“Real Balinese food isn’t readily available to tourists…” Those words, in a travel guide I was reading after I’d booked my family’s trip, put a bit of a dampener on my excitement. And a first night amid the tourist hubbub of built-up Kuta Beach, near Bali’s airport, seemed to confirm the warning. The smiling, beckoning waiters along the main drag did promise us an “authentic” experience. Unfortunately, it was Mexican, Thai, Chicago pizza…
On day two, after travelling north through an urban sprawl, we emerged into a different Bali. Lush, peaceful, rural. I hesitate to say the ‘real’ Bali – it’s all real, even the bit with a massive Burger King. But it was definitely more like the Bali we’d come to see. And if we were going to discover ‘proper’ Balinese food anywhere, it was surely here.
PADDY POWER
On bikes borrowed from our first hotel, the designer-y Soori Bali on the west coast, we freewheeled through Bali’s larder: corn, spinach, tomatillos, chillies and watermelons – and, of course, rice. Nasi, the word for rice, also means meal – a clue to its importance on this island. It comes in white, red (enjoyably nutty) and black (purple) varieties. “A meal without rice,” said Mustana, our guide from the hotel, “isn’t a meal.”
Farming hinges on the thousandyear- old system of rice cultivation and irrigation, called subak, which is a multi-location World Heritage Site. Thousands of small-scale farmers share the water using an intricate series of channels. There are no fences between family fields, Mustana explained. Carved wooden posts mark the boundaries – it’s a lot more civilised than barbed wire.
KOPI LUWAK: THE MOST EXPENSIVE COFFEE IN THE WORLD
The luwak (palm civet) is a nocturnal animal that eats the coffee bush fruit, then poos out the stone (the coffee bean). Because the civets eat the best ripe fruit, the coffee made from the luwak beans is highly prized. Unfortunately, the high price it commands has led to caged beasts fed any old beans day and night. At Munduk Moding, the kopi luwak beans are harvested freerange and the resulting coffee is an (ethically sound) delight.
By the sea we watched a fisherman hauling up his lobster pots, finding, to his delight, two whoppers. That night our seafood platter included scallops, prawns, squid, mahi mahi and local lobster – was it those very ones? Regardless, they were fat, buttery and delicious.
Soori is a trendy, high-end hotel with an ‘antioxidant’ section on the breakfast menu. And yet they confound the guidebook and serve proper Balinese food too. We gorged on classic rice dishes, such as nasi goreng (stir-fried, great with a fried egg) and nasi campur with Balinese side dishes: spiced fish and meat, veg, sambols (spicy relishes) and krupuk (superior prawn crackers). Dragging ourselves away was hard, but our tour guide, Kadek, was eager to show us more of his beautiful island. Heading east, the road climbed up into the famous rice terraces. We stopped to take selfies at Jatiluwih, the most picturesque of the terraces, and though we didn’t exactly have it to ourselves, that didn’t make it any less beautiful.
VIEWING THE GROUNDS