Joanna James
Try your favourite Indonesian dishes in Bali. The island is a melting pot of culture, which means that there are a lot of different and unique dishes for you to try during your holiday.
Indian, Malay, and Chinese cuisines are all part of Balinese cuisine, but you will also notice a traditional Hindu cooking style, something you don't really see in other parts of Indonesia.
Balinese people use the whole spectrum of freshly picked herbs and spices to make their dishes. Ayam pelalah is a delicious concoction of shredded chicken, spices, and lime juice. Shallots, garlic, chillies, lemongrass, and lime leaves are the main components of the dish. If you are staying at a place like Nirjhara and wondering about things to do in Tabanan, trying this dish would be one of them.
The lush paddy fields of Bali produce all kinds of rice, from red and brown to white, and they are all called nasi when cooked. Nasi tepeng is a rice porridge, also called congee, that's eaten for breakfast. The rice is cooked in chicken broth and then mixed with spices and shredded chicken.
This is a dish that imparts a variety of tastes and fragrances. Long grain rice is cooked and served with a selection of side dishes. These side dishes can include almost anything from meat and shrimp to vegetables. The rice is made with shredded vegetables, sweet soy sauce, shrimp paste, shallots, and garlic. You can also order a topping of boiled eggs with this.
This is a spicy salsa that you can sample at any Balinese restaurant. The condiments used for the dish include chilli, lime, fresh garlic, shrimp paste, shallots, coconut oil, and torch ginger. The cooked version of this, however, adds a variety of other ingredients like cumin, cardamom, nutmeg, galangal, and palm sugar.
The Balinese version of the popular South Asian snack, satay, is a little different from what you find in other Asian regions. For instance, the Balinese satay sees that the meat is wrapped around the stick. The meat is soaked in coconut milk and marinated with a variety of other spices before being cooked over charcoal. Lilit satay is the perfect blend of salty, sweet, and savoury.
A melting pot of flavours, soto bakso has Dutch, Chinese, and Balinese flavours. This is beef broth made with spices like clove, ginger, and cardamom. Rice noodles, spring onions, chilli, lime, and fried shallots are some of the other ingredients used for the dish. If you don't like beef, you can request another protein.
A festival food made for special occasions, babi guling is slow-cooked roast pig. You can find this anywhere in Bali, including roadside stalls and fancy restaurants. Turmeric, chillies, ginger, lemongrass, garlic, kaffir lime, cloves, and nutmeg are the main ingredients of the dish. You can enjoy this with just about anything; locals like to pair this up with a salad and a bowl of rice.
This is a Balinese beverage that amounts to a full meal. Made of boiled rice, ginger, turmeric root, honey, and water, jamu is a must-try local delight, but this may take a little getting used to.
A powerhouse of flavours and fragrances, lawar is a blend of shredded meat and vegetables. A wealth of spices is added to give the dish its unique Balinese flavour.
In Bali, peanuts are grown in abundance. Tipat cantok is made of ground peanuts and a variety of spices. Rice cake and blanched vegetables are two main components of the dish. All the ingredients used for tipat cantok are ground using a mortar and a pestle.
A true believer that the pen is a mighty weapon, ventures into reaching the minds of every reader with the earnest hope of leaving an indelible stream of thought.
A travel writer who has a passion for fashion and a deep interest in admiring new and exotic attractions around the world.
