At breakfast at Villa Sungai Made presented me with three perfect mangosteen specimens which I gratefully and happily gobbled down (I did give one to Mr NQN). He also gave me a tip about mangosteen and how to buy them since I seem to have rotten luck with buying them in Sydney. Choose the mangosteen with a lighter colour as the darker black ones are older ones. Choose ones that are spongy to the touch and not hard-and very cutely, at the bottom of a mangosteen is a star shape. The number of points in the star reflects the number of segments that there are in the fruit inside! How cool is nature?
Banana smoothie
Sticky rice, coconut and mango
Mr NQN and I splashed a little in the pool. Many years ago he bet me that if I could swim 50 metres then I would receive the Prada bag that I had been lusting after. I tried and tried but the most I could swim was 12 metres and the bag became something that was a “never discussed” item. And then my friend Teena bought the same bag and that pretty much killed the urge to get it (you can’t have two friends with the same bag right?). But here I manage to swim laps! Sadly the Prada bag offer is no longer…
Betel leaves with salmon, galangal and salmon roe
At 12:30pm we had lunch. As we had a big dinner that night we’ve been asking for salads for lunch. Now one of the best things about Bali is if you’re a seafood fiend like me, you can easily get seafood. Items like beef and lamb are expensive but seafood, chicken and duck are easy to get and half the price. So I did what any food miles aware person might and ordered the seafood (haha and because I am a seafood monster, who am I kidding?). We start with the betel leaves with moist cooked salmon, galangal which is like a citrusy ginger and little pearls of salmon roe. You roll up the sides of the betel leaf and pop it in your mouth. A betel leaf is a tiny bit spicy and with an earthiness to it and an almost medicinal quality but mild enough so that it doesn’t offend at all and just adds a hint of flavour.
Lime and chilli chicken dumplings with dipping sauce
The lime and chilli chicken dumplings were quite different to what we were expecting as we were expecting a traditional dumpling skin. These were chicken mince with lime and chilli specks rolled up and deep fried. Not bad at all but not quite what we were expecting.
Scallop salad with chilli paste and coconut
What we’re learning is that the Thai food served at Villa Sungai is excellent and as good as the best Thai meals you’ll find in Sydney or Thailand and you would think that there’s a top Thai chef working there in the kitchen. This generous serve of twelve juicy scallops is divine and it comes with a kaffir lime, coriander, lemongrass and spanish onion sauce that makes you want to lick the plate. I don’t. Just in case…
Spicy beef salad
Our last dish for lunch is the spicy beef salad which comes with thick, tender slices of beef on a salad of sweet and crunchy yellow and red capsicum, soft lettuce leaves and mint and coriander giving it a freshness to the pungent, welcome spiciness.
Rice paddies
Our day’s activity was a last minute request made with Made. He was kind enough to take us to a local market which is where most Balinese would buy the food. For hygiene reasons the food for the villa isn’t purchased here, but we were eager to have a look and see how a Balinese family shops and eats.
Religious offerings
Chillies and eschallots
We make our way to the nearby market which is about five minute’s drive from the villa. There are numerous food stalls on our way to the market that dot the main road, some even selling fresh meat. Made doesn’t recommend that we eat from here so we refrain although the food does look very tasty.
Made the villa manager and our guide
Scale
If you’ve ever walked down the streets of Bali you will, apart from dodging large crater sized holes in the street, you will also have stepped over small, colourful squares with flowers and small biscuits in them. These are offerings to the gods. One member of a family will buy an offering for the whole family and get it blessed by the gods at a temple and then bring it home as nothing is wasted. A simple four component offering typically costs 1000 rupiah (about 10 cents).
Snakefruit with their snakeskin like skin!
There are huge baskets full of snakefruit (salak) which is a tree that is close to the ground. The fruit comes as large clusters which are sold as whole clusters or broken down into single pieces. Items are bought by the kilo using old fashioned scales.
Making Tipat Cantok
We watch a woman make a snack called Tipat Cantok (pronounced “chan-tok” which means grind) and this is a similar dish to Gado Gado with baked rice, peanuts, Balinese spices, sugar syrup and salt. She pounds the peanuts with a mortar and pestle, add the spices and water and rice.
Rice dumplings in corn husks
Deep fried banana
Pandan leaves
There are fragrant pandan leaves shredded finely like a chiffonade. We see sticky rice dumplings wrapped in sweet corn husks called Dodol. There are also stands of ready made food like soups or urab which is a steamed vegetable with coconut and spices. Made shows us salt water spinach ready made in bags and deep fried eel snacks.
