Indonesia is awesome!

Of course I'm talking about the restaurant called Indonesia in Chinatown here in Philly, which I think they should call AsianRestaurantTown because they have a lot of different kinds of cuisine packed together into one area. From Chinese to Malaysian to Vietnamese to Indonesian to Thai... and the list goes on. On this particular occasion we were in a daring mood and wanted to try something new. Having never had Indonesian food, I was told it was similar to both Thai and Filipino food.

I am a HUGE fan of Thai (it's my favorite Asian food) and grew up on Filipino food, so I was really excited, especially after hearing and reading so many great reviews on the place. And to top it off, like most AsianRestaurantTown restaurants, it was cheap too!

We chose to do the full tastings menu, which includes soup, appetizer, 10 or so sample portions of entrees, and two different desserts! What I learned is that the Indonesians took the peanut sauce a step further than the Thai, and incorporated it into many different sauces, including a sweet sesame peanut sauce which was used in a fruit dessert. Their version of Chicken Satay had the best peanut sauce I have EVER HAD. I swear, me and Mike were going to town on that stuff, drizzling heaping spoons onto our rice. The shrimp was also good, in a red chile sweet-and-sour style sauce. However when I go back, I'm going straight for my own full portion on satay (or "sate" as they spell it).

Philadelphia is so full of so many great restaurants, it's no wonder when people move here they get what I call the "Philly pudge," which comes in real handy when temperatures drop to 15 degrees and you feel like your bones are frozen. That's when that extra layer of pudge really comes in handy. It's no wonder when you live in a city famous for two types of food with the word "cheese" in the name. If I've learned anything about my beloved city it is that people in philly love to eat.