Mission Coverage in the NYT – Beretta Cocktails
The NYT Travel Section visits the Mission yet again — this time around they managed to find Beretta and their finely crafted cocktails (while on a fancy-drink-tour of the city):
Todd Smith, who helped start Bourbon & Branch, developed the bar at Beretta, in the Mission District. I visited on a Thursday, the day Mr. Smith still works the bar. It was hot, so I led a small group of obliging friends through an extended flight of gorgeous drinks. A lucid pink Nuestra Paloma, of tequila, elderflower and grapefruit, glowed in the sun. The Agricole Mule was a tangy song of Martinique rum, sweet but not cloying housemade ginger syrup, lime and mint. The almond viscosity of fresh orgeat made by Small Hand Foods, a Berkeley company that specializes in craft cocktail ingredients, offset the phenolic astringency of St. George absinthe in the Gaby de Lys.
We continued with a Pisco Punch that married satisfying pineapple gomme richness with pisco’s depth. The Airmail was beautiful — the cocktail version of latte art — and mixed the tickle of prosecco with honey’s roundness. It gave way to the best thing we drank that day: a refreshing Rangoon Gin Cobbler that tasted like a liquid Dreamsicle.
I still stand behind the Improved Whiskey Cocktail, not that you can really go wrong with anything you get there. A couple of pictures of Beretta (well, the drinks, at least) in the review.
Airmail at Beretta
(Note to self — must use “redolent”, “tawdry” and “pellucid” more often.)
Grilled BBQ Shrimp, XXX Sauce in the Eye, Oh My
I’m quite enjoying the grilled bbq shrimp at Baby Blues.
And the special XXX sauce is labeled accurately — it is indeed obscenely hot.
Our red headed friend is in for a world of mucous membrane hurt if she’s about to pour XXX sauce on her face.
Or perhaps there’s a whole nother food porn level to this that I’m missing.
Bacon Snow on Christmas Eve – Jesus Would Approve
While I am currently surrounded by real snow…
…Mission Street Food will be delivering Bacon Snow to a Make-Out Room near you while Santa gears up.
I am pretty sure there was a fourth king bearing bacon snow, but he was late. (Not that I would be with only a $10 cover.)
If you can’t handle the snow, then there’s always Beer and Nosh’s no-less-traif bacon candy.
Attack of the Zebra-mobile
Duncan @ Church, across the street from Martha’s. I guess this means this area is now officially Baja Noe — no way they’d let this in the Valley.
Note how zebramobile blends in so well with the stop stencil on the street. (This would so totally confuse that car covered with leopard fur on Valencia.)
Oh, and yes, there was a tail on the back.
How does something like this start? You have one on the dash, and think, “You know, one might look good on the hood.” Then it spirals horribly out of control. But I guess once you start painting zebra stripes on your car, you are pretty much committed.
「初めまして、ミクシイーさん！！ お元気ですか、ギガジン？」
Phat Philly Phlies in Phresh Rolls
Such an amazing fact requires a horrible headline. Says Yelp:
“…they get their rolls flown in from Amoroso bakery in Philly. Again, points for them realizing the roll is another crucial element of the true philly cheesesteak.”
It’s getting the Philly native thumbs-up. Kills me that I am out of town for a week, though we will see how it compares to the brain-melting MSF cheesesteak — Mission vs Philly indeed.
El Tonayense Strikes Back!
A good taco truck doesn’t take it lying down! SF Examiner:
In September, police revoked El Tonayense’s permit to operate the truck, located on Harrison Street near 19th Street — two blocks from John O’Connell High School.
However, owner Benjamin Santana is appealing the decision, saying his establishment should be grandfathered in because it has been there longer than the school. As a result, the revocation is suspended pending Santana’s appeal hearing Feb. 4, according to a report from police Cmdr. Sylvia Harper.
In response to concerns that catering trucks were offering students items that were less nutritious than those on school cafeteria menus, the Board of Supervisors approved a law in March 2007 banning mobile food vendors from operating within 1,500 feet of public schools.
In July, police contacted vendors and found three violating the rules; two agreed to move, but Santana dug his heels in, according to Harper.
Go Benjamin Santana! Looks like a Burrito Justice meetup at his hearing on Feb 4th!
Vice Principal of the school:
“I’m often in the yard by the truck, and very few kids eat there,” [Rick] Duber said. “It’s kind of expensive for the kids.”
