Eat Like Ushi

A very short walk (ie. less than 1min) from the accommodation in Amed at Rumah Adi was Cafe Harmony. In fact, one of the owners of Rumah Adi recommended Harmony. It wasn't until arriving there that one of the waitresses informed us that the Harmony and Rumah Adi owners were brothers. Nonetheless it wasn't a strong enough reason to leave to find somewhere else.

Of all the more local places, Warung Enak (TA #1) and Warung Pantai were on my list, but not knowing exactly where they were and the effort involved in finding a driver to take us there meant close enough was good enough.

- Fish, coconut lime soup - thin soup with fresh fish stock and meat;
- Fried noodles - very savoury version requiring two serves to keep the flavour going;
- Kangkung (water spinach stir-fried with garlic & spices)
- Jukut blingbling (leaves of star fruit plant with red beans & fresh coconut) - polarising salad of bitter leaves and beans. I liked it;
- Pesan be mahi-mahi (fish fillets wrapped in traditional-style banana leaf with Balinese herbs & grilled)
- Mixed seafood BBQ served with homemade sambals - given the cost of 125,000 IDR (compared to how much things generally cost), expected more than 2 prawns, some calamari and piece of fish. Nothing special and not worth the cost in the end;
- Special pancake with coconut a la Harmony (green pandan pancake with fresh coconut) - simple dessert with sweet palm sugar and nice overall flavours.

It was a reasonably expensive meal given the setting and standards of a more local restaurant at 586,000 IDR (compare Sails was 680,000 IDR). The food was fine without being exceptional. I'd happily eat here again, but just as easily find something else in the area to try.

The last comment I'd make it that sitting outdoors in the evening eating under a roof light, be aware that insects may kamikaze into your food. Just smile and pick them out (they aren't small).

Driving from Ubud to Amed takes several hours. For this reason it's nice to plan a stopover meal along the way. Candidasa is known to be a nice place to stay even for a few nights, for nothing more than enjoying beach. Considering you have to drive through it to get to Amed, it seemed like a good idea to stop for lunch and if time/weather/effort permitted, even wander around the beach area.

In actuality, the exhaustion of being driven around coupled with the fact that this particular driver wasn't great and so the vehicle did not easily accommodate 5 people and luggage, Candidasa just ended up being a place to get out, stretch legs and eat some lunch.

The driver suggested a restaurant that overlooked some water or a pond. Sure it was nice, but I do my research for a reason. The two choices here were Vincent's (TA #1, more upmarket and fancy) or Warung Srijati (not many reviews, quite local, mentioned in Travelfish). After looking at both menus, we decided upon the cheap local Warung with its prices better than anywhere eaten in Bali (besides street stalls). The menu has no surprises - they do local food and good versions too.

- Balinese nasi campur
- Cha Kangkung
- Gado-gado
- Special fried noodles
- Special fried rice

Mie goreng and nasi goreng had similar flavours, most closely resembling the Indo-mie flavouring packets. However the noodles, sauces and textures allowed me to know that this was far from the instant kind. Kangkung was well cooked and had good bite. The nasi campur and gado-gado seemed fine without being memorable. The fresh juices were also delicious, especially papaya, but after asking realised there was sugar added (if that bothers you).

In any case a nice warung that keeps you happy to continue. Simple local Indonesian.

Bebek Bengil, the dirty duck diner. An institution that everyone who lives or has visited Ubud seems to know. What is less known is that if you have enough people and book a day in advance, the smoked duck is the main dish to try here. Otherwise they have an endless number of fried ducks you can order on the day, but variety is good.

After a nearby massage to fill a casual 90mins before the 630pm dinner, the heavens opened up at precisely the time we started walking along Monkey Forest road. The warm rain drenched down, soaking us all from head to torso to shoes. The 15mins walk through rain, darkness and along the roads kept us focussed at the endgame - mega duck dinner.

We finally arrived and were led to a private table right at the back, where rice fields surrounded (although it was too dark to really appreciate the natural surroundings). As I had pre-ordered 2 smoked ducks, we perused the menus looking for some extras. What we didn't appreciate so much was that each smoked duck also came with 6 chicken sate, vegetables, steamed rice and 2 glasses of Balinese punch. And when they say that each smoked duck order feeds two people, they really mean two people as a full meal. My parents had misguided me that the Balinese ducks they had eaten here previously (the fried ducks) were small and one person could easily eat one to them themselves. Hmmm.

