the ones that got away

In October I quietly ignored the 6^th anniversary of Confessions of a Food Nazi. There’s been a lot of water (and homemade cordial) under the bridge since that first post on rhubarb with strawberries and rosewater.

At the beginning of the year I went mad on fish cutlets in a tomato and olive sauce. Just remembering it now is driving me crazy with desire, it was just so darn good. But give me a glut of tomatoes and I’m still more likely to make the vegan wonder of 2010 (tofu in a gingery tomato sauce) instead.

In June I had a wet weekend in Newcastle and ate Balinese food and in August I hung out with people from Newcastle in Bali at the Mindfulness retreat. Despite the weather, I enjoyed the NSW city but for the food, swimming and massage I'd be back on a plane to Indonesia any day.

Though Bali was the sweet spot of the year, the vegan truffle redux were a close second. The only food promise I’ll make for 2012 is there will be more experimentation with coconut oil extracted flavours. Plus lots more vegan food as the Significant Eater has announced, that for now, he’s joined the ranks. This summer I’ll be making more quinoa and millet dishes than you can poke a stick at.

Beyond my own kitchen I’ll take a stab at local food trends 2012:

1. Coconut will be king. I’m predicting coconut oil, water, milk, cream and even dried coconut in various forms will be the new hot flavour. Or maybe it’s because I have a Mr Nice Guy coconut vegan cupcake still a vibrant memory in my mouth from lunch?

2. Macarons have had their day; they jumped the shark when supermarkets started to sell them. Canelles could be in for a similar fate. I don’t think it’ll trend but I’d love the irony if macaroons became the new macarons (and that’d segue nicely from my first prediction!)

3. Local honey. The city is becoming alive with hives on urban rooftops and any hip eatery seems to be doubling as an apiary. In 2012 I’m predicting we’ll see honey labelled by street name, a little like Swords wines celebrated the back streets of Fitzroy in the ‘80s.

For now I’ll save my rants on the zillions of dumb emails I got courtesy of the blog this year (there are doozies, I promise you) and leave you with a few pics of the posts the got away

I grew parsnips for the first time, the first flush of young veg were so tender you could eat them raw. Nothing like the old tired ones that make their way to the shops.

Wraps are my home lunchtime fallback. Something leafy and green from the garden, tomato and avocado if there's any to be found and some kind of protein. Often panfried tofu or this tempeh fried with kecap manis. A little mayo never goes astray if the mountain bread is a little on the dry side.

I'm a sucker for Noisette's fig and apricot fruit loaf. In the rare event there's any leftover on the weekend, I make thick batons, dunk in vanilla scented beaten egg and whip up the most amazing French toast. Best served drenched in pure maple and organic strawberries.

I love to have my main meal at lunch (and then just a wrap for dinner) some days. This was a pepper crusted hunk of flash fried tuna (cut into strips so I could lazily eat the meal with only a fork), topped with tuna and Kalamata olives, served with roast asparagus and potatoes. A Nicoise bake, rather than salad.

My October trip back to Wellington, I got to have brunch at Larder in Miramar (aka Wellywood). Celeriac and smoked eel in a breakfast dish? It made my day.

What stood out (or got away) in your journey through 2011? Do take a punt at some food trends!

Have a pleasant season of over-eating and a healthy New Year.

Singaraja market

As luck would have it, despite the bungalow we stayed in being a good 5 km east of Lovina, the quiet outpost was on the same road as an excellent restaurant and cooking school. The classes are fixed price, regardless of the number of attendees. This meant Lucy and I had the delightful Putu all to ourselves, including a personalised tour of the nearby market in Singaraja. While the ingredients for our vegetarian feast were gathered, like excited children we'd point to exotic produce and ask the name, how to cook it and were treated with good humour by the local stall owners. The class was worth it for the market experience alone.

Click photos to enlarge and enjoy a brief tour of this delightful Balinese market.














