The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook

This is a fun book. There are only 49 recipes, but they are incredibly good!Pictured below:1) Sweet Potato Leaves with Kabocha Squash – p 264. Holy wow! I had no idea you could eat sweet potato leaves. This is a fantastically complex dish. A huge bunch of sweet potato leaves, roasted kabocha squash, mushroom powder, garlic, tofu, adzuki beans, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin oil, and salted chili condiment. It's crazy delicious like something truly naughty, but pure health food. He calls Mushroom Powder the gentlemen’s MSG. I licked my fingertip and dipped it in the powder to taste it on its own, and he’s not overselling it with that name. I’m going to try some on fresh popcorn.2) Smoked Beef Brisket with Smoked Cola BBQ Sauce – p 36 and 304 with pickles and cheap soft white bread. Delicious!3-4) Dumplings – p 104 with Pork Filling – p 107, and garnished with Chili Crisp, Chili Oil, and Cilantro. Awesome! The edges of my dumpling wrappers were a little thick this time, so I’ll be careful to roll them thicker towards the inside, and thinner towards the outside next time. He works parmesan and wine into the wrapper dough that’s similar to making pasta. It’s understated with the nice strong flavors of the dumpling filling, but these nuanced complexities in his food make it just so special. My kids ate 10 each and wanted more, so I think I’ll have to double it next time.5) Mongolian Long Beans – p 258. So fragrant and just a bit spicy.6) Some subrecipes needed for other recipes and pickles, just because they need to be made ahead. Chili-Pickled Pineapple – p 199, Chili Crisp and Chili Oil – p 290, and Salted Chili Condiment – p 302. Everthing’s awesome but that Chili Crisp is crazy good! Chiles, peppercorns, ginger, garlic, mushroom powder, spices, fried garlic, fried shallots and fermented black beans. The wheels are spinning on how to tweak green bean casserole for Thanksgiving now that I know fried garlic and shallots exist.I just saw an announcement that he’s going to be the next Mind of a Chef! I can’t wait to see the show.Some other recipes I have flagged to try are: Mapo Tofu p 62 with the Meat Variation on p 65 (pork belly) * Thrice Cooked Bacon – p 96 * Westlake Rice Porridge – p 117 (chicken, rice, soft cooked eggs, lump crab, beef cheeks, and herbs) * General Tso’s Veal Rib – p 232 * Squid Ink Noodles with Minced Pork and Peanut Sauce – p 245 * Beggar’s Duck – p 275

I didn’t expect any of these recipes so it is unique but then again I wasn’t impressed or desired to make any

I have been reading about this restaurant for years! And seeing I live on the wrong coast, it is unlikely I will be able to visit it myself.But this cookbook covers many delectable-looking dishes that I look forward to making myself!We plan to host a "luau" this summer, and the glazed pork belly with the quick-pickled pineapple/chili mix looks perfect for it. The pickled pineapple itself is delicious and not very hot at all (I think it could use a bit more heat!). It was delicious with ham.I've bookmarked a lot of recipes here, and look forward to making them. All seem do-able, with few weird ingredients that one will need to mail-order (note that I did have to mail-order the seaweed for the pineapple pickles).And- it's just a fun, mouth-watering read!

I love cookbooks. I own close to a hundred of them. Some I love and use frequently. Some I just like to look at. I have never had a cookbook that I couldn't stop reading, until this one.This is more than just a great cookbook. It's a great book, period. It's a compelling story, a great narrative, and the bonus is the recipes.The book is written in a chronological style, with the recipes that came from the time period bring discussed. I haven't had the chance to try any yet, but I love that there are suggestions and options to make things easier for the home cook. I can tell from reading them, that the recipes make sense. And they make me hungryI saw an earlier review and had to laugh. If that person had read this book, they would know it was never the intention of Mission Chinese to make traditional Chinese food. It follows that the recipes in this book wouldn't be for traditional Chinese food either.I can't wait to give this as a holiday gift!

Well worth the wait!I've been to Mission Chinese in San Francisco a bunch of times and the NYC location is one of my favorite places to eat in the city. I really wondered if these guys would be able to capture the energy, the artful disregard for orthodoxy, and soul of those places in a cookbook. I stopped wondering a few pages in. This isn't just a restaurant cookbook, it's an absorbing and at times surprisingly poignant conversation that you get drawn into almost instantly.The book -- the way it's written, the photography, the layout-- plays with notions of authenticity in the same way that MCF does in the food that it puts out. But, like the food at MCF, it's very much the real deal. The recipes are exactly what I want them to be -- challenging and meticulously true to how things are done at the restaurant. Am I going to be able to cook like Danny Bowien now? Unlikely, but that's not why I got the book.Buy it, read it, cook from it.

It’s funny this book is what it is. It’s a mix mash of narrative story telling- which may end abruptly- recipes, and introspection. I enjoyed it overall but would’ve preferred two seperate books: a cookbook and a memoir. But I think I get it. Danny Bowien was trying to capitalize on his fame, get some passive income.The stories are fun manly due to DB’s humility. The recipes are what they. They aren’t home chef/Rachel Ray stuff. So if you are looking for a cookbook of that kind of fashion, do not buy this.I would rate this a three but that seems too arbitrary. As someone who ran a pop-up of my own for a year, I’d give this book to any aspiring chef.

couldn't be happier

Adequate and satisfactory. Item as described.

Some awesome recipes and really interesting insight into Danny's life

Awesome book

Great condition. Prompt delivery.