In our travels around Philadelphia, we’ve stumbled on some intriguing ethnic restaurants. Indonesian, Malaysian and Cambodian in South Philly. Jamaican, Trinidadian and Dominican in North Philly. Senegalese, Eritrean and Hmong in West Philly. Georgian, Serbian and Peruvian in Northeast Philly. But a lot of the time, we never got to include menus from these places on MenuPages because they were steamtable restaurants with no paper menus… just a daily set of dishes dependent on the cook (who was usually the owner)’s whim.
South Philly’s Hardena was one of those. This Indonesian restaurant, located in a not-so-pretty stretch of South Philly, just got a visit from Finding Philly:
Everybody talks about the satay, and with good reason. You get four skewers and a whole lot of a perfect peanut sauce. It’s not too sweet and it’s just thick enough to lay a nice smooth and crunchy covering over the skewer. Don’t forget that dark sauce with the jalapenos though. If you like spice like me you’ll want to spoon some of that on top as well. In the last section of the styrofoam plate is a selection of pickled veggies. A little of this after every piece of chicken makes for a very complex array of sweet, hot and tangy that just tickles the tastebuds.Our next two plates were the mix-plates. Rijstaffel, I believe they’re called. I had beef rendang, some of the homemade tempeh, jackfruit and collard greens. The tempeh was interesting but a bit too bland for me. The jackfruit looks like meat or a fake meat, but tastes like a sweet and half-tart mix between the textures of pineapple and pudding. Fun! The beef rendang has a moderate kick to it and just falls apart in your mouth. The collard greens are right out of the Louisiana and taste like they’ve been cooked in some bacon fat! Worth going for them alone.
Hardena [Finding Philly]
In our travels around Philadelphia, we’ve stumbled on some intriguing ethnic restaurants. Indonesian, Malaysian and Cambodian in South Philly. Jamaican, Trinidadian and Dominican in North Philly. Senegalese, Eritrean and Hmong in West Philly. Georgian, Serbian and Peruvian in Northeast Philly. But a lot of the time, we never got to include menus from these places on MenuPages because they were steamtable restaurants with no paper menus… just a daily set of dishes dependent on the cook (who was usually the owner)’s whim.
