Hardena

Oh, man. Hardena has been on my to-do list since I started this blog. I have never heard one word other than high praise for this ramshackle Indonesian point-and-receive food line in South Philly, yet I have somehow never made it a priority to it hit up. If you've similarly slacked, hit. it. up. now.
For one thing, I thought Harden was a little farther south than it really is (I walk most every place I eat), but it's only a few blocks west of all the happenings on E. Passyunk Ave.

The other thing, I knew there was always a vegetarian option on the steam table, but I didn't know there were so many. I was overwhelmed when the sweet woman behind the counter rattled off six different vegetarian options. I was only expecting two, or three at most.
So, what you get at Hardena is your choice of three items on top of rice for the low, low price of $6. There's a menu on the wall across from the counter, but it's best to just ask the person behind the counter what's on the steam table. Say "vegetarian" if you are, and they'll kindly tell you what's available. Pour yourself some water from the large cooler, and have a seat with your plate. I got collards, tempeh goreng, and angel hair rice noodles with tofu and beans. Sounds simple, but it's not. It's layers of complex, spicy, delicious yum over rice...which is my favorite meal in the whole world. I could eat this every day.
The boy got battered tempeh (kinda like lemony tempeh tempura), yellow fish, and tofu something-or-another. Again, complex, spicy, delicious yum over rice.

All plates come dressed with Hardena's homemade chili and lime leaf hot sauce, if you wish...and you do. You can buy some of the hot sauce to take home, as well.

Hardena very much reminded me of Genelle's in Wilmington, my favorite point-and-receive Wilmo restaurant (sadly, now closed) that served complex, spicy, delicious, Caribbean yum over rice. Hardena just puts the Indonesian (influence from Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern, and European cuisines) into the yum. And Hardena is a little more, um, let's use the word ramshackle again, but charming and outstandingly delicious, for sure.

Prediction: Hardena wins "best of" in the next Mac & Cheese end of the year roundup.

Hardena
1754 Hicks St., Philadelphia, PA 19145
215-271-9442
Mon, 11am-8pm
Wed, noon-8pm
Thurs-Sun, 11am-8pm

Cantina Report

Hi, ya. Cantina report here. I know the Cantina Los Caballitos (and Cantina Dos Segundos) can be hit or miss, but they sure are great places to get a pitcher of margaritas and while away the afternoon.

It's been a while since I ducked into the Cantina on Passyunk, but this last time there was a new-to-me menu item — seitan anticuchos with quinoa salad.

Verdict: hit!

Yum, yum, and yum. The Cantina serves mostly Mexican influenced food, but this dish of sesame seed crusted, sweet rum glazed seitan skewers, and sweet quinoa salad studded with carrots and yucca is a vegan take on anticuchos, Peruvian grilled meat on a stick.

I actually did a double take on the crispy seitan, because I swore there was a fatty layer like pork has, and the edges were just so damn crispy and tasty. Nope. It was seitan. How did they do that? And can I have some more?

Cantina Los Caballitos
1651 E Passyunk Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19148
215-755-3550

Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream

Always a little rusty and out of practice at the beginning of ice cream season, the first batch out of the ice cream machine always seems to be a dud in my kitchen. Nothing changed with the kickoff of this year's ice cream adventures, either. I'll spare you the details.

But the second batch? That's when things start to flow... or chill.

I was quite smitten with peanut butter and jelly ice cream made from a coconut milk and peanut butter base layered with jelly, because it tasted just as I had planned — like peanut butter and jelly. Success, I thought! But the boy said no thank you, because it tasted like peanut butter and jelly. Hmm...may I suggest only lovers of peanut butter and jelly partake.The coconut milk ice cream base I stumbled upon with coconut chocolate ice cream, and have used since in Chick-O-Stick ice cream, has quickly become my favorite ice cream base for a few reasons: (1) there are no eggs and milk involved, two ingredients I don't like to keep in the house, and (2) there is no cooking of custard involved, making the base pretty foolproof, and (3) whether you use whole fat or low fat coconut milk, the results are always rich and creamy.

