Cafe Bali@Seminyak Square area, Bali

Demona: Last night in Bali haven. As with all holiday trips, the last meal must always be the most memorable one. Our plan was to find a cozy place to chill, eat, talk about all the crazy ass things we did for the past couple of days and drink till our eyelids forcefully shut down.

We stumbled upon a lovely cafe, called Cafe Bali. Its theme was white. Somewhat like our local fnb, Fullhouse, but wayyyyy better. The chandeliers and lightings were unique, gorgeous. We were not allowed to snap picts as due respect to the designer (hmph.. ) Being typical rebels, we quietly, sneakily took anyway. Look above, ain't it beautiful :)

Demona: This dish came with 3 different types of rice: white, brown, and glutinous: served with otak otak. The otak otak was a great tummy kicker. Power packed with spice, flavour, fish meat. It went very well with the rice. Great thing abouve Bali food is that, they make awesome chilli sauces. Each having its own fiery flavour to blend in with the choice of food served.

Demona: The salmon cabonara was sinfully delicious. The right creamy texture with generous chunks of salmon slices. Not sure what cheese they added in though. Dogma should learn from this, march right into my home kitchen and start cooking right away.

Demona: Mashed potato fused minced meat all shaped into finger bite sizes, coated with breadcrumbs and fried to golden brown perfection. The feeling was almost like eating a savoury version of Kinder Bueno. Crunchy outside, and gooey deliciousness inside.

Demona: The satay was a wee tad disappointment. Satay Station of Mont Kiara has definitely set a high satay taste bud for Dogma and I.

Demona: The beef lasagna was soooooo...sinful. But, soooooo... yummy. These guys are seriously generous in their ingredients, either that, cheese must be cheap here. Needless to say more, the pict spoke for itself.

All in all. Great company, great ambience, great food, and.. cheap drinks! Except our Muslim friend, Yani who obviously did not drink, instead having to endure a horrible strawberry smoothie.
We went on through the night: Inglorious basterds style. Tris Glass! (only the other 4 of you will know what I mean)

Sorta' romantic dinner@beach side of Nusa Dua

Demona: Dogma and I, with several colleagues of mine took a break from work and went to Bali during Labour's Day. This trip had opened up many 1sts to us eg: 1st fun diving trip, 1st banana boat ride, 1st naked bath in a tub filled with flower petals... and many more.

Bali, rich with its culture and food, proved to be another gastronomic trip for us. We stopped by for a BBQ seafood dinner after a hectic day of water activities in the famous Nusa Dua.

Demona: This BBQ snapper was the star of the night. Burnt, crunchy, savoury skin on the outside and tender, juicy, fresh meat on the inside. Good thing, it wasn't really over boney which could be a big turn off to the lazy me. The fish was quickly eaten up by the hungry 5 in minutes, just like watching the man being eaten up by those black bugs in "The Mummy" movie.

Demona: This was supposedly a famous local delicacy, especially for those who live near the sea. It is a type of sea plant that can be stir fried into a yummy dish. Texture wise, it was similar to our kangkung, but hey, frying with belacan still topped it all.

Demona: Greedy yani wanted to eat crab badly, and we left the ordering choice on her hands. She chose the black pepper crab dish. The meat was fresh alright, and its size was quite big also, but the gravy/sauce was somewhat, disappointing. The sauce was watery ( you could tell from the picture), therefore the whole licking up or sucking the sauce off crab shells while eating its meat satisfaction was lacking. This dish was much in lack of character.

Demona: I'm not a big fan of shell dishes, but for venture sake, I took a try on this tomato paste, with cheese grilled clams. While the rest smiled widely, with two thumbs up in air after gulping this down, I thought the taste of the muddiness from the clam was too powerful for my liking.

Demona: Even I must bow down to this kick ass powerpacked chilli sauce. From its looks, I thought it's taste would be similar to the Thai chilli sauce. With just several scoops, I already felt my mouth burning up. It was so spicy that, if added on the seafood, it would cover all the food's taste. Eventually, 5 of us left this chilli king aside, proudly staring at our burning lips and laughing at our failure to handle his power.

Verdict: Total damage for this dinner was RM 150. Dogma and I agreed that this meal was a little too refined for our liking. We were surrounded by nicely lited up tables and yes, 80% of the patrons were caucasians. We much preferred the BBQ dinner that we had in Perhentian, by the beach. That was all raw deal and nothing else.

Bali spells beauty, warmth, affection.. love

Demona: These are some un-foodie pictures that we took during our trip to Bali. I can't help but to share these beautiful pictures with you guys!



Demona: The gorgeous, balinese themed entrance into our cozy little 4 day home stay.



Demona: A nice porch area for a drink, but we ended up drinking inside the room itself.... due to the mosquitoes from the plants coming out in the late evenings and nights.



Demona: A spectacular view of the sun rising in front of our eyes. We almost missed it because we woke up 30 minutes later than planned. Although, we were stoning like no one's business... the glowing sun rays were worth all of it!



