DANNY BOWIEN: I'll be the first to admit that I had no
idea what I was getting myself into when I started this.
I mean, I'm Korean, and I'm making Chinese food.
Where's that big platter at?
I never cooked Chinese food until last year, so it's
pretty crazy.
They raised the fucking price of the two for Tuesday.
It's $1.29 now, which is fucking bullshit.
My name's Danny Bowien, and I'm the cook.
Not the only cook, but a cook at Mission Chinese Food.
A cook's life is really hard.
I mean, you basically do it because you're passionate
about something, not because you want to make money.
And so I was really tired of working at these restaurants
and making for people I couldn't connect
to in a lot of ways.
And none of my friends could come eat at the restaurant
that I worked at, because they either didn't want to or they
couldn't afford it.
I wanted to be able to make food for people that I
could relate to.
The owners of the restaurant owned this
restaurant for 10 years.
It's never been busy, and they were fine with that, because
they owned the building.
They just had this as kind of like a hang out.
We're kind of renting the space off from them.
And then with Mission Chinese Food, we were like, well,
let's just do this together, and we'll find a
way to make it work.
Who bought milk?
Whose gallon of milk is this?
-Nobody bought milk.
DANNY BOWIEN: Why did anybody-- no
Asians can drink milk!
-It's good milk.
It's good milk.
DANNY BOWIEN: So we're at the Commonwealth.
We're picking up Yin, one of my really good friends, and on
our days off, we would always eat Chinese food together.
High five.
Pound the beer.
-High five.
Pound the beer.
Let's go.
DANNY BOWIEN: The Commonwealth is kind of the sister
restaurant of Mission Chinese Food.
It's a young man's game, beer pounding.
All right.
We've gotta go.
Before I actually started working in a Chinese
restaurant, all my cook friends, we would all just go
out and eat Chinese food on our day off.
Because when you make fancy food all the time, you don't
feel like eating fancy food on your day off.
It's cool.
Now all my friends work at fancy restaurants, and I work
at a shitty Chinese restaurant.
So we're going to Bar Agricole right now.
One of my best friends in the world, Brandon
Jew, is a chef there.
To be honest, he's the reason that I started
making Chinese food.
But he's Chinese.
I think his dream still is to make Chinese food.
Dude, so spice is over--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
IAN MUNTZERT: Oh, what the fuck you got?
Oh, tiny pastries.
BRANDON JEW: Yeah, try this.
DANNY BOWIEN: Why are you eating this?
We're about to go eat fucking spicy Chinese food.
You're crazy!
Dude, it's so good.
BRANDON JEW: Hey, have you had the coppa di testa here yet?
DANNY BOWIEN: No.
BRANDON JEW: I have some, yeah.
You want some?
DANNY BOWIEN: Shut the fuck up.
We have to hurry, though.
That place closes soon.
He makes awesome charcuterie.
BRANDON JEW: Here's the snout right here.
DANNY BOWIEN: Nice!
IAN MUNTZERT: That's gnarly as fuck.
DANNY BOWIEN: So this is like the--
BRANDON JEW: Ears, you put the tenderloin in there and the
cheeks, and that's the tongue.
DANNY BOWIEN: That's what I eat late at night.
Before I go home, I eat this.
BRANDON JEW: We call it rotolo di testa.
It means a roll of head.
It's melting, so we've gotta eat it now.
DANNY BOWIEN: Yeah, eat it fast.
Let's crush this, and then we should go.
What's your favorite thing in SPiCES?
IAN MUNTZERT: The fucking pork.
DANNY BOWIEN: Really?
IAN MUNTZERT: Oh, fuck.
And they send you like the whole motherfucking shoulder.
DANNY BOWIEN: Don't really haul balls.
I was joking.
It's called SPiCES Szechuan Trenz, with a Z.
IAN MUNTZERT: It's kind of made up to look like a really
shitty Taiwanese nightclub.
DANNY BOWIEN: I think the good thing about going to eat
Chinese food is that the more people you have, the better,
because you can order more stuff.
All right, what are you gonna get?
IAN MUNTZERT: I'm gonna get the pork shoulder and garlic
sauce, and the dry braised eel strips.
DANNY BOWIEN: You wanna get the spicy beef tendon?
You guys are so quiet, so that's a no.
BRANDON JEW: Yeah.
DANNY BOWIEN: What's your favorite thing here?
DANNY BOWIEN: I'll get that.
These guys are wusses.
BRANDON JEW: No, I don't want that.
DANNY BOWIEN: You're crazy!
It's so good.
It's very crispy.
Right?
DANNY BOWIEN: Oh, never mind.
I like the crispy ones.
IAN MUNTZERT: The cumin lamb's fucking retarded good.
BRANDON JEW: I like their [INAUDIBLE] better.
DANNY BOWIEN: So this thing is ridiculous.
When have you had this before?
BRANDON JEW: Every time that I've been here--
DANNY BOWIEN: That's crazy.
BRANDON JEW: --since the first time.
DANNY BOWIEN: I don't wanna mess with it, it's so awesome.
BRANDON JEW: Look at this [INAUDIBLE].
DANNY BOWIEN: It's crazy, man.
It's so nuts.
BRANDON JEW: I'm at a loss for words right now.
DANNY BOWIEN: This thing is no joke, my friend.
This is no joke.
Oh, this is a blood thing.
BRANDON JEW: Yeah.
DANNY BOWIEN: Your favorite.