Made holding a bag of deep fried eel
We enter the undercover fruit and meat section where we see green tangerines being sold. These will ripen these along with the green bananas at home.
Green tangerines
We pass by butchers where chicken would cost 25,000 rupiah a kilo ($2.50) although there are quite a few flies hovering around. There is also fish available with salted fish being a popular item as many Balinese families cannot afford to have a refrigerator at home and salted fish is a way for them to keep fish.
Salted fish
Made shows us the typical Balinese spice and flavour mix which is made up of ginger, galangal, turmeric, garlic and chilli.
Chicken and duck eggs
We see duck eggs for 1500 rupiah (15c) or chicken eggs for (10,000 rupiah) 10c each and cassava with the dark husk still on it.
Torch ginger buds
The ready made snack stand features steamed peanuts and whole corn that has been rubbed in tumeric to make them more attractive.
Cooked bright yellow corn from the turmeric
Hey there one eyed kitty!
We drive past rice paddies where many locals work. They employ the use of ducks who eat at the rice which has fallen into the mud during harvesting which then means that they are nice and fat to eat later on and no rice is wasted. There are literally hundreds of ducks walking across the rice paddies gobbling up food.
Ducks at work
Later we decide to stop by Made’s Warung (a different Made, not the one from Villa Sungai) for some lunch. A warung means restaurant or eating place. It’s quite a bit touristy but wanting some Balinese food but not quite willing to risk our tummies heeding Made’s warning, we try somewhere a bit more foreigner friendly.
Inside is quite a mish mash of cuisines and we choose the Balinese items including the tipat cantok which we saw being made this morning.
Honeydew and Mango juice 15000 rupiah (approximately $1.70 AUD)
We start with thirst quenching juices in honeydew and mango which are very good indeed and full of fruit and fix the immediate issue of the heat.
Tipat tjantok 25000 Rupiah (approximatly $2.85 AUD)
The tipat tjantok is similar to a gado gado with vegetables in a peanut sauce. There are also soft rice cakes and crunchy peanuts and fish as well as the crunchy vegetables and soft rice cakes. It is both of our favorites.
Ribs in young papaya 45000 rupiah (approximately $5.12 AUD)
I actually chose this because I have some strange sort of fixation with food being presented in carved out fruit and I was hoping that they had gone a little Hawaiian and grilled some pork ribs and placed them in a halved papaya, so when we got the dish I was surprised. It was quite good, like a non spicy curry or stew with the pork rib bones being cut short and the meat coming off the bone easily.
Nasi goreng special 45000 (approximately $5.12 AUD)
This was a large plate of food with the nasi goreng special which meant the addition of duck meat and egg in it. I prefer the tipat chantok but it’s good and even rice ambivalent Mr NQN finishes this all off. It comes with side cabbage salad like a coleslaw but with a French style dressing and a large camopy of cracker which I happily crunch on.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever lick the plate clean?
Not Absolut but petrol! 
NQN and Mr NQN visited Bali as guests of Villa Sungai and flew with Jetstar Star Class
Villa Sungai
Cepaka, Bali, Indonesia
http://www.bali-villasungai.com/
Made’s Warung
Jalan Raya Seminyak, Kuta, Indonesia
Tel: +62 (0)36 175 5297
Open Mon-Sat 9am-6pm
If you enjoyed this post, why not share it with your friends?
What is NQN up to now?
NQN on Facebook
RSS
44 Comments | Add your own
I absolutely love Made’s and am glad to see it’s still around! I was in Bali in 1994 (ahem, yes I am very old) and spent a few happy meals there. Plus, it’s kinda sorta how you say my name, right?
Great story!!! I love the flavours of bali, showering outside and the lovely warm water at the beach…
I think it must be time to go back
Great post Lorraine! My mum is from Indonesia, from regional Java and those market pictures bring back the memories! Although there are no real stringent food hygeine practices in place, I have eaten from the markets plenty of times and never gotten sick. Ditto for my brother and father. Planning a trip there this year – can’t wait!
Hi Lorraine,
Reading your story makes me want to go back to Bali again!
If you’re still in Bali for couple more days, you’ve got to check out Ubud! try their famous Bebek Bengil restaurant (famous for their traditional fried duck) and Babi guling Bu Oka (famous for their pork).
Have fun!
