Ladies and gentlemen, we are driving in beautiful
south Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
heading to Hardena Waroeng,
which is a home style authentic Indonesian restaurant
in the Point Breeze neighborhood,
which is a section of South Philly.
South Philly is known predominantly
for its Italian population,
but in recent years, the Asian population
has really increased,
and there's a strong Indonesian community now
right in the middle of South Philly,
and that's where Harden Waroeng comes in.
They prepare incredibly tasty,
authentic, delicious Indonesian dishes.
Indonesian cuisine is this amalgamation
of Middle Eastern, and Indian,
and Chinese, and European flavors and dishes
that sort of come together to create this
one fantastic cuisine.
So, we're heading to the restaurant right now.
I can't wait to try some of this food.
My mom and my dad opened this place in 2001.
They used to work at the Indonesian Consulate
in New York City.
The people that worked in the consulate
just ate at the cantina.
Yeah, and she also did caterings for them
and special caterings, a catering for
the Indonesian president when he came to New York.
Like, a lot of people were fighting over that.
Like, they wanted to cook for him,
but he was like, "No, I want her."
- [Lucas] Really?
So, how long have you lived in--
In Philly?
I just moved here four or five years ago.
The restaurant has been here for 17 years?
Yeah, for 17 years.
My mom and my dad left us when we were,
like, I think I was just beginning high school.
Like, they came without you to open the restaurant?
Right, yeah, they came here just basically
to make extra money, 'cause, you know,
the consulate, she was only doing lunch,
and that wasn't, you know, that wasn't enough
to support three kids.
So what she did was she opened up an open house,
gave free food to all the neighbors.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, and they're like, "Do you want us
"to open here in Philadelphia?"
And everyone was like, "Yes,"
so then that was it.
That's pretty good marketing, right?
So, Helen, you just barged right in here
and you said, "I need some satés,
"and I need them now, 'cause I'm going to Canada."
To Toronto.
What is so exciting about the saté here,
and how come you had to get them today, right now?
Because it's very authentic saté.
It's a Madura style.
Many Indonesian people will only like to eat
Madura style of saté.
- [Lucas] So, is that difficult to find
a very good, authentic tasting saté
in the United States?
- [Helen] In North America.
In North America.
- [Helen] Yes, it's very difficult.
Very, very.
Even people from Canada or from New York,
they couldn't be able to get a real
Madura style of saté, and they have the saté here.
The saté, is that included in that?
So, satés are separate.
Okay, 'cause I definitely want that.
I would like some eggplant.
Okay, and what else?
I would like some beef rendang.
We're gonna do some of the collards.
Is this a tempeh dish right here?
- [Diana] Yes.
Okay, great, can I try that?
Maybe I'll have a corn fritter too.
- [Diana] Okay, I'll put that separate.
This looks amazing!
Do Indonesians typically use like a fork or a spoon,
or their hands?
So, how is it usually eaten?
- [Diana] So, usually Indonesians eat with their hands
or a spoon.
That's my favorite thing, eating with my hands.
But it's not like grabbing it
with a piece of bread or something?
You just get right in there.
No, it's like, yeah.
Just get messy.
That's the best, that's the best thing.
That makes the food taste better.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Okay, your saté.
So, the chicken's on the bottom, lamb's on the top.
There is a mystery bowl here
that I'm gonna explain to you
as it was explained to me, that because I have
official permission to eat with my hands
that this is for cleaning your hands afterwards,
'cause things are gonna get kinda messy around here.
So, saté, this is the lamb.
I'm going to eat this.
That's really good.
The marinade has really gotten through.
It sort of infuses the meat, tastes very juicy,
very tender, very flavorful.
This is like peanut reduction.
This is not some Jiff that you
swirled around with some soy sauce.
It's not overly sweet, and it really
fantastically compliments the salty,
grilled, charred meat.
You know, you can go to Jakarta,
you can go to Indonesia, and get an
absolutely garbage saté.
Indonesian people get super excited
if you say Madura saté.
Let's move onto eggplant.
Great, I love eggplant.
The spice of the chilies really comes through,
sort of clears your sinuses out a little bit.
I mean, the eggplant is a mushy vegetable.
I find that preparing it spicily,
it sort of gives it a little bit of body.
Otherwise you're gonna have a plate of,
like, pleasantly mushy eggplant,
but when you just smother it in red chilies like this,
it really gives the dish some character.
I really enjoy it, that's really good.
I'm gonna do corn fritter now.
This is just gonna be fried, delicious thing.
This is a corn fritter.
We've got corn, we've got onions, we've got shallots.
I feel like every culture has its version of,
like, a fried cake.
There's nothing deeper or profound
to say about a corn fritter.
It's delicious fried dough and vegetables,
and I just wanted to try it.
Corn fritter, see?
Beef rendang.
The flavors are not particularly as strong
relative to, say, this spicy eggplant dish.
A lot of curries are typically,
there's a bit more liquid.
This seems to sort of be evaporated
so it's more just like the good stuff.
Beef, fat, and tomato are sort of
the primary flavors that I'm getting,
so that it's sort of like a beefy stew.
Little tempeh.
It's prepared in this sweet soy sauce, ketchup honey.
These collard greens are super good.
They're not crazy bitter,
and they've fully absorbed that coconut milk flavor.
I like these collards.
Final thoughts about Indonesian cuisine.
It's a very complicated cuisine,
and you can't pin it down and say
Indonesian is one particular thing,
because there's so many islands,
so you have these isolated communities
that sort of evolve separately but together,
if that makes a lot of sense,
which is why you can have 200 or 300
different cultures and languages in one country.
Lots of spice, lots of coconut,
lots of ginger, lots of chile.
Why would you not wanna eat
a delicious plate of meat, and rice,
and saté, and peanut all the time?
I would eat it all the time.
Really good.
Ready?
I've been waiting for this.
That's it.
That's all there is.
Just kidding, I'll do a little more.
I don't really know, this is very awkward.
This is like trying to wash your hands
in an airplane sink, lavatory sink,
like you're trying to make yourself very small
and not spill on the floor.
So I'm just sort of like, I feel like Gollum right now
washing his hands.
I really hope you enjoyed this episode of
Dining on a Dime from Hardena Indonesian Restaurant
in South Philadelphia.
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