Penultimate food post: Memorable meals from the trip

122 days, 17 weeks, 4 months, a third of a year. Any way you slice it, that's a lot of eating. But what really stood out, what were the memorable meals? To answer that question, I'm going to use only my memory, and leave the blog archives for another time. After this chronological review, I'll sift it all down to a Top 8 of the trip. Here are the candidates:

Japan

Sushi near Tsukiji Fish Market: The freshest, fishiest, most flavorful sushi of my life (details)

Tasting menu at Chaya Mario: Unbelievably good tofu and surprise after surprise hidden away in Hiroshima (details)

Iron Chef Matsue nights: Round after round of local seafood and bizarre creations (details)

Indonesia

Roast pig at Babi Guling: Succulent, spicy, and celebratory, as all roast pigs should be (details)

Mangosteens on Gili Meno: The essence of simple, bursting with vibrancy (details)

Singapore

Intricate Chinese tasting menu: Taste after taste of new eats ending with a hands-on demonstration of a sensational omelette (details)

Long Beach seafood extravaganza: Fantastic black pepper crab and a steamed fish that was even better (details)

Ah boiling at a hawker centre institution: Amazing and amazingly unexpected peanut dumplings in broth (details)

China

Hunanese fish head: A very big fish head with very many chopped chillies, soon reduced to bones and nothing more (details)

Ha'erbin streetside dumplings: After many, many plates of dumplings, these reigned supreme (details)

Sichuan, Sichuan, Sichuan: A hotter-then-hot hot pot in Shanghai, a bowl of chili oil for poaching, and a dry pot so spicy it made me numb (details 1, details 2, and details 3)

Sour cuisine of Guizhou: A big bowl of pig stomach and sour seasonings and, as a side, smelly fish grass salad (details)

Turkey

Kofte with a view: Meatballs and uberfresh vegetables on one of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara (details)

Feast at Ak Deniz: Where the food started and just kept coming, showcasing Turkish food done right (details)

Turkish breakfasts: From Kale at the beginning to Caffe Privato near the Galata Tower, a range of treats that makes any morning lavish (details 1 and details 2)

Israel

Home-cooked food from Ima: Delightful starter spreads and a tour through the best of Israeli cuisine (details)

Poland

Zapiekanki to celebrate: A pizza baguette after a fantastic set of World Cup semifinals (details)

Germany

Eating without seeing: Going dark at a dunkelrestaurant with ok food but an amazing eating experience (details)

Biergarten all afternoon: The biggest and best pretzels I've ever seen, raw radishes with lots of spice, sausage and whole fish to boot, rounded out by stein after stein of delicious weissbier (details)

Brunch at Gugelhof: Seriously the best blood sausage and seriously surrounded by three exceptional brunch-time dishes (details)

Doner kebab at Hasir: After one bite, I could feel the new addiction forming (details)

Czech Republic

Redemption at Lokal: Czech cuisine saves itself with fresh horseradish, fresh dumplings, and great beer (details)

Denmark

Arty cafe treats: At the Louisiana, easily one of the best museums I've ever been to, the most beautiful food that was fresh and tasty as well (details)

The Netherlands

Late-night Netherlands: Stuff-it-yourself falafel and vlaamse frites with special sauces end any day well (details)

Friendly PSA: Do NOT eat at Fly Cafe in Ubud

Just a quick and slightly hilarious note: I've been found!

A random comment on one of my threads is as follows:

"1 comments:

fly cafe said...

Check out Fly Café in Ubud. The diverse menu of local, international and vegetarian cuisine is the best value around: http://www.fly-cafe.com

May 10, 2010 3:21 AM"

I encourage a full force boycott of these folks so they learn some boundaries of advertising. I mean, appropriating the comment thread of a personal blog! What's next.......

Selamat tinggal, Indonesia: some thoughts on my time in Bali and the Gilis

Indonesia, the least developed place on my itinerary, proved an interesting experience.

A conflicted relationship with tourism: The most fascinating angle to explore was the apparent love / hate relationship with tourism. On the love side, tourism is bringing lots of money and many jobs to Bali, providing a source of income and a path to development. This is really clear in comparison to Lombok, its much poorer neighbor. For young people in communities across the island, tourism is the only sector in which they can see jobs that will support them. At the same time, and this is where it treads into hate territory, it is so omnipresent and so unequal that many people expressed concerns to me without my even asking (and this was in English!) Many have put other dreams on hold and don't want to be in the service industry. It is also taxing to have so many from Western cultures around all the time, taking actions in conflict with traditional Balinese Hindu society. Finally, a couple of people noted that the flows of money from tourists had started to change their friends for the worse - increasing materialism and reducing communal bonds. Of course my read is very anecdotal and may be off; this was an intriguing backdrop to the whole trip there, however.

Not a food-obsessed place: As Leena commented, the island is definitely a "eat to live, not live to eat" place. There were great dishes and some lovely heat and spice combinations used. However, the food in large part was very monotonous and the quality varied tremendously. I could not uncover a coherent philosophy of flavor or taste underneath the cuisine. Though they make a mean roast pig - I went back for more babi guling at Ibu Oka - on pure food ratings it is in last place, way behind Japan, with others likely to surpass it in the future.

