Apparently I am a very happy and amusing drunk. Well this is what Mr NQN tells me. I’ve only been drunk three times in my life. Twice this year and twice it was because I ordered cocktails on an empty stomach and they were so good that I slurped them down and then turned bright red and swayed and talked a lot. About silly things. Oh and I’m a cheap drunk. Half a cocktail and I am yours.

I should explain. In order to avoid the inevitable weight gain that seems to come from this job, I try to avoiding snacking during the day in order to arrive at dinner hungry so that I can enjoy the food. So that afternoon we spent some time shopping up a storm in Seminyak which was a twenty minute drive away from the idyllic village life where Villa Sungai was located. I managed to buy a gorgeous beaded dress with beaded sleeves for $80 (the one I wrote about before where I accidentally dunked the sleeve in some sauce), a garbage bin (but a glam garbage bin, yes!), some coasters for a criminally low price of $4 for a set of eight and three cute bird decorations for $7! Mr NQN had to pull me out of a shop and into the car where Made was waiting to take us to our dinner date tonight at Ayana Resort and Spa where I arrived hungry and eager for dinner.

I resist all urges to slip into this bath…the force is strong though!

Formerly the Ritz Carlton, Ayana Resort is a stunning 77 hectare resort with over 300 rooms. You can of course stay in a regular room which is all very nice (and they do have club rooms which look perfectly lovely) but the pick most definitely is a private villa with butler service (can you tell I’m well and truly spoilt by now?). We’re shown one of the villas and it is sumptuous and spacious. Balinese architecture is one of my favourites and it is just splendid.

There is also a spa where couples can have treatments that range from 1 million rupiah (don’t worry that’s only about $100AUD for a massage for two people) but the piece de resistance, if you have the cash, are the cliff massage rooms. There are only three cliff edge massage rooms and they only book six bookings a day.

The price for this is a cool $1,000 USD per treatment but when we see what they look like from afar we’re struck at how James Bond it all looks. Like you’d imagine Daniel Craig in there getting a massage and then a speedboat driving up to it and someone in scuba gear appearing. OK or maybe it’s just my imagination…

We arrive at the Dava restaurant, one of their 12 restaurants. It’s all white with an outdoor terrace and a floating garden. As we are a little early and the restaurant doesn’t open until 6:30pm they ask us if we would like to take a seat at the Martini Bar and have a drink while we wait. Uh oh…

Lemongrass martini 135,000 rupiahs

Lemon vodka muddled with Grand Marnier and fresh lemongrass.

Lychee daiquiri 135,000 rupiah approximately $15AUD

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I’ve often heard guys say that they like girls that eat (or perhaps they’re being polite because I happen to be eating with undisguised gustatory pleasure and it’s nicer than saying “Sheesh you can eat!”). I’m of the same thinking, I like girls and guys that like to eat. If someone wants to pick at one tiny plate and be done with it, I’m afraid that I’m not your ideal dining companion. Tonight, I am dining with Laura, an unabashed sampler, her colleague Teagan and Laura’s lovely friend Maddie who is a long time NQN reader of 2 and a half years (who is so sweet that she bought me a gorgeous present!). Poor Teagan was tasked with the impossible job of being “mum” i.e. putting the brakes on it if we happened to order “everything on the menu-twice!”. A thankless task at best…

The entranceway is part subway map part Mondrian painting and the district that it refers to is the most immediate Surry Hills district. The signage reminds me of an underground. The double sided paper menu shows the entrees and mains  on one side and the desserts and tea and coffee on the other. The chef is Warren Turnbull of Assiette.

Bread and olives

Smoked eel pate, cucumber, green onion flatbread $16

The plates are smallish in size and I’m quite glad that I haven’t brought Mr NQN here as he is a voracious eater and four plates would about do him. The first to come out is the adorably presented smoked eel pate which is smooth and rich with smokey eel fillet and it is presented in a little tin. It is paired with a pickled sweet cucumber which is a nice way of cutting through the eel and a soft green onion flatbread similar to a less fluffy naan.

Seared scallops, King Crab Sweetcorn congee $20

The seared scallops are lovely and seared on the outside and soft on the inside and sit on a shallow bed of sweetcorn congee. The congee has little pieces of prawns and crab scattered throughout it and it is a runnier type of congee with a flavoured broth rather than those rib sticking thick congees.

Heirloom tomato, crispy Mojama, fennel sorbet $16

The heirloom tomato salad featured crisped up Mojama which at first looks like prosciutto but is in fact salted cured tuna. The fennel sorbet had us divided. Laura liked the aniseed flavour whereas Maddie and I felt that it was too aniseedy for our taste. I normally like fennel as it has such a light aniseed taste but this sorbet is sweet and tastes like it has aniseed added to it.

Marinated tuna, wasabi panna cotta, soy bean, ginger marmalade $18

More a nod to Japan, the tuna was wonderfully fresh and served in cubes with a wasabi panna cotta which had a slight kick to it as well as shelled fresh soy beans and a pickled ginger marmalade.

Crispy quail eggs, white anchovies, tarragon mayonnaise $14

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