KEMIRI AT UMA UBUD

After our fruitful morning exploring Ubud, we stopped by the Como Shambhala Estate's sister property Uma Ubud for a quiet lunch a deux since there was no one else at the restaurant that day so we had whole place to ourselves.

The open-air restaurant is an all-white bale right beside a large Koi pond and surrounded by a lush tropical garden.  We were offered two menus - an orange one which had typical Continental cuisine and a beige one that offered their healthy Como Shambala cuisine with an emphasis on raw food.  A had their linguine with garlic, fresh herbs and tuna while I chose two starters: the raw tuna, seaweed and noodle salad followed by the gazpacho.

We were served a basket of homemade bread - cheese rolls, crispy crackers and brown bread while we waited for our lunch to be served.  A's pasta was simple but tasty and the portion was big enough to share.  My tuna salad was delicious and filled with several types of seaweed and cold noodles tossed in a sesame oil-based vinaigrette.  The gazpacho was less successful as it was a tad too spicy (hint of too much Tabasco maybe?) although it was also refreshing on such a hot day.  We opted not to have dessert but were given a small taster anyway which was a nice touch - a pomegranate granita over sliced papaya and some sticky rice pudding at the bottom of the shot glass.  It was a pleasant lunch and one that made me realize that raw food is pretty good.

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Kemiri at Uma Ubud

Jalan Raya Sangginan

Banjar Lungsiakan

Kedewatan, Ubud

Gianyar 80571

Telephone: +62 361 972 448

CAFE SENIMAN

Last week, we went up to Ubud to visit our friends Marcello and Michi at Gaya Ceramics and to have a look at their sale items to add to our growing collection of Gaya plates and platters.  After an hour spent looking through their shelves, we went to have a coffee at Cafe Seniman which I had heard about from friends of Novita who had recommended it as a good place for coffee in Ubud.

Cafe Seniman is off the main street Jalan Raya Ubud and is a tiny two-story cafe with a wooden coffee cart with a few stools right by the entrance and a few more tables further up on the terrace.  The place is simply decorated with the focus on their coffee- organic, made-to-order brew of specialty Indonesian coffee.  On that morning, they had the Sumatra Gayo mountain coffee bean which is their house bean and two others: Sulawesi Toraja Kalossi and the Kintamani from Bali.  I had a Sulawesi espresso macchiato served on a special wooden palette which held a glass of water and a tiny plate of local coconut-encrusted rice cakes.  Service was friendly and the barista clearly knew what he was doing.  It was a good early stop after a morning of retail therapy at Gaya.

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Cafe Seniman

Jalan Sriwedari (near Taman village)

Ubud 80571

Telephone: +62 361 972 085

*Open daily from 10 a.m.

CLEAR CAFE

On one of those clear, sunny days Bali is known for, a friend and I drove up to Ubud for the day to see a  few of my favorite shops - a tiny roadside spot in Batubulan where handmade quilted bed covers and pillow covers are displayed, Marcello and Michi at Gaya Ceramics for beautiful, one-of-a-kind ceramics and finally my most recent discovery, block-printed batik fabrics from Katherine Rally.  T bought several bed covers and some pillow covers as well while I stuck to my list and ordered fabric for some new chairs we had ordered from Seminyak-based Stephane Sensey.  By the time we were finished at Katherine Rally, we were ready for some lunch.  I was planning to try the newly-opened Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Saveurs until I asked Kathy for her suggestion and she said that a new cafe had just opened on Jalan Hanoman that was quite fun so we went there instead.

Clear Cafe is a small modern restaurant that's easy to miss as the entrance is set further back from the main road by a widely-spaced planted bamboo fence.  Through the bamboo fronds, one sees a large, wide-open wooden door with a few steps leading up to it filled with all sorts of shoes, sandals and flip-flops.  We left our chunky espadrilles at the door and headed into a modern, light-filled space with several tables lining each side and a large communal table in the center.  Further in the back past a little lotus pond are several more booths and a bale where a group can sit on the ground and have a pseudo-picnic served to them.

The place was surprisingly packed with mostly expats and tourists who were all happily tucking into their food.  The menu at Clear Cafe is quite extensive - lots of special fruit juices and smoothies with their ingredients clearly listed along with their effects and a varied organic menu with lots of vegan and vegetarian options along with other healthy dishes.

We both chose a fruit drink - the fresh mango juice mangga mile for me (supposedly good for expecting mothers and babies, neither of which I am) and the more exotic twilight tonic of nutrient-rich turmeric, honey, lemon and sea salt for T.  Her drink came in a ceramic tumbler and was cold and surprisingly refreshing with the hint of turmeric and sea salt really bringing out the citrus flavor.