The presence of heat and so much humidity: Perhaps an obvious conclusion, but I was still amazed at how hot and how humid it was everywhere. That combined with my penchant for not wanting to pay for transit led to very many sweaty days. From a silver lining perspective, it certainly helped increase my appetite in between meals. I do think something about my genes and my Minnesota upbringing lead it to not be an ideal climate for me in any kind of long-term way.

And, with that, to Singapore, noted foodie heaven (and home of my sister, her husband, and my two year old niece Sahana!)

Meet Joe Doctor, art owner

After years of thinking about it, I bit the bullet. I bought my first piece of real art, and I am so excited. The owner of my guesthouse in Ubud for the second week is an artist and his work is fantastic. His name is I Made Jodog. He is an art professor in Denpasar and also studied in Florida for awhile. My painting is en route to the USA, where I will meet up with it in several months. Here are two shots of it, the second with Made (it's big!):

After some initial experimentation with abstract sculpture, he has settled into slightly impressionistic versions of the natural beauty of Bali, combined with simple images. So, in the above, you have the rice fields, combined with a pair of dragonflies (representing growth and metamorphosis) and a pair of ants (representing strength through collaboration). If you'd like to see more of his stuff, check out his website here: http://jodogcreativespace.com/

Assorted food of Indonesia

Second random roundup of meals, let's get to it!

In Tulamben I went back to basics and got the nasi goreng, a fried rice dish with a variety of sides and a fried egg on top. Not bad! And great for right after diving.

In Ubud there were several small restaurants, some warung and some slightly more upscale. One of these was Biah Biah, were there was a mini feast of many small dishes, including nasi campur (rice with a variety of sides), kang kung (stirfried water spinach), sate lilit, and a variety of mixed cold dishes, some with pork and some only vegetables. All yummy.

Another was Made's Warung, where I had some very nice chicken soup and followed that up with the pictured banana fritters. With fresh coconut and honey on top, these were the right sweet note to end the day on.

A quick meal (with no photo, alas) was had at Dewa's Warung, where I dined on cap cay late one night. I had earlier hated on the dish in an email to friends and I need to partially recant. This version was not bad, with a warming soup broth and plenty of vegetables. It still cannot hold a candle to the Korean homonym chop chae though...

At Bubu's Warung, I split a deconstructed gado gado with Nick, thoroughly mediocre and like a crudite plate gone Indonesian. Needed fresher vegetables or more going on with the peanut sauce in the middle. I also had some green beans with coconut which were not bad, though a bit monotonous.

Finally, much of my blogging took place from the Yellow Flower Cafe, where I had many fruit juices and milkshakes. I also had their take on an organic nasi campur, of which the standout was definitively the mixed coconut, soybean, carrot, and other lovely items at 9 o'clock in the picture above.

More great hosts and a still-happy traveler

Time for another "wonderful hosts" award. Nick and Leena in Ubud were superb, proving fantastic companions for lots of explorations and lots of eating. THANKS!

Ubud Tourist Day 2010 - a success!

My last full day in Indonesia. I decided to go full bore. First, I would wake up at 2am (hardly sleeping that night!) and head for a climb of Gunung Batur (Mount Batur) to see the sunrise at about 6:15. Batur is an imposing experience. Not because it's the tallest volcano on Bali, as it's only number 3 or 4 in height at 1700+ meters. Instead, it is imposing because it is rimmed by a large crater lip, which contains the current summit as well as the largest lake in Bali. The crater gives some sense of how big the mountain used to be before it blew its top and became what it is today.

It is still quite active. There were a couple of big eruptions in the late 20th century. The day I went, there were warnings for the western part of the mountain, so we steered clear of that area.

The climb was great if a little early in the morning. After getting a ride to the crater rim, my guide and I hiked two hours in the dark. It was still hot enough that I was in t-shirt and shorts, and my glasses kept fogging frequently when we would stop for breaks. What started as forest became grassy fields which in turn yielded to volcanic rock (both grippy and crumbly at the same time). Then, when reached the summit, wow. Really perfect timing, with no one else near us as the sun came up.

As morning fully dawned, I could make out more and more people. There was a group of locals, including a priest, having a religious ceremony on a peak opposite ours. There was also a little puppy who had hiked up with us, who I nicknamed "Volcano Dog". He earned a well-deserved banana at the top.

It's a little dark, but check out this self-portrait of me with Bali's other volcanoes in the background.

Finally, the lake and views of the lava bed were superb as we drove away from the hike.

To this initial adventure I added a downhill cycling trip back to Ubud. Essentially, I got a mountain bike and rode with a group through the back roads of Bali, with a handful of stops along the way. It was an incredibly easy way to cycle, only really stressing my hands on the brakes.

