Gran Electrica Visited 6/9/2012 3.5 Forks

Gran Electrica 5 Front St., (between Dock St & York St)

My one big regret about eating at Gran Electrica was that Lav and I opted to sit inside instead of outside.  Before they seated us, the hostess told us that there was only a limited menu outside, so we thought the smart move was to sit inside. WRONG.  Outside was totally the place to be! It was this super cute garden and full of people enjoying the weather.  Instead, we were seated inside with almost no one around us.  So who cares about the "limited" menu (when I asked the waitress, how limited it was, she actually said it was only a few items that they didn't have inside), so always choose to sit outside if you can.

Now on to the food.  You wouldn't think it, but the cuisine here is Mexican and it's not your Benny's Burrito's type of Mexican.  In fact, there weren't any enchiladas, burritos or nachos here. It's a much more refined and authentic menu.  There are lots and different kinds of small tacos and then a few main dishes.  Lav and I ordered the requeson con nopal ($5), the setas quesadillas ($8), the frijoles de la olia ($9), and the rajas con acelgas ($7).  As many people have mentioned on Yelp, yes the portions are on the small side.   And the food comes out scary fast.  I mean, it probably rivals some of the Thai places I've been to where you expect that kind of service.  Food that comes out this fast freaks me out a bit.  Anyways, the 2 tacos come out and could fit on a plate only slightly bigger than my hand.  But honestly, the quality of the ingredients and flavors make up for it.  These are not like your taco bell type tacos, in fact the rajas con acelgas was a mixture of polano chile, chard and crema, so no shredded cheese, lettuce or sour cream in sight.  The corn tortilla tasted super fresh and the mixture on top had a nice clean taste to it despite the chile in it.  The requescon con nopal was a tlacoyo (or an oval shaped fried cake) made with ricotta, cactus, and queso fresco.  Honestly, it was just ok and frankly a little bit dry.  Nothing to write home about.  I ordered the setas quesadilla because they came with oyster mushrooms, epazote, and Quesillo cheese.  Now based on the other looks of the food, I knew it wasn't going to be a quesadilla like how I would imagine it, but this one almost looked like a hot pocket.  The cheese almost seem to have melted then coagulated inside which was a bit of a turn off but I did love the mushrooms inside of the pocket.  I just seemed a bit dry and over done.  The main dish was the frijoles de la olia or black beans, oregano, queso fresco.  They came with a set of small corn tortillas so it was almost like making your own tacos.  But the beans themselves were super salty and there weren't enough tortillas to go around, so at one point we were just eating spoonfuls of beans.  And of course, we couldn't come to a Mexican restaurant without ordering the churros with chocolate ($6).  They were good (I mean how can fried dough covered in cinnamon and sugar ever be bad?) but again, I thought they were a bit overcooked and could have been fluffier.  I know I've made it sound like the food wasn't all the great, but for some reason, I did enjoy my experience there.   I appreciated the fact that it was Mexican flavors without all the nightmares of eating at a typical Mexican restaurant.  I had read on immaculate infatuation that a lot of the meat and fish dishes are amazing, so next time I go, I will lean more towards those dishes.

I also want to give a shout out to the margarita de pepino ($12) that I had, it was awesome.  I told the waitress that I wasn't a huge tequilla lover, so she told me this cocktail was lighter and more refreshing.  She was totally right.  It had a nice combination of cucumber juice, lime, cilantro syrup, and lime salt to off set the taste of the tequilla.  I loved it.  The service was also pretty good, although once our waitress had to cover the outside shift as well, we were kind of left alone for a while and several random people did come to check on us.  All in all, the menu here was pretty creative and the outdoor space is to die for (especially in a place like DUMBO), so I would give this place another go again soon and this time I will most definitely sit outside.  Total bill: $49/pp with tax and tip

Photo credit: Yelp

Pok Pok NY Visited 6/8/2012 4.5 Forks

Pok Pok NY 127 Columbia St., (between Kane St & Irving St), Brooklyn, NY 11231

Pok Pok has got to be one of the most highly anticipated restaurant openings this summer and I was super excited to try this place out as my first post-vacation outing.  Cicily had mentioned that there is always a super long wait, so we agreed to meet at 5:45pm on a Friday, 15 minutes before it opens.  I expected there to be a line but was shocked to see how many people were already in line when we got there (we were probably # 10 or 12 in line).  One thing to note is that its location is no where close to public transportation but on a good day the 15 minute walk is quite pleasant (just be prepared for it).  So my advice is the same I gave for Parm, get there early, be the first group to be seated (even if it means eating earlier than you would like), otherwise, be prepared to wait 1 1/2 hours as all the tables will likely to turn over at the same time. 


