Back in Bali, Eating Again

I recently went back to Bali and I hit the ground eating. After touching down, driving through the darkness and checking into my plush villa, I just about ready to crash but was too hungry to sleep. The only solution: room service; eating in my pyjamas.

The tragic part about my relationship with the lovely island of Bali and its gorgeous beaches is that I never get to enjoy them. This trip, like my last was pretty much déjà vu, in a good way and a bad way, where I only soaked up the Balinese sun during my car drives but had the privilege of feasting at new restaurants. Breakfast, one of my favourite meals, was enjoyed at the Four Seasons at Bali at Jimbaran Bay where I obsessively ordered their ethereal fluffy and delicious macadamia and poppy seed French toast with honey consecutively for two days to be firstly washed down with nutritious fresh fruit juice and then chased with a double shot espresso.


Macadamia and poppy seed French toast

After the late morning breakfast ritual, we piled into the car and got eating. I would have liked to have squeezed in a Babi Guling or some good old comfort Padang food, but I was a guest and had little choice of our dining destinations. These are my food prints:

Amandari
(or simply known as the restaurant in Amandari)
Kedewatan
Ubud, Bali
Tel: +62 (361) 975333


Gado-Gado

The menu in my opinion is large since it covers Western and Indonesian cuisine with no in-between fusion. Gourmet set menus from both Western and Indonesian cuisines are available, and if you call a day ahead, you can have a traditional Balinese family style feast. The restaurant excels in both cuisines, so if you pick and choose from different parts of the menu and put together a totally eclectic meal, which no one understands but you, it should work. My biggest memory of this place is the gado-gado, which had one of the best peanut sauces that has a nice touch of lemongrass.

Kafe Warisan
Jalan Raya Kerobokan
Kerobokan, Bali
Tel: +62 (362) 731175
www.kafewarisan.com


Baked tomato tart

I arrived here a little too early by mistake, but things work out for a reason. Arriving half an hour too early for my reservation meant that I managed to catch the sunset and against the gorgeous backdrop of the paddy fields because after the sunset, the paddy field just merges into a patch of black. Chef Nicolas is doing a good work here. Recommended are his hot foie gras and seven-hour lamb mecchoui, but I went with a baked tomato tart with honey and rosemary, pumpkin, goat’s cheese, spinach and yoghurt emulsion and a boneless baby chicken stuffed with foie gras and sage with mustard potatoes, and my dining partner only had a Australian lamb rack with dauphine gratin, fricassee of mushrooms and rosemary juice. In short, it was good and I will return when I return to Bali.

Kisik
Jalan Karang Mas Sejahtera
Jimbaran, Bali
Tel: +62 (361) 702222



Although exercise is prescribed before and after dinner as you scale the 141 steps the view of the sunset and the Indian Ocean makes it all worthwhile. The view and the ambience charms and seafood are the food of choice. The menu is simply scratched on a chalkboard, and fish and crustaceans are displayed on ice for your picking. Make your preferences known then sit back and sip on a cocktail with sand between your toes and soak in the sunset.

Sami-sami
Jalan Karang Mas Sejahtera
Jimbaran, Bali
Tel: +62 (361) 702222



This laid back open air trattoria, is a great place to gather for a meal, and rightly so as Sami-Sami means “local gathering”. Our meal with a gorgeous bread basket of assorted freshly baked bread, and our appetisers were … for lack of a better word appetising. If you find yourself here in Bali, the light and crisp battered Frito Misto Di Mare e Vedura Al Limone e Salsa Remoulade and asparagus salad flavours were delicate and the bloddy main course of medium rare grilled fillet of US Angus Beef Tenderloin with Rucola, Roast Potatoes, Parmesan Cheese and Balsamic Sauce was succulent and powerfully flavourful. Desserts of banana pizza and double chocolate cake were predictable, good but a little on the sweet side.

* More photos later