Our first stop was at an eco coffee farm. We learned about typical plants of Bali, including a very spiky fruit shown below. The main attraction was the coffee processing, where they hand-roasted the beans and produced several types of coffee. The most famous (and quite touristy, but it's all in the day, right?) was luwak coffee. To make this coffee, they feed the beans to the luwak, a large ferret looking creature. Then the animal...processes...the beans and they are collected and cleaned after the animal has finished their business. It supposedly takes the edge off the coffee, and that cup was much smoother than "Bali coffee". There were also a variety of cocoas and teas granted gratis, including some ginger varieties that were wonderful.

Next we saw a typical Balinese family compound. A set of 100-200 compounds form a banjar, or community neighborhood. Within each compound there is a kitchen building, containing enough kitchens for the number of families within. Then there is a grandparents' building and an additional building for each family. In the center of it all is the ceremonial building, where many of the Hindu ceremonies take place. In the one we visited, they were drying rice crackers and bamboo for some upcoming offerings. Interestingly, when someone dies they are laid in state in this ceremonial building until the funeral. Then they are either cremated, or buried for up to five years until they are cremated. In back are areas for livestock (which our guide called the "ATMs of the families" as they fetch extra cash) and a common forest.

The third stop was at some rice paddies. We walked through the rice paddies and got a chance to beat the rice from the stalks - that is hot and sweaty work! The rice paddies are just gorgeous, both far away and up close.

The final stop was at a really large banyan tree. These trees dangle additional roots from their branches that then reach the ground and dig in. This large specimen had been groomed to keep it from expanding too much more into neighboring properties.

And through it all was my third trusty steed of the trip.

Finally, I returned to Ubud. With my last night, I wanted to continue the theme of the day and so bought a ticket for a local dance performance. I chose the Kecak Fire and Trance Dance, both because it was recommended and because fire sounded cool. It was pretty neat, with 100+ men singing a story from the Ramayana while it was acted out in an interior circle. I have to admit that I was dozing in and out, not from the show, but just as a result of having gotten up at 2am... I was awoken when a man in a horse costume proceeded to go into a trance and run through flaming coconuts repeatedly. That is quite a way to end a show.

A day of meat

Saturday was a day for carnivores.

It began with some pre-eating exercise. I managed to pick the hottest day in a while as my day to do a two hour shadeless ridge walk. Not only that, but I started right at 11:30am, ensuring I'd be under the sun during the absolute hottest part of the day. It was intense, I felt like I was swimming there was so much sweat. As I made my way back to Ubud, I needed some real energy.

And there was Naughty Nuri's! Already profiled, they have delicious barbecue. As the last trip involved a number of martinis, I thought I would visit again to remember and retain the taste of the food. I got a rack of pork ribs, from the grill right behind me.

It was tasty. Bones slid out without even asking, and the meat was tender and sauce delicious.

How to build from this? Easy, with a duck feast. Everywhere I'd been reading about the traditional smoked Balinese duck, which requires a day advance notice as it must be tea-smoked for 8 hours. Nick and Leena made some reservations for us at Bebek Bengil, aka the dirty duck diner.

The Balinese duck is a big order of food. We had three people, and it recommends the duck feast for two, so we were unsure whether we should get one or two orders. After conferring with the waitstaff, they vehemently said one, so we stuck there. It was the right call, it was a massive amount of food.

Beyond the whole smoked duck, there was green beans, rice, prawn crackers (krupuk), and chicken sate. The duck was delicious, it fell off the bone. The smokiness from the tea blended quite well with the fat from the duck and every bite was very rich. The chicken sate were also lovely, crisp on the outside but still moist and juicy inside.

We couldn't stop ourselves and also ordered a mixed seafood grill. This had squid, tuna, prawns, and grilled veggies. The squid in particular was good, chewy but not overly so, with some good char from the grill.

On top of a great meal was the really quite nice ambiance, where we had an outdoor table overlooking an interior courtyard. The grounds themselves were quite elaborate, and apparently many domestic and foreign dignitaries and other celebrities frequent the joint. I am not sure, however, what explains the bizarre pathway to the toilet. Inside the bathroom, there are three steps that take you over a small pond. A very precarious way to get to the loo!

New (delayed) beard

It's finally starting to fill in and I am feeling a bit more normal. But it's only month 1 so who knows where we will go from here!

Catch this one quick, new beard coming soon.

April 30, 2010: in and around some rice fields of Ubud.

Monkeys, monkeys, everywhere!

One of the main streets of Ubud is called Jalan Monkey Forest. Turns out it is so named because it abuts a monkey forest. The Monkey Forest Sancutary, in fact. As you might imagine, it is filled to the brim with monkeys, orangutans in particular.

One of the attractions is that you can buy a bunch of bananas and feed them to the monkeys. I'm pretty averse to giving food to crafty and quick primates, though, so I watched other tourists do this part. The monkeys were quite fast and several times I and others had to jump out of the way during minor banana skirmishes. In addition to the monkeys themselves, there were a lot of monkey statues, including one that I thought was an interesting choice.

Beyond the monkeys, there is a holy spring that we hiked down to. Here, there were really neat komodo dragon sculptures that we decided to have fun with.

It was also a jungly environment, with things growing absolutely everywhere. And, on one of my hottest days in Bali, a welcome source of shade!