The menu here is authentic Northern Thai food.  There is no trace of pad thai, pad see eww or anything of that sort here.  We were starving and totally went to town in ordering.  We got the Ike's Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings ($12.50), the Hoi Thawt ($14), the Kaeng Hung Leh ($14) and the Phak Kad Jaw ($12).   You'd think that the wings would come out first but instead the Kaeng Hung Leh came out first.  This dish is comprised of stewed mustard greens with pork ribs in a soup base.  We mixed it with sticky rice and it was fabulous.  The mustard greens were cooked well so that they were super soft and easy to eat (even the stalky party) and the ribs pretty much fell off the bone as soon as you bit into it.  The broth was flavored heavily with dried chilis and tamarind and I would have been happy with just a soup/rice mixture nevermind adding in the pork.   The wings came out next and they were also delicious.  They are marinated in fish sauce, palm sugar, and garlic and super super sticky.  I usually don't love wings because they're so messy and are a lot of work for not a lot of meaty return.  Yes, these were still messy to eat but the mixture of fish sauce, sugar and garlic was really fantastic and made up for the sauce all over my fingers.  Next came the Hoi Thawt, which was the one dish that I was really looking forward to.  This dish is actually one of my all time favorite Thai dishes and it's not really found in a lot of restaurants.  It's a crepe with steamed mussels, eggs, garlic, chives, bean sprouts and served with a side of sriacha sauce.  I loved this dish but actually thought it could have been a bit crispier as I did find the crepe a little bit soggy, but otherwise all the ingredients worked really well with each other.  They didn't skimp on the mussels at all and had at least 1-2 full pieces of mussels with each bite.  I wished more places offered this dish!  Lastly, the Kaeng Hung Leh came out and it was essentially a pork belly and pork shoulder curry.  The pork was incredibly tender and fell apart with each bite.  The curry wasn't spicy at all and it was more of a caramelized sauce vs. what you would typically think of in a curry. 

Pok Pok NY is one of the restaurants that really lives up to its hype.  The food is incredibly authentic and doesn't skimp on flavor or deliciousness.  I would absolutely go back in a heartbeat, despite it's slightly out of the way location.  The prices are incredibly affordable considering the quality of food.  Just be mindful of the wait and the size of the restaurant (no more than 10 tables inside...I didn't see what the outside is like).  The waitstaff was pretty helpful but I did feel a tad bit like they were rushing us through our meal given the enormous wait behind us, which I kind of understand but didn't love.  Oh well, it's a small price to pay for amazing Thai food like this.  Total bill $42/pp with tax and tip. 

Photo Credit: Yelp  

Seminyak, Bali - Part 3

Our hotel only came with breakfast for 3 of the 5 nights, so on one of our off-days we walked down the beach and came across La Lucciola (Jl. Kayu Aya).  It's a cute Italian restaurant tucked behind the streets overlooking the beach - a lovely, peaceful setting.  They had a pretty contemporary breakfast menu, I ordered the smoked salmon, dill, cream cheese and green pea omelet and split the hash browns with Deanna.  The omelet was a bit on the dry and overcooked side but the fillings were quite fresh and tasty.  The cream cheese didn't really taste like cream cheese, it just kept the inside more moist.  The hash browns were beautifully presented  as shredded potatoes in a circle puff.   I also loved the fresh homemade jams and jellies they brought for our toast.  That was almost the best part of the entire meal.  All in all, it was a nice relaxing place to have breakfast and the staff was super patient and kind as we kept asking for tons of stuff every 10 minutes and they did it all with a smile.  Total bill was 120,000 Rp per person. 