Demona: The killing scene after math. What was left of the "babi guleng" after being "guleng-ed" for hours and hours, roasting to perfection! A boney sight of the piglet's jaw. Poooor piggie ! :(



Demona: Another intricate, detailed, beautifully carved statue as part of the Balinese theme for the Beach Bali hotel.



Demona: Buddha statue with a dimly lit marmalade coloured bulb light in the gardens of our hotel.



Demona: Beautiful view of the restaurant at night.



Demona: Cheap dinner, with a spectacular view to eat with. Worth every penny! Kinda' romantic, I must say.



Demona: Our hotel!



Demona: The view of Sanur beach at night. Romantic, eh?



Demona: Kuta beach by day, the sound of the waves were like loud "THUMPS"! Beautiful. Flooded with caucasians, mostly testing their abilities to ride with the waves.



Demona: Another closer view of Kuta beach.



Demona: Baby turtles! Kept safely in a small secluded area, to prevent any danger from happening to them! Apparently, baby turtles are a sought after delicacy here :( Nooooooooo.... they're too cutey to be eaten!



Demona: Great band, they were playing good olde' rock ballads, and some love songs. Just the kinda' tunes you would want to hear in a place as beautiful as this. I could see all the love birds sitting on the steps in front of the band going all " awhhhhhhhhhhh"

Black Canyon Cafe@Denpasar Airport

Our last meal in Bali, at Denpasar Airport's BlackCanyon Cafe just outside the departure hall.
It was a smart move by Demona to dine before we check in as the price inside the depature area was double the normal price. Example: the big mac was 18k RP outside the departure hall, but it was 29k RP inside the departure hall.

Black Canyon Nasi Campur@20K RP: This was yum yum yum!. Nicely fried drumstick,rendang beef and the famed stirred fried mixed vege.. Ahhhhh... so nice and so cheap!!

Watermelon Juice@9K Rupiah: For abt 1.50SGD, you have 100% freshly squeezed watermelon juice in a decent cafe in the airport...Not to forget the painstaking carved watermelon deco by the glass as well.. SCREAMING CHEAP! Orange Juice@9K RP: Another fresh juice before boarding the plane! Fresh hand-squeezed 100% orangejuice. Bali = 1.50SGD. Singapore = 5.50SGD, KL = 9,90RM....We love BALI!

Starbucks Kuta

It's getting a bit hot in the afternoon in Kuta and we stop by at Starbucks Bali, situated right beside the HardRock Cafe:
You know, Kuta Beach literally looks like an Aussie Beach with tons of Austrialians and Aussie shops/goods/foods. Barring the passing local hawkers and street peddlers + chaotic motorbike, this place could really pass off as an Aussie beach front.

Caramel Jave Chip Frappucino without Whipped Cream: 49K RP ~ 7.50sgd: Taste the same as what you get at other starbucks outlet around the globe, thick thick coffee frap with choco chip bits and caramel on top... Nice drink in the scorching hot beach! ( btw, 49K Rupiah could easily feed 3-4 adults at a local warung shop.)

Sari Bhuana Babi Guleng 2@Kuta

After our first meal of Babi Guling in Sanur, we were not totally satisfied yet and long for a better babi guling stall with more kick...One of the cab driver recommended us the Sari Bhuana Stall in Kuta while driving us back to our hotel. Our mind is set and we went down again to Kuta to try this Babi Guling on our last day in Bali just before our flight.

A lil bit about the stall: The stall is just a tiny little stall by the road side in between some hardware shop. There are some small wooden hut/pondok behind the stall, right beside the hardware stall storage area for diners to dine in. It's quite an unique experience dining within the compound of some storage area while enjoying excellent babi guling.
The head: This beautifully charred head of 6 months old babi guling greeted us upon entering this small little stall by the road side. The head looks crispy, clean and fresh compared to other stalls. The body: Another view of the babi guling. From this angle it looks like a decapitated doggie/hyena head. yew.....


The liver: We did not order this as eating extremely black liver is not exactly my cup of tea.
The meat: Babi Kicap: This is very good! The meat was well marinated in soya sauce (kicap) and some spices before being grilled and stirred fried till dry and crispy. It's a tad oily with tons of oil dripping but hey, the taste of this babi kicap is very similar to our Char Siew but 4times better!

The sausages: Meat + intestines + what not wrapped in some pork intestines. Pretty tasty, but a tad fatty. You could taste chunks of pork fats in the sausages.
Coke: Our only fizzy drink for the entire trip.. great after an long walk under the scorching sun


Sari Bhuana @Jl Raya Tuban 85XX, Kuta, Bali

Kuta Dinner by the beach

The last nite at Bali and what better place to have except by the beautiful Kuta Beach.
We were done with swimming around the beach front of Discovery Mall and proceeded to check out the various restaurant there.
Hmm most were priced at 80-100k rupiah per pax kinda of dinner aimed at tourist until we chanced upon the restaurant beside Discovery Mall.