Great post Lorraine and thanks for the tips re mangosteen, I knew about the number of segments but always had trouble picking good ones
Oh, those lovely , perfect Mangosteens, one of my all-time favourite tropical fruit. The last time we were in Singapore, we’d buy kilos of them and eat them all in one sitting! Very interesting information from Made on how to choose the best Mangosteen, I’ll keep it in mind so I don’t end up with any dud ones.
The street food stalls look so interesting but I wouldn’t eat from them either, as I had a bad experience ( 3 days in bed) after eating an icecream in Phuket.
The Resort looks fabulous and so does all of the food.
No, I never lick the plate clean, my mum would kill me LOL However, I do ‘mop up’ after a good meal with bread, very Italian.
Finally I have been to a place to write about! I have been to Made’s Warung – it was great. Have you been to Ku De Ta (not sure of spelling) and La Lucciola (Firefly) on the beach?
I did go to Juuri in Helsinki as well.
I’m heading to Bali later this year and this was the perfect story to get mr in the mood! Mangosteens are my absolute favourite fruit but I too have bad luck choosing them here in Sydney so thx for the tips I always chose the darker ones thinking they were ripe! Was drooling over the sticky rice and mango yum!!!poor little one eyed kitty
love the petrol pic 
Great post x
My mouth is watering after this Lorraine. Though I find the snakefruit rather scary … I don’t lick the plate clean – my upbringing means that it never enters my head.
absolutely inspirational… colourful, fresh and spicy delights matched with big warm smiles. But poor one eyed kitty!!
The market(s) are always exciting, TRUE!
Thanks for sharing your own unique view!
SO many ingredients, SO much to explore,
Isn’t that what local food markets are for?
THANKS!
Aww, I so wish I were in Bali eating black rice pudding with you! Looks fab, it’s been way too many years since I was last there. Enjoy the rest of your trip!
I must be the only one of your bloggers never having been in Bali (boo-hoo: it just never happened!). But, what a column! Would have gloried in all the food AND dared to eat certain foods in the markets! And mangosteens are to die-for!
Getting Delhi Belly (or whatever else you may choose to call the ‘horribility’) – the locals basically don’t get it – once you sensibly desensitize yourself, you may not either!
Way back before there were tourists in Thailand (yes, well, all the regs know I wasn’t born yesteryear!) my family stayed centre of the country for a day en route to Angkor Wat and ate at the ‘best local’ that night. the food was out of this world – but I had never seen so many kamikaze flies or creepy -crawlies competing for what was on the table!
My m-in-law said she would get sick – she did and how! The other three ‘refused’ to be intimidated and hugely enjoyed the experience few Westeners had had. Perhaps we had had more of the local brew to kill the bugs. But, golly gosh, that was REAL food! Thank you for reminding me of just how special market food in the East can be!!!
I ALWAYS lick the plate clean. Especially my breakfast bowl. Love the one-eyed cat
I *always* lick the plate clean. One of the perks of living by myself (bar the housemate). Course, I try not to when I’m out, but sometimes an errant finger will start swiping…
I want EVERYTHING in this post, Lorraine. Everything. And that’s kinda rare, as I’m not being into meat.
I also really want to live somewhere where mangosteens aren’t $2 each for a tiny bit of fruit….
Wow! Excellent post… That first picture of the mangosteen has got me craving for some right now! I’ve never been to Bali (I know!), but that’s cause I think I lived so near to it, couldn’t be bothered.. Now I want to go tho…
I can’t wait to go to Bali, I can’t believe I haven’t been there…, the people are beautiful, the food is incredible…and your pics are amazing.
Wow, i really enjoyed reading about Bali. Such beautiful photographs. Thankyou, I am really enjoying your blog, so glad to have come across it. And yes, of course (on occasion) i lick the plate!
I think I had better start planning a return visit to Bali.
I have not been there since 1977.
Thanks for the great info shared via your article.
Tastefully yours,
Matthew
I just love Bali and I love the markets there. They are so colourful and full of hustle and bustle. You’re lucky to have had a guide to show you around – I love getting a locals viewpoint when I travel. Very glad the one-eyed kitty scored himself a bit of chook.
It’s been many years since I went to Bali. I don’t think there’s a country anywhere else that is so artistically inclined. Even the religious offerings were like works of art. And the people are the friendliest ever. It’s a truly magical place.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I just bought myself a Balinese cookboook and was trying to decide what to make, now I can use your opinion to guide me. I can’t believe someone can be rice ambivilent! We love the stuff and I always have to make extra as the children just love plain bowls of steamed rice on it’s own.
I love how simple but pretty the presentation is at the markets. Rice pudding in corn husks is a great ‘waste not want not’ idea!