Take a look at Lucy's excellent photos of our market excursion and adventures in the North.

vegan feasts

What more could a dairy-allergic, non-meat eater ask for? Not one but two vegan inspired events in the same week.

The first, a vegan degustation at Embrasse, was a standout event. An evening of delightful company, well-honed hospitality and an elegant, though a tad minimal, meal where I could eat every last drop.*

As fate would have it, a small band of vegan-food loving bloggers had for months been trying to set a date to chop, cook and chat together; and four days after we’d shared a table at Embrasse we found ourselves in my kitchen.

Cindy and Michael have done a great job of documenting our Indonesian inspired vegan feast. As usual, I was too busy chatting and sipping mocktails to seriously document the day, not even photograph the rujak I made.

What I loved most was how five food bloggers wove in and out of preparing a meal together in a little kitchen. At any time, someone was chopping (usually Michael), sipping, stirring, frying or steaming. Until finally the feast was before us. Five bloggers, five hours, many dishes and wide ranging conversations. Oh yes, we all cook and we read, a winning combination.

Menu

Peanut rice chips
Chickpea cakes (mock crab cakes)
Rujak
Tahu isi (stuffed tofu)
Steamed chilli tempeh
Stuffed eggplant
Cindy’s special dessert (sticky black rice coconut ice cream vegan of course).



Mock crab cakes: chickpea and potato, veganised with cornflour and water replacing the egg.

Rujak
(This vegan version adapted from the Casa Luna cooking school – traditionally the sauce is made with shrimp paste)

2 large chillies (add a small hot one if you want more fire)
1 tab kecap manis
1-2 tab tamarind concentrate
palm sugar and sea salt (to taste)

In a mortar and pestle bash the chilli and combine with the other ingredients. Adjust the balance as necessary. The flavour should be savoury with a combination of sweet/sour/spicy/salty and umami.

Cut the fruit/vegetables of your choice into bite sized pieces. Make sure there’s some texture - crunchy/soft, as well as acidity in your selection. I used:
Pineapple
Mango
Apple
Pear
Cucumber
(Some traditional recipes include water apple).

Toss the sauce through the fruit, ideally using your hands.

See the photo of the rujak at Where’s the Beef.


Some notes from the day

The filling for the tofu and eggplant was stir-fried in coconut oil. Other than a silky mouth feel, the vegetables are delectably scented with coconut. It transforms even the most ordinary vegetables.



Tahu isi – the classic Balinese stuffed tofu, is traditionally double fried. We made this at the Warung Bambu Cooking School in Pemaron. While it’d be hard to skip the deep frying of the tofu cubes, the second dip once stuffed and covered in a light batter is a little over the top. Other than the egg issue (with our bona fide vegan in attendance), Lucy and I were keen to see how it’d work simply stuffed and steamed. A less calorific but equally as enjoyable variation. The sauce accompanying the stuffed tofu was just kecap manis and chopped chilli (and a little fried shallots as well if desired). A traditional satay sauce is an other option.

Who ever knew you could steam tempeh? Well Lisa obviously, and the chilli tempeh made a great spicy accompaniment.


My vegan food-loving cup has certainly runneth over this week. Though I'm a pescatarian with a penchant for eggs, unlike the dinner at Embrasse, the Indonesian feast left me satisfied. Well, stuffed actually.

But in a good way.

Do you ever get together for cook with friends or fellow food bloggers?


* Well almost, the incredibly bitter capsicum reduction to accompany the vegan chocolate mousse did me in. That’s one fruit I avoid at the best of times, though at least I tried it.

Ubud: taking the rough with the smooth

If I was in a relationship with Ubud, Bali's so called spiritual centre, our Facebook status would undoubtedly be “it’s complicated”.




What is it about Ubud that makes me feel so out of synch with the rest of the world? On my first trip it was like being an extra on the set of Disney Bali. The art! The market! The colour! The people! The hippies doing yoga! And action!

I just didn’t dig it. In fact, after a few days I felt decidedly ill. A malady that disappeared within hours of leaving the city.

