Mission Chinese Food

The stir-fry proved difficult to untangle.

Literally: The principal components, pork jowl and radishes, were easy to identify, as were the torn shreds of shiso leaves tossed on top. (Lately, I believe, the dish ($11) sports sesame leaves instead.) But the idiosyncratic slicing of the radishes, evident in the photo below, thwarted the serving spoon and even challenged chopsticks.

It was as mild as the mapo tofu ($12.50) was spicy, not only with fiery "la" from chili peppers but also with numbing "ma" from Sichuan peppercorns. Enough ma, in fact, to change the taste of my water (an unprompted comment from my server) and to require a second after-meal PepOMint LifeSaver. I appreciated the texture of the tofu, the meaty chunks of pork shoulder, and the fermented-bean paste called doubanjiang, but the ma was a bit much. Though I haven't been back for seconds, reports suggest that the seasoning has since been moderated.

Mission Chinese Food
154 Orchard St. (Stanton-Rivington Sts.), Manhattan
212-529-8800
Also at 2234 Mission St. (18th-19th Sts.), San Francisco
www.MissionChineseFood.com

Comments

[Dave Cook]

By email, a reader notes that "what are sometimes called sesame leaves are actually perilla leaves (shiso)." (Thanks, Steve!) Previously and currently, then, the leaves would come from the genus Perilla, which has many edible species — some with a confusing "sesame" common name — and not the genus Sesamum.

I'm pretty sure, however, that where the menu now reads sesame it once read perilla, a word reasonably familiar, one would think, to Mission Chinese patrons. If the writeup of the menu has indeed changed, perhaps the chef has had need to change his sourcing. I'll see if I can't find out more on my next visit.

[suzanne]

I've tried Mapo Tofu before and never cared for it till I tried Mission Chinese's version. I don't have an asbestos tongue and found it very ma and very la but not unpleasant (though nose blowing was much needed). The Cucumbers and Rice cooled things down so I hope they don't change the recipe. I can get dumbed down Mapo Tofu elsewhere. I understand Chef Bowien worked on getting this version "right" after returning from doing his research in China.

Sorry you had trouble wrangling the Radishes in the Pork Jowl and Radish dish! It looks like they changed the dish because when I had it, the Radish tops were in the dish but not attached to the Radishes. I really enjoyed the big chunks of Radish. I rarely see them served cooked.

Last night we had the Skate Rice Porrige, Eggplant, Lotus Root, and Pickled Veg, washed down with a Sixpoint pilsner type beer (I forget the name) and it was another tasty meal at MCF.