Favorite Dishes #74: Mission Chinese Food’s Oil-Cured Anchovies

When Danny Bowien reopened his hit Mission Chinese Food (171 East Broadway) in a larger, more stately space, appointing Angela Dimayuga to run the kitchen, the playful chef and restaurateur added so many new dishes to the menu that the incendiary Sichuan cuisine for which he’d become famous all but disappeared into the background. While you can still get your kung pao pastrami fix, there are plenty of hits among the restaurant’s newer offerings.

Taming chile heat with sourness and fat, Dimayuga smothers oil-cured anchovies with a heap of mashed pickled chiles. Served simply in their tin, the fish buzz with brine and spice, set against fresh sprigs of parsley and a squeeze of lemon. Tear off hunks of the accompanying round of puffy sourdough bread, baked in the wood-fired oven the Mission crew inherited from the space’s previous tenant. If you feel like inspiring some of the punk-rock ethos of the restaurant’s original incarnation, consider ordering a pepperoni pizza (the breads are made from the same yeast starter) and topping it — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles–style — with some bodacious seafood.

The Village Voice is counting down to our Best of New York City issue in October. We’re combing the city every day, one dish at a time, to guide you to the most delicious food in NYC. These are our 100 Favorite Dishes for 2015, in no particular order, save for the top 10.

Here’s our countdown up to now:
#100: Laminated Blueberry Brioche at Dominique Ansel Kitchen
#99: Egg Shop’s Golden Bucket Fried Chicken
#98: Ramen Lab’s Torigara Shoyu
#97: Cannoli at Ferdinando’s
#96: Breakfast Sandwich at Dimes
#95: Banana Royal at Eddie’s Sweet Shop
#94: Fletcher’s Burnt Ends
#93: Almayass’s Mante
#92: Empellon Taqueria’s Fish Taco
#91: El Rey’s Sardine Tostada
#90: General Tso’s Pig’s Head at the Cannibal
#89: The Vegetarian at Meat Hook Sandwich Shop
#88: The 21 Club’s Creamy Chicken Hash
#87: Deep-Fried Olives at Via Carota
#86: Pougi at Loi Estiatorio
#85: Shelsky’s Hot Pastrami Sandwich
#85: Pearl & Ash’s Smoked Bread with Chicken Butter
#84: Gluten-Free Pizza at Rossopomodoro
#83: Perry St’s Chocolate Pudding With Candied Violets
#82: Whit’s End’s ‘Fuckin’ Bluefish Dip’
#81: Morgenstern’s Salt and Pepper Pine Nut Ice Cream
#80: Levain Bakery’s Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie
#79: Delmar Pizzeria’s Pizza
#78: Cafe Cluny’s Avocado Toast
#77: Brooklyn Star’s Cinnamon Bun
#76: Pork Belly Cotton Candy at Carnem
#75: Ippudo’s Pork Buns