Four years later I was determined to give it another go. Call me a masochist but I felt that Lucy, on her first journey to Bali, deserved to make up her own mind about the place. For the previous two weeks we’d meandered along the road less travelled in the east and north of the island. Our soft landing in Tirta Gangga was a taste of paradise. Talumban gave us the thrill of the ocean. Lovina served up the perfect sunsets. Even Seririt, where I attended a mindfulness workshop for a week, was an unexpected a gem.

The final day and a half of our holiday landed us in the grime and heat of a city, without the benefit of a sea breeze to cool off. The noise, traffic and hoards of tourists seemed even harsher after the loveliness we’d been experiencing in the quieter parts of Bali. If there wasn't the small issue of a plane to catch the next day, I'd have hightailed it to the hills of Munduk to spend some more time in the spice groves. As that wasn't an option, I was determined to find an upside to the town.

And I did.

Ubud redeemed herself with simple warungs and a humble tailor. Nasi campur soothed my soul. While a wicked espresso bounced me into enjoying my last day in Bali. Once you head away from the central rectangle of streets ( Jalans Monkey Forest, Raya Ubud and Hanoman ), the pace is not so hectic. Far from the spiritual centre of Bali for me (give me the hills any day) but good to discover the smooth amongst the rough.

Humble eats

Warung Kyoma (off Jl Hanoman, in a street parallel to Jl Dewi Sita)
This local run, basic eatery saved us on the first day. Tired, cranky and need of a late lunch, this blue-walled place, open to the street served us simple food cooked to order. Cheaper than chips – the small plate of gado gado provided a much needed protein and veggie hit. The peanut sauce wasn’t too rich and the vegetables were fresh. Lucy’s spring rolls were served hot straight from the wok (they must have been good, ‘cos she didn’t share them). The freshly whizzed mango juice cost about AU$1.50, a bargain in this town.

No tax (often a hefty 21+% in Ubud).

Biah Biah (Jl Goutama)
This was a Lonely Planet recommendation. It didn’t look that exciting when we passed it in the afternoon but it was close to our accommodation and I was hanging out for a vego nasi campur. While a step up (albeit a small one) from our lunchtime warung, Biah Biah was also extraordinarily cheap. At night the simple restaurant is transformed by lights nestled in cane lampshades. Service was a little chaotic but the Bintang was cold and we had the perfect Chefs Table seats, peering into the small but ordered kitchen. Nasi campur didn’t disappoint. Nothing overly memorable, just good honest vegetarian dishes.

No tax.

Oka’s Warung (Jl Kageng)
Another day, another vegetarian nasi campur and yet another small, blue painted Warung. We popped in for a (tax free) juice to cool off and ended up sharing a vegetarian nasi campur, not because we were particularly hungry but once we saw a fellow patron served it, we couldn’t resist.

Unusually it came with a little bit of omelette. As always the tempeh was great. Bali is the home of tempeh and it’s quite extraordinary. We couldn’t get enough of the stuff.

No tax.



Warung Sopa (jl Sugriwa)
We stumbled across this unique, vegetarian café quite by chance but later found it mentioned on Travelfish (excellent app, you can download it cheaply and access it while you travel without being online). Japanese influenced (and likely owned) you feel confident that the food is without the usual dash of shrimp paste that most “vegetarian” sauces often have in Bali. Apart from homemade bread and miso paste for sale, the “nasi campur” is a little different. You get to choose from a daily array salads, curries and non-Balinese offerings such as a tofu falafel and samosas. Another twist is that it comes with red rice, a nice change for our last meal. Amongst my offerings I chose an excellent bitter melon and tofu salad. They checked first that I knew what it was. Yes it’s a little bitter on first tasting but pared with the excellent, slightly sweetened tempeh it was a winner.

No tax (and free wifi)..and still incredibly cheap
Check out their amusing website.


