The Flavor of Bali, at Roadside Stands
Some of the preparation for Naughty Nuri's, north of Ubud, take place out front. But one night a week, sushi night, involves less cooking.
THERE are two kinds of culinary travelers who end up on Bali: ones who don’t flinch at spending hundreds of dollars for a bottle of Rioja at a trendy Asian-French fusion restaurant, and those who are obsessive about going as local as possible, searching out the most authentic Balinese meal, a box of Imodium A-D always at their side.
You’ll find the latter at Bali’s many streetside food vendors known as warungs. Scattered throughout Indonesia, warungs usually occupy a modest shack or roadside lean-to with a small counter and a bench where customers sit and eat traditional dishes. The bigger ones are no more than no-frills cafes, sometimes fashioned out of modest materials like rattan and corrugated metal.
While guidebooks and hotel concierges may warn you that eating at a warung is a little like playing Russian roulette with your stomach, they are probably being overly cautious. The truth is that the street food in tourist-friendly Bali is as sanitary as what you’d find in most American cities, if not more so.
Besides, if you heed their warning, you’ll miss some of the best food the island has to offer, from melt-in-your-mouth roast pig and fish satays to just-caught sashimi and spicy fried rice served with chicken prepared three ways. Not to mention, it’s cheap; you can feast for less than $3.
Ibu Oka
Several years ago I asked Chris Salans, the celebrated chef at Mozaic restaurant in Ubud — and one of Bali’s most dedicated food lovers — for his favorite warung. He answered without hesitation: “Ibu Oka in Ubud. No one does suckling pork like they do.”
Situated off Ubud’s main street on Jalan Suweta, Ibu Oka is open only for lunch. Look for a line of motorcycles parked out front and a bright red sign featuring a whole roasted pig. And then you’ll see the crowds — locals and tourists crammed together under red Coca-Cola umbrellas.
Thanks to the ravings on foodie blogs like Eating Asia, and an episode of “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations,” where the host declared its babi guling, or roast pig, the best that he’s ever had, Ibu Oka has become a tourist magnet. Every afternoon it’s packed.
Despite the fact that you might share the place with a busload of Japanese tourists, it’s still serving some of the island’s best babi guling: generous chunks of tender roasted pork served with thick, crispy skin. The Nasi Babi Guling special — served with a fiery red sauce over local greens, cooked jackfruit and coconut-infused rice — is 25,000 rupiah (about $2.70 at 9,241 rupiah to the dollar).
Each pig is stuffed with a secret blend of Balinese spices (I tasted garlic, galangal, turmeric and definitely chili) and spit-roasted over an open fire for about five hours while basted with coconut milk. On busy afternoons, Ibu Oka goes through eight pigs.
Merta Sari
Luckily, Mr. Bourdain hasn’t made it to Merta Sari. Situated in the small village of Pesinggahan on Bali’s east coast, it is known island-wide for its sate lilit ikan, a minced fish satay.
Families come great distances to sit in this dusty roadside stall with nothing but a thatched roof and a bunch of plastic tables. It’s especially jammed when there’s a Bali Hindu ceremony going on at the nearby temple of Goa Lawah, which means Bat Cave. (There is a deep cavern in the center of the ancient temple filled with thousands of fruit bats.)
I stopped by Merta Sari on a late Tuesday afternoon with Ben Ripple, an American expatriate who owns Big Tree Farms, which manufactures and exports sea salt and other Indonesian artisanal products out of Bali. We grabbed some sodas near the kitchen and sat at a wobbly plastic table covered with a bright turquoise plastic tablecloth.
About 10 minutes later, a mini-banquet was served on mismatched plates: a bowl of fiery fish soup; a mountain of rice; just-fried peanuts; spicy green beans with shredded coconut; and the main dish, a variation of fish on a stick, including the lilit. There were also ikan pepes, minced fish steamed with Balinese spices in banana leaves.
“You throw a little bit of everything on your plate,” said Mr. Ripple, who he said, stops by almost every time he checks in on the farmers who hand-produce his salt up the road. The lilit ikan was spicy and sweet. Eaten with the rice, string beans and the crunchy peanuts, it was a little like taking a bite of the landscape: fishing boats, small crystalline beaches and valleys thick with palm trees.
