It’s supposed to be over…but here is a video from the makeup game! The mission was: make a demo video, but a disaster happens.

And this is what we came up with after quickly buying $4 flour at a nearby liquor store. We got weird looks by the cashier with the 6 of us bombarding into the store.

Here’s the behind the scenes look at what happened!

The twinkies was supposed to fall out on impact, but the latch got caught. And there wasn’t that much time for a retake!

Note: The 2010 scavenger hunt is over (a concluding post will come soon) and we got first place out of 121 teams! This is a series explaining the background and thinking of our missions of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt 2010!

Well apparently, it was not.

At midnight right before the street food festival, we received word that events were going to take place at the festival. Well, OK THEN!

Like last year, Chris and I prepped. This time, we made sure that we had a map and memorized where all the booths were located.

And so we rushed over to the festival around 11 am. We kept checking our email, awaiting an announcement. Unlike last year, the email didn’t indicate a place to meet. So we waited. We talked to Caleb—the head of La Cocina. Nothing. And so we waited optimistically…and waited…and waited with when David and Jeff showed up.

At least we ran into Team Neverland.

And got a nice picture with Brody!

Then we wandered around, tasting foods here and there. We decided to meet up with Joey Chestnut!

And watched a Taco Challenge.

Well, at least we were entertained. But where was this promised GO GAME finale?!?!?!

In the end, I tasted foods from businesses that I frequented anyway—including Three Twins Ice Cream, Aziza and Roli Roti. But it wasn’t the experience that we were hoping for.

Unlike last year, there were no gameday missions such as taking pictures of a celebrity-lookalike or reactions to our team name. Nothing…but what did the evening hold for us?

Note: The 2010 scavenger hunt is over (a concluding post will come soon) and we got first place out of 121 teams! This is a series explaining the background and thinking of our missions of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt 2010!

Mission: This quintessential high school “Betty” might not have the greatest M.O. for landing a guy, but when it comes to her choice in friends we approve 100%. Unfortunately, our favorite recently passed away, leaving behind a repertoire of cinematic gold. One we find especially delicious is a kind of Karate-Kid-meets-food deal. Find it, watch it, and revel in the delectable cheesiness. In the film, she finds solace in learning to that “perfect bowl of soup.” It just so happens that we know another hot Japanese “dish” that has mastered it. Any ideas who we’re referring to? (We’ll give you a hint: he comes from the same “stock” as people like Keanu Reeves, Rob Schneider, Sean Lennon, Tiger Woods.) Perform a scene from the movie.

Eric figured this out. Brittany Murphy. And the dish? Ramen! And…the movie? Ramen Girl! Apparently Cynthia had watched it on Netflix Instant (it was one of those American-made movies that did well overseas but was determined that it was fated to doom so was just straight to DVD).

We determined that it was Hapa Ramen. The owner is in the “stock” that people like Keanu Reeves was from. And I had been dying to try their ramen! So off we went to Off the Grid at Fort Mason on a Friday. So we unfortunately couldn’t find the guy that created Hapa Ramen. The mission at the time was to perform a scene from the movie and we would get a password.

Cynthia pin-pointed this one:
Brittany (realizing she really wants to cook ramen, runs back into the restaurant to talk to the owner): I want to cook ramen!
Owner (in Japanese): Ashita denaosu. (“Come back tomorrow.”)
Brittany (not understanding Japanese and looking confused): Uuuuuuuhhh . . .
Owner (in Japanese): Ashita, ASHITA. TO-MORR-OW.
Brittany (finally getting it, smiling and looking elated that she gets to learn how to cook ramen): Tomorrow!
Owner (holding up his right hand): Go ji gozen. (“5am”)
Brittany (totally not understanding what he means, still smiling, gives him a high-five)

Hilarious in context!

Wanting to decrease our effort, we decided not to shoot it and did our selected scene quickly. We got the password and attempted to enter it in. “La Cocina” was the word that the girl gave us—which is the name of the non-profit running the entire Street Food Festival. So we tried it multiple ways, especially knowing that Go Game has had history of not knowing how to spell words.

So we tried:

No such luck. But in a few days, the mission page had changed to requiring a video! But we had not recorded one! And there were less than 2 days before the actual festival! So I hatched a plan and made it to during-the-day farmer’s market and re-enacted the scene from Ramen Girl. Fortunately, this time, I had watched Ramen Girl (I give it only 3 stars out of 5 stars). I do love my ramen.