On my last visit to Ubud four years ago, I’d done the rounds of some of the more upmarket, foreign-owned restaurants such as Casa Luna and Kafe Batan Waru and while tasty, it was as if the flavour balance had been altered for a Western palate, lacking the subtlety of some of the local food. Both are still going strong. This time I craved simple pleasures. I wasn’t disappointed.

Expensive drinks

We took some afternoon refreshment at Casa Luna (Jl Raya Ubud) and nothing has changed about this place from my last visit, though the staff at the height of the tourist season weren’t as friendly and finely honed as I remembered. A coconut juice, or the excellent lime and ginger number sets you back more than a nasi campur and beer at any of the local warungs. Sometimes, in the heat of the afternoon, you just need to cool down in pleasant surroundings.

Tax++ Free wifi on request

Tutmak café (Jl Dewi Sita)
I’d gone two weeks without an espresso and on my last day I caved in. Ubud does in fact have some great coffee and the lovely local at Utama Spice responded without hesitation to our question as to the best coffee in town. Tutmak, a fair walk from the shop she apologised, was definitely her pick. Then shyly, as if a little embarrassed to admit it, she mentioned the cinnamon buns and we were sold. Ten minutes later we were in the land of great coffee, munching on a warm, fragrant pastry. Ubud didn't seem so bad after all.

Tax and Free wifi on request.


So Ubud, I forgive you. It's still not love. And still complicated. But I'll keep working on it for now.

name the fruit: part two

Papaya, pineapple, mango, green skinned oranges, watermelon, jackfruit, durian, mangosteen, water apple – so many fruits, so little time.

The second mystery fruit came our way in the north of Bali. At a small market in Lovina a stallholder thrust one each into our hands, demonstrating how to remove the skin. For the next week, it became a staple.

Mystery fruit #2 has a thin but robust skin, oddly reptilian in nature. Inside is a pale yellow fruit, segmented into lobes with a seed in the centre of each. The texture is pleasantly crisp. The flavour has a hint of pineapple.

This is the fruit of a palm, one of the many exotic plants we saw growing in a trek through Munduk.

Can you name the fruit?


Taken at Ubud Market (note the piece of palm tree)

Update: As Michelle and Katherine rightly guessed, this is salak. AKA snake (or snakeskin) fruit. The texture of the skin gives the name away. It's quite extraordinary. This species is undoubtedly Salak Bali (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salak).

Salak fans, have you ever cooked with it or just eat it raw, as is?

salt

At Tulamben the sea greeted us. Our first couple of days on the island, spent in a mountain paradise, were sad to leave. But the first glimpse of the ocean calmed any regrets of moving on to the East of Bali. After settling into our room we wandered down to deserted beach. The black sand was dotted with fishing vessels but it turned out that the water produced more than just fish.

A few metres back from the waves sat a row of hollowed out palm trunks. (Is there anything that coconut is not used for on this island?) Though the milky liquid seemed unremarkable, the crystals clustered along the edge belied the treasure within. Salt!



A few days later in Amed, the full story of salt making was revealed. A labour intensive exercise involving carrying many heavy buckets of seawater from the shore to pools dug in the soil, sun drying, filtering the soil with more seawater, then finally drained and dried in palm troughs.



This incredible, arduous process is weather dependent. Rain being the enemy of the process. Something rather hard to avoid in the tropics. Many poor families in Bali’s East coast scrape a subsistence income during the dry season from salt making. How dull our food would be without this miracle flavour enhancer.

I’ll never look at this kitchen staple the same way again.

More on traditional Balinese salt making.

name the fruit: part one

Ah Bali! What's not to love about nasi goreng for breakfast, eating your body weight in gado gado and the wonderful surprises found in nasi campur? Lucy and I spent two weeks grazing our way around the East and North of this wonderful, tropical island. Posts will follow (including the best spot for authenti vegan nasi campur in Ubud) when head, body and mind are reassembled in the correct time zone.

But first. I saw (and sampled) many wondrous fruits and herbs that I've never experienced before. This competition has no prize but feel free to have a stab at naming this mystery fruit.



And on the tree.



