Mission Chinese Food NYC – Danny Bowien Spices up the Big Apple

May 24th, 2012

On Tuesday night of this past week I had the pleasure of heading to Mission Chinese Food NYC to see what Danny Bowien was cooking up in his new Lower East Side digs. As you will (undoubtedly) recall I travelled with Danny and Andrew Knowlton from Bon Appetit magazine to Chengdu earlier this year (http://andrewrowat.com/blog/2012/04/19/bon-appetit-mission-sichuan-spicy-food-in-chengdu-with-chef-danny-bowien-andrew-knowlton) to head to the source of Sichuan cooking. I only had a chance to have a couple dishes at MCFNY, but absolutely loved the mapo dofu and buckwheat noodles – I will be heading back to sample everything on the menu and convince Danny that he needs to have a ready stash of Er Guo Tou (二锅头) on hand at all times.

The location of the restaurant itself (at 154 Orchard St) is tucked downstairs next to a bar and has a long corridor that takes you past the kitchen (you can look through the glass) and into the main dining room guarded by a dragon looming overhead. Or you can check out the Twin Peak-themed bathroom. Really, it’s up to you. But the food is delicious (and super affordable!) and Danny is great, so, well, you should go! (and I apologize for the quality of the photos – they are all snapshots more than anything else, but should give you a feel for Danny & MCF).