We had read about a place that had high tea in the afternoon and we thought that it would be fun to try.  I didn't have huge expectations for it as I've been to a few high teas before in my life and thought it was just a snotty British thing with a pot of ok tea and some finger sandwiches.  Little did I know that the place we went to, Biku (Jl. Raya Petitenget No. 888) was AMAZING!  It is this gorgeous tea house that serves an extremely decadent high tea outing and for an extra 80,000 Rp you can get a 15 minute Tarrot card reading (I had never had fortune telling done before and while I do take it with a huge grain of salt she did say some things that shook me).  They had a large variety of fabulous teas to choose from (I got the rose tea which tasted exactly like fresh roses) and we each got a enormous stack of pastries and of course finger sandwiches.  It was a feast that could have fed 15 people.  All the pastries were sweet and delicious but the one that stood out was the buttery biscuit that was served with freshly whipped heavy cream and strawberry jam.  It was INSANELY good.  I mean it was literally like eating sweet crack.  The whipped cream was so fluffy and combined with the sweet jam and butter base, none of us could stop eating them.  The finger sandwiches were good (I love the fact that they come with the crust cut off).  I liked the salmon and cream cheese ones and not a huge fan of the butter and cucumber ones.  There were also mini spinach quiches, scones, chocolate squares and so much more.  Even though it's so un-Asian, it is totally worth the 85,000 Rp.  You don't have to just go for high tea, they also have a very extensive menu of regular non-high tea food, so definitely check it out anytime you want.

I won't spend a lot of time on the Potato Head Beach Club (Jln. Petitenget) but all I will say that it's a beautiful beach club with several pools, lounge chairs and beds, but the food was awful.  I got a nicoise salad and I'm fairly certain it made me sick the next day.  Aarti and Deanna split a pesto pasta that was also terrible, oily, and the pasta was undercooked.  I would recommend this place for drinks but most definitely not for food, although there are 2 other separate restaurants inside the club that we didn't try.

We had our last hurrah dinner at Trattoria (Jln. Lakshmana) which was actually the place we wanted to try on Gili at some point but we didn't make it.  So it was nice that we were able to finally try it before we left.  Bali strangely has a lot of Italian restaurants (I guess who doesn't love Italian food) but luckily this place is owned and run by real Italians.  The place was super crowded when we got there and we were at a table that was literally on top of 2 other tables.  The menu had a lot of traditional Italian food and we ordered a spinach salad with pine nuts and parmesan cheese to start and I had the tagliolini with mixed seafood in tomato sauce.   The spinach salad was fine, I would have preferred a bit more balsamic vinegar on it as the spinach just tasted like it came out of the bag and put on the plate.  Unfortunately I had mixed the pasta up for taglitatelle pasta and was expecting a thick ribbon pasta but instead it was a thinner, spaghetti-like texture.  The sauce was a nice tomato base but there wasn't a whole lot of seafood in there, so that was a bit disappointing but the whole dish was quite satisfying overall.  One great thing about the dinner was that they ended it with 3 free glasses of limoncello - yum! Total bill 142,000 Rp per person.  Sadly I was so tired by this time that I didn't take any pictures, sorry to end on a non-picture note!

I had an amazing, relaxing and peaceful time in Bali and I highly recommend it to anyone.  If anyone who's reading this ever decides to go, feel free to reach out with any questions.

Seminyak, Bali - Part 2

So for all my gripes about Seminyak being super Westernized, I did really love several of the restaurants there.  Sure they weren't authentic/local or frankly Indonesian, but honestly there's only so much freaking fried rice or fried noodles a gal can take.

One of my favorite places we went to for lunch was the Grocer and Grind ((Jl. Kayu Jati 3x Petitenget).  It's a super cute bistro/deli that looks like it belongs in LA. It's contemporary with a great menu that ranges from brunch items like eggs benedict to delicious sounding fancy deli sandwiches.  I got a iced coffee and the chickpea burger (sounds like something you would get in a trendy LA restaurant, right?).  What was amazing was that my iced coffee came with a scoop of ice cream! It was amazing...I want all my coffee to come with ice cream now.  Aarti got the eggs florentine and Deanna got the 1/2 and 1/2 which was this bruschetta like dish that came with eggs, avocado and tomato.  They got their food first, so we dug in.  The eggs florentine came with a really well made hollandaise sauce and the spinach was incredibly fresh.  You could tell that it wasn't frozen spinach on there. I was surprised at how good the english muffin was.  You wouldn't think that Bali wouldn't have good english muffins but it was nice and soft.   The one down fall was that the egg was a bit overcooked and not as runny as it could be.  The bruschetta dish was also flavorful but to be honest, I'm not a huge bruschetta fan in general.  Like the benedict, the eggs were a bit overpoached on this dish.  Of course my dish comes out last but after looking at it, it looked like it was because they literally made the chickpea burger from scratch, so I forgive them.  The reason I got it was because it came with avocado, tomato, mixed herbs, organic greens, and tahini dressing (48,000 Rp).  I really liked the concept of the burger but there wasn't enough binding to the burger and it just fell apart when I bit into it.  I also didn't care for the use of white bread for the bun, but that's not really a huge deal.  Also while I love avocado in any form, my avocado slide was a bit under-ripe and crunchy tasting.   I know I didn't really make the food sound amazing but I was totally in love with this place and would have gone back and tried something else in a heartbeat.

