Cafe Pendawa Lima

There's a pocket in South Philly's Point Breeze neighborhood called "Little Indonesia" with Indonesian restaurants and stores that I've been meaning to explore for years now (that to-do list is massive), and I finally got around to one of those eateries, Cafe Pendawa Lima.

Well, Cafe Pendawa is not really a restaurant like the highly praised South Philly Indonesian restaurants, Hardena and Indonesia, but Cafe Pendawa, is more of a corner bodega (check out this Chowhound listing for a list of more Indonesian bodegas in Philly).

Cafe Pendawa has a small selection of Indonesian grocery staples in back, and quite an impressive selection of freshly made food. Meals in plastic clam shell boxes are stacked in a large refrigerator along the wall, and sweet and fried goodies are displayed on a table running down the middle of the narrow building.

Scanning the refrigerator and all the plastic clam shells -- some without any identifying sticker, some with just the Indonesian name of the dish, and some with the Indonesian name and a list of ingredients -- I was a bit unsure what was what, and what did or didn't contain meat. I had to ask the friendly employee for assistance. He looked in the case, and said, "Sorry, they all have meat," but I spotted one without any markings that looked promising. "Ah, yes, Gado-gado has no meat," exclaimed the employee.Gado-gado might be one of the only Indonesian dishes I'm familiar with and have eaten before. If you're unfamiliar with Gado-gado, it's a salad with all sorts of varying ingredients of varying textures, but is always dressed with a sweet peanut sauce.
Pendawa's Gado-gado comes with the individual ingredients separated or in containers so every ingredient keeps it integrity until you're ready to assemble the salad and eat it. Chopped lettuce, Lontong (compressed rice cake cut into pieces), Kerupuk (Indonesian fried crackers), tempeh, fried tofu, mung bean sprouts, shredded steamed cabbage, half a hard boiled egg, chili sauce, and peanut sauce (heat up first to get ingredients combined) all came together for an excellent and filling salad that I would not mind eating every day. The ingredients were super fresh; no scary lettuce here!The desserts also don't have names or ingredients listed on their containers (when there even is a container; some are just hanging out in baskets), so I needed help in that department, too. Good thing I asked, because some desserts are made with meat!
The helpful employee recommended Nagasari, explaining it was a banana cake. Inside the banana leaf parcel was a firm, pudding-like dessert made from steamed coconut milk and flour surrounding a firm banana nothing like the soft, pale banana from the grocery store you're familiar with. I was conflicted by the smooth and firm gelatinous texture not common in most Western desserts, but oddly compelled by it, too. I ate it all in a jiffy and wanted more.I also grabbed Terang Bulan to try. Unfamiliar, yet yummy, I can only describe this dessert as minced peanuts, chocolate jimmies and cheese sandwiched between a condensed milk-soaked pancake. I'd definitely get it again.The freshness and quality of the food at Cafe Pendawa is exceptional. You just never know about some of these corner stores in Philly; they'll surprise you in a good way sometimes.

With the exception of a couple of dishes under my belt, I'm practically an Indonesian food newb, but so far so good! I can't wait to try some of the other Indonesian places in Philly, and might even get on it sooner them later.

Cafe Pendawa Lima
1529 Morris St., Philadelphia, PA 19147

Domaine Hudson Revisited

The second restaurant review to grace this blog (whoa! that was over three and a half years ago) was for Domaine Hudson, a wine bar and restaurant in downtown Wilmington that I was smitten with when they first opened in late 2005, and am still smitten with to this day. Ask me for a fine dining recommendation in Wilmington, and Domaine Hudson is the first name out of my mouth.

I don't get around to frequenting most of the restaurants I review, simply because there are so many good, new (to me) restaurants to experience, but there are a handful of restaurants that I do return to, and Domaine is one of them, although, I don't frequent Domaine nearly enough, seeing as how they are so close to my house and I enjoy them immensely. Being bone tired and unpresentable after work, and staying in Philly on the weekend are my excuses.

Of all my visits to Domaine Hudson, I've never taken pictures of their food, even for the initial review, so I thought I'd show you some of what Domaine dishes up.