I have licked a few ice-cream bowls clean and quite often my dinner plate looks like I’ve licked it.
I love that photo of the cat! I haven’t been to Bali (yet), but it’s on the list! And I’d love to try some of those unusual fruits. Great post!
How fabulous to be taken to a market by a local! Those scallops you had for lunch are making my stomach rumble!!
Ah, good tips about mangosteen – they are so damn expensive here it’s so terribly upsetting when you get them home and they’re no good!
Delicious food, makes me pine for Bali. Will I get there again this year? Probably not, boo
I am another of your readers who has never been to Bali… but I sure wish I could. The markets look awesome even if the hygiene is dodgy. I now have a hankering for snake fruit and would love to try those beautiful pandan leaves that I have heard a lot about but never tried. ANother great tour, Lorraine… Bali is paradise.
I wanna walk the markets with u , chose a couple of products to pick into the basket , while u take some stunning pics and then enjoy the memories here.
We find the eggs and dry fish in our markets in Goa too ,and the eggs are so organic
lovely post , happy sunday!
We ate so many mangosteens when we were in Bali – I didn’t know the number of points in the star means the number of segments – that’s very cool! Your post makes me want to go back to Bali.
wonderful story Lorraine! All the recipes looked wonderful, but that sticky rice with mango and coconut really caught my eye…yummy!
What an interesting post, Lorraine! I especially loved the markets…I think visiting the local markets is my favorite thing to do while traveling. The food sounds wonderful, especially the Tipat tjantok!
I think the last time I licked a plate clean I was five years old. I’ve had yearnings to return to Bali some day. So many places, so little time!
I am another one that has not been to Bali, but I will not say that I wont go as Ill make it there some time soon especialy after you post and all the wonerfull food there. YUM
By the way do you think we could get the recipe for the Sticky rice with mango and coconut?
i often eat the plate clean when i’m at home. just try and stop me!
Heading to Bali next week, but practically will not leave the pool edge! (Other than to eat way too much!) This is a beautiful post with gorgeous evocative pictures.
I can try my best to swim several laps, run for kms and pump weights until my arms burn… but I bet my boyfriend won’t buy me that Prada bag for all my hard work *sniff*
As an Indonesian who has yet been to Bali (!!), I can honestly say that I really enjoyed reading this post. Very informative, witty and full of beautiful pictures as always. Were there also heaps of monkeys everywhere you went?
P.S. I think it would be accurate to say that every 5th guy you meet in Bali is called Made :p
Wow snakefruit! O_O I’ve never heard of them before..I’m not sure if I’ll have the courage to eat them..:P
These are really fascinating photos! You’ve captured the locals very well
Makes me want to visit Bali! Even though they’re so close to us, I’ve never once been, my parents kept saying it’s not safe and all…
Oh wow… Salak! I miss that fruit so much!! I’ve been to Bali 4 times, and it’s one of the fruits I can’t get enough of when I’m there!
Not sure if you know – but Made actually is the Balinese title for the second-born child of the family. So your tour guide would be I Made (then his given name)… the ‘I’ means he’s male. A woman would be Ni Made.
Argh! I need to go back to Bali soon! It’s been almost 10 years since I was there last!
I used to lick the plate clean all the time, when I was alone, but now I am living with someone I try to avoid this… Although a friend of mine would have no problem doing this, even in a pub/restaurant. I so want to go to Bali!
HI Lorraine,
Happy New Year. too late, but I’ve been away and haven’t read your blog since.
Great post. It was 2004, last time I visited Bali. My mom planned to take us there again. My husband never been there although he’s Indonesian.
Don’t you just love Indonesia, everything is cheap there.
We never eat from any warung anymore, and still get stomach ache funny enough.
I licked my plate every now and then hahahah ….
The protein starved ducks are sent in to clear the snails which damage the next rice crop and not to forage for a minimal and fallen unhusked rice. Paddy (unhusked rice) is corrosive on any animal gut oh nutrtionist!
Hi Lorraine – we have just come back from Bali and I had your blog open on my phone as we ordered at Made’s, and again at Ibu Oka’s. Great tips I know I can trust. Just loved the place!! Next time you go try a ginger Martini with fresh ginger juice – to die for (especially great as a night cap after all that food)! And you must go to Potato Head Beach Club – truly fantastic.
Thanks for the feature on Made’s Warung! Booked a trip to Bali and the lack of exhaustive material on restaurants is a bit frustrating! Oh, and I love how you actually exerted effort to go to the marketplace
Post a Comment