumpling dish as a kind of homage on his own menu, whether Lung Shan chefs would be “trained” to make items off the Mission Chinese menu, too.

“They don’t really need our training,” he said, pausing to let the ridiculousness of the question sink in. “They’ve actually taught us some things.”

Bonus: The kind server threw in the Szechuan pickles free of charge, thus confirming your suspicion that us orientals hook each other up.

Previously:

Mission Chinese Food Is Open!