1. Name the fruit.
2. Describe the flavour.

Go on, have a go.

If you grew up eating the mystery fruit, can you tell us a little more about what you used it for.

Update: Michelle and Celeste were spot on with "rose apple" and "jambus". The locals in the north of Bali call is "water apple".

The plant is from the Myrtaceae family, of the genus Syzgium. Not sure exactly which one.

The fruit we ate was pale with a rosy blush. The skin thin and waxy.

Tasting notes: This pale variety was crispy and slightly tart. Though it looked like it would be dry, it was slightly juicy and the flavour had a hint of tonic water. If I was a gin drinker I'd say it would be the perfect garnish for a G&T.

Texture wise, I'd imagine it would go well in a salad. A substitute for a crispy pear perhaps?

Have you ever cooked with water apple?

not there yet...

But almost.

Will be offline for a couple of weeks. The mountains, beaches, infinity pools, meditation sessions, massages, sunsets, paddy fields, friendships and, of course, wonderful meals awaiting!

a taste of Bali on a steamy Melbourne night

For the past twenty years a green oasis has decorated a modest shop front on the West Melbourne side of Victoria Street. Currently the council is in the process of prosecuting the owners of the many pot plants that welcome patrons to Warung Agus. It appears that while the local bars with their sprawling tables and chairs occupying the footpath are permissible (and within the access guidelines safeguarding the rights of the disabled), plants assisting much needed oxygen production are not.

While this little slice of Melbourne is not far from home it is still a car ride away, so we tend to only get to eat there a couple of times a year. But each time is a joy as Balinese food is such a rarity in this city. Over the years the menu (or the homely décor) has not changed, though the prices have kept pace with inflation. The yellow laminated menu is full of old favourites familiar to any traveller who has ever disembarked at Denpasar, such as gado gado, Babi Guling and nasi campur.

While the food is not highly spiced, the dishes are served with sambals on the side to satisfy all palates. Last night (or more accurately, early this morning) we got an unexpected surprise as the chilli sambal was much hotter than usual. But generally, this is a safe place to bring someone with unadventurous or spice-averse tastes as most dishes favour palm sugar and coconut more than fiery heat.

Some highlights include:

The Toge (gado gado) comes with generous cubes of fried tahu (tofu), cassava crackers, blanched vegetables and a generous dousing of satay sauce. There is no egg, which makes this a vegan friendly dish.

The SE cannot go past the roast pork (babi guling), which he swears is always succulent and comes complete with crackling. It is a dish best shared, as like the other meat and fish dishes, is not accompanied with vegetables.

My favourite seafood dish is Be Pasih Asem Manis, flathead tails cooked with tamarind and coconut milk which is served with roast potatoes. The flavours are simple and hit the right note of sweet, sour and salt.

A great way to get a taste of Balinese food is by ordering Nasi Campur. On the island this is a term that literally means “mix rice”, used to indicate a mini smorgesbord of dishes of the day. At Warung Agus it doesn’t vary – a large dish arrives with rice, tempe (crispy and delicious, tasting of kepchap manis), tahu, sesaur, pecel with peanut sauce. The carnivorous version has the addition of satay pork and chicken, babi guling and spicy chicken.

There are 8 main vegetarian/vegan dishes (most containing tofu or tempeh which provides good protein options for non-meat eaters) as well as 5 seafood (3 entrée and 2 main) dishes. Carnivores are well catered for with variations on pork, chicken and lamb. For those that didn’t get enough palm sugar in the ‘savoury’ courses, there are 5 desserts to choose from.

Warung Agus must be one of the few places in Melbourne to sample the Balinese firewater otherwise known as arak. Before my first trip to Bali I enjoyed a pre-dinner tipple of arak with lemon and sugar but after tasting it straight on holiday - my arak days are over! Drivers are advised to not touch the stuff, due to it’s high alcohol content. Co-owner Mary has been known to be diligent at policing that policy. Bintang beer is also available, along with a moderate selection of mostly Australian ales and wines.

