Bali - What we ate & drank

I'm not a big breakfast person. But whenever I'm on vacation, I crave for a huge breakfast in the morning, preferably with eggs. The hotel where we stayed in Seminyak (I'll talk about it in a later post) does a beautiful breakfast.

You check off what you want the night before & the next morning, you are greeted with a beautiful tray of breakfast goodies - fried eggs, bacon, spinach, grilled tomatoes, pancakes, fresh fruits, croissant & a pot of Balinese coffee - all delivered to your room. That's what a vacation is all about.

Ku De Ta in Seminyak has the best day beds in all of Bali. You don't have to pay for them, just need to order food & drinks from the restaurant. We love their octopus salad (not shown in the picture) & their sushi rolls. Stick to their snack menu. I've been there for dinner & was not impressed. Of course, make sure to stay for sunset.

More scenes from Ku De Ta

Alcoholic drinks are expensive in Bali so my advice would be to buy a couple of bottles at the duty free shop at the airport to fix your own cocktails or stick to fresh fruit juices.
We saw this on a postcard & decided we had to go check it out. The Rock Bar at The Ayana Hotel (formerly the Ritz Carlton) at Jimbaran Bay.

We had a hard time finding this place cos we forgot to bring along the post card & we didn't realise that it was located in a hotel. Even worse, I didn't realise it was in a hotel that I had stayed in before (my excuse - it was a long time ago & they have since changed name & management & they most certainly didn't have the Rock Bar then).

But I was glad we made the effort. The setting is dramatic to say the least. We made it in time to catch the sunset & we lingered way beyond that. The bar is set on top of the rocks at the base of the cliff where Ayana is located. Access is via a cable car built against the cliff. Cocktails were US$9 & considering the location, not over the top expensive. Definitely worth a stop.

But we went to Jimbaran Bay for the food. As tempted as we were to stay at the Rock Bar, proper food beckoned (cerviches & tofu crackers don't count). So we headed to one of the many beachfront seafood restaurants.

Nothing, absolutely nothing beats eating fresh seafood, straight off the grill with the sound of the waves (ignore the Mariachi band that is making the rounds) & a cool breeze blowing.

No matter where I am, I like to check out the local markets for fruits & snacks

The snakeskin fruit looks more intriguing than it tastes

Our driver Komang brought us to a restaurant along the road that specialises in Babi Guling, Bali's most famous dish. It's suckling pig Balinese style. The pig is rubbed & stuffed with local spices & then roasted over an open fire. Of course the best part is the crispy skin (not unlike siew yoke) but the meal is also served with soup, stewed pork (see picture below), pork satay, deep fried innards (my favorite) & blood sausage.

When our server came by with a lighted candle, I thought it rather odd given that it was lunch time & most certainly not for the mood. Turned out it was to keep the flies away. LOL. Our meal for the 4 of us, including beer was a grand total of US$9.

We were told that there was a really famous Babi Guling restaurant in Ubud but when we passed by, people (tourists & locals alike) were eating by the kerbside or standing with a plate on hand. Call it age, no matter how good the food, I wasn't prepared to eat that way so I couldn't tell you if it was any better.

Blend of Balinese spices

Sweets sold at a road side stall

Lotus Cafe @ Ubud

Rijsttafel @ Lotus

Knowing that there is a one star Michelin restaurant in Ubud, it goes without saying that we wanted to check out Mozaic. We made reservations even before arriving in Bali, bought a bottle of champagne from duty free, found a babysitter, hey we even booked a hotel in Ubud for the night. You could say, we were well prepared & looking forward to going to Mozaic.

But you are not going to read about the restaurant cos we never made it there. The night before said event, The Girl developed a stomach flu & we cancelled our reservation. Ah well, best laid plans often can go wrong.

As it turned out, our best meal was our last dinner in Bali, at Kafe Warisan - a French restaurant. A restaurant apparently really popular with Singaporeans cos we didn't encounter any in the one week we were in Bali but there were several tables of my fellow countrymen.

I'm sorry there aren't more pictures of food but we ate outdoors so there wasn't enough lighting. For starter, X had a millefeuille of alaskan crab with soft shell crab tempura. He chose another item from the starter menu for his main course artichoke ravioli with grilled scallop and prawn & lemon butter sauce. I had a starter of frog legs (as seen above) & seafood linguini with mustard dressing.

Everything was good. The service competent & attentive. My only complaint is that the portions were huge which is not usual for French food. Which according to another friend is the reason he loves Kafe Warisan.