Ayam Taliwang
Mr. Ripple also introduced me to Ayam Taliwang, a dusty streetside cafe on the busy road between Gianyar and Ubud. Ayam Taliwang is both the name of the warung and the name of its signature dish, considered to be one of the most addictive chicken recipes on the island. When I arrived, a few locals were sitting at rickety tables licking their red-stained fingers, completely focused on eating.
To make the dish, the cook starts with a young chicken, which he pounds flat and spit-roasts before marinating it in a spicy red sauce and returning it to the flames for the proper charring. The resulting chicken has an incredibly pungent and smoky-sweet flavor — a punch of chili garlic and shrimp paste that is impossible to forget.
Mr. Ripple became so obsessed with this fiery chicken dish that he actually traveled by ferry and motorbike all the way to the Indonesian city of Taliwang, on the island of Sumbawa, to search out its culinary origins. “No one had heard of such a dish,” he said.
More recently, some Googling suggested that the dish was created by H. Abdul Hamid, who lived on the neighboring island of Lombok in the city of Mataram. The entrepreneur, the story goes, started perfecting his spicy version of fried chicken in the 1970s, but it wasn’t until the ’80s, when a well-known politician became a fan, that Mr. Hamid’s recipe became legend.
He has since died, but his chicken dish lives on — replicated by his son, who runs a cafe in Mataram and made in countless other warungs throughout Indonesia. “Looks like I didn’t have to travel so far,” Mr. Ripple said.
Naughty Nuri’s
It might be a stretch to call Naughty Nuri’s Warung — a hole in the wall fronted by a smoking barbecue grill just north of Ubud — a true warung. Sure, it’s open to the road and has a corrugated metal roof, but Naughty Nuri’s, as its Westernized name might suggest, is perhaps better known for its mean martinis and sashimi than its Indonesian dishes.
Blame owners for the eclectic, warung-meets-Irish-pub vibe: Isnuri Suryatmi, an ambitious amateur chef from Java, and her husband, Brian Kenney Aldinger, an American expat. The couple opened this roadside cafe in 1995 because Ms. Suryatmi , who goes by the nickname Nuri, loves to cook and Mr. Aldinger loves to eat out and socialize.
Every Thursday is sushi night, and it’s usually standing room only. The two-room restaurant — covered with framed newspaper articles, drawings from local artists and photos of regulars — is a favorite meeting spot for the island’s expats, who gossip over ruby red tuna picked up that day at the harbor in Benoa. On a balmy night a few years ago, I spotted the yoga guru Danny Paradise at one table and the fashion designer Donna Karan at another with Cheong Yew Kuan, an architect.
And guess who else has been here? Yes, Anthony Bourdain. According to Mr. Aldinger, he “sucked down three martinis in a half an hour” and wrote in the guest book that they were the “best martinis in the world.”
THE REAL THING
Flights to Bali from New York City require a connection, usually in Hong Kong or Singapore. A recent Web search found a Continental flight (with connecting flights operated by Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines) starting at $1,223 for travel in January. Flights requiring multiple stopovers can sometimes be cheaper.
From Ngurah Rai Airport in Denpasar, a taxi to Ubud runs about 150,000 rupiah, or about $16 at 9,241 rupiah to the dollar. Taxis can also be hired for full days; prices vary depending on your negotiating skills, but it should run between 300,000 and 400,000 rupiah.
Ibu Oka (Jalan Suweta, Tegal Sari No 2, Ubud; 62-361-976345) is known for its babi guling, or roast pig. Lunch specials about 25,000 rupiah.
Warung Merta Sari (Jalan Persinggahan Kec, Dawan; 62-366 30406) specializes in sate lilit ikan, a minced fish satay. Lunch, about 25,000 rupiah.
Ayam Taliwang (Jalan Dalem Samplangan No. 2A, Gianyar) makes a smoky-sweet rotisserie chicken. One whole chicken is about 30,000 rupiah.
Naughty Nuri’s Warung (Tromol Pos No. 219, Ubud; 62-361-977-547) has a popular sushi night on Thursdays. Dinner, about 50,000 rupiah for two without alcohol.
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