Wined and dined in Bali

Dave Hulsman | 6th January 2011
BEFORE we start, let's get a few things straight. I'm no food connoisseur.

I'm no Gordon Ramsay, I'm no MasterChef and I'm certainly not a pretentious fine diner who will only eat if the food sits proudly in the centre of an oversized plate.

But I do like a good feed and often base my travel plans around this daily activity. I reckon I've got a fair understanding of what constitutes a good meal.

But the older I get, the closer I drift towards favouring a meal of better quality.

Fortunately, one of my favourite holiday destinations, Bali, has mirrored my gastronomic journey.

No, I'm not kidding. Just a few kilometres up the road from Kuta, in Seminyak, are travellers who are happy to forgo the economical advantages for a more comfortable holiday.

In Seminyak, the dining is centred on Jalan Laksmana, which is often referred to as Eat Street.

At first glance, it's really not a lot different to most of Bali's other streets: it's not neat, the footpath is uneven, the ever-present scooters still line the street and you could argue it still has that feel of seediness so familiar to a lot of other Asian tourist destinations.

However, stepping into the middle and high-end restaurants is like falling into a parallel universe.

They have an exquisite ambience that we never see here. Mass arrangements of fresh frangipanis and tuberoses, sweet incense, fairy- lights in the trees, tea lights flickering, clouds of fine table linen and overcloths, tinkling water features and cool cocktail tunes.

The dining options lining this street were certainly not what I was used to on my previous Bali trips.

It was goodbye to nasi goreng and hello to black truffle risotto, beef rendang envelopes and soft-shell crab.

On our first night, we chose the highly regarded Chandi (www.chandibali.com).

We waltzed in about 7pm and assumed we'd have the pick of the best tables.

However, we then became aware reservations were the norm and had to choose the best spot out of the last two tables available.

We emerged 90 minutes later with a belly full of spicy tenderloin lettuce cups, black pepper crab dumplings with sugar snap peas in a soy butter cardamom vinaigrette, lemongrass-steamed red snapper, and grilled, sliced tenderloin with herbed mashed potatoes and sweet soy galangal broth.

Satisfied. Surprised.

For the next week, we sampled everything from duck breast with caramelised nuts, crispy pastillas, spinach, braising turnip and orange sauce (The Living Room) to homemade Bircher muesli (Bali Bakery); pasta dishes at La Trattoria and club sandwiches and fish and chips at Gado Gado, which is undergoing a major renovation). But for every restaurant we tried, there were five others we didn't get a chance to try.

The pick was undoubtedly The Living Room restaurant because of its garden setting and quiet ambience.

Dave Hulsman is from Ucango Travel and Cruise Centre.

http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/story/2011/01/06/wined-and-dined-in-bali/

The “Best Culinary Team” during the 8th Bali Culinary Competition

Monday, 1 November 2010


Bali Chapter organized the 8th Bali Culinary Competition from 15-19 October, in conjunction to the Nusa Dua Fiesta 2010. The competition was attended by all Chefs in Bali and other provinces in Indonesia and was surely a prestigious platform to expose all culinary talent.

The competition was open to the public and divided into categories like: cooking skills, ice carvings, fruit & vegetable carvings and also cooking the traditional dish of Bebek Betutu.

The culinary team of Sanur Paradise Plaza Hotel & Suites actively took place in almost all categories, proudly taking home 14 medals. Under the guidance of Executive Chef Adi Arsana, all personnel performed with confidence while also having a great time. Facing high standards and updated trends of the culinary world, Chef Adi led his team to compete in this prestigious national event.

Keith Bell, General Manager of Sanur Paradise Plaza Hotel & Suites commented “We are very proud of Chef Adi and his entire Culinary Team for coming in at the top of this 31 team competition. Creative dishes and displays are very important to our guests from all over the world.”

Taking home 3 main awards highlights the winning team’s accomplishments:
Best Culinary Organization
Best Culinary Team 2010
Best Culinary Artist 2010

Below are the medal results of the culinary challenge:

Group 1 – Artistic, Classical Platters & Pastry
Class 01. Butter / Fat Sculpture – Theme: Green Tourism
I.B. Anom Gede Nurbawa : Silver Medal
I Gusti Ngurah Nyoman Mardika : Silver Medal

Class 03 Creative Balinese Creation Canapés
Ni Wayan Suastini : Bronze Medal

Class 06. Creative Wedding Cake with Balinese Decoration Display
I Wayan Budi Arta : Silver Medal
Group 2 – Individual Artistic Practical

Class 08. Individual Gebogan Janur Decorated with local fruits & Flowers
I Gusti Ngurah Nyoman Mardika : Gold Medal
I.B. Anom Gede Nurbawa : Silver Medal
Ni Ketut Sartini : Gold Medal

