Foodtrip: Bali

Going to Bali was an on-and-off trip for me. For four consecutive years, Bali has been in my radar but always took the backseat when pit up against another country. To me, Bali is one of those places so easily accessible that I often end up choosing to fly to a different destination year after year. So was the case that when I finally booked a flight, it didn't occur to me that I was actually going until about a week before the trip. I barely did my research, not really sure where I wanted to go...but for one, I knew what I wanted to do, eat.

We had an evening flight, and so we arrived in Denpasar International Airport roughly almost midnight. The first conversation I had with my host was:

Host: Sisstah! So what you wanna do in Bali?
Me: I'm not sure, but I want to try local dishes—
Brother: She has a list of food on our itinerary!
Host: Really!? (Proceeds to laugh) Okay okay, tell me what you wanna eat
Me: (Got the itinerary that I made and skipped to the bottom part of the page where I wrote just a list of local dishes that I wanted to taste.) 
Ayam Bakar Taliwang (grilled chicken)     Gulai Otak (brain curry)

Pepes (herbal packet)                             Beef Rendang (rendang)

Soto Betawi (Jakarta soup)                     Babi Guling (lechon)

Nasi Ayam Campur                                 Mie Goreng (fried noodles)

Martabak Manis (sweet martabak)
Brother: (Asks our host) Can we have dinner before going to your house?
Host: Let's start with Nasi Ayam!

In the end, I wasn't able to cover all grounds, but it was a good start.

The cover page on top is what I ate in Parachute Cafe in Canggu. The place was beautiful with a real parachute as canopy to those who wish to dine al fresco.

My first meal in Bali, Nasi Ayam that burned my lips and stomach. The bottle of Tehbotoh is what I thought was their local version of Coke but was actually just bottled sweet black tea. Oh the betrayal! Meal cost me Rp 26000.

It was a random open-air cafeteria on the street where locals were eating at 12MN. And based on the level of heat of their food, it can be a challenge for those not used to spicy food. The taste is a little bland and oily, the flavor of chili and light spices comes through at every bite.

Nasi Babi Guling Pisah for Rp 45000. It was a mix of pork and vegetables with the babi guling as the star of the show. All I got was a matchbox slice of the roasted pork and an uncrispy skin, sad. Lechon wins through and through. With it comes pork skin crackling, blood sausage, deep friend pig intestines, sate babi, deep fried pork liver, spicy cassava leaves, and spicy green beans beneath the babi guling. There's also Temulawak, or turmeric soda of sort that tasted healthy. We ate at a place called Babi Guling Bundaran Renon at Denpasar. 

Es Jeruk Rp. 11000 which was fresh orange juice and my favorite drink in Bali the Es Daluman Rp. 10000 which is coconut milk with pandan and local palm sugar, plus a pandan gelatin made out of agar-agar is just wonderfully satisfying.

Paket Ayam Bakar Taliwang Khas Lombok for Rp. 45000, this was a nice meal eaten in a restaurant named Mina Carik. We ate sitting on the floor of one of the silt cottages in the restaurant. It was grilled chicken slathered in sambal with a side of  sayur urab or plecing kangkung or mixed vegetable salad that was also painful to swallow because it burned my mouth more than the chicken. 

Mie Goreng made from the instant noodles by Indo Mie. Of course, it should taste the same from the Indo Mie we cook back in our homes, but eating it in Indonesia gives it an added local experience. This was an extra large packet, that is equivalent to 1.5x the content of a regular Mie Goreng, something we don't have back in the Philippines.

A bowl of Bakso Rp. 22000 with Tempe on the side (upper left) is what we ate for breakfast on our way to Penglipuran Village. It's a hearty bowl of noodles with chicken chunks and chicken balls that is eaten with sweet soy sauce and chili sauce.