With only two of DFT available…we did some camera trickey. Chris was the cat and I was the…ramen girl! He would be the chef! And so we did it! It was one of the lesser creatively-acted-upon videos. And I uploaded it in a record time!

Note: The 2010 scavenger hunt is over (a concluding post will come soon) and we got first place out of 121 teams! This is a series explaining the background and thinking of our missions of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt 2010!

Mission: There are _____ days in a year and one place that sells them all canned, bottled and delicious. Go there, and find your favorite of these local products. Your creative challenge here is to make your own commercial for the local goods.

Thanks to Cynthia, I realized that there are 365 days in a year. And there’s only one store that sells THEM in the city.

As an aside, I was annoyed that my gift card from Bloomspot didn’t arrive in time for my hasty shopping spree at the Noe Valley location.

Chris helped me craft the story. Which was completely zany and out there. Many people told me later that…they didn’t get it. But that it was still hilarious.

If I had more time, I would have made it a la Don Draper with intense emotional insight. Ideas like: There are 365 days in a year, but there is only one birthday. Don’t miss it. OR Good food brings lovers together.

I shot the video twice. The first time I didn’t have my handy cameraman—he was obsessively working—so I filmed it by myself which didn’t work that well. Then the second time, I filmed the first part by myself and he directed the second part (the long shot). I created the video quickly. Minus the first attempt, the time that it took from original concept to gathering props to a video on you tube? About 3 hours—1 hour for shopping, 30 minutes for set up, 45 minutes to film, 30 minutes to edit, 15 minutes to upload.

Apparently, I forgot to turn off the HD option, thus the black bars.

The video concept was this:
Looking through the kitchen, finding a lot of foods labeled with 365. Realizing that something doesn’t feel right. Realizing that I AM LABELED “364”! Wake up and relived that it was a dream.

And now I present the video!

Note: The 2010 scavenger hunt is over (a concluding post will come soon) and we got first place out of 121 teams! This is a series explaining the background and thinking of our missions of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt 2010!

Mission: Imagine your own kitchen battle reality TV show, name it and then create an advertisement for it – something that would look fierce and intriguing inside of a gourmet magazine. Like Braveheart meets Top Chef or Gladiator combined with Martin Yan’s China. Props, war paint, costumes and photoshop highly encouraged!

The weekend had been rapidly ending and with little time, we needed to come up with an idea. Perhaps this one was the least thought out, because my creativity was nearly at zero.

But we looked at the equipment that my roommate had on display. KitchenAid mixer. Blender! My sodastream! Surely something amazing!?

So we decided that it would be some version of appliances vs. appliances.

We took multiple pictures, looking to have it layered.

Yes, it was totally organic as the idea formulated itself on the spot. It was the idea that there would be two teams. One team that hated hated hated appliances. One where the appliances loved and the feeling was mutual.

Was it executed well? Not quite sure! But my creativity was NIL.

But our lovely Cynthia made the final product!

Note: The 2010 scavenger hunt is over (a concluding post will come soon) and we got first place out of 121 teams! This is a series explaining the background and thinking of our missions of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt 2010!

Mission: Make your favorite Bay Area butcher proud and bring him YOUR best meat helmet. The person to please the butcher the most with their creation will win a delicious prize…

Annoyingly, the clue above was a result of going to a chow page which we agonized for days, until our bright member began clicking everything leading us to the Hats of Meat page. (Note this is before the Lady Gaga nonsense.)

Hats of MEAT? Seriously? Chris first response in our email thread was:
Quick note:

That is all.

We had a winner.

And of course, we would ask our favorite butcher at the Mission Meat Market. For the last 4 years that I have lived here, I would only buy my meat from him. Despite being located in the Mission, the Mission Meat Market—a block from my place—employed all Asians, specifically Cantonese. They reminded me a lot of the butchers my mom would take me to in Chinatown. Nostalgic, but never wanting to embarrass myself—I always spoke in English. But this time oh yes this time.

We saw that another team made a hat out of lunch meat. But to us, that wasn’t sufficient. Come on, a hat of bacon! Or something similar! But then I insisted that we should reflect our Asian-ness. Perhaps use chicken feet. And thus the crown of chicken feet was conceived. We struggled with my lack of rubber bands (I had a puny collection of rubber bands collected from newspapers and fruit bags—aka a total of 5). But what else could we supplement with the chicken feet…but of course pig’s feet!

Obviously, we knew that we were going to offend members of PETA and vegetarian/vegan friends. But I hoped that this was the only offensive one of the lot. After all, we were all about WINNING.

