Danny Bowien opens new Mission Chinese Food
He may not be very well known in the Netherlands yet, but in America, chef Danny Bowien has achieved cult status with his lacquered nails, tattoos and, above all, his distinctive way of cooking. His restaurant Mission Chinese Food is located in San Francisco and New York, and he has just opened a third location.
If you haven’t seen the sixth season of The Mind of a Chef yet, go watch it very soon. It’s not on Netflix, but you can watch it online here. Especially if you love Asian food, this is the season of your dreams. Danny Bowien was born in Korea, then adopted and raised in Oklahoma. Somewhere along the way, he fell in love with Chinese cuisine. In The Mind of a Chef, we follow him from Korea to America and China and back again. Once you’ve watched all the episodes, there’s no way you won’t want to eat at his restaurant as soon as possible—and now you can do that in three locations.
Black with neon lights
You could already find his modern, scorching-hot Chinese food in San Francisco and New York (Manhattan); now you can also go to Bushwick, an upcoming neighborhood in Brooklyn. If you have a trip to New York planned, put one of these locations high on your list. I visited the New York location and had never been to such a bizarre restaurant. Inside, it’s dark and black, with nothing but colored neon lights. In the middle of the restaurant there’s a glowing aquarium, the staff wear rock shirts, and the music is so loud that you can’t even understand the staff at all.
Modern Sichuanese
And then there’s the food. The focus is on Sichuanese cuisine, a regional cuisine from China where everything is so spicy that you can barely eat it. So the first page includes a disclaimer: Sichuan peppercorns provide vibrating, tingling, numbing sensations and are used thourout the menu. Crystal clear, Danny. The food isn’t authentically Sichuanese, but rather a kind of modern fusion. For example, kung pao pastrami is on the menu—a bold New York wink at the Sichuanese dish kung pao chicken.
MSG margarita
The Bushwick menu features all of Mission Chinese Food’s hits, including that kung pao pastrami, mapo tofu and Chongqing chicken wings (the spiciest wings you’ll ever eat). My head was getting stabbing pains and I was seeing little lights—it was that spicy—but oh my goodness, it was delicious. There are also several new dishes on the menu, such as drunken noodles with radish confetti, pink peppercorns and cilantro. And if you’re used to the typical neighborhood Chinese restaurant that puts MSG in everything: there’s also an MSG margarita on the menu, with a pinch of the dreaded flavor enhancer mixed in.
Book
No money to fly to New York right now? The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook contains many of Danny’s amazing dishes, so you can recreate them at home. And yes, those insanely hot chicken wings too.
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