Yes, there is a slight coconut flavor in coconut milk based ice creams, but the main ice cream flavor — in this case peanut butter — will always be the main player. Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream
makes about 1 quart

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)
2 cups coconut milk (regular or low fat)
10 ounces jam (I used raspberry)

• Heat water and sugar in a medium saucepan until sugar is dissolved.
• Add peanut butter to the syrup and stir until peanut butter is completely melted.
  
• Remove from heat, and stir in coconut milk. Chill for a couple hours or overnight in the refrigerator.
  
• Freeze in ice cream machine.
• Working fast since the ice cream is soft, layer half of the ice cream in a container. Then add the jam on top of the ice cream, spreading as best you can (fingers worked best for me). Add the remaining ice cream as the final layer.
• Freeze 12-24 hours, or until ice cream is firm.
  

Fish

This review of Fish will be about as useful to fish eaters as mainstream restaurant reviews are to me. Not very.

Fish is the bigger (but still small) and newer sister to Mike Stollenwerk's tiny (and currently closed due to building structure problems) Little Fish, a restaurant that got the whole town talking about Stollenwerk's simple but spectacular fish dishes. Bigwigs also took notice, as he's cooking up a meal this August at the James Beard House in New York, no less.

If you don't eat fish, like I do, you probably have no business eating at Fish, a restaurant with almost nothing but fish on the menu. But what if you have a loved one that adores Little Fish, never gets to eat there (because a certain someone doesn't eat fish), and has a birthday? You suck it up, and take them to Fish, the next best thing to Little Fish — and currently the only option if you want Stollenwerk's work.Complementary bread is dolled out by the piece from the waitstaff on an as-needed basis, and is accompanied by a tangy goat milk butter.

As a vegetarian, I could eat four things from the menu: a salad, and three of the four sides. I've seen worse at restaurants that were significantly lesser in quality, so I can't complain. And I'm not. I know where I was.

Even a simple salad of arugula, Feta and tomatoes dressed in a vinaigrette gets attention — each grape and cherry tomato half was of a different variety, making each mouthful interesting.For my main, I ordered the spaeztle side. The crispy, pan fried German egg noodles were perfectly salted and seasoned, and topped with musty slivers of white truffle. Not skimpy, but not large — it's a side, after all — the spaeztle left me with enough room for dessert.The bacon ice cream sounded fabulous, but I went with the thick, ganach-like chocolate tort with pretzel crust and salted caramel ice cream. After the sweet and only slightly salty ice cream was no longer around to balance the overwhelmingly rich tort, I put my fork down and called it an evening.

Even though I couldn't eat the main attraction at Fish, I could tell that everything was cooked and prepared with care and skill.

Each of the six varieties of oysters available were ordered by my partner, as well as some fish dish. He loved it all. Asked to compare Fish to Little Fish, he said they both were equally good, but Fish seemed more refined, and he preferred the more relaxed dishes of Little Fish. So there's that, if that is more helpful to fish eaters than my review

Fish
1708 Lombard St., Philadelphia, PA 19146
215-545-9600
Mon-Sun, 5pm-close

Le Shio

The Pan Asian restaurant, Le Shio, opened up in the Fairfax Shopping Center on Concord pike back in January, so I convince a friend to meet me there for lunch a couple months after the restaurant's opening. I haven't seen her since. Hope she's not mad at me about the dining choice.

Dark and minimal describes the sleek, industrial black interior of Le Shio. A bar sits off in the front corner, a low wall bisects the middle, and a sushi bar resides on the back wall. Even in the daytime, Le Shio keeps the lights dimmed down low on their food.

The menu is extensive and spans many Asian cuisines, so making up your mind on what to order may be difficult. Most items have a vegetable or tofu option, and there's even a "wok self creation" where you choose the protein, vegetables, and sauce.
A 24-piece vegetarian maki sushi platter for $11 sounds too good to be true. And it is. The platter lacks the variety you find on standard vegetable sushi platters. You're given three maki rolls, each cut into eight pieces.

You'd do better ordering three vegetable maki rolls of your choice than having the choice be made for you. The platter had an avocado, cucumber asparagus and radish roll; avocado and cucumber roll; and oshinko roll. Order those three rolls a la cart for only $10.