So we first bought the meat, chatting up the butchers. Then we went back to my place to assemble the crown—we put rubber bands after the fortunately frozen chicken feet. Chris got into his straight-jacket (not obvious from the pictures). And carried the pig’s feet in a separate bag.

Cynthia and I ran ahead to the butcher…trying to arrive early so that we could tell him (in my broken Cantonese and Cynthia’s good Mandarin…but the butcher’s inability to speak Mandarin back) about our intentions. As Chris and Jeff walked by Beretta, several yupsters muttered WTF as they saw a pair of BOYZ carrying a plate with a circular formation of chicken feet. WTF indeed.

We caused a lot of ruckus when we arrived, but we got the photos. Jason, the head butcher, seemed quite amused and gave us a biz card to send him the photo. Oddly enough, we got more looks on Mission Street, but when we returned to Valencia (besides the initial yupsters outside Beretta) we got nothing.

Hats of meat accomplished. But later it turned out that this very photo…despite being hilarious, over-the-top…would cause the most disruption of all.

By the way, yes I made chicken feet soup the day after.

Note: The 2010 scavenger hunt is over (a concluding post will come soon) and we got first place out of 121 teams! This is a series explaining the background and thinking of our missions of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt 2010!

Mission: Take a video of yourself eating a lot food, taking Pepto, and your recovery

(the instructions were originally in unreadable BRIGHT PINK)

When I first saw this mission, it was easy enough. Because my sister was in my town, my parents was trying to schedule a lunch or a dinner with the entire family. And I eventually agreed to Sunday lunch. My parents wanting to try something new—but not too new to my grandparents—decided on a buffet that my mom constantly heard about on the Chinese radio and newspaper. Not to mention, buffets were often easy choices for my family—no language is needed to pick the food. You just go…and get it.

And so, we were booked for Moonstar (be wary of the website—it’s totally Asian!). And surely, this would fit the bill of the Pepto video.

Having told my parents and my sister the plan, we attacked the buffet. Plenty of options. Our plan was to put Chris as if he was eating all by himself.

But then came the hard part. Our plan was to stack up the dishes as high as possible so that we could have a good picture of all the eaten food. We had to swat away servers constantly who were kindly trying to take away our dishes. Not knowing how to politely say that we were trying to take a picture, we all just said, “No sorry, we’re not done yet.”

At some point, we caved and took the picture. My sister suggested using a crab leg as a toothpick.

And my sister wanted a picture too. I am glad that she’s as shameless as us.

When a server finally approached to take away the dishes, we finally admitted our reasoning. She admitted that she thought that we were going to ask for a box for all the remaining food. That would be too Asian.

And mind you, we weren’t the only ones at the table.

Later we took video of Chris doing the pepto dance. (Yes, there is a pepto dance.) And yes, he was in Guitar Hero boxers.

Note: The 2010 scavenger hunt is over (a concluding post will come soon) and we got first place out of 121 teams! This is a series explaining the background and thinking of our missions of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt 2010!

Mission: It’s time to host a dinner party, but not just with YOUR friends, but with another team playing the game. You will have to hunt down a secret ingredient and make a dish with it to be shared with the other team at a dinner party in a location of your choice.

In a dinner party planned in less than 48 hours….

Secondly, what is the secret ingredient?

I immediately spammed my team with the riddle:
1. Currently in-season
2. Between 35 and 40 calories
3. The “unluckiest” colony.

And fortunately, Jeff T. knew the answer immediately. Peach.

Perfect. I already had planned a tomato and peach salad inspired by Mark Bittman’s 101 Simple Salads. But that seemed too simple. Perhaps something that represented our namesake? A deep fried twinkie (with my newly acquired fryer from my parents) certainly? With some kind of peach topping—grilled?

A healthy and unhealthy contrast? Yes!

I sent out an invite to the LMS team and my team.

To a sinking realization, the number of people attending from LMS was low. So low. The main blog owner was out of town. Unknowingly, that weekend was a special food event taking up most people’s time. I braced myself for the worst…and three hours before the dinner—I got a call that only one person could make it. Ok, that works. I rushed home and started the meal preparation. Then halfway through…no! He called to say that he wasn’t sure—he was tired—could we reschedule to say another weekend?