My snack at Penglipuran village. The drinks Cem-Cem and Temu Mangga can only be found in the village our host said. Cem-Cem tasted like an intense leafy herbal drink made from the leaf included in the photo; it also has a gingery spice and shaved coconut meat inside. It was the better than Temu Mangga that has an even stronger medicinal taste of spicy turmeric and earthy leaves that was so overpowering that I didn't taste the mango at all! The ball snack is a glutenous rice ball that amazingly contains a watery sugar syrup inside, and you eat it with shaved coconut. 

Sate Babi Rp. 10000 which is my favorite snack because of my love for grilled pork. It was both cheap and very satisfying. I wanted to eat another serving, but they also served other dishes that I wanted to try. This stall was right at the corner of a parking lot close to Besakih Temple.

Lawak or Pepes...I forgot, but it was a fish head mixed in with other stuff and curries wrapped in a banana leaf that was a tasty dish perfect with rice. It costs Rp. 5000 I think?

They don't filter their local coffee, which is scary on my kidneys, so I didn't do a bottoms-up. It was sweet because they already added sugar to it. which I wish they didn't. Their local coffee is not as strong as our barako, it was more fruity and light-tasting.

This was my favorite local meal in terms of taste. The fried tofu and tomato based sambal brought in the A-Game, not to mention that local mint, YUM! We arrived in Ubud quite late and they have this rule that all shops must close by 11pm...so we had to go just out of the border to eat dinner. Ayam Goreng is the fried chicken, but the harmony of the dish was divine! We were served deep fried cabbage leaves, tempe, and tofu...all of which were fried with the chicken, so it tasted like chicken oil.

Our free breakfast at Ketut Liyer Spirit house, or better known as the place where Julia Roberts shot her Eat. Pray. Love. movie in 2010. The best part were the fruits, I had to force myself to swallow the waffle that tasted like styrofoam. Anyway, they're known for the movie and Ketut Liyer's palm reading skills, not the food.

Kebun Bistro and their citrus coffee for Rp. 25000. I'm glad my brother ordered the citrus one because I was much happier with just my regular cappuccino. Imagine drinking coffee and dalandan juice mixed together. Nope, doesn't work on my palette.

Kebun Bistro's Eggs Florentine Rp. 45000 that fell short on the spinach part, other than that it was good poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. English Muffin Rp. 12000 with strawberry jam and butter.

At Sari Organic in the middle of the Ubud rice field. This is Banana, Avocado, Mango smoothie for Rp. 30000 and fresh coconut juice.  

Sari Salad Rp. 43000, which looked very much freshly picked off their garden that I didn't even touch it. My brother said it was tasty, but his face wasn't saying so throughout his meal. There are some leaves on the salad I swear looks inedible and would probably taste like swamp grass.

Chicken Satay with vegetables and salad for Rp. 55000 at Sari Organic. This was okay, and the peanut sauce was nice too.

Our host said not to eat gelato in Bali because it isn't good at all. I wanted an ice cream shot on the rice field though, so I bought one in Dragonfly Cafe & Gelato, just a vanilla and dark chocolate gelato for Rp. 30000. Yep, he was right, their gelato doesn't taste like a proper gelato, more like a tub of commercialized ice cream...so no. I got the shot though.

Hongalia Healthy Food is like this fusion resto in Ubud. I had curry chicken egg noodle soup with extra tofu for Rp. 50000. It was hearty and  filling, a familiar ok taste.

Another horrible breakfast at Ketut Liyer, this time they added yogurt on our fruits, and it didn't save it. This was scrambled eggs on toast. The bread wasn't toast, and the eggs isn't well made...and I spit out the tomato as it tasted like it fell on the floor, so I didn't touch the potato either. I guess it's free for a reason. They seriously need to better this.

Second Floor & Dumara Cafe is my first encounter with the luscious smoothie bowl. I got the Red Star which is made from a dragon fruit smoothie with fruits on top for Rp. 50000. The presentation is better than the taste though. Their fruits are frozen as seen with the ice crystals on the raspberry. NOOK wins the competition. We ate here as it's very close to Ketut Liyer's house and we seriously needed a better perk-me-up breakfast.