Warung Agus is a delightful, family run eatery. Agus cooks up a storm, while Mary and their daughters provide personal and friendly service in the front of house. While a similar meal in Bali would be significantly cheaper, the food keeps the dreams of tropical holidays simmering between visits (and you won't get Bali Belly!).

Warung Agus
305 Victoria Street West Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9329 1737
Prices: mains High teens to $30
Note: Warung Agus is currently only open for dinner, Thursday to Sunday. As it is family run, the restaurant closes when they go on holiday. If in doubt, ring first to make sure it is open.

Balinese cooking class

Anna’s recent post about the Casa Luna Cooking School in Ubud has given me a gentle shove to finally getting around to chronicling my recent experience.

I’d hoped to have been able to book in for the market tour as well as cooking class but it was a busy week and there were no vacancies. If you are planning to go to Bali in the Southern winter, you can book in advance via the net – so you don’t miss out.

At least we got our first equal class choice – Monday’s journey through Balinese vegetarian and seafood dishes. The delightful Yode, filled in for Janet who was ironically in Melbourne taking the same cooking courses.

While we waited for the class to begin we were fed large, just fried crackers and a lovely hibiscus cordial. Quickly the class swelled in size – a fair few from Australia, a whole wedding anniversary party from LA and a sweet young British gal straight from her job at Buckingham Palace.

The 4 hour class covers the flavours of Balinese cooking, some grinding of spices and assembling of dishes - even better at the end of the class you get to eat it all . The balance of sweet, salt, hot and sour is honoured in each dish. Interestingly I met a number of Balinese who weren’t keen on fiery food and though chilli features as a mainstay of local cooking it’s comparatively subtle compared to other Asian cuisines, such as Thai.

As we made our way through base herbs, Yode gave many medicinal asides – root ginger on the forehead can ease a headache, turmeric root a catch all antiseptic (her own abrasions from a recent motorbike accident bore the yellow dye of the plant), ginger and lemongrass tea the preferred medicine for ‘Bali belly’. My favourite was her tip for a mosquito repellent – get a bundle of fresh lemongrass stalks and sit in a vase beside your bed.


headache be gone! Bali style

Fragrant seeds are used in a base spice mixture (wangen) – cloves, coriander, nutmeg, black pepper, long pepper and thickened with candle nuts and sesame seeds. We were warned of the hapless tourist who bought what he thought was macadamia nuts from the Ubud market and ended up sick and sorry for a number of days. He’d been sold candle nut (kemiri), which is toxic when eaten raw.


a bundle of spices - tumeric, sweet mild local garlic, candle nuts, lemongrass, shrimp paste, corriandar seeds, chilli...

Roots and shoots from the ginger family are abundant in the base begungkilan. Fresh ginger, galangal, lemongrass and turmeric are readily available in Melbourne, but what they refer to as ‘aromatic ginger’ or ‘white turmeric’ (kencur) – a distinctive Balinese flavouring is harder to source. The torch ginger, from the pink flowered plant another illusive taste.



Sour flavours come via my old favourite kaffir lime leaves, shredded finely and used abundantly. Also large amounts of tamarind, a plant I have only tentatively experimented with before.

The salt is largely the locally produced sea salt from west Bali, but also roasted shrimp paste and kecap asin. The sweet flavour is from kecap manis (sweet soy) and local palm sugar (often used as a syrup)

While we got introduced to the basics, a support crew grated coconut for fresh milk, sliced, diced and cooked the rice.



