Bacon Maple Phone Banking

This is only tenuously food-related. Andrew, Eli, and I are going to be working at an Obama phone bank tonight from 6–8pm at Four Barrel. I encourage everyone to watch whatever video/read whatever commentary you need to get you motivated to push for 24 more hours (like this one or this or maybe this one). It’s vital that we not have another last-minute letdown. I, for one, am putting aside my crippling social awkwardness to go call people and encourage them to get to a polling place tomorrow. If you’re thinking, as I was, “Well, I could be picking up my jeans from the tailor, or going to the gym,” also think, “I could be blowing my chance at feeling good about what I did for this election.”

—Chris

Mission Street Food Movin’ In

Anthony posted the revamped menu on the MSF blog. I’m elated that I don’t have to keep any of it a secret anymore. The smoked fried rice is going to be incredible, I’m pretty sure. In brief:

1. Anthony and I checked out the new space last week. For anybody concerned that some of the majesty of the taco truck will be lost in translation, I can guarantee you that it won’t. We couldn’t ask for a more perfect setting than Lung Shan (the decor is off the hinges). Trust me. The fact that they will still be doing take-out orders and sharing the kitchen with us is setting up some calamitous hilarity. Oh, I encourage people to order some Chinese food while you’re there, just to make it worth LS’s while.

2. As far as the food goes, I’m excited to see what we can do with a real kitchen equipped with lights and everything. Anthony had mentioned that if things get busy we might switch to a dim sum format, which I think would be neat. I’m envisioning communal tables, cheap beer for sale from us, and saucy waitresses delivering PB&Js and bowls of steaming Anthony’s grandma soup (soup made BY not OF grandma).

3. A confession: I was supposed to experiment with dry-fried dumpling recipes this weekend, but didn’t. I’m going to get to it, Anthony! I promise. I did talk to my mom and it seems that the holy grail of Shanghainese fried soup dumplings is within reach.

4. Submit your fortune cookie fortunes for MSF “fortune cookies.” Fortune. Cookie. Cookie. Fortune.

Last night: Hungry Halfling Chicken Dinner

I woke up yesterday morning having forsaken dinner the night before. Understand that I am a blue whale and must consume the equivalent of my body weight in plankton and barbecued ribs every day in order to sustain myself. Also, if I am removed from water, my bones will shatter under the weight of my blubberous body. Thus, skipping a meal was painful. 

So I was famished yesterday morning, and the end of daylight savings time also meant that I had to wait an extra hour for non-breakfasty places to open up. I can’t eat breakfast alone, because I am socially crippled. Anyway, this is all to say that come eleven am, I ate probably five pounds of meat and settled in for a dark day of regret.