Co-chair of our favorite group, “The Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee”, Dana Woldow:
Nutrition advocates say O’Connell students frequent the truck at lunchtime, loading up on high-calorie burritos and bringing back food for classmates. One regular, Robert Bell, said kids pass him dollar bills through the fence to buy Cokes for them.
Woldow challenged the nutritional value of the food, arguing that O’Connell has some of the worst scores on California physical-fitness tests — just 22 percent of ninth-graders met all six fitness criteria on the 2007-08 test.
[Robert Bell, what the hell are you doing! Dude, you are so not helping here. You eat at the damn truck – do you want it to move three blocks away? Then again, the kids can get a coke anywhere on Folsom… but still.]
But our new favorite vice-principle counters:
Duber said the food is not that bad. “Most of it’s actually very healthy,” Duber said. “Much more so than McDonald’s or KFC.”
And digging into the Burrito Justice archives:
- John O’ Connell High School’s principal, Janet Schulze, said she is supportive of the nutrition committee, but added, “The taco truck is so a non-issue for us. It doesn’t take business from the cafeteria.”
- Hypocritical position of Dana Woldow — The Committee doesn’t go after the ice cream trucks that park in front of elementary schools: “Just a few blocks away, right next to another El Tonayense truck owned by Santana’s brother, Esquivel Santana, students from George R. Moscone Elementary School ran out to meet their parents. Ice cream sellers rang their bells tempting children with sweet snacks. The ordinance doesn’t include such vendors. “That’s a separate battle someone else will have to fight,” Woldow said.
So while O’Connell does need to work on its physical fitness program (I never see kids in that playground), they apparently have the coolest principle and vice-principle ever. Burrito Justice salutes Janet Schulze and Rick Duber!
Burrito Slap Upside The Head goes to Robert Bell, and Burrito Vengence goes to Dana Waldow and all those on the Committee for Not Realizing The Kids Aren’t Eating At The Truck And There’s No Way A Taco Could Pass Through That Fence Behind The School.
The discussion on this idiocy continues over at Eater.
I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Poutine
I think my poutine lasted all of 45 seconds. A picture of its last moments:
I’m guessing most people have never had poutine, so run, Run, RUN, do not walk, to Lung Shan in the next two hours. It was the best I’ve had in the US, and better than most I’ve had in Canada. Oh, Carlo, how the fries stay that crispy with all that gravy and gloriously delicious cheese I do not know. Such is the mystery of poutine specifically (and Montreal in general).
VSF Rice beats out MSF Rice yet again (sorry Allan). I could eat MSF cheesesteaks all night long — that one needs to make a return appearance. Excellent deserts, Amy — welcome to the city, look forward to your next MSF visit.
I did not mash up my beverages — they were consumed in linear order (not that there’s anything wrong with sake bombs, don’t get me wrong).
But I do love sake in a can. Oddly enough, that is something I never had when I lived Japan. God knows you can buy anything else from a vending machine there. (I am pretty sure I once saw a vending machine that sold smaller vending machines.)
Mission Street Food — Tabernac, c’est la Poutine!
Quite the mash-up! My efforts at reformatting the menu for increased food drama:
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Poutine would be Canada’s entry in the Food Fight. I would have loved a bowl of poutine rolling up Italy and through Holland vs the Pretzels.
What will the drinks be?
BEER vs MY MOUTH!
WINE vs. SCREW TOP!
Food Fight — American Military History
“Food Fight is an abridged history of American-centric war, from World War II to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict. Watch as traditional comestibles slug it out for world domination in this chronologically re-enacted smorgasbord of aggression.”
Brilliant, surprisingly intense.
Watch it once, then click past the fold:
Run, Do Not Walk, to Baby Blues Ribs
Stopped by Baby Blues for their opening Saturday night. The rack of ribs was outstanding (easily feeds two). Cornbread, fixin’s, good sauce, collard greens, chicken, catfish, the whole deal, hell yeah.
The biggest surprise was the shrimp, holy crap was that good (and you can it get a la carte — want just one? You can get just one. Not that you will eat just one, trust me.)
And everyone who works there is cool. Plus they have wicked business cards.
On Mission and Precita, right across from Kragen and El Rio.
(UPDATE — call ahead, they’re installing a new smoker and will have an irregular schedule while the health inspectors do their thing.)
Burrito Justice 