In full disclosure, the owners, Tom and Meg Hudson, know me and know that I write this food blog. They did not know me when I wrote my initial review, but Meg, sharp woman that she is, recognized me the second I walked in their restaurant after writing the review, and called me out in the nicest way possible. Meg and Tom chat me up when I visit, but they do this with all of their customers.
3 wines, 3 ounces, $3 each. The glasses were fuller before it dawned on me to take a picture.

Domaine has a great daily happy hour deal from 5-7pm -- 3 wines, 3 ounce pours, $3 each. Three related wines are up for offer, and you could order just one, but the happy hour deal is a great way to compare three wines and make mental notes all wine connoisseur-like at about half price.

Domaine Hudson is a restaurant with wines as their specialty, and, surprise, they have great wines! Every time we go, we're always writing down what we drank so we can shop for it later. Chat up the server or the owners (sitting at the bar best for this) and they'll help you find a wine you like. One evening, after rating five wines and having my ratings match exactly with Meg's, I learned to just ask Meg what her favorite wine is on their ever changing wine list.

Oh, and if wine's not your thing, Domaine now has a selection of craft beers in bottle. Everybody gets a little love!

The changing menu is not vegetarian heavy, but there are a few dishes, and the chef, Jason Barrowcliff, who has been there since day one, will gladly make a veggie plate. We tend to go for the wine, cheese, and dessert because it somehow seems more decadent, but recently we went all out and had a full meal. It helps that Domaine offers a prix fixe menu of three courses for $35 all the time. And, as always, meat eaters win with the prix fixe.
This complimentary roll with a crusty exterior and soft interior reminds me of the fab rustic rolls I made a while back.
While Domaine's menu changes frequently, I don't think I've ever not seen the baked brie and arugula salad with walnuts, pears, and roasted shallot vinaigrette. It's perfect, and I think patrons would object if it went missing.
These caramelized Brussels sprouts with exotic mushrooms, micro-greens, and aged sherry vinaigrette are some of the best Brussels sprouts I've ever had. I think it was the earthy mushrooms that elevated them to the next level.
This macadamia nut and Parmesan crusted swordfish with asparagus, wild rice, and leek-saffron sauce was said by the boy to be the best cooked piece of swordfish he's ever had.The vegetarian cauliflower and chickpea stew with peas, carrots, and mushrooms in a mushroom broth, topped with sun dried tomato and olive tapenade is a hearty, mild, mushroom-y stew that draws pep from the tapenade. Oh, and it pains me that the chickpeas were undercooked on the one visit I took pictures for a "revisit" on the blog, since I've never had anything wrong with any dish at Domaine Hudson, but there it was.
"Drunken" tiramisu is a sort of deconstructed tiramisu with lady fingers and espresso with vanilla and coffee ice cream. This was the boy's dessert, and while his plate was cleaned, he confessed to preferring a traditional tiramisu.
Domaine Hudson has the best creme brulees! I mean it. The creme part is so thick, creamy and rich, and the brulee part is thick and crunchy. Never a big creme brulee person, I ordered one a few years ago from Doamine, and it knocked my socks off. Since then, I order creme brulees wherever I go, and no one has offered up a creme brulee to match. I find any combination of grainy or runny custards, and over burnt or thin and bendy caramelized sugar tops at other places. Get the creme brulee!

And that's a "revisit" to Domaine Hudson. I really need to go more often. My excuses are lame. What's yours?

Domaine Hudson
1314 N. Washington St., Wilmington, DE 19801
302-655-9463
Mon- Thurs,5-10:30p.m.
Fri-Sat., 5 - 11p.m.

BoBerry Biscuits

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and it is certainly true in the case of Bojangles' BoBerry biscuit.

Bojangles' is a Southern chicken and biscuit fast food chain, not unlike Popeyes, Church's, or Kentucky Fried Chicken, with the exception that:

1) Bojangles' is, um, better.
2) Bojangles' becomes very scarce above the Mason Dixon line -- there are none in Delaware, and one lone Pennsylvania location in Reading.
3) None of those other cuz's have the BoBerry!What is a BoBerry biscuit? A large fluffy biscuit studded with BoBerries (not a real fruit, or real food, for that matter), topped with a slightly salty brush of butter, and drizzled with a sweet glaze. It's sooooo good! I'm salivating just looking at the pictures.