For dinner, we made a reservation at Sarong (Jl. Petitenget No, 19 x, Kerobokan) which was a 3 minute walk from our hotel.  It was probably the fanciest and most luxurious restaurant we went to on our whole trip.  The inside decor was breathtaking and very trendy with the largest mirror with I've ever seen by the bar.  Despite being very high end, they tried to keep it authentic with tons of beautiful wood carvings everywhere.  The food actually leaned more toward Indian than Indonesian.  I got the snapper pahadi (165,000 Rp) which was a tandoori style fish that was marinated in a mint coriander yogurt garam green masala.  Deanna and Aarti got the paneer tikka stuffed with chutney (93,000 Rp) and the dahl with yellow lentils (75,000 Rp).  We also all split a side of fried rice with egg, asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, baby corn, and peas (50,000 Rp).  But we first got cocktails and they were quite fancy with giant sprigs of herbs in each of them.  While the drinks were good, I was starting to get sick of constantly drinking cocktails with fruit in them.  I need to start transitioning to beer!  The food was pretty decadent and plated in a fancy manner.  The fish was super tender and cooked just right (snapper can be overcooked really easily but this wasn't) and the coriander yogurt was aromatic and the perfect match for the fish.  Despite being just a fried rice, I really did enjoy fried rice dish we got a lot.  Simple but nicely done. It wasn't greasy like you would get from a Chinese take out.  I tried the paneer and lentils as well and they were also delightful to the palate and not super rich tasting.  This place is exactly what you would picture when you say "jet-setter".  Everyone was dressed up, but in a trendy manner and given the prices (our total bill was $1.3MM Rp) clearly only tourists can afford to go here.  

The next day we didn't have a lunch as we filled up on breakfast at the W.  I will briefly mention that we did go to the Rock Bar at the Ayana Resort which was also amazing for sunset.  We got there around 4:30pm and there was already a line! Who knew I came all the way to Bali just to wait in line for something.  But I'm glad we did.  You actually have to take an outdoor tram down the rocks to the actual bar and when you get there, the bar is perched on top of the rocks for a gorgeous view of the ocean (seriously, check out their website, they have amazing photos that put my pictures of the place to shame).  Yet again, we got fancy cocktails and we were sort of regretting that we hadn't had a snack yet so we got an order of fries and edamame (total bill 215,000 Rp per person).  The bar food was fine but I mainly just wanted to plug this place for it's breathtaking views.

For dinner, we decided that we had to take a break for all these fancy pants places and asked our driver to take us to a local noodle place.  Deanna was obsessed with getting bakmi goreng, which we strangely enough hadn't had on our trip yet.  So our cute driver, Gusti, dropped us off at Mie 88, which is actually local noodle/Chinese food chain.  But it was perfect and totally what we were looking for - good, cheap local food.  I got their version of shrimp dim sum (10,000 Rp - it was steamed fresh and despite looking a bit suspect was actually very good) and the 88 special noodle (24,000 Rp) which was a basic noodle soup which came with some kind of green (almost like a bok choy) and pork slices - I'm not even sure what makes it "special"but it hit the spot and it made me wish that we had spent more time finding cheap, local places rather than spending so much money of fancy food.  But hey, I'm not going to complain at all, I'm in Bali after all!   Stay tuned for Part 3 of Seminyak....

Seminyak, Bali - Part 1

Our last stop on the dream trip was Seminyak in the south west side of the island.  To be honest, my first impression of Seminyak wasn't very favorable.  It reminded me a lot of South Beach or some snotty European beach town.  Compared to Ubud and Gili, it was super modern, Westernized and full of jet-setting Europeans and Australians.  But after spending 5 days there, it totally grew on me.  Hey, I mean I'm a jet setter right?!  We ended up eating at so many places that I will have to break up this post into several parts.

