Hardena

Last night I went to Hardena/Waroeng Surabaya. I might be off the spaghettio's but Indonesian food is definitely out of my comfort zone, but I was pretty excited to try it out. I calmed my anxiety by checking out the online menu, figuring out what foods are. I have found that at least in this Indonesian place, coconut and tofu are in almost anything on the menu. I seen a few reviews saying there was a "pick 3 for $7" deal so I decided to figure out ahead of time what I wanted. I found a list of the 50 most delicious foods and randang was on it, so I knew I was giving that a shot. I also found a soup, soto ayum and a salad gado gado. I wrote them down, picked up my cousin and boyfriend and headed down.

The restaurant wasn't hard to find. It isn't flashy, a bright door but a not too noticeable sign on a side street off of Broad. The restaurant was cute, small and felt almost like I was invited to dinner at someone special's house. When we came in two girls around our age were sitting at the main large table and offered to move down and share with us. We sat, then realized we were supposed to go up school lunch style and pick things and then be seated. I pulled out my list and prepared for my turn. When the people in front of me finished the man who stood in front of the hot dishes asked, for here or to go, and I said for here. He grabbed a plate, turned to a big rice maker and started pouring on rice. My cousin whispers to me, "What is he doing?" and I whisper back "I don't know, maybe he serves one generic meal for strange american customers who show up in his restaurant, just go with it." He turns back around and faces the foods with a plate of white rice and says
"What would you like?" I ask if it is the infamous pick three I heard of. (I do not use the word infamous haha). He says yes. I say I want to start with rendang. He says rendang back to me, reassuring me that I pronounced it correctly. I see some green beans in tofu and I know that I want them more than the stuff on my list, so I ask for those. Then I say soto ayum, and he says, that comes in a bowl and is seperate from the pick 3. I say ok, and knowing that it is a soup, and the other thing on my list gado gado is a salad I assume it's not in the pick three either so I look at the dishes in front of me and since almost everyone comes with tofu I opt for a mixed vegetable. Brenda goes with the rendang also and chooses a side of squid, and Andrew had the curry chicken. We also shared a glass of Es Teler. Which was a sweet coconut milk flavored drink with floating fruit in it. We ended up having an awesome time. The women at our table were from Singapore and told us that most of this food was traditional in their country, and they recommended the Crysanthanum tea. Which I found very refreshing. They also recommended to ask for a side of chili (paste?) and to mix it in the rice. I really enjoyed it. It had a strong heat to it but a light flavor and made the meal. They helped us figure out the different  fruits in our drink with some taste testing. Lychee, and the other I can't remember. It also had shaved coconut in it and looked very tropical. Would have been great with some rum! When Brenda bit the squid ink exploded in her mouth, I am not sure if that is normal but it was hilarious to us.