I understood that wariness of attending an event, super-exhausted. But no! This was the last weekend before the deadline. I could do a weekday, but the rest of my team couldn’t…and me rushing back by 7 pm to prepare a feast was almost impossible. Could you come for 10 minutes? I asked. Then I felt guilty as he was coming all the way from Berkeley. Whatever you want to do, but I promise you a feast and good times.

He did make it And it was a feast. And more than good times…it was incredible.

Not only did I manage to get nearly my entire menu, but we managed not to bore out honored guest to death.

We had:

Notable moments:

Note: The 2010 scavenger hunt is over (a concluding post will come soon) and we got first place out of 121 teams! This is a series explaining the background and thinking of our missions of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt 2010!

Mission: It’s time to host a dinner party, but not just with YOUR friends, but with another team playing the game. You will have to hunt down a secret ingredient and make a dish with it to be shared with the other team at a dinner party in a location of your choice.

Ok first. What team?

Another team playing the game? I scanned the list of the teams that were playing the game. Ok, what now? Do I try to play with the team that was at the top? Strategy. Strategy. Last year, I was able to find contact information for the teams since the photos were linked to personal sites. This year, it was all hosted on thegogame website. I decided to go for the most obvious one—Lick My Spoon. I knew that they made a writeup last year about the game…and I immediately sent off an email to Stephanie, the primary author of LMS.

Then I found Michael M whose team was Michael Eats SF. He was the first place winner of the 7×7 100 Big Eat SF Foodspotting Scavenger Hunt in February. I had been dying to ask him about his strategy of eating at 100 places in less than 2 weeks. Fortunately, I remembered his twitter name since it was all over foodspotting. Plus he used his full name as part of the twitter account. I looked at his website and confirmed that it was him…since his Japanese wife’s unique name was both present at the Go Game site and his personal site. Email sent.

Granted at this point, I had not even asked my team. I had low expectations, not certain whether anybody in the team had the desire to host the dinner party or know who to ask.

And most importantly, I hosted dinner parties in the past. I always thoroughly enjoyed cooking, serving and hosting people. And certainly didn’t think anybody else on my team would have that much energy.

A day later, I got a response from Stephanie and she CC’ed the rest of the LMS team. I was nearly jumping for joy at my desk at work. Secured! People! Guests!

In between client work, I quickly listed out several dishes that I had successfully made in the past, intended it to tempt the palate and to encourage attendance to dinner with strangers:
Corn casserole
“Boiled” water
Braised beef
Avocado tomato salad OR tomato peach salad with red onions
Gazpacho
roasted grapes and meatballs
Vermicelli with grilled chicken, cilantro, and kimchi?
Goat cheese with lemon juice, pepper, rosemary
freshly made soda water!

I quickly dashed out the email to the Lick My Spoon team and cc’ed my team. To my horror, someone replied who they loved the menu. Then another praised my incredible menu.

Then I paused…if everyone showed up from LMS and my team, there would be over 11 people. The biggest dinner party that I had served was only 4 people including myself. And it was because I had tons of leftover ingredients from a weekend party.

Would I have enough food? Better yet, did I have that much room in my apartment? I decided that Chris and I could sit out if worse came to worse.

I wondered if I was getting ahead of myself by hosting a dinner party on a short notice. I had less than 48 hours to get something ready. And there would be no way that I would stoop to store-prepared food—everything had to be made from scratch. At least most things.

Note: The 2010 scavenger hunt is over (a concluding post will come soon) and we got first place out of 121 teams! This is a series explaining the background and thinking of our missions of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt 2010!

Mission: The tamale from Whole Tortilla gives you superpowers! Whether it’s feeding the homeless or stopping bank robbers, show us your best superhero pose!

I don’t know how I got the idea—perhaps it was Cynthia. But I realized that I had to use ComicLife. I had used to previously for demonstrating scenarios while at CMU. But this…oh yes!

I investigated how to get Whole Tortilla, but to my chagrin, Whole Tortilla was only available on Sunday. At the Jack London Farmer’s Market. When I had already made a difficult slotting of a lunch with my family. It was impossible unless I sent my DFT comrades. Could I force my comrades to do such a task? But wait according to the website, they were at a local store, Lillah Belle. I rushed over in the morning. I scanned the entire store, which was full of super-expensive organic meals that I could make easier and cheaper even by buying organic ingredients. But it turned out that they did not carry Whole Tortilla tamales.

“Nobody bought them so I stopped making orders,” the woman at the counter said without looking up from her newspaper.

A few hours later, I had an idea. I called the Whole Tortilla number…and it turned out that she lived close to me. I rushed over and picked up several tortillas.