Bali is a true gourmet paradise where you can discover a variety of traditional and popular local cuisine. Here you can enjoy unique Balinese dishes such as nasi goren, fried rice with vegetables and seafood flavored with traditional spices, or sate lilit, fragrant skewers of finely chopped fish and minced chicken cooked over an open fire.
An important part of Balinese cuisine is the use of fresh local ingredients such as fruits, vegetables, fish and spices, which give the dishes a unique flavor. Delicious and fragrant, Balinese cuisine will satisfy the most sophisticated tastes and leave you with an unforgettable experience of the gastronomic heritage of this amazing island.
A lot of fresh fruits, both familiar and exotic. For those who cook themselves, there are all the products in the markets and shops. A characteristic feature of Balinese cuisine is the presence of pork dishes. On the rest of the islands of Indonesia, Muslims live, who are not allowed by religion to eat this meat.
The most common Balinese dishes
Indonesia is culinary, although it is original, but you can easily find echoes of Indian and Chinese cuisine in it. The difference between Indonesian dishes is that they are not seasoned with so many hot spices, and anyone can make the sauce because of their simplicity.
For example, the island of Java is a classic soy sauce that is seasoned with food, and in Sumatra, coconut milk is added to this sauce, which makes the taste less salty and acquires delicate notes.
But in general, there are patterns and basic principles on which Indonesian cuisine is based. These include rice as the basis of many dishes (it is boiled, stewed and fried) and an abundance of vegetables and fruits: crops are harvested here several times a year. This also applies to Bali cuisine – tasty, light and nutritious at the same time.
Nasi Goreng
You need to start the story about Balinese dishes with rice. It is even added to dishes with noodles – the second most popular product in Bali. The most common dish – Nasi Goreng (Nasi Goreng) – is fried rice. More precisely, first boiled, and then fried with vegetables and spices. A bit like risotto, to which a fried egg and fresh vegetables are added at the end of cooking.
Nasi goreng is very popular due to its cheapness, while the dish is hearty and very tasty.
A special taste of this Indonesian risotto is given by the kechap manis (or ketsap manis) sauce, which is made using boiled black soybeans. The ground bean mass is left for fermentation, after which palm sugar is added.
Makes sweet soy sauce. It has a very bright taste, so it is added little by little. Ketchap manis goes well with the neutral flavor of rice. This sauce is sold with the addition of black pepper, cloves, anise, coriander, cinnamon and other spices.
Mie Goreng
The second step of the pedestal in the diet of the Balinese is occupied by noodles, they are eaten almost as often as rice. Externally, Balinese noodles are one to one Rolton. Moreover, in warungs (small cafes, often a tent with a canopy, under which there are two or three tables), it is precisely such noodles from bags that are taken to prepare another popular dish – fried noodles (Mie Goreng).
For visitors to expensive restaurants, noodles are prepared by hand in the kitchen. But mi goreng is always frying egg noodles in a wok pan with spices. And in the same way, this is a hearty and cheap dish.
Nasi Campur
The original mixture of fried rice and noodles is called Nasi Campur. This is a common street food, nasi champur is also sold in small cafes-warungs. By the way, seafood and meat are often baked in banana leaves: such a wrapper ensures that juice does not leak out during baking and the finished dish will be juicy and soft, and also very healthy and fragrant.
To understand how delicious it is, you should try Ikan Pepes. This is a fish baked in banana leaves. Consonant with this dish, Ikan Bakar is well-grilled fish or seafood.
Babi Guling
A very original and tasty dish that everyone who comes to Bali is advised to try is called Babi Guling. The suckling pig is rubbed with spices and seasonings on all sides (and inside too), put on a spit and fried until fully cooked. For one plate of this yummy, they will ask for only $4, ordering a whole carcass will cost $100.
This dish is interesting not only for its taste (this suckling pig “sounds” completely different from the one cooked in Russia because of the spices), but also because you can taste baby guling only in Bali.
The rest of (Muslim) Indonesia does not cook pork. Another interesting point: if we have such a suckling pig – this is exclusively restaurant food, then in Bali it is street food, it is not served in restaurants. And the third feature: only one piglet is cooked per day, and after the baby guling is ready, the warung closes immediately after all portions are sold out.