The view of the restaurant is so beautiful. We just sit down by the beach, facing the sunset and sipping cheap Bintang beer. True Bliss.

Chicken Parmigianna 35k RP: Demona seemed to have a fondness of Parmigianna. I still remember vividly in Melbourne where we decided to have our only proper meal for the whole tripin an italian restaurant. In the end somehow we ended ordering 2 Parmigianna - Chicken for me and Pork for her. It's kinda dissapointing when the food arrived as both tasted the same. Anyway, back to this Chicken Parmigianna in Bali, it tasted so so, but you could hardly fault it in front of this scenic tranquility.

Beef Burger@32K RP: This is good. Nicely grilled burger patties and hot hot fries...MMMMM!! Fabulous!

I love BALI!

Ice Cream @Kuta

Demona: While adventurously (or blindly in other words) walking around the streets of Kuta, exploring for whatever that was eye-catching up ahead. That was when we walked past this gelato shop. That HUGE giant ice cream cone cut-out poster caught our eyes.



Demona: We looked left and were greeted with tubs and tubs of beautifully-decorated-and-looked-oh-so-delicious! gelato ice creams and we just could not walk away from it. It was like as if a spell was cast upon us. We had forgotten how full we actually were from the heavy lunch, and started choosing the flavours.



Demona: I am an ALL TIME fan of Kinder Bueno. Best part of all, 3 packs of Kinder is only SGD 3.40! Where as, only ONE pack of Kinder in Malaysia is priced at an average of RM 2.90. Kinder was a luxury, thus Dogma always buys KB over from Singapore when I was still based in KL... and I'll be gleefully tearing away the packet and chomping down the bueno, like a dog getting a bacon doggie treat. But these little Dogma doggie treats seemed to have slowed down as time passes by...... (GRRRRRRRRRRR)...... ladies out there, are all men like that? Haha.

Alright, I apologise, it appears that I had diverted away. Haha. Back to the story, needless to say, the Kinder Bueno flavour caught my attention right away. I didn't even bothered tasting the flavour. The KBs stucked in between ice cream was enough to convince me.



Demona: Dogma chose the Don Vito flavour, with some raspberry flavours. He wanted to choose some local flavours, eg: mangosteen, durian, but I unleashed my veto power and said.. NOOOOOOOO.

Verdict: The total cost was 45000 rupiah. I was very disappointed when the ice cream cone was handed over to us. The scoops were....SO SMALL. SO SO SO SO SMALL. Pathetically small that it did not even fit the cone space. It was nothing near the looks of the giant cut-out poster. I was already grumbling to Dogma in Hokkien by then. The taste of the ice creams were disappointing too. If we HAD to choose the better of the two, the Kinder was better than Don Vito's.

You can taste the flavour of the Kinder in the ice cream, but ZERO chocolate chunks were found in it. YAWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.

The Don Vito one tasted quite wierd. The raspberry flavour taste kinda' swung towards the cough syrup effect. You could taste small gritty bits of the berries but that was about it. Let Dogma finish this one up. PHEW.

Warung Warung@ Kuta

While walking along the street in Kuta, we chanced upon this little restaurant near the beach. It was the only restaurant for a good 500 metres stretch that sells Local food instead of international cuisine aimed at home sick tourists. Thanks to Demona for spotting this cheap and good joint!

One thing i like about Bali is that most of the decoration of the Local restaurant are very Bali-nee, unique, clean and classy while maintaining at a good price point ( around 30-50k Rupiah per pax= 5-8sgd)Nasi Campur@27K Rupiah, 3.80SGD): We shared this big plate of nasi campur with bali fish cake, sambal eggplant, typical bali stired fried beansprout and beef rendang. The rendang and eggplant was oh-so-yummy and pack with some powerful stingy spice that rivals Warong M Nasir's at Killiney road Singapore. Did we mentioned the prawncrackers are FOC and this dish cost half the price of M Nasir's?


Sambals: Assorted sambal for Demona's perusal. These lil red stuff does rock! Spicy yet savoury, Demona wipe this bowl clean and still craving for more!
Fried BeeHoon@20K Rupiah =3SGD: This is quite a let down. The beehoon is a tad dry and tasteless. Pooi!
Fresh Mango Juice@10k Rupiah= 1.50sgd: I'm not sure why but the fresh fruit juice in Bali are always dirt cheap and taste damn good. They do really use 100% fresh fruit and blend on the spot for this glass of mango juice. Thick, tangy fresh mango juice, ( no sugar and water added!) OOO LALALA,, Demona is so fixed on this that she ordered fruit juice for every meal in Bali while i sip on my Bali Coffee and Bintang beer.
This is a pretty innovative way for keeping track of what you'd ordered. For every dish that was delivered to you, the waiter will put these little green card on your table indicating the price of the food you'd received. once you are done, just pass this cards to the cashier and he will Picit picit picit and add them all up. Cute!

Location: by kuta galeria simpang siur mall.
it has bright green wall with old black and white pictures. the ceiling is full of white lampions and empty birdcages.