food trip: Balinese cuisine

I was excited to try out the food in Bali because I've always dreamed of popping in for a gastronomic adventure at Locavore, one of Asia's 50 best restaurants. Lest I be dubbed as a food snob (i.e., only going to the internationally renowned restaurants), I also like to state that I also enjoy eating in restaurants whose food provide a more home-cooked feel. I felt that I could not make a boring food decision in picking a restaurant in Bali because this island is a a melting pot of a lot of Asian cultures. It's my chance to try the southeast Asian version of the Indian-Chinese food fusion (my first taste of this was in West Bengal) further mixed with lots of influences from other Indonesian culinary traditions and from Balinese gastronomy as well. 

So, as soon as Val and I finished working (we're hardwired to bring our laptops on vacation... I wrote parts of a book chapter on gastronomy for my consultancy work while he worked on an economics paper or a presentation), and Leonce's family returned to Joglo View Villa from a massage appointment, we were ready to explore Sanur's culinary offerings. Peter recommended a restaurant called Warung Mak Beng, just a few minutes away from the villa. 

The warung is a small, family-owned, roadside restaurant and it really showed. I felt like I was back in Padre Garcia, about to eat lomi soup in a restaurant fronting the family-owner's house. The staff was very friendly and they explained the limited food options to us: nasi (rice) with ikan laut goreng (fried fish) or with soup kepala ikan laut (fish head soup). I was worried with the fish because they couldn't translate the fish name in English but I knew that it's a kind of saltwater fish because of the commonalities between Tagalog and Balinese (and Bahasa) languages. Allergy aside (and with my antihistamines in my wallet), I opted to dig in; otherwise, I would be eating rice doused with soy sauce and calamansi juice... and miss out on my first Balinese food experience. In contrast, the drink menu in Warung Mak Beng was more varied: teh (tea), kopi (coffee), temulawak (ginger brew, I think), and sodas. 

Ikat laut goreng

Sure enough, my allergy attack came a few minutes after partaking of the fish. But the antihistamines worked like a charm (Note: I'm not going to risk it again; when in doubt, will not proceed especially in a foreign country) so I didn't have much of an issue except for itchy ears. I had to stop eating, however, to prevent the allergy attack from worsening. Although I didn't fully taste the fish, it must be delicious because Val and Leonce's family thoroughly enjoyed eating it, ordering a few more servings.

The next day en route to the different temples, I couldn't stop but talk about the nutty flavours of tempeh, the popular Indonesian fritter... as if I was craving to eat some. Jek, our driver, was quite surprised that I knew this dish and was willing to stop by a roadside gorengan (which, as I understand, is a food cart selling deep-fried food) to get a bagful of it for me. 

The others were turned off by my explanations of how tempeh is made: boiled soybeans are fermented by a mould known scientifically as Rhizopus oligosporus, whose mycelia bind the beans into a cake. Further processing makes the tempeh ready for deep-frying. Any non-microbiologist or foodie can be turned off by the participation of moulds, right? Wait until they've encountered nattō in Japan, another form of fermented soybean, but this time, the beans are fermented using a bacteria called Bacillus subtilis. Hehehe. 

Non-plussed, I started enjoying the nutty and mushroom-like flavours of tempeh. I guess Val got intrigued so he tasted it too. That convinced the others to try it out. Soon, I've convinced them that it's a really yummy snack... enough for them to bug Jek to stop again at another gorengan to buy more.

Tempeh goreng

Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to find another gorengan selling tempeh while on the road. But Val and I did ask Jek for other recommendations. So aside from tempeh, we got to try Balinese-style banana fritters (pisang goreng) and another favourite of mine from the gorengan: tahu isi. This dish is essentially a tofu fritter but it's been hollowed out so it can be filled with vegetables and bean sprouts. I think this is eaten traditionally in Bali with green chilis on the side but I (a Filipino who likes flavour counterpoints) preferred to eat it dipped in vinegar to balance out the oiliness. We also had a bag full of boiled peanuts and strawberries to eat during our road trip so by the time we reached the temples, our tummies were full. 

Tahu isi

During our shopping day, we ended up exploring Ubud, a town filled with non-Asian tourists enjoying the cultural and traditional sights. There was no gorengan along the way so we ended up eating lunch at a restaurant called Gedong Sisi, a fancier warung. A lot of customers were eating there so we thought that it's as good a place as any and it's easy to spot from the main road.   

The staff were also very hospitable, just like in Warung Mak Beng, but because they had more customers, we didn't have as much interaction with them. We were left to our devices to figure out what to eat from a more varied menu encompassing Indonesian versions of other international cuisines (yes, they also serve pizza). 

Because Val and I treated this as a food trip, we opted to stick to the Balinese options. One of the dishes, whose name I failed to note, contained chicken satay, fried tofu, egg, a chicken leg, and a variety of vegetables and pulses. I suppose that this was a curry of some sort.

I'm not sure what this is but it certainly has tofu, chickpeas, and chicken in a sauce

Then there's the nasi goreng (fried rice) served with meat (not sure if it's lamb or beef), fish crackers, and a variety of pickles. It's quite different from the nasi goreng I've tasted in Los Baños because the Gedong Sisi version didn't taste like it had shrimp sauce in the rice. This perhaps reflects the more inland nature of Ubud, where the population's food options were produced by the farming communities. The Los Baños version utilised the shrimp sauce as a flavouring agent (which had caused me, back then, to take another dose of antihistamines and to avoid the restaurant serving it altogether).

Nasi goreng 

The grandest dish we've ordered, in my opinion, was the nasi campur because it had a lot of vegetable- and meat-based viands plated around a mound of white rice. The chicken satay was joined by beef rendang (the only other meat dish I recognised), sautéed vegetables, fish cracklings, and pickles. Actually, this dish reminded me of the Indian thali, a traditional meal composed of many small dishes served on a metal platter.

Nasi campur

While walking in Ubud, we did encounter Locavore but since everyone was still digesting our rather heavy lunch, we opted to skip it. Might as well because it's very crowded when we passed by it (popular particularly to the non-locals). I'm guessing that we'd need a reservation just to snag a table... which we didn't do before our trip. Anyway, I'll make sure that Val and I get to eat at Locavore when we return to Bali. It is just one of the many other reasons to visit the island again.

This food trip definitely has to have a part two.