Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
drinks and, in addition, most places add anything up to 21 percent to the bill for tax and ser-
vice.
In the Language section of the Guide there is a
menu reader
of dishes and a list of common
terms .
BALI AND LOMBOK'S TOP 5 RESTAURANTS
Mozaic
Ubud.
Seasalt
Candidasa.
Lumbung (The Oberoi)
Pantai Medana.
Sardine
Kerobokan.
Maria's Boemboe Bali
Nusa Lembongan.
Styles of cooking
Throughout Bali and Lombok
Indonesian
rice- and noodle-based meals are most widely
available, followed closely by
Chinese
(essentially Cantonese) food, as well as a vast array of
other Asian (Thai and Japanese especially) and
Western
food in the resorts. Native Balinese
food on Bali, and Sasak food on Lombok, is something you'll need to search out. Should you
wish to learn more about local food, check out the
cookery schools
for visitors.
Indonesian food
Based on rice (
nasi
) or noodles (
mie
or
bakmi
), with vegetables, fish or meat,
Indonesian
food
is flavoured with chillies, soy sauce (
kecap
), garlic, ginger, cinnamon, turmeric and lem-
ongrass. You'll also find chilli sauce (
sambal
) everywhere.
One dish available in even the simplest warung is
nasi campur
, which is boiled rice with
small amounts of vegetables, meat and fish, often served with
krupuk
(huge prawn crack-
ers). The accompanying dishes vary from day to day, depending on what's available. Other
staples are
nasi goreng
and
mie goreng
, fried rice or noodles with vegetables, meat or fish,
often with fried egg and
krupuk
. The other mainstays of the Indonesian menu are
gado-gado
,
steamed vegetables served with a spicy peanut sauce, and
sate
, small kebabs of beef, pork,
chicken, goat or fish, barbecued on a bamboo stick and served with spicy peanut sauce.
Fish
is widely available: grilled, kebabed, baked in banana leaves or in curries. However,
although tasty, by Western standards a lot of it is overcooked.
Inexpensive, authentic and traditionally fiery
Padang
dishes are sold in rumah makan Pa-
dang in every sizeable town. Padang food is cold and displayed on platters. There are no
menus; when you enter you either select your composite meal by pointing to the dishes on
display, or just sit down and let the staff bring you a selection - you pay by the number of
plates you have eaten from at the end. Dishes include
kangkung
(water spinach),
tempeh
,