Our first outing was to Ku De Ta (Jalan kayu aya no 9 - right next to the Oberoi) which is one of the most well known beach lounges in the area.  When we walked in, I immediately noticed how everyone was so polished and dressed up.  In Gili, everyone wore flip flops and shorts.  At Ku De Ta, everyone was wearing expensive maxi dresses.  It's just a much more mature crowd.  One of the best things to do is to get to Ku De Ta before sunset so that you can catch the sun going down on the beach while having drinks.  When we opened the menu, it was quite a shock.  We definitely were in a more touristy area.  The fancy cocktails were 110,000 Rp ($12) each which isn't that far off from the prices in NYC.  We were starving so we got some appetizers too.  The menu was a variety of upscale Asian fusion items such as sushi rolls, spring rolls, skewers, gyoza and dips.   I got the fried calamari (95,000 Rp) and Aarti and Deanna got an eggplant sushi roll (95,000 Rp) and the agadashi (85,000 Rp).  Someone had told us that the food wasn't great there and overpriced so we were a bit hesitant to order, but we were so hungry it didn't matter.  Was it overpriced? Definitely.  But the food was actually pretty good and the presentation was really nice.   The eggplant sushi was also fresh and delicious and had the cutest soy sauce jar. 

 

I didn't try the silky tofu but Aarti said she really liked it.  It was a salt and pepper tofu dish with chili paste and grated daikon on top.

 

The calamari was nicely done and not greasy.  You could really taste the squid in it and you can't go wrong with a lemon aioli!

The cocktails were worth every penny.  I got a watermelon vodka drink sprinkled with cinnamon on top and it was refreshing and the perfect sunset watching cocktail. 

You'd think after these bites that we wouldn't be hungry but no, we were still on the hunt for dinner after this.  We decided to walk to Jalan Lakshmana which is the main drag in Seminyak and it's also known as Eat Street.  The street is full of international and more Westernized restaurants (I saw burger places, a few Italian places, Japanese and Greek food).  If you are looking for cute, local warungs or cheap, authentic eats, this is not the street for you.   We walked the entire length of the street and ended up choosing Chandi (Jalan Laksmana 72) because we had heard good things about it from others and in a couple of our guide books and it looked beautiful from the outside.  The menu is touted as fusion South East Asian food and the whole menu looked fabulous.   The food ranged from lots of shellfish, fish, and meat dishes to a full vegetarian section (you don't really see a lot of that).  I was so overwhelmed and wanted to order everything.  We started with Chandi's amazing crunchy tofu squares (32,000 Rp).  It was indeed amazing and crunchy.  It wasn't overly fried or greasy and the tofu was nice and silky on the inside and served with this mouthwatering peanut and cucumber topping.  I could have eaten another order of it.

I ordered a variety of grilled skewers:  scallops (50,000 Rp), tofu and corn (18,000 Rp) and tuna (18,000 Rp) and a small organic green salad (30,000 Rp).  I was hoping the scallops would be plump and thick but they were actually pretty small and a bit disappointing.  The tofu and corn was glazed with a miso like sauce and grilled perfectly and the tuna was actually not what I thought.  Instead of being a hunk of tuna on a stick, it was more like mashed up tuna that was molded around a sugar cane.  It was all served with a variety of sauces (see below) but honestly you didn't really need any of them to enjoy the food.  It was just so unique looking even though it was just grilled stuff on a stick. 

Deanna got the veggie version (110,000 Rp) and it was a feast!  So many different kinds of gorgeous veggies - tempe, trio of bell peppers, tofu, baby corn, asparagus, beet root, lotus root, infinity bean, star fruit, fennel, zucchini, shallots, scallion, whole garlic, and red onion (phew!).    It was all served with watercress and sprout salad, grilled pickled red chili pepper sambal, sweet soy chili sambal, and kemangi sambal.  It was amazing to look at.

Aarti got the black and red rice vegetarian nasi goreng (72,000 Rp) - this was cripsy tempe, tofu, turnip, edamame, zucchini, radish, cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, red chili pepper, tarragon and an egg a cheval.  I had one bite and the black and red rice tasted a lot like quinoa and the vegetables were amazingly flavorful.

All in all, the service was fantastic, the presentation of the food glamorous and the food was delicious without being pretentious.  One of the best meals we had on the whole trip in terms of fancy dining.  Everything was top notch. The total bill for all 3 of us was 601,000 Rp.