I'm stoked, I'm excited.
IAN MUNTZERT: Go ahead and put it right in front of me.
DANNY BOWIEN: No, if it's your favorite, I'm
excited to try it.
I'm excited.
BRANDON JEW: Good.
DANNY BOWIEN: I'll eat a blood.
The intestine's good.
I love this place, because I came here the first time, and
I'd never had food like this before, ever.
Like, ever, ever, ever.
I'd never had Szechuan food before.
I mean, I grew up in Oklahoman, and I ate, like, a
lot of sweet and sour chicken, and fried rice, and lo mein.
But this is what really opened my eyes to making
stuff that's different.
Every time I come here, I find out about something else that
I've never had before.
Like, this thing is ridiculous.
I've never had this before.
I have no chef telling me what to do.
I know how to do whatever cooking I know, and then you
come here, and you taste and taste and taste, and you're
like, how did they do that?
And then you just try to make it as good as--
Just as good as, and if it's better, then it's better.
But just as good as.
BRANDON JEW: The thing about Danny is, it's crazy, because
he can take--
you just need to taste something, and he can start
recreating it.
And then he'll start dorking out about it.
He'll be like, hey, come over and try this shit.
I got this idea from this so-and-so place.
And then, all of a sudden, you're eating it, and it
tastes even better than the original version.
DANNY BOWIEN: No.
BRANDON JEW: It does.
DANNY BOWIEN: That's arguable.
BRANDON JEW: My frustration with Chinese food was that no
one was making it better.
Like, David Chang was making Korean food better in New
York, and Charles Phan was doing that with Vietnamese
food out here.
But no one was taking the torch for Chinese food, and as
a Chinese American, that was my whole frustration was like,
no one's taking the torch.
I don't know.
I'm just stoked that someone is doing Chinese food.
DANNY BOWIEN: We're getting all bromance over here.
IAN MUNTZERT: I think the reason that your cooking is
something more unique and more interesting is that you take
this role of beginner's mindset to it.
You know that you don't know what you're doing.
DANNY BOWIEN: I have no idea.
IAN MUNTZERT: And you're just trying to make something good.
Whereas, like, everybody here is so steeped in tradition
that they're just going to make it the way they've been
told to do, and they're going to care in varying degrees.
BRANDON JEW: Yeah, you're not playing that role.
DANNY BOWIEN: We're going back to the restaurant right now,
and we're going to make a late night snack.
IAN MUNTZERT: Because we're all starving.
DANNY BOWIEN: I could eat more.
-How's your dins?
-[INAUDIBLE]
DANNY BOWIEN: Oh my God, dude.
It's starting to get kind of nuts, just so you know.
The real question is gonna be, whose hand gets
fucking bitten off?
IAN MUNTZERT: Hold on, why are we not throwing these things
into fucking boiling water?
We need boiling water.
Why the fuck are we cutting these things up alive?
DANNY BOWIEN: Because it's salt and pepper crab.
Ian, shut up.
I'm so drunk.
You're not drunk.
It's not fair.
-I've been drinking waiting for you.
DANNY BOWIEN: All right, sorry, sorry, sorry.
I think people are gonna be stoked.
IAN MUNTZERT: All right, let me clean one of these fuckers,
because I've never done this alive.
Oh, dude, I got the livest crab here.
It does not want to die.
It does not want to-- oh!
Oh.
BRANDON JEW: Flip him over and give him a nap.
IAN MUNTZERT: Fuck him, I'm not giving him a nap!
DANNY BOWIEN: You're just going for the gold!
IAN MUNTZERT: Oh, it's a lot harder when it's raw, man.
DANNY BOWIEN: Pull the gills, pop the back.
I don't know what I did.
IAN MUNTZERT: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
From here, I got it.
The little fucker.
I got it, I got it, I got it.
DANNY BOWIEN: Don't cut your hand off.
This is where you cut your hand.
IAN MUNTZERT: I'm not cutting my fucking hand off.
DANNY BOWIEN: This is where drunken cooking goes wrong.
IAN MUNTZERT: Oh, no, I'm familiar with--
oh, really?
Oh, no!
BRANDON JEW: Stop him!
DANNY BOWIEN: Ian, stop.
You're eating that one.
IAN MUNTZERT: Fine, I'll eat this one.
We're throwing it in a fucking wok.
-Face before tail.
IAN MUNTZERT: After I ripped its dick off, it
fucking cut me, dude.
DANNY BOWIEN: I don't even remember cooking anything last
night, but we cooked a bunch of crazy food.
Let's chop these crabs, then, huh?
What is with all these Slim Jims over here?
I feel like we're just doing what we want to do.
When you're able to just have 100% creative freedom, and do
what you want to do, that comes across and you can
connect to people.
IAN MUNTZERT: Fuck yes.
BRANDON JEW: Danny Bowein.
DANNY BOWIEN: Wait, you have to wait for this.
This is the salt and pepper dungeness crab
with mapo tofu sauce.
Eew!
Shut your mouth.
We'll see where it goes, you know?
I don't think I'm going to be making Chinese food when I'm
45 or anything like that.
We'll see.
The dream was, like, oh, I just want to work at a
restaurant where I cook what I want to eat on my day off, and
that was was what this was.
And it still is, but now I kind of want salads.
Greg, pound a beer.
Tonight?
I feel like it turned out awesome.
All right, guys, thanks for coming.
Good night.
[MUSIC PLAYING]