Class 07. Individual Practical Fruit & Vegetable, Theme : Indonesian Puppet
I.B. Anom Gede Nurbawa : Silver Medal
I Gusti Ngurah Nyoman Mardika : Bronse Medal
Group 3. Individual Practical Hot Food Live Cooking – Professional Chef

Class 10. Living cooking Balinese Main Course with Basic Ingredient: Pork Ribs
I Made Mundra : Bronze Medal
Class 12. Living cooking Indonesian Main Course with Basic Ingredient: Chicken
A.A. Salit Mas Wirawan : Silver Medal

Class 11. Living cooking Western Main Course with Basic Ingredient: Seafood
I Nyoman Ariasta : Silver Medal

Class 13. Living cooking Western Main Course with Basic Ingredient: Red Meat
Kadek Mudiarta : Bronze Medal Class 14. Live cooking Traditional Bebek Betutu with Satay Creations, Lawar and Jukut Ares
I Wayan Suwanta, I Nengah Sumadata, AA Salit Mas Wirawan, Ni Wayan Suastini : Gold Medal

http://www.etravelblackboardasia.com/article.asp?id=71294&nav=1

Chances are you've already enjoyed Balinese food without realising where it originated:

Be it a flash restaurant or budget eatery, the menu delights, writes Ute Junker.

Favourite flavours

Chances are you've already enjoyed Balinese food without realising where it originated: dishes such as satay sticks with peanut sauce, nasi goreng (fried rice with egg on top), mie goreng (fried noodles with egg on top), gado gado salad and lumpia (fried spring rolls) have all become popular dishes around the world.

The local drop

Bintang beer is something close to a national drink but Bali also has a great range of fresh fruit juices at dirt-cheap prices. If you're feeling adventurous, then try avocado (alpukat) juice — something completely different!

Top tables

With languidly swirling ceiling fans and wicker chairs, Kafe Batan Waru (Jalan Dewi Sita, Ubud, +62 361 977 528, www.baligoodfood.com) is the perfect place to enjoy Balinese cuisine. Try lemper ayam (grilled parcels of sticky rice and shredded chicken wrapped in banana leaf) and ikan woku belanga (Buginese red snapper stew scented with turmeric and kemangi leaves). For fussy eaters, there's also an extensive range of Western dishes, from pasta to salads. For chic seaside dining, you can't beat the renowned Ku de Ta (9 Jalan Laksmana, Seminyak +62 361 736 969, www.kudeta.net). For 10 years, this vast beachfront complex — which includes a funky bar, a waterside deck and terraces - has pulled the most glamorous crowd on the island with its delicious sashimi, yabbies and lamb. Beduur Restaurant at Ubud Hanging Gardens hotel (Desa Buahan, Desa Payangan, +62 361 982 700, www.ubudhanginggardens.com) is a little way out of town but for lovers of creative cuisine, it's well worth the trek. The stunning setting is quickly overshadowed by the meals themselves, designed for both maximum flavour and maximum visual impact. Dishes such as a lobster caviar maki roll — improbably served with a large glass containing a vividly green miniature rice paddy — look so good it feels wrong to eat them.

Budget bite

It's cheap and it's delicious, so it's no wonder that queues start forming early at Ibu Oka (Jalan Suweta, Ubud), the place to sample suckling pig, or babi guling, a Balinese classic. It's the only thing on the menu at this no-frills favourite, which opens at 9am and closes when it runs out of food — usually about 2pm. Patrons have to sit cross-legged on cushions but portions are generous and the succulent spiced meat and crispy crackling are sensational and well worth any physical discomfort.

Special night

Dinner at Mozaic (Jalan Raya Sanggingan, Ubud, +62 361 975 768, www.mozaic-bali.com) - picked for Restaurant magazine's prestigious list of the best 100 restaurants in the world - is not an experience you want to rush. Start with a drink in the glamorous red, black and white bar, then move to the leafy courtyard to savour one of chef Chris Salans' degustation menus. The Discovery Menu, designed to showcase the best local flavours, is built around indigenous ingredients, many of which you won't come across anywhere else.

Locals love

It's spelt "sate" rather than "satay" here but the delicious skewers of charcoal-grilled meat served with peanut sauce are instantly recognisable. This is a true taste of Bali.

Don't leave without trying

If you're anywhere near Jimbaran, you must enjoy at least one meal at one of the open restaurants on Jimbaran beach. Our favourite is Lia Cafe. (Jimbaran beach, +62 81 2390 7411). The set-up is basic but the seafood is super-fresh.

Source: The Sun-Herald

Bali's Bebek Betutu

By JOHN KRICH http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704895204575321720674094134.html

Bali's main draw has long been its local culture, with its elaborate and sophisticated traditions in music, dance, architecture, textiles and the decorative arts.