To start with, 2 versions of Rujak, a sweet and sour salad were prepared – with and without liberal doses of shrimp paste and chilli. Like all dishes the spices are ground in the local version of a mortar and pestle – a large flat volcanic stone mortar, less bowl like than the version I use at home. The fruit (and vegetables) used in rujak can be almost anything you like except watermelon that is reputed to make you feel ill in this combination. Ours included pineapple, apple, cucumber and carrot. The sauce featured a lot of tamarind, palm sugar and sea salt. Though I’m not a fan of ‘sweet and sour’ the spicier version had quite a kick and made a great starter or snack.



kangkung

We made 2 vegetable dishes we’d had a number of times in our travels. The Kangkung pelecing is iron rich source of greens in a tomato sambal. I often see Kangkung (sometimes called water spinach) at Asian grocers but almost any Asian green, spinach or even silverbeet would make a tasty side dish. Acar is a very simple salad made from julienned carrot and cucumber tossed with white vinegar, salt, sugar and shallots.


kangkung pelecing


acar

We were lucky enough to make both a fish curry and fish in banana leaves. The curry (mackerel mesanten) featured pretty much every spice covered in the class, fried off then the fish is added. Interestingly the dish is cooked in water, with just a little fresh coconut milk added at the last minute of cooking. The steamed fish in banana leaves (pepesan ikan) was my favourite – traditionally the parcels of fish and spice in banana leaves are fried over hot coals, but in class they were steamed and still delicious.



our Balinese feast

Unfortunately, we aren’t allowed to reproduce the recipes – but I’ll give my own versions with home sourced ingredients when I tackle them in my own kitchen.

To finish I ate a dessert that is only rivalled by my mum’s chocolate mousse, but has to be much healthier. Black rice is soaked then cooked for hours, with some sticky white rice. The grains are then boiled with vanilla beans, palm sugar and a pandan leaf. On serving a splash of freshly made coconut milk is added, just a dash makes it creamy and luxuriant. It was hard to not grab seconds.



All this was washed down with sweet brem, a fermented rice drink. Much lower in alcohol that the turbo charged other arak (consume enough of that and you can become permanently blind – I kid you not), even with lashings of lime juice it’s a bit too cloying for my tastes. The aftertaste is yeasty, a cross between rice and bread.

This was a great way to spend the morning followed by a most sumptuous lunch of the food we’d marginally helped to prepare. A must for any foodie who’s heading to Bali. It was even better than the food we ate at the Casa Luna Restaurant or maybe that was just the herbal magic spun through sharing the of joy of cooking.

eating Bali and Gili Air

Rocket fuel! Benzin flavoured vodka

Food and drink highlights:

Sanur:
The first gado gado is the best gado gado! At Vila Shanti, on the beach, while sitting at the bar having the best beer Bali has to offer – Storm Golden Ale. which is naturally brewed in the bottle with no chemical additives. But back to the food. A smorgasbord of delight featuring rice, tofu, tempeh, cucumber, tomato, and a roll of steamed greens (likely water spinach), the peanut sauce has more than a hint of lemongrass. The most expensive version in the trip (at Rp 25,000 about au$3.30) but certainly worth it.

Pregina a better than average warung, on Jalan danau Tamblinghan, quickly became our favourite and we had a return visit. I loved the tahu isi, fried cubes of tofu filled with vegetables served with a spicy soy based sauce. A serve of 3 was meant to be an entrée but filled me up (Rp 12,000/$1.60). The grilled whole fish in banana leaf came with sambal and rice, was beautifully fragrant (Rp 40,000/$5.30).

Padangbai:
This is a town you either love or hate. I fall into the less favourable category. It’s a good introduction to Sasak food, the predominant culture of Lombok just across the water. The small establishment in the main street where we had seafood satays (with chilli sauce - Sasak style) was our first questionable meal in Bali. We thought the hygiene would challenge our digestive fortitude. What made our dinner in this town most memorable is that we came through it with no ill effects!

Topi Inn, a café and guesthouse at the Blue Lagoon end of town, was clean and had good Balinese and Western food. It got my award for the best Nasi Goreng (see photo in previous post).

Best place to drink in town hands down goes to the Zen Inn (opposite the port) run by the extraordinary Ronald, a Dutch ex-pat. A good crowd of both European travellers and locals.