I was lucky enough to snag these babies at the Charlotte Douglas airport on a recent trip. They come two to an order, and, surprisingly, are not that horrendously fattening at only 220 calories and 10 grams of fat each . Certainly not a diet food, but compare one BoBerry to one Cinnabun at 730 calories and 24 grams of fat, and you've got a classic Eat This, Not That.BoBerry biscuits play prominently in my high school days, and perhaps that's why I have such fond memories of what some may consider fast food junk. Evenings of cruising all over town and to friends' houses seemed to always start at Bojangles' for a BoBerry pick up.

The most memorable BoBerry experience was the time I decided not to split an order with a friend, and ate two by myself then proceeded into a roller coaster theme park (oh, Carowinds, so many memories) to return to the parking lot about an hour later to moan and groan. Lesson learned: eat just one!

If sweet's not yo' thang, Bojangles' has awesome, thick-cut, seasoned fries. Who's up for a car trip to Reading?

What I Did On My Free Summer Vacation

Where have I been? In St. Martin at the tiny French and Dutch island's most luxurious hotel and resort!

For being such a good little worker, the boy's employer awarded him (and a bunch of other good little workers from the US and Canada) an all expense paid trip to St. Martin with a generous allowance to spend while at a swanky resort! (The only way that last sentence could have been any cooler, is if I had said he won the trip on The Price Is Right.)

So, you know, I went as his plus one. Hard decision.
Since we had some mad cash to spend that could could only be spent at the resort, we did a lot of eating on the resort. We did not eat the $450 per person 5-course tasting menu with wine pairings (don't balk the next time a restaurant offers a $150 prix fixe), but stuck to the more casual and not so ridiculously priced lunch and dinners. The gratis breakfast was actually my favorite. I ate fresh fruit and pastries every morning, then went and worked out in their fancy fitness center for not nearly long enough to counteract a breakfast of three or four pastries. Despite the French side of the island being praised for having the best food in all of the Caribbean (people just love French food and French cooking techniques), and even dining at a fancy French joint in the culinary capital of Grand Case (signs for all you can eat foie gras were spotted!), this plate of rice and beans, fried plantains, and salad that can be found on any Caribbean island or in Central America was my favorite meal. There is just something so satisfying about this combo.
Every traveling foodie always checks out the grocery stores. The French side has the better grocery stores (like walking into a store in Europe) than the Dutch side (like walking into a store in America/Mexico).
How do you know you're in a store on the French side? You can grab a jar of goose fat, or one of maybe twelve different brands of canned cassoulet. I did neither, or course, but did snag a handful of Bovetti artisan chocolate bars made in Paris. Ooo, la la!
Lounging beach side, I tore through "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles", a fast, fun, and fascinating read about American Chinese food that was last year's hit (I'm always late to the party). Although I am not one of the majority of Americans with an insatiable craving and love affair with American Chinese food, the second I hit the Charlotte Douglas airport on the return trip, I had to have me some Manchu Wok...too much American Chinese food on the brain!

And before you get too jealous of my free trip, nothing is ever free! My cost was a nasty spider bite on the back incurred while on the island. Never had one before. Don't ever want another one. (Uh...turned out to be Lyme disease rearing it's ugly head.) It's day five of being unnaturally exhausted, with a fever and sore muscles, and pretty much thinking I'm gonna die. Cry me a river.

More trip pics on Flickr!

Pimento Cheese For Grilling

This is not a post on grilled pimento cheese sandwiches (just like regular grilled cheese sandwiches, but better), but this is a post on pimento cheese made specifically to throw on top of burgers on the grill.

What's different about grilling pimento cheese than regular ol' pimento cheese? The absence of mayonnaise. You see, when mayonnaise gets heated to high temperatures it separates and gets all ookey, and that's not what you want on your grilled 'mento cheese burger.

This fabulous idea of taking out the mayonnaise and subbing cream cheese as the binder (some make regular pimento cheese with mayo and cream cheese, but I never have) came to me via Matt and Ted Lee, the cutest, receding-haired James Beard-winning cookbook authors and Southern foods purveyors from Charleston, SC.

This grilling pimento cheese has no mayonnaise, and is formed into a rectangle and chilled so it can be sliced and thrown on top of burgers on the grill, but I sneaked some slices for my lunch sandwiches and it's just as tasty cold as it is melted on the grill.