Gili Island

After 5 amazing nights in Ubud, we made our way to the Gili Islands, which are 3 small islands between Bali and Lombok.  The 3 islands are Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan.  We stayed on Gili Trawangan which is the most populated island.  The entire island is walkable in about 2 hours, doesn't have any cars on the whole island (there are horse drawn buggies that can help you get around if you need them), there is barely any fresh water (we basically showered in salt water the whole time) and another strange fact was that there are no dogs, just cats on the island.

The crowd on Gili T definitely skews young and leans towards the "full moon" party type.  Everyone there seemed to be about 20, gorgeous, had a hot body and most guys had tons of tattoos.  People here looked like they were backpacking for a while, didn't have a real job, and spent most of the day on the beach and most of the night partying.  Ahh, youth.  Ok, so in terms of food, there are actually quite a few options on the island.  Our first outing was to this hole in the wall called Kiki Nova (it's inside the art market in the center of town).  When you first walk in (and I use that phrase loosely as there isn't really a store front to walk into), you aren't sure if any of the food is sanitary.  All the food is homemade by this lovely woman in various pots and they are just sitting outside all day.  When you order, you basically point to all the different pots of food that you want a la Nasi Campur.  Every now and then she will tell you what they are but generally you kind of have to guess and take a leap of faith.

I had picked a little bit of everything (chicken, hard boiled egg, beef curry, eggplant, corn, greens, fried dough, rice, glass noodles, and this a roll type dish).  Even though I am a pretty adventurous eater, I was slightly hesitant at first.  But my first bite was amazing!  You could just tell that all the food was freshly homemade with no preservatives.  The spices and flavors were all natural and it was best to just eat everything together in one big messy pile.  I couldn't really tell what was in side the soft roll (in the front of the picture) but the inside was this sweet filing that I actually didn't love.  It turned out to be one of the best meals I had on the whole trip and all for 20,000 Rp (or $2).

For dinner on our first night we decided on The Beach House which is actually a hotel that has a large outdoor/beachside restaurant.  This one seemed to have the most people there, so we decided to give it a try.  It's on the southwest part of the island which has tons of restaurants, most of which have a similar outdoor beach feel.  Many of them also have these outdoor BBQs where they have tons of fresh seafood that was caught that day, sitting on ice, and then you basically go up and pick out your fish/shellfish and they grill it on site (the picture below isn't actually from The Beach House but it had a similar layout).  

Of course I had to try the seafood BBQ.  It's totally right up my alley and it made me wish that we had something like this at home.  I walked up to the catches of the day and selected a huge piece of tuna (65,000 Rp or $7.50) and also a grilled corn on the cob (15,000 Rp or $1.50).  I asked them to grill the tuna medium rare, so it shouldn't have taken so long.  I guess there must have been a back up because it took a while to come out, but when I cut into it, it was definitely medium rare.  I couldn't believe how big the piece of fish was.  Something like this at home would have cost at least double if not triple.  It was served simply with a lemon wedge.  My one complaint was that the sauce they served with it was way too buttery and kind of ruined the essence of eating a fresh piece of fish.  Deanna and Aarti both got a pasta that they said was way too oily and greasy.  Seems to be a running theme.

We also ate a small lunch at Locanda (North end of the island).  We had originally wanted to eat at Karma Kayak but inadvertently sat in a bungalow at Locanada which was literally right next to it.  Oh well.  The food there is very local, limited and simple.  I had the Soto Ayam with rice (plus a coke cost 65,000 Rp) which is basically a clear noodle broth with glass noodles, small slices of chicken and sliced egg and tomato.  It was a bit weird to be eating a hot  noodle soup when I was dying of heat but overall the food was fine.  As I said, it was basic and simple food.  It's what you'd expect from a hut in the middle of nowhere.  I have all of these ingredients at home and probably could have made it myself.  We were a bit bummed that we sat down at the wrong place because we did hear that Karma Kayak had really good tapas food (I know, totally random).