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Djuna Ivereigh for The Wall Street Journal

Bebek betutu at Bebek Bengil restaurant in Bali.
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0622dish01

Unfortunately, the same can't be said about Balinese cuisine. For starters, the vast majority of dining options on the island run from trendy Western resort fare to basic Indonesian hot tables. Even the most impassioned of food devotees would agree: Native cooking here rarely rises a rank above decidedly homemade and not-too-terrible.

Only two Balinese creations, babi guling (suckling pig on a spit) and bebek betutu (slow roasted, leaf-wrapped duck) have become de rigueur for tourists to try—and, of these, the duck dish is the more intriguing, though also more difficult to find because the genuine article must be ordered at least one day in advance.

THE HISTORY

The origins of bebek betutu can be traced back as far as Prometheus gave man the gift of high heat. Certainly, the basic method of placing a hunk of meat inside a leaf and placing it in the ground with a heat source, in this case, mounds of smoldering rice husks, goes back to what several websites on Balinese food approximate as "time immemorial."

One thing is certain: Duck has played a central role in the agricultural cycle of the island. Raised amid the ditches and ponds of irrigated rice fields, the local waterfowl have long been allowed to "clean up" fields after harvest by feeding on leftover grains and seeds. Duck is also featured as an offering during many Balinese festivals, at weddings and government functions.

As chef Heinz von Holzen of Bumbu Bali restaurant explains, "While some Balinese would not eat beef or pork for religious reasons, all like duck—and favor it over chicken...they are the only animals, save turtles, to survive on land or water."

THE SETTING

Down the atmospheric street Jalan Hanoman Gang, famed chef Pak Yan Tekek, 67, dressed in shorts and an undershirt, has been churning out a dozen ducks each morning and another dozen in the afternoon for more than 40 years. According to his son Made, 46, the bowl of spice mix (urap) that his father hand-packs into the cavity of each duck is made green by local herbs and tea leaves.

Says chef von Holzen: "Green chilies give the [duck] color."

Once properly prepared, the duck is delicately tied up inside betel-nut bark, kind of like a Mexican tamale although a tamale's corn husk wrapping is softer than bark. Then the duck is placed on a terra-cotta tray and shoved into one of a number of blackened pyramids—made of rice husks—that are remarkably reminiscent of Bali's famed volcanic peaks.

The term betutu refers to the use of rice-husks, not "smoked" as it is often mistranslated. Heated by kindling of coconut husks, these piles of rice husks retain their temperature for five hours—the proper time required to cook the bebek betutu.

There's no special ambience in which to partake of bebek betutu—its traditional setting is the backyard of a Balinese home. But the duck must be served at the table, whole and smoldering, often with beak and wings still attached. The most proper accompaniments would be side dishes of lawar, a sour treatment of green beans and other greens mixed usually with shredded pork, plus a tomato sambal (hot sauce).

THE JUDGMENT

The best way to judge a good bebek betutu may be to try a bad one first—such as those available at the cut-rate local chain, Ayam Betutu Khas Gilimanuk. This quickie version, cooked in a modern oven for just a few hours, arrives in a soupy yellow base, with little or no discernible kick or spice perfume, and nary a trace of any wood flavor. Worse still, there is hardly a shred of edible meat.

The better bebeks are just the opposite: plenty of duck breast, cooked to a melty softness, infused with smokiness and slathered inside and out with a pleasantly charred spice paste that gives off lingering hints of lemongrass, turmeric and pungent ginger.

THE SOURCES

Bebek Bengil (Dirty Duck), a granddaddy of island duckeries, was founded in 1990. It is pleasantly spread over pavilions looking at rice fields, and mainly features its own fried duck—but the restaurant can rustle up the real thing on request (with 24-hour notice). Jalan Hanoman, Ubud; Tel: 62-361-975-489; about $23.50 for two people.

Lotus Pond is one of the few places where you can find the daily output of master duck maker Pak Yan Tekek. Danau Tamblingan, Sanur Main Road; Tel: 62-361-289-398; $12 for a serving of half a duck.

Kafe Batan Waru is a lovely full-service outdoor cafe on a pleasant side street with outstanding service, good Balinese coffee and, of course, bebek betutu (ordered a day in advance). Jalan Dewa Sita, Ubud; Tel: 62-361-977-528; about $28.50 for two people.

At Bumbu Bali ask for the 24-hour version at this restaurant and cooking school run by German chef Heinz von Holzen. A whole bebek betutu costs about $18 and must be ordered in advance. Jalan Pratam, Tanjong Benoa; Tel: 62-361-774-502.
—John Krich is a writer based in Bangkok.