Pimento cheese is my favorite cheese (it's really more of a cheese spread), and I only know of a few people that don't like or won't try this Southern delicacy, and those people are usually mayonnaise adverse. Now, haters really don't have any excuse to not try pimento cheese.See this jar of Cento sliced pimentos? While there are many brands of jarred sweet peppers out there, I grew up aware of only this brand, and also not knowing that roasted red peppers had any purpose other than pimento cheese. I'm a little more worldly now, but this small Cento jar will always say pimento cheese to me. Feel free to use any brand of jarred roasted red pepper you like, or even roast your own.

Pimento Cheese For Grilling
makes enough for about 4-6 large sandwiches
Adapted from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt and Ted Lee

8 ounces, extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
2 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
4 ounces roasted red peppers, diced
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon onion, grated
salt and pepper, to taste
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. (These pictures reflect a double batch.)
Mix ingredients until incorporated. (I like to use my hands, but a spoon will work, too.)
Turn mixture out onto a clean surface, and shape into a rectangular block. Wrap pimento cheese block in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or until ready to use.Cut pimento cheese block into slices, and top burgers on the grill with slices.

Sketch

It took a little less than a year after the grand opening of Sketch, Fishtown's beloved vegan friendly burger joint, for me to get there, but I finally did. The limited hours of operation initially kept me away, but now open seven days a week for lunch through dinner, it's much easier to stop by.

The brightly colored Girard St. store front holds an equally colorful and funky interior with a long bar and stools along the wall and front window, and three large booths with church pew seats to dine at. Bored? Scrawl on the chalkboards on the wall with chalk or the construction paper on the tables with crayons. Cute, but I was not moved to artistry.

Up the ramp from the main dining room, you'll pass a chalkboard of menu items, and a chalkboard of daily special like antelope burgers, birch beer pulled pork sandwiches, and sesame noodles.

Sketch's mainstay are their sirloin beef, Kobe, turkey, vegan, chicken, and smashed onion beef burgers, but you can also grab a salad, burrito, or fries (yeah, they got rid of the cheese puffs after so many people bitched about the absence of fries). Oh, regular and vegan milkshakes are also a specialty of Sketch, and I hear they are the bomb, but I had to skip. Just don't know how anyone has room for a burger and a shake!

Mosy a few more steps, and place your order at the register, take a seat, and your order will be brought out to you. Do you tip for this service? With signs at the register and on every table suggesting you tip your server (a bit much, but I guess they've had misunderstandings), you best tip, you ingrate.I went with the vegan burger with the included toppings of tomato, lettuce, and choice of sauce -- cheese and fancier toppings cost $1 each. The falafel-like vegan burger was fine, but had an overriding Mediterranean spice (neither of us could name it, and I forgot to ask) that put me off. I was fond of the soft, toasted, challah-like onion roll and generous vegan harissa aioli (love sauce, and Sketch is the first place in a long time that did not skimp on sauce), but not the pale, out of season tomato slice. Overall, the vegan burger was just meh. I'd eat it again, but I'm not in love.My partner tried out one of the specials, a grilled seitan and vegetable sandwich with an Asian-influenced sesame sauce. This thing was massive! And not bad, even though the grilled seitan, onion, red pepper and cabbage sandwich seemed a little homey, like, "Oh, I had some leftover stir fry, lets put it on a bun." The seitan sandwich was odd, but the better of the two sandwiches.

I really, really wanted to love Sketch, since so many people do, and especially since the owner was incredibly friendly, and you could tell she poured her heart and soul into the place, but I just didn't. The food is decent, and the vibes are casual and fun, but I'm just not that into it. Philly has spoiled me.

Sketch
413 E. Girard Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19125
215-634-3466
open 7 days, 11:30am-9pm

Chick-O-Stick Ice Cream

Don't ask why, but vegans love Chick-O-Sticks -- that bright orange, round stick of crunchy peanut butter and toasted coconut candy that, if you've never had one, is somewhat similar to the center of a Butterfinger Bar.

Okay, I'll tell you why vegans love Chick-O-Sticks. When you're a starving vegan on a road trip in the middle of no where, the Chick-O-Stick is your best bud, as it's one of only a few vegan candies in the aisles of a 7-11. And Chick-O-Stick is quite good. Who doesn't like crunchy peanut butter and coconut candy that sticks in your teeth!