Mitos Kopi is a small independent cafe that has a real nice vibe to it. The coffee was nice and tasty, but their Charcoal Latte was too sweet. A lot of young locals hang out in the cafe here. 

Mannaka Bali is well known for their Charcoal Latte Rp. 35000. And it was a nice burnt milk treat. The cafe is really small though, could barely fit five customers, but it's a nice hip local spot in Kuta.

Mannaka Bali's location was initially a traditional sweet shop, but when the original owner gave up on her stall the cafe that took over became a hit, and thus she's able to continue selling the traditional sweets under the new cafe. I liked chewing on the Lemper Rp. 5000.

NOOK in Canggu is a very very popular restaurant run and owned by foreign chefs. They themselves run the kitchen, thus the quality is top notch. Not to mention the Instagrammable vibe of the place. Throughout our meal I could just see people posing their blogger poses and such. What I have to say though is that they serve a really great Smoothie Bowl. It ranges from Rp. 50000 - Rp. 65000.

Nook's Chicken Satay Rp. 55000. I would highly recommend Nook!

My brother wanted a light snack before a proper dinner, so he thought Siomay could be it, after all, the siomai served back in our country is just enough to get you by. But apparently in Bali, it's not a slight snack, it is a heavy starchy meal that is a plate full of dumplings, fishcakes, tofu, boiled egg, all topped with a very thick peanut sauce then sambal, sweet soy sauce and finished off with a squeeze of lime. Oh how that redefined the concept of what we call siomai. 

Rujak Sri Amerta was a really wonderful salad we bought at Garuda Wisnu. It's made of cucumber, green mango, carrots, beansprouts, tamarind, fish sauce, shrimp paste and sambal. Delicious! It's a level up version of our mangga't bagoong.

Beef Rendang our host said is not a local Balinese dish as they are mostly Hindus, thus eating beef is not a local thing. But he took us to were he says serves the best rendang in Bali. It's called Minang Raya, and it was a really good renadang based on my inexperience. So full of flavor and brimming in oil. It could have been better if I wasn't so full of siomay. Rp. 35000.

A mix and match place we found in Ubud Market. It's perfect for pasalubong as it's as local as it can get, save that a lot of the snacks here are so similar to our kakanins, so I didn't buy them to take them home, just try and eat some. I do recommend as pasalubong is the Pie Susu though, or Milk Tarts as they are cheap and easy to carry. Prices of the Pie Susu goes between Rp. 5000 - Rp. 15000.

As one of my final challenges, our host asked us to eat in one of the most popular food chains of fried chicken in Bali. Called Grepek Bensu as owned by a local comedian, his concept is fried chicken with 10 levels of spicy sambal. You can be a wuss like by brother and get level 1, or be like a local like our host and get level 10. I was neither nor both, so I got a Level 5 chicken. OMG! I was so painful and spicy that I couldn't enjoy what I was eating. I had to take out almost half of the sambal topping on the chicken just to get by. The cucumber didn't help either. But I did manage to finish the whole dish. Not  easy by all means. The chilies are real, and no seed has been taken out. This is perfect as a local challenge for friends while being recorded on video! The meal isn't very expensive as well, roughly Rp. 35000 for the meal. 

Bali in terms of food basks in the spicy wonders of sambal. Most of the local food I ate is spicy because of some form of sambal, but in terms of taste it was similar to the flavors Filipino dishes. They don't use overpowering herbs and spices like other ASEAN countries. They also have a fondness with coconut, using it as sugar,oil, or the coconut milk as part of their dishes. The chili they use are two kinds, one is the bird's eye chili which is why it's more sensation than flavor, and another type of chili that is bigger but less on the Scoville Heat Scale. 

Bali has their own culture, a little different from the rest of Indonesia largely attributed to their differences in religion. Our host said almost all of the restaurants and cafes don't branch out because they don't want to compromise quality over huge sums of money. This has an added charm to it, not to mention how they seem to ignore big names like Mc Donald's, KFC, and Starbucks. I laugh at how many empty seats there are on all the Starbucks that we saw, an unrecognizable sight here in the Philippines in comparison.