… can she do it? Follow this thread and find out 
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First up: American Sardine Bar.
We wanted something light, low-key, and in short walking distance after I spent most of the day recovering from last night’s tooth drama 
ASB covered all those bases, and so we mozied on over to the casual corner pub.
With the temps cooled down and zero humidity, we chose to sit on the cute patio.
The cocktail menu looked really interesting, but we ordered New Trail Kölsch instead.
We ordered the pork sandwich as per the hostess’ recommendation, the Daikon Caesar, and the crab toast to share. Me thinks the crab toast was an attempt to compete with Vernick’s spectacular blue crab toast, and of course it could neverever.
That said, it was nice & the flavors played together well. The pork sammich came with an abundance of pork, cheese, and pickled onions on a very good, chewy, fluffy seeded roll — likely from one of several local bakeries with a longstanding history, e.g. Liscio’s.
We couldn’t finish the pork roll and had it packed up; the kitchen (or server) forgot our Caesar, so we took it to go. Nice neighborhood joint.
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Second dinner out: La LLorona Cantina Mexicana in West Passyunk, popular for its tequila and mezcal selection.
I’ve been collecting restaurant recs in part from The Infatuation site for Philly, which is how we chose last night’s destination. With a rating of 8, this should’ve been a home run, but it wasn’t.
We each had a margarita (Don Julio for my PIC, Mezcal for me with a nice spicy tajin rim),
then moved on to Modelos. We shared the esquite (nice),
the aguachile mixto with (bay) scallops and small bits of shrimp with a very nice kick,
cochinitas tacos,
and carnitas.
These were the first corn tortillas I liked maybe ever, and they weren’t skimping on the meat. That said, I’ve had more flavorful pork tacos in Central PA, and the habanero escabeche they came with could’ve just as well been tomato sauce. When we inquired whether there was any hot sauce in the house our server said “no.” The busser who took our plates said the opposite and offered to get some… but of course by that time our plates were empty 
In any event, a decent enough place but def not worth returning, and I am beginning to doubt the reliability of The Infatuation for dining suggestions here.
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You gotta go to Hardena (indonesian), OK? Its a tiny place on a tiny street in S Philly, with only a few tables but worth it for eating out or takeout. Jim Leff writing about the founder, Ena Widjojo’s then catering to the Indonesian consulate in NY was what brought me into Chowhound in a big way. Her family carries on the tradition here. Their sambal is excellent and I think they sell it by the container if you like to take some home to put in the freezer. There is another good Indonesian kitchen but I am blanking on the name and I dont know if they have a brick and mortar restaurant. will look that up.
PS I think the Infatuation is really spotty - it seems to be better some cities than other, for that sort of thing Eater is probably more reliable, there is also reddit of course a lot of tips to sort through.
I will ask my son in law who is in India at the moment but teaches at Penn and is both very interested in food and pretty discerning what his picks are.
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Hardena is on my list of places to try, as are Kampar, Mawn (if we can get in — THANKS, NYT), JJ Thai cuisine, Perla, Tabachoy, Double Knot, Nepali Momo Kitchen, and the new Kalaya locash up north 
Happy and grateful for additional recs any time!
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Sicilian pistachio gelato from Anthony’s at the Italian Market. Pretty disappointing.
An assortment of pastries / afternoon coffee treats from Isgro’s:
2 butter pecan biscotti (just ok, I wouldn’t be able to identify them as butter pecan TBH),
1 lemon blueberry biscotti, 1 sesame biscotti (nice, not too sweet), 2 pasticcini, 2 butter walnut cookies, 2 almond dream cookies.
Our diet is off to a good start 
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I have a fondness for the gelato in Chestnut Hill–can never remember the name, but I know where it is in the market.
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There’s gotta be more than one gelato place on 9th.
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that pistachio gelato looks like italian pistachio gelato in sicily - brown not green, maybe not too sweet and tasting like nuts? I was a little surprised with it in sicily too.
It may look like it, but it wasn’t anything like what we had in Sicily 
Im not surprised, believe me.
I just read that Mawn is open some days for lunch and does not take reservations so you could get lucky!
Yes, that will likely be our MO, although we are not huge lunch eaters. Guess we’ll have to ‘bite the bullet’ at least once, just to see what the hype is all about
Not a restaurant, but certainly worth visiting: the SEA market in the FDR park near the sportsing complex.
A stunning array of Lao, Thai, Viet, Khmer food stalls, the setup reminiscent of the Thai park in Berlin when it was still fabulous.
Meeting up with fellow HOs @Bigley9, @MsBean & her partner, and @tcamp and her son enabled us to try so many more things than we would’ve just on our own, and it’s always great to meet & hang with fellow food enthusiasts, especially on a gorgeous day as this brilliantly sunny Sunday 
We tried the stuffed chicken wing (fab),
grilled beef & pork sausages (delish) & beef skewers
the lort cha (a bit on the bland side for me, and I don’t particularly like super-fat noodz)
roti canai (very nice) & curry puffs (no pic)
and taro & chive dumplings.
We’ll definitely try to get back at least once more before they shut down for the winter
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Do ypu happen to know how long they continue?
According to the website, OCT 27 is the last day. I also just realized they’re open SAT & SUN, not just Sundays.
We’ll be going back for sure, if only to buy more of those incredible sausages.
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Pub grub and then some at Royal Tavern.
We had a few of the addictive marinated clams I could’ve made a meal with
(hot pepper relish, chives, bacon mayo, bread crumbs),
and shared a crab puff (choux bun, creamy lump crab salad, Grana Padano),
then moved onto the mundane, which was what we’d come for: to satisfy a burger craving.
The Nic Mac with a single patty of Happy Valley Meats (!) beef, lettuce, mac sauce, banana peppers, American cheese, and seeded potato bun did the trick, as did the crispy wings with peri peri & green sauce.
Warsteiner on tap to go with. Solid, and we may return… but there are many other places to explore first
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We checked out Ba Le Bakery today, as it came highly recommended online & in person by @Bigley9
The place offers a cornucopia of curious & intriguing foods, the majority of which are also labeled in English, thankfully.
I asked a dood about some ginormous rolls that looked like ground meat, with the only sign saying “Not ready until Tuesday” (today? next week?). It’s apparently pickled raw pork with garlic and other spices, and there were smaller, obviously ready-to-eat versions in the cooler case. However, at $12.50 a pack I’m not sure I want to get them.
As for our main reason to visit, there’s at least 10 different varieties of banh mi that one can also customize — i.e. more mayo, more sprouts, more meats etc, so we have our fall semester assignment cut out for us
For our cherry-poppin’ banh mi we chose the Ba Le: paté & mayo, crispy pork belly, ham, bologna, soy sauce, pickled daikon & carrot, cukes, jalapeños, and cilantro.
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Nice. I think i saw you ask for Viet recommendations in another thread but hardly being an expert i did not answer. As it happened i stopped in there on Friday. Happy to see the place is well regarded.
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Happy to have unearthed another Philly HO! What are some of your favorite places in town?
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