Gili Air
It is hard to have a bad meal on the island, the worst you will get is average. Sasak food is the traditional fare of Lombok and the islands. To me it seems Chinese influenced (actually the Sasaks are decedents of the Burmese), with 3 standard sauces on offer – chilli/tomato (the cuisine is supposedly high in chilli but to our heat tolerant palate it seemed rather mild, so we’d always ask for it spicy), sweet and sour or garlic. For example, cap cay - a typical vegetable dish, is basically fried vegetables with a sweet and sour sauce. For wary travellers, the Gili’s have an added bonus – with no natural fresh water on the island all the ice is made from imported clean water.

Breakfast: this is where I acquainted myself with the joys of freshly picked, green coconut juice with breakfast. One of the guys running the guesthouse would climb 10 metres up a tree for me each morning. It is reputedly good for those recovering from Bali Belly or hangovers, of which I had neither on the island. Typical breakfast is a choice of: banana pancakes (or pineapple if you prefer), banana fritters (dainty lady’s fingers in a light batter) with runny honey, jaffles (egg or fruit) or a savoury omelette, with Javanese coffee. All this, while lounging in a baruga (covered platform) staring out over the pristine water.

My best 2 meals on Gili Air were - Abdi Fantastik just a shack on the beach, this was the only place on my travels I found gafé dishes. The calamari came with a rich, brown coconut sauce. I wish I’d had more! Santay Bar also cooked up a mean meal. At night, like most other establishments there was a range of freshly caught fish you could choose to have barbecued. We had red barracuda (not the blue boned one we’d had elsewhere which had pesky, fine bones) with garlic sauce, rice, vegetables and fruit to follow for Rp 50,000/$6.60). I also had a green vegetable curry, still distinctively Indonesian with the flavour of white turmeric.

Drinks: Though “Crazy Ary’s” on the south west side of the island boasts being the sunset bar (it serves only cocktails and only operates for the 2 hours around dusk – within half an hour of sunset the place is pitch dark and only bars like Star, Santay and Legends seem to have much going on), Legends at the northern end probably gives the most stunning view of the sun going down. However the young guy tending the bar at Crazy Ary’s will make you a mean pina colada and once you get to know him he’ll use the good grog, not the cheap local knock off they tend to palm off on you. He also spins a good line about black magic.

Ubud
This town is a different kettle of ikan from the other places we travelled. Here you can chow down on fine fusion food, pasta or sushi. Just watch out for the tax that ranges from 10 – 20+%. Despite that you can still find a good warung.

My favourite was Sura’s just a little walk up the hill on Jalan Kajeng. We liked it so much we went back many times, first just aiming to stop by for a fresh juice (soursop became a fast favourite) then getting seduced by the menu. Dishes are very cheap (mie goreng about Rp 14,000/$1.90 plus 10% tax). The vegetarian food was fantastic here. My partner even had a steak, a steal at Rp 30,000/$4. Service is slow, which they make a joke about in the menu. Yes they really do make each order up from scratch, often with the daughter getting on her motorbike to get fresh ingredients, repeatedly through the night.

Casa Luna is at the other end of the price spectrum but by Australian standards still incredibly cheap. In this, and other western owned restaurants, I found the flavours subtly different, maybe saltier and with a different complexity to a warung meal. The Balinese Paella was pretty special.

These are the people behind the cooking course at the Honeymoon Guesthouse, which will feature in my next instalment of eating my way around Bali.

coming soon to a blog near you

Boy, I love Indonesian food...it is a vego/piscaterian paradise.

While I sit in an anonymous transit lounge in yet another asian country (note to self: tell travel agent that transiting in KL for 5 hours, when we could have flown direct was a really dumb idea...and I haven't even begun the nighttime haul of the journey)..I am dreaming of gado gado, nasi goreng, wonderful Sasak bbq fish and even the Padang style "point and shoot" food (you point to the delicous morsels in the case, you eat and if you are unlucky it shoots straight through you shortly after, again and again..)

I've been to cooking school, well for half a day at least and what we cooked was the most fantastic meal of the whole journey..pics and more on that later. But for now it's time to explore what's on offer in the refreshment bar.

See you back in the cold city!