Our next place for dinner ended up being a disaster and was put on the list of "Things we can't talk about on the trip" (the two other things we weren't allowed to talk about were work and the duration of our flight).  One of the workers at our hotel told us that the Indian food at Pesona (right on the main drag of the street) was pretty good so we decided the give it a try and give ourselves a break from Indonesian food.  I ordered the fish tikka and buttered naan and Aarti and Deanna got daal and a cauliflower dish.  Everything was going fine (I didn't mind my fish tikka but I did think the buttered naan wasn't good - they used that weird sweet butter you put on bread on the naan and it just tasted weird together).  Aarti and Deanna didn't like their food much but one of the reasons we all had such a horrible taste in our mouth (no pun intended!) was that when we went to pay for the meal, we had put out the exact amount in the bill fold.  The waiter came and "counted" the money but then quickly pocketed 100,000 Rp without us really noticing at first (although later we did all say that something fishy was happening right before our eyes).  Next thing we know, he's telling us we owe them 100,000 Rp even though we knew that we had paid the correct amount.  We were so angry and didn't know what to do, but since we were in a random country that we didn't know, we didn't want to argue (and in the grand scheme of things it was only $10 but it was the principle of it) and just gave him another 100,000 Rp.  It was such a shitty situation. So lesson learned, always count the money in front of the waiter yourself instead of handing the money over to them. 

On our last full day, we took a side trip to Gili Meno (the center island) which was my favorite.  It was the total opposite of Gili T in that there was probably 50 people max on the whole island and there were about 4 "restaurants" total.  We had a quick lunch at Mallia's Child since it was by the ferry station and we had a 3pm boat to catch.  Again, the food here is very basic and simple.  I got the chicken satay (with a coke, 65,000 Rp) and it was surprisingly decent.  There were lots of satays on the plate and basically anytime you dip something in peanut sauce, it's hard to go wrong.  I didn't see them make it but you do see lots of people on the streets grilling chicken on a squat, picnic-like grill, so I assumed that's how my food was made.  Funnily enough, the best chicken was this fried chicken drumstick that ended up on Deanna's plate.  As a "favor" to her, I ate the drumstick and it was delicious! The skin wasn't too fried but it had a nice crisp to it and the meat was so freakin juicy.  I was so surprised by it and wished I ordered a dish that had more of it.  I also tried Aarti's pumpkin curry and the pumpkin was basically a sweet potato and the dish was also surprisingly good. 

On our last night we had wanted to go to Blu D'Mare, which we had heard from other travelers was the most amazing Italian food (even compared to pasta they had had in Italy).  So we were super excited to try it.  But it was on the far Northeast corner of the island and by the time we got there it was 8:30pm.  There was a group of 3 girls who literally walked right in front of us and got the last walk-in table.  Of all the restaurants on the island, this is the one that required reservations.  We were pretty bummed.  So we walked around for a bit and ended up at the Cafe Gili and I got the snapper fillet (64,000 Rp).  While I do like my fish medium rare, this one was almost uncooked in the middle.  Unless it's tuna or salmon, I generally don't like other fishes that rare but we were so tired and hungry that I just wrote it off and prayed that I didn't get sick the next day.  It did come with a really flavorful garlic, onion, and chili sautee on top of the fish and had the fish been cooked a bit more, it would have been a top dish of the trip.  And I ended up fine the next day.

Next stop Seminyak...

Ubud, Bali

It's been a while since I've blogged and it's because I was in Bali for the past 2 weeks.  My goal was to pretty much unplug, so I didn't blog while I was away but I do want to share my eating adventures with everyone.  Since I was gone for so long, I'm going to break it down by the 3 different cities I visited: Ubud, Gili Islands and Seminyak.  I'm not going to list every place I went to but I'll try to highlight as many places that I can.  It was an amazing time and hope to go back some day! 

Ubud
Ahhh, Ubud.  If there is any one city to go to while you're in Bali, it's Ubud.  It's a fantastic get away with lots of culture, art, and lush greenery.  While there are lots of tourists, it's still got a fairly local feel to it (although there is a Starbucks in the middle of town).  We spent 5 nights there and I could have still spent more time exploring the area.  I really loved it.  There are lots and lots of great food choices all within walking distance of each other or a short cab ride away.  We had our first meal in town was at Cafe Wayan (Monkey Forest Road).  Most restaurants in Ubud have huge outdoor gardens that seem to go on forever (benefit of it almost always being sunny) with lots of Asian style low tables that require you to sit Indian style and this place was no different.   We all decided to order typical Indonesian dishes for our first meal.  It doesn't get anymore Indonesian than mie goreng.  I got it with seafood and honestly it was good but not mindblowing.  The bits of seafood (shrimp and scallop were the only ones I could see) were pretty small and were overcooked.  But all in all, it was a nice first taste to Bali.  The total bill for all 3 of us was 218,000 Rp (which is about $24).  