I had this fabulous idea of making vegan Chick-O-Stick ice cream, but, dang it, someone beat me to it. To quote a Chumbawamba lyric (yeah, I like them, despite that one hit in the late 90's), "you can't write a song that's never been sung," and, similarly, you can't create a dish that's never been made.

Ah, well, I made the ice cream anyway, but with my own recipe. Since the vegan chocolate coconute ice cream I made last year turned out so well, I used the base from that recipe with added peanut butter, and Chick-O-Stick bits thrown in toward the end of the churning process.

And it was AWESOME! So awesome, I made a second batch almost immediately. Slightly peanuty, slightly coconuty, with lots of fun crunchy candy bits.

Get on it, vegans (and non-vegans), you know you love Chick-O-Sticks!Chick-O-Stick Ice Cream
makes about 1 quart

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup peanut butter
2 cups canned coconut milk
3 (2 oz) Chick-O-Sticks, crushed

• Heat water and sugar in a medium saucepan until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.
• Add syrup, peanut butter, and coconut milk to a blender, and blend until peanut butter is thoroughly incorporated.
• Chill ice cream base for a couple of hours or overnight.
• Freeze in ice cream machine. During the last minutes of churning add crushed Chick-O-Sticks and churn for a few more minutes until candy bits are evenly distributed. (I experimented with crushing the Chick-O-Sticks, and found pulsing with a food processor produced too much powder. Smashing the sticks while still in their wrappers with a cast iron skillet, just a couple of bonks, gave the results I desired -- large to small chunks with minimal powder.
  

Bebe's Biscuits

Update: no longer open.

Finally, a weekend came around after my first encounter with Bebe's Barbecue where Bebe's wasn't closed for a holiday (Mother's Day), wasn't offering a limited menu (Italian Market Festival), or I wasn't out of town (wedding), so this past weekend I got my biscuits!

Bebe's Barbecue only bakes up biscuits on Sunday, making this menu item a little trickier to get than their other rotating menu items (check the large menu on the wall to see what's checked as available for that day). I was pleasantly surprised when they said they had two kinds of biscuits that day -- regular and spicy. Regular being plain ol', cut, round biscuits baked on a tray, and spicy being drop biscuits made with their barbecue spice rub and baked in a cast iron skillet (they pulled the tin foil back from the cast iron skillet to show them to me). One of each, please!

Biscuits come out of the oven at 9 am on Sundays, and it's recommended for optimal eating that you eat them fresh out of the oven. At around noon, Bebe's was a little concerned about the biscuits' quality, so sold them at half price and instructed to stick them in a high oven for five minutes to reheat them before eating. Done and done!The regular biscuit was a little over browned on the top, but was a light, tender biscuit. Not mind blowing, but certainly a worthy biscuit. Don't know for certain, but the biscuit did not taste like it was made with a Southern flour, which is what biscuits need to be made with if striving for a perfect biscuit. Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to purchase such flour around here (I've never seen it, so run it up by car when visiting home). The wedge-shaped, spice rub, drop biscuit baked in a cast iron skillet was excellent, and much lighter and tenderer than the regular biscuit (I'm convinced that the more you touch and roll biscuit dough, the tougher the biscuit becomes, and this side by side of a cut biscuit and a drop biscuit helps my theory). And it's barbecue flavored!

I would have never thought to add barbecue spice rub to a biscuit, but it's great. If you like barbecue flavored potato chips (love 'em!), snag one of these if you can. Bebe's says they are experimenting with biscuit flavors -- like spice rub and pepper -- so who knows what kinds of biscuits might show up on Sundays. I'm hoping they keep the spice rub biscuit in the rotationAnd, duh, I picked up some mac and cheese. This serving seemed a little different and creamier than my first try where I declared the mac and cheese as good as my Mom's. This order was warm, verging on hot, as opposed to the first order which was slightly warm, verging on cold, and I think this might have been the difference. Personally, I think Southern-style mac and cheese is a dish best served as a leftover, and better when the dish cools and the cheese firms back up. Note to self and all y'all: let the mac and cheese cool down before eating it.

Bebe's Barbecue
1017 South 9th St., Philadelphia, PA 19147
267-519-8791
Mon, closed
Tues-Sat, 11am-6pm
Sun, 9am-2pm