Until now, I thought there was no way to make bad vegetable sushi, but Le Shio managed to do it. The maki rolls were loosely rolled, misshapen, and the rice on the outside of the nori was falling off.
Trying to up the fancy factor, Le Shio puts mixed greens in the Japanese carrot and ginger dressed salad. I prefer the crunch of classic iceberg in this situation with such a weighty dressing.
I have no idea what flavor the blue-green colored wrappers on the Chinese steamed vegetable dumplings is supposed to be. My guess is that these are not made in house (why would anyone make blue-green dumplings?), but are frozen. The chewy, hard edges also point to the dumplings being frozen.

Service at Le Shio with multiple servers tending to our table was atrocious. The worst of it was when one server actually swooped in and tried to wrestle the chopsticks out of my hand (no exaggeration) as I was packing up a to-go box, saying that they'd pack up the leftovers. No, it's too late. You lost your chance while you were tending some other table. Also, do not touch me.

Not impressed with my first visit, I waited about a month and stopped in for takeout to avoid a wrestling match, and to be able to see my food in the daylight. I was tempted to make my own wok creation, but those never come out as well as imagined, so decided to get pad Thai as a litmus test. It's not on the menu, but you can order pad Thai with tofu. Besides the standard mung bean sprouts, you'll also get a bevy of vegetables : carrots, broccoli, celery, mushrooms, baby corn, snap peas, and zucchini.

Le Shio's pad is one of the blandest I've had. If you like pad Thai funked up with fish sauce, you will not find it here. If you like pad Thai sweet and tangy, you won't find it here, either. It's noodle-y and Asian-esque, and that's about it. Now, there's nothing unpleasant about Le Shio's pad Thai — noodles, vegetables and tofu are cooked well — it's just bland.
The Balinese mango salad is advertised as coming with spicy chili dressing, but the dressing was only sweet.

It seems as though Le Shio is taking some shortcuts in the kitchen and dumbing down flavors. Reviews out there already are mixed with some in love and others not so much. My guess is that Le Shio has found favor with those who are comfortable with Asian cuisine only when it is toned down. This a strategy that will probably work for Le Shio.

Le Shio
Fairfax Shopping Center
2303 Concord Pike, Wilmington, DE 19803
302-888-0145
Sun-Thurs: 11am-10pm
Fri-Sat: 11am-11pm

Paesano's In The Italian Market

Don't ask how one ends up at Paesano's South Philly Italian Market location when they're in the mood for a light lunch, because there's nothing light about the award-winning and inventive "Philly style sandwiches with Italian inspiration."

Unlike the shoebox-sized flagship location on Girard Avenue, Paesano's southerly location actually has tables inside to sit at and room enough for the line to form inside the building. Don't count on a table, though, if it's prime dining time.
With the larger location there also came an expanded sandwich menu. On my Girard Ave. visit last year there was only one vegetarian sandwich (the Panelle), but now there are two veggie sandwiches. And with daily specials, there just might be three!
I'm pretty blasé about most eggplant sandwiches, but the Giardina moved me to emotion. Hells yeah, someone finally put some umph into roasted eggplant on a roll! Fennel, peppers, fresh Mozzarella and basil pesto to be exact. That basil pesto is the real umph maker.
The Greco was one of the specials of the day, and is Paesano's best attempt at making a humus and veggie sandwich interesting. The humus, iceberg lettuce, grilled zucchini, and Feta made me yawn, but the pickled onions and healthy squirt of Sriracha woke me up.

Don't think I'd bother to order the Greco or the Panelle again, but I'll bestow upon the Giardina the award of best vegetarian eggplant hoagie. Here's hoping Paesano's keeps getting creative with the veggie sandwiches and makes another winner.

Paesano's
Italian Market Location: 1017 S. 9th St., Philadelphia, PA 19147
215-922-2220
Wed-Sun: 11am-7pm

Israeli Couscous and Spring Vegetable Salad

Can you believe that I've been a vegetarian for over 20 years and have never subscribed to Vegetarian Times. I don't even know if I've even read it once, and, if I did, it was at the very beginning of my days as a vegetarian...in the late 80's!

