Because I appreciate a little bit of chaos in my life, I try to go to at least one pop-up restaurant a week. That means coordinating my life around their hours and locations. It also means being aware that many traditional restaurant criticism conventions about finesse and efficiency may be thrown out the window.

And lastly, it means being open to all kinds of unique experiences.

At Okkon, the okonomiyaki pop-up that appears on both sides of the Bay Area, you may be drawn into conversation with Sayaka, the owners’ young daughter. At Materials and Methods at Foundation Cafe, chef Malik Francis will most definitely play you the formative hip hop albums of his youth.

Years ago, I worked for a pop-up in New Orleans: I grilled duck sausages in a festival tent, fried catfish in a barrel on a windy bridge and folded terrible xiaolongbao in a ramen shop that lent its space to us. At every service, we tried something new — and despite the hiccups, people showed up because they wanted to be part of our process.

In that spirit, I’ve been seeking out the most intriguing pop-ups in the Bay Area. Some of these chefs are doing it to actively seek investors for brick-and-mortar projects; others are content to just continue as they are. It’s also helpful to me to keep an eye on budding culinary leaders who are taking their first strides out on their own to introduce their particular styles and interests to the dining public. With pop-ups, you’ll find cuisines and dishes that you won’t be able to experience in restaurants ... yet.

We wrote about a few incredible ones for this year’s Top 100 (Cafe Ohlone, Pinoy Heritage, Okkon), but here are a few more that I’ve loved recently. If you’re interested in a bit of inspiring creative chaos, these are great places to start.

Hermanita

Nicole Marin, a native of Mexicali in Baja California, serves brunch versions of her childhood foods out of Mosto, Tacolicious’ adjacent bar in the Mission. Highlights include the barbacoa ($18), a beautiful package of roasted lamb leg wrapped in steamed, aromatic banana leaf and served with toothsome tortillas that she makes fresh, and her incredibly fresh-tasting version of Mexican street corn ($7), served here enveloped in roasted poblano mayonnaise and sprinkled with chile powder.

Popping up at Mosto: 741 Valencia Street, San Francisco. 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Credit cards accepted. www.instagram.com/hermanitapop

Hilda and Jesse

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A project by restaurant veterans Kristina Compton and Rachel Sillcocks, this pop-up is all about the very relatable idea of eating breakfast at dinnertime. (Don’t lie to me — you’ve eaten Cheerios at 10 p.m. before.) Its rendition of breakfast, however, is a wonderfully elegant set menu ($45) that pairs perfectly with sparkling wine. The menu plays with the flavors of breakfast in fascinating ways: You might find beef brisket topped with a version of the McDonald’s hash brown, a dessert that appropriates the flavors of a cinnamon raisin bagel, or a mind-blowing melon granita that packages the fruit bowl as a gorgeous take on bingsoo.

Popping up at Marla’s Bakery. 3619 Balboa Street, San Francisco. 5:30-8:30 p.m. alternate Mondays. Reservations required. Credit cards accepted. www.hildaandjessesf.com

Chef Smelly’s

For years, I have creeped on the Chef Smelly’s Instagram page, at the glistening hunks of garlic-roasted Dungeness crab, bubbling macaroni and cheese trays, cornmeal-crusted red snapper and to-go containers piled high with garlic noodles. It’s everything I want out of comfort food: spice and seafood. Brimming with anticipation, I finally got a chance to try Edward Wooley’s Creole food at his booth at Outside Lands, and I was not disappointed. The crab and garlic noodles had such big, bold flavors and there was not a fragment of shell to be found. Now that’s a level of finesse worth writing home about.

Popping up at various places, including Au Lounge. 2430 Broadway, Oakland. 5:00-10:00 p.m. Thursday and Friday. www.instagram.com/chefsmelly

Best Song I Heard in a Restaurant

This week, I went to a pop-up called Chicano Nuevo at the Old Devil Moon bar in Bernal Heights. (I highly recommend its fried fish tacos with salmon consomme and quinoa taquitos.) There, I heard a full album by The Budos Band, an instrumental group out of Staten Island whose baritone sax riffs sound uncannily like the Ethiopian funk movement of the 1960s and 1970s. For more tunes direct from Ethiopia, check out the music of the incomparable Alemayehu Eshete.

Photo of the week

Ever since I first saw a fry-crusted hot dog on a Korean variety show, I have longed to try one, to experience a bite of craggy, crisp potato with salty sausage. I got that opportunity at Myungrang Hot Dog, a small counter spot tucked away in the H Mart on Oakland Road in San Jose. It was everything I wanted and more: A+, highly recommended, 5 stars, two thumbs up! I probably shouldn’t eat another one for a year, though.

What I’m reading

• This week, I went to Bevri, the only brick-and-mortar restaurant dedicated to Georgian cuisine in the Bay Area. I adored the khachapuri, of course, and the selection of Georgian wines, which you can also read more about in Esther Mobley’s latest piece.

• Have you been keeping up with The Chronicle’s own Justin Phillips as he takes up a new role as a regular columnist? In his latest, he bemoans the disconnect between the vocal support for minority-owned restaurants in San Francisco and the actual financial outcomes for those restaurants. I was really upset when I heard that Isla Vida, one of the first restaurants I reviewed, closed for good recently. I know every critic goes through this, but it stings.

• Bookmark the New York Times’ 1619 Project, which commemorates the 400th anniversary of the first time chattel slavery cast its shadow over what would later become the United States of America. The project is momentous, packed full of a diversity of stories about the legacies of enslavement by some of the best journalists, poets and critics of our time. Read Bryan Stevenson on mass incarceration; Khalil Gibran Muhammad on the “barbaric history” of sugar; and Trymaine Lee on the racial wealth gap. More stories are incoming, so keep an eye on this.

Bite Curious is a weekly newsletter from The Chronicle’s restaurant critic, Soleil Ho, delivered to inboxes on Monday mornings. Follow along on Twitter: @Hooleil