 

For dinner we went to Murni's Warung (no specific address).  Our hotel had made a reservation for us and at first when we walked in, it didn't seem liked we really needed it since there was lots of open seating on the first level.  But what we didn't know was that the hotel booked us a seat over looking the river on the 4th level (downstairs).  Unfortunately it was night time, so we couldn't really see much but I'm sure during the day you would have seen an amazing view of the river and gorgeous trees surrounding it.  The restaurant includes an antique shop and villas on site, so it's pretty unique place.  I ordered the award winning fish dish and the waitress told me it was made with black bean paste but when it came out, it looked more like a soup/broth.  It was basically cubes of white fish in a tamarind flavored broth with large pieces of onion, green peppers and snow peas served with a side of white rice.  It was a nice light meal that didn't have a particular fishy flavor to it (perfect since I was having slight stomach ache that night).  The great things about Murni's was that they also offered a free shuttle ride back to your hotel!

One of our negative eating experiences in Ubud was at the summit of this super touristy place to see this fantastic view of the volcano.  I don't remember the name of the place but almost every tour group stops here and while the views were indeed amazing and might even make up for the shitty food, you can also just run in and take a picture without eating there.  But we were so hungry that we just went for it.  I don't have any pictures but it's a buffet of bad Indonesian food.  Just bad quality and you could just tell that the food has been sitting out for a while.  The one plus was that they did have condensed milk available with their coffee, which I love.  The total bill was 125,000 Rp per person (or $14) which doesn't seem like much but given that you can get such better food for less, it was definitely overpriced.

Our 2nd dinner was at Bebek Bengil (aka Dirty Duck) (Jl. Hanoman, Padang Tegal) which we had heard was one of the best local restaurants in town and they claim to be the home of the original crispy duck.  So of course I had to get the crispy duck (82,000 Rp).  The duck is 1/2 a bird and served with a bean sprout salad, a side of sauces and white rice.  The duck was a bit on the skinny side and I am usually used to a bigger/meatier duck (a la Peking duck).  In an effort to be healthier, I generally avoid the skin but I just had to try it here and it was indeed crispy and delicious (totally made up for the fact that there wasn't too much meat).  The bean sprout salad had a coconut taste to it which was unusual.  One of the sauces was too smoky for me, but there was a shallot/chili/scallion oil was amazing and super flavorful and spicy.  Loved it.  Aarti and Deanna got a carrot/coriander soup and a mushroom soup and they were both delicious (mostly because they both had tons of cream in it).  Despite being a tourist hot spot, the waitstaff did have some problems with English and the service was generally very slow to the point of irritation.  But a plus is that they also had a free shuttle back to our hotel.

Another great lunch spot we went to was Batan Waru (Dewi Sita Street).  We came here after a long day of art shopping and we were exhausted.  The menu is authentic local eats and I got the Ayam Rica-Rica (72,000 Rp or $8) which was grilled chicken simmered in a chili, shiitake mushroom and coconut milk sauce.  It was extremely delicious and I inhaled the whole thing even though it was a pretty huge portion.  The chicken was super tender and juicy and the sauce had great heat and sweetness to it.  One of my favorite dishes on the trip so far.

 Our last dinner was at Cafe Lotus (Jl. Raya).  The main reason to come here is for the access to Pura Saraswati which is a beautiful temple that has nightly dance performances.  For an extra 80,000 Rp, you can sit in one of the tables that has great views of the dance performance.  If it wasn't for the view, you might be better off trying another place.  I got the crab and shrimp rolls (35,000 Rp) and they tasted like spring rolls that you would get in a bar in the US and I didn't taste any crab or shrimp.  Deanna and Aarti had got the veggie samosa and fried mushrooms and they were also overly fried and tasted like bar quality food.  For my main dish, I got the Tasmanian salmon (88,000 Rp) which was an overcooked/slight dry salmon fillet served with a very heavy mushroom cream sauce and roasted herb potatoes.  It seemed like a very Western dish but hey, I was getting a piece of salmon fillet for $9, so even though it wasn't amazing, in terms of US dollars it was still a great deal.  (It tastes better than how it looks in the photo - I know the cream sauce looks awful in the picture).  Aarti and Deanna shared a vegetarian platter that was huge and apparently pretty good. 

  

Next stop, Gili Islands.....