- Whole Balinese Smoked Duck (in traditional way with spices wrapped in betel nut leaf)
- chicken sate
- Gado-gado (steamed mixed vegetables with tofu, egg & peanut sauce)
- Bebek Bengil (half an Original Crispy Duck steamed in Indonesian spices, deep fried for a crispy finish)

Both the smoked and crispy fried ducks were good. The smoked duck was a much bigger meatier bird, with soft delicate flesh. The crispy duck was thin, small and perhaps had a bit more flavour (although nothing compared to the fried pork at Ibu Oka 3). Opinions were divided as to which duck was preferred - I'd have to say I think the fried was my choice. But I wouldn't hesitate to eat both again. The chicken sate and gado-gado were fillers for the main event. The dipping sauces were delicious (and hot!) and went brilliantly with rice as a dish of their own.

Next time I would order 1 smoked duck to share between 4. Consider 1 smoked chicken (also needs pre-ordering) if you have 4-8 people. Top up with Bebek Bengil orders of 1 between 2. Nothing else required.

PS. when saying Dirty Duck, you must automatically think of the Black Eyed Peas - dirty bit, do do doooo... (as horrible of a remake as that is).

Balinese suckling pig is one of the specialties to try. Ibu Oka is listed on practically all the Ubud food recommendation lists I read, including some in email form forwarded to me by friends of locals. I suppose it ends up being one of those well touristed places for good reason - they have damn good suckling pig.

There are two locations - a smaller closer to town one that seems to be the one that is listed everywhere. Additionally there is a larger restaurant not too far away, where all the pork is cooked and then transported to the smaller venue. Luck should have it on this day that our driver took us to the mothership (I wanted to go here preferentially and the driver thought the other was closed, even though it actually wasn't).

The menu is quite simple - suckling pork, fried pork, pork skin or pork sausage.

The special (rice, vegetables, pork roll, fried meat, sausage, skin) is the generic sampler plate to try. On this occasional it actually also came with some kind of boiled jackfruit (had none of the sweetness associated with usual jackfruit I'm used to). After sampling each of the porks, the best is really the fried meat with its exquisitely delicious savoury flavours. This was possibly the most flavoursome morsel of everything eaten in Bali. The suckling pork meat is nice also, but I think I like the Spanish version better.

In any case, try for yourself. I will again.

Finding a first meal in Ubud and Bali was going to be a challenge. Considering the arrival time and efforts of the travel group and precise weather and ease of walking around was unknown, I figured something last minute should be adequate. The most anticipated places of mine were already scheduled - Ibu Oka (lunch only) and Bebek Bengil (the next night dinner) - so a simple generic warung seemed like a good idea.

Walking from the accommodation along Jalan Bisma, we expected that the approximate location Google maps showed us along Jalan Raya Ubud would make Bogasari easy to find. Sadly it wasn't - on the bright side we ended up eating gelato first and getting a short glimpse at the town. Funnily enough we found Bogasari (with some help - although most locals had never heard of it) located exactly opposite the entrance to Jalan Bisma.

- gado gado (mixed vegetables with peanut sauce, tofu, bean cake, boiled egg, shrimp crackers)
- mie goreng kampung (fried yellow noodle, chicken & shredded vegetables served with fried egg, acar, chicken sate, shrimp crackers)
- pepes ikan laut (grilled marinated fish wrapped in banana leaf served with vegetable urab, steamed rice)
- sate campur (grill pork, beef, chicken skewer served with rice & peanut sauce)
- tuna sambal matah (grilled tuna, vegetable water spinach Balinese pelecing, steamed rice, served with Balinese raw sauce sambal matah)
- egg lawar (with pork, white rice)

Everything was nice. The gado gado was a slightly more upmarket version than the street types, which some may prefer for cleanness, but I think in the end the street types are more to my liking. Mie goreng was one of my favourites for the trip. Delicious and chilli. Pepes and tuna were probably the dishes I least liked due to chewy fish texture, however the pepes at least had some nice flavour mashed into it.

When in anywhere, find gelato. It isn't a difficult concept to understand the logic behind. Especially when the weather even at night is 25C and 75% humidity. Ubud supposedly has two gelato places of note - Gelato Secrets and Gaya Fusion. Gaya Fusion is a taxi trip away whereas Secrets is conveniently located towards the top of Monkey Forest Road.

Our very first Bali eat ended up being here, before finding dinner. To be honest we initially couldn't find the particular warung and so ended up snacking here to keep us going. The gelato is fresh, some texture, and there was honestly a couple of small ice crystals in amongst 5 flavours - but I'll forgive them for that.

Flavours included as expected the local fruits such as a rich smooth mango and something I haven't seen before dragonfruit. Great for any time of day or night.