Mission Street Food: Recipes and Ideas from an Improbable Restaurant [Hardcover]

Anthony Myint (Author), Karen Leibowitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 23, 2011

Mission Street Food is a restaurant. But it’s also a charitable organization, a taco truck, a burger stand, and a clubhouse for inventive cooks tucked inside an unassuming Chinese take-out place. In all its various incarnations, it upends traditional restaurant conventions, in search of moral and culinary satisfaction.

Like Mission Street Food itself, this book is more than one thing: it’s a cookbook featuring step-by-step photography and sly commentary, but it’s also the memoir of a madcap project that redefined the authors’ marriage and a city’s food scene. Along with stories and recipes, you’ll find an idealistic business plan, a cheeky manifesto, and thoughtful essays on issues ranging from food pantries to fried chicken. Plus, a comic.

Ultimately, Mission Street Food: Recipes and Ideas from an Improbable Restaurant presents an iconoclastic vision of cooking and eating in twenty-first century America.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A 2011 NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE COOKBOOK
ONE OF BON APPETIT'S BEST COOKBOOKS OF 2011

"[Mission Street Food] recounts how a sui generis pop-up in a Guatemalan taco truck in San Francisco led, as these things will, to a sui generis pop-up in a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco. In fact, the whole project is sui generis, including the cookbook portion of this volume. The recipes provide not just serving sizes but approximate cost, and are laid out comic-strip style, with photo panels illustrating each step. There’s even a photograph of what mayonnaise looks like when the emulsion breaks, and what to do next."
—Pete Wells, New York Times

"Hey, let's make a restaurant! That's just what Anthony and Karen did. They made history with their food cart/borrowed restaurant space, becoming both one of the country's earliest pop-ups and an experiment in culinary hospitality with a social mission. The cookbook is equally inspiring and is peppered with tasty recipes."
—Don and Samantha Lindgren, Bon Appetit

"A fun read, the food photography is alluring, and it’s nice to see a bit of life breathed into the traditional cookbook format."
—The New Yorker

"Speaks to a lively time in San Francisco's food scene and it's an entertaining read and certainly on-trend—if not trend setting. Which is what Mission Street Food, in all its guises, has been since the start."
—7x7

"We are lucky to have Myint and the Mission Street crew’s visions among us… and such a book to capture the experience."
—San Francisco Bay Guardian

"Let’s get right to the point: Mission Street Food: Recipes and Ideas from an Improbable Restaurant by Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz is awesome. Awesome. And by that I mean: a smart, funny and incredibly inspiring read that is aesthetically pleasing, feels good in the hands and has a recipe for one of the easiest and tastiest desserts I have ever prepared: white bread, spread with butter and sugar, run under the broiler (or blow-torch) until it is brown and bubbly, and served in a pool of condensed milk and cream."
—Montreal Mirror

“An amazing story. An amazing institution. And now a book that’s as creative and pioneering as its subjects. Let us hope that Mission Street Food’s uniquely American success story points the way to a brighter—and delightfully stranger—future.”
—Anthony Bourdain

“Mission Street Food is an uncommonly generous read. When I finished it, I felt like I’d drained a cold can of beer at the end of a shift at the restaurant. The interplay of narrative, design, and photography is more compelling and candid than any food book I’ve ever seen; the focus on fundamental techniques and how to think in the kitchen is more truthful, accurate, and contemporary than almost any basic cookbook; in fact, the whole package—powered by the exuberance of Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz—is infectious, inspiring, something apart from the rest. This is a special book.”
—Peter Meehan, co-author of Momofuku

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: McSweeney's (August 23, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1936365154
• ISBN-13: 978-1936365159
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 1 x 10.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,460 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #67 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Gastronomy > History
  • #92 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Gastronomy > Essays

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome and inspiring August 15, 2011

By Saliner

Format:Hardcover

The day I received this book, I didn't intend to lay on the couch for the next six hours reading it. When I finished, all I could say was "FK." I was totally hooked on the unique narrative, from their earliest days in a taco truck to the inception of Mission Street Food through to its (too soon) demise. I still miss the innovation and ingenuity (coupled with the sweet prices) of their weekly rotating menu and this was a way for me to tap into that again and perhaps brave a few of their daring recipes at home. I don't know of any other institution in the US who's established a nonprofit model such as theirs, or been brave enough to give such far-flung ideas a shot. It's totally inspiring. And Anthony Bourdain said it best, above.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique restaurant, unique book December 5, 2011

By Arleen A

Format:Hardcover

This book is as innovative and fascinating as the restaurant it describes. It's a great read! Mission Street Food started in a taco truck in San Francisco's Mission District and grew to become a pop-up restaurant with menus that changed every week according to the whims of the guest chefs. The restaurant was not only on Mission Street, it was also a restaurant with a mission: donating its profits to food charities. The first part of the book is a narrative that humorously describes the authors' on-the-job learning of the business aspects of running a restaurant (the food was great from the very beginning--but getting the food to the crowds who showed up was another matter). In the second half of the book, Anthony Myint gives his philosophy about food and cooking technique, as well as numerous recipes. I enthusiastically recommend this well-written and heart-warming story about a couple who, against all odds, realized their vision to provide outstanding food at a fair price, while supporting food charities.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Not so much a cookbook as it is a story about a restaurant. February 10, 2012

By J. Lee

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

About 2/3rds of this book is story and background on the restaurant but I feel I took away much more from this book compared to other books with a hundred pages of recipes and no pictures.

At least in this book every recipe has a picture and they are detailed and gorgeous. The story too is inspiring showing that the path to success is not always typical and sometimes you just have to dive in. His cooking philosophy and techniques have been so useful for me and this is truly an entertaining book worth reading for the story alone, the recipes are just the cherry on top.