My favourite way to survive the Melbourne winter is to escape to much warmer surrounds for at least a fortnight! This year we returned to beautiful Bali for our belated honeymoon. Almost instantly after landing I lost track of what day it was. I did however, keep tabs on when it was time for breakfast... second breakfast... early lunch... late lunch... there's just something about Bali that stimulates the appetite and sets the tastebuds salivating for every opportunity to eat yet another delicious meal!
at Mushroom Bay in the beautiful island of Nusa Lembongan
We had a wonderful time, having fun getting up to lots of activities. Moo is now a certified Scuba Diver! We also did lots of swimming, snorkelling, trekking, canoeing, horse riding. We also did a cooking class and of course indulged in LOTS OF EATING!
We love to eat at the local warungs. Check this out:
The Balinese have wonderful sauces - sambals. It was great to learn how to make some in our cooking class (more on that next post).
Here is a raw sambal that our friend Janu's mother made for us in Nusa Lembongan. Janu showed us how to eat with our hands, Balinese style, and ate two delicious fresh grilled whole tuna with the sambal and rice. The sambal was made of coconut oil, lots of shallots and garlic, and of course chilli. I think it was possibly my favourite meal of the trip. So simple, so fresh and so tasty!
The coconut oil in Bali seems to be different from what I have been able to locate in Melbourne. The Balinese coconut oil is a light oil, not at all smokey, just a light fragrant taste and very light coloured and clear. Does anyone have any idea if it's possible to find this in Melbourne? I thought if we'd be able to find it anywhere it'd be at our local markets and stores in Footscray but our searches have been to no avail so far!
Upon returning to Ubud, we headed straight to Ibu Oka opposite Ubud Palace for their legendary babi guling - suckling pig! I think if I had to choose a last meal, it would be babi guling! Gets me every time. As you can see, it's very popular with the local dogs too.
There are many hikes you can do from Ubud, up to the surrounding rice terraces and villages. We took a jalan jalan up Jalan Kajeng and followed it all the way up the top of the hill through the rice fields
And across to the Sari Organic Cafe - where they support local farmers and actively promote and encourage them to grow organic crops. They have an onsight kitchen garden where they harvest produce for use in the cafe.
breakfast!
you wouldn't expect it but they have the tastiest potatoes in Bali!
canoeing Lake Batur
It was a very fine day, perfect conditions for canoeing - very little wind and the waters were very smoothe. Still after a few hours of canoeing lunch was very welcome! And delicious! That's a fresh-as-it-comes fish from the very lake we were just canoeing in.
Back in Ubud we also booked in for a very expensive meal (and I mean expensive by western standards let alone Balinese standards!) at the exclusive, internationally renowned Mozaic. It was a full degustation meal but truly an experience! Eat dish was an explosion of flavour. Some samples for your eyes:
This trip we made the journey across the island to West Bali - it took about 4 hours drive from Ubud. Along the way we stopped in at Lake Bratan which has a stunning temple on the lake:
lady of the lake
And then we headed up to a village in the surrounding mountains, called Munduk which has a beautiful waterfall you get hike down to:
And of course after all that walking, we had worked up a fierce appetite. We stopped in at a new restaurant opposite the waterfalls entrance with this tremendous view of the valley
And we tucked into some wonderful homestyle cooked meals.
a soothing clear broth soup with minced pork, chillies and fresh chives - ultimate comfort food!
beef curry
In West Bali we stayed at a resort in Banyuwedang, very close to the West Bali National Park (Taman Nasional Bali Barat). We ate at the resort restaurant most of the time while there which had a great selection of Balinese and Javanese cuisine (it's just a 30 minute boat ride from west bali to Java, we could see it from our resort!) as well as Japanese and western cuisine.
Bali is plentiful with fresh, tasty snapper
nom nom tuna steaks
grilled seafood special - king prawns and calamari
ramen
We rented a motorbike and travelled up the road to have lunch at the stunning Bali Tower Restaurant - originally built as an observatory tower for the West Bali National Park.
this was *the* best fried ayam (chicken) with a tomato type relish and chilli sambal
a daily delight - mee goreng!
black rice pudding mmm
All in all, a wonderfully relaxing trip! Next post will be sharing our Balinese cooking class! Stay tuned...
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