Well, I finally subscribed to Vegetarian Times (bookstore gift cards are good like that) at the suggestion of some friends, and received my first issue last month. To be honest (who me?), I was underwhelmed with the thin magazine, and only dog-eared two recipes. Maybe that issue's recipes just didn't have my name on them.
The two recipes I did dog-ear are from the 6-recipe spread on Philly's own premier vegan restaurant, Horizons, which was exciting to see. I guess the April issue kinda was speaking to me.

Always a sucker for the playful, tongue-pleasing round orbs of Israeli couscous, I whipped up a batch of Horizons' Israeli couscous and Spring vegetable salad. I see this dish as a picnic replacement for the tired (but classic) rotini pasta salad with tomatoes and basil. Try something different this year.Israeli Couscous and Spring Vegetable Salad
Adapted from Vegetarian Times
Serves 6

The olives and basil were originally intended for garnish, but at home I don't eat fancy (the dish ended up in Tupperware storage to be eaten over many days), so threw the olives and basil into the mix to get their strong flavors incorporated.

2 cups dry Israeli couscous
4 teaspoons vegetable or olive oil
1 large bulb fennel, slivered, grated or finely chopped (1 cup)
1 medium leek, white and pale green parts finely chopped (1/2 cup)
6 cloves garlic, chopped (2 tablespoons)
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 cups shelled fresh or frozen peas
1 cup vegetable broth
4 plum tomatoes, chopped (1 cup)
2 0.25-gram packages saffron threads
2 cups baby arugula leaves
1/2 cup chopped, pitted oil-cured or Kalamata olives
handful basil leaves, chopped

• Cook couscous in ample water (just like cooking any pasta) until pearls are soft. Drain and set aside.
• In a large skillet (size is important here), heat vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add fennel, leeks, and garlic, and cook 3-5 minutes.
• Add wine, and cook for 1 minute. Add peas and let cook for 1 more minute, as wine reduces.
• Add vegetable broth.
• Add couscous, tomatoes and saffron. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  
• Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
• Remove from heat, and stir in arugula, olives, and basil.
  
• Serve immediately. If serving at a later time, say, the next day, wait to add arugula and basil until right before serving as they get a little wilty over time.
  

Renaissance Sausage

Update: no longer in operation.
Update: Back in business with a smaller cart.

This past Sunday was opening day of Headhouse Farmers' Market, and while most of the vendors are welcome faces from last year, Resnassance Sausage, a mobile food truck vending sandwiches made with local and organic homemade sausages, is a newcomer on the scene.

In fact, Sunday at Headhouse was Renassance Sausage's first day of business. Owners Dan Semko and Bret Cavanaugh are not new to the food truck business, though; they got their start in Charleston, South Carolina, vending breakfast burritos and sandwiches from a VW bus before heading back North to grace us with their food.Country herb pork sausage, Mediterranean lamb and beef sausage, Asian chicken sausage, and vegetarian sausage are on the sandwich menu all day. If you make it there before 11am a sausage, egg and cheese sandwich, as well as a brie and fig jam melt can be yours. Sides include coleslaw, potato salad, and a wheat berry salad.Of course, I came for the vegetarian sausage, as well as a whole bunch of other people — the vegetarian sausage outsold the meat sausages during my early morning wait in line.

The veggie sausage is made with vegetables, spices, and wheat gluten, then grilled and split down the center before landing in a hoagie roll with cucumber spears and blue cheese dressing.Carrots and black beans are definitely players in Renaissance's mild and vegetal tasting sausage, but I wish they would up their flavors and spices a bit — or a whole lot. The fat, squat sausage left lots of dead bread space at either end, meaning I slid the sausage to one end and tore off a good two and a half inches of bread to dispose of.

The good news here is that this was Renaissance Sausage's first day, and sausage recipes can be changed (more spices, please), and veggie sausages can easily be shaped into a longer link to better fit a bun. Here's hoping they make those changes.

I also thought the toppings on the meat sausage sandwiches sounded more robust and flavorful, but there's an easy fix to that — just ask for those instead next time.

Thanks, Renaissance Sausage, for thoughtfully including vegetarians in your sausage fest. We really do appreciate it, as I'm sure you saw from all the veggie sausage sales made on your first day.

Renaissance Sausage
Headhouse Farmers' Market, 2nd &Lombard, every Sunday 10am-2pm
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