T had the one Kathy recommended - dragon bowl which is a large bowl of red rice topped with marinated grilled fish (or tofu) and stir-fried bean sprouts carrots and onions.  I had the more traditional golden temple curry of assorted vegetables (zucchini, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli) in yellow curry-flavored coconut cream which came with saffron rice.  The food was quite tasty and the portions were large.  If we weren't stuffed, we would have tried one of their kombuchas (detoxifying Russian tea concoctions) or tried one of their fresh-dairy milk lattes.  And with that, we headed back down south to Sanur satisfied with our Ubud excursion of shopping and lunch.

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Clear Cafe 

Jalan Hanoman No. 8 
Padang Tegal Kaje 

Ubud, Bali
Telephone: +62 361 889 4437

*Open all-day every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

KAGEMUSHA

On a rainy Saturday morning, A & I headed up to Ubud for the day to order a new set of plates from Gaya Ceramics (which is about time since we're still using our wedding china).  After looking through their display and making our selection (a modern textured base plate, dinner plate and bowl), we headed out to lunch with Marcello and Michela to their preferred Japanese restaurant in Ubud. 

Kagemusha is a small open-air warung just off the main road, through a side alley and down a paved walkway alongside a rice paddy.  The place is simple with a few wooden tables in the main area and three traditional low tables with floor seating on one side.  Their specialty is Japanese home-style cooking.

We ordered several dishes to share - two types of grilled aubergine, one with miso which was sweet and smoky and another plain brushed with soy sauce which really brought out the flavor of the eggplant, vegetable tempura, deep-fried squid with shallots, chili and lime, a simple salad with sesame dressing, grilled pork loin, yakitori and steamed rice.  Sharing home-style food with friends is one of the most enjoyable ways to eat together and the simple flavors at Kagemusha make the meal even more enjoyable.  Thanks Marcello & Michi for sharing one of your local favorites!

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• Kagemusha
• Jalan Raya Pengosekan
• Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
• Telephone: +62 361 973134

IBU OKA

In every city, there are places that can't be missed.  In Bali, there is a foodie pilgrimage that has to be made and that is at Ubud's Ibu Oka.  This is THE dive that Anthony Bourdain made famous in his No Reservations episode on Bali.  It's still in the same spot it's always been and no renovations have been made (yet) so it's still pretty authentic.

Our blogger/foodie friends from Eat The World, Kiko and Maria, were in Bali on the Southeast Asian tour of their round-the-world trip and we thought it would be a good idea to go to Ibu Oka with them and taste why their Babi Guling (roast pig) was such a big deal.  We met up with them at another Bali institution, Kopi Bali, which I think has the best coffee on the island, near our new home (yes, we finally found a place to live).  After a quick espresso, we headed up North towards Ubud passing all the little villages on the way with each one specializing on a particular craft - stone carving, wood carving, basket making etc. - but we skipped all that and went straight to Ibu Oka.

Just past Ubud's monkey forest and diagonally across the street from the royal temple is this roadside stand/warung that dishes out paper-lined baskets of roast pork all day long.  We arrived after 1 p.m.  and since it was mid-week, there were no busloads of tourists queuing up for lunch on that day.  They say that on weekends you need to get there before noon as they run out of pigs really fast.  On that day, the place was full and although there wasn't a line snaking out the door, there was a crowd right by the stall, buying roast pig to-go.

After ogling the whole crispy-skinned pig near the entrance, we left our flip-flops in the large pile on the steps and went in to try and find a spot to sit.  There were about 10 wooden tables lined up with the floors covered in mats and everyone sitting cross-legged, side-by-side eating loads of roast pig.  We had to sit separately as there were no more places for four so Kiko and Maria went off to the middle row while A and I sat at a corner table facing the wall-mounted menu.  We placed our orders quickly for two plates of Nasi (rice) + Babi Guling spesial (roast pig) for 25,000 Indonesian Rupiahs or around US$2.50 a plate. While waiting, we opened a few packets of the deep-fried delicacies stacked up in a plastic container in every table - krupuk (prawn crackers), melinjo crackers, pork cracklings.  Despite the mess, crowd and confusion, the waitstaff knew exactly what they were doing and we got our orders not long afterwards. The two paper-lined baskets were identically stacked with steamed white rice, topped with thin slices of roast pork meat, a piece of crispy pork skin, a mound of spicy green beans and a few chunks of pork sausage. 

Was it good?  Yes!  Was it worth the trip up to Ubud? Yes again.  We enjoyed it so much that we decided to order another basket of just slices of roast pork meat.  This time it was better as there were several thin slices of roast pork drizzled with the drippings and topped with an even larger piece of crackling.  At this point, the restaurant was still full and there were still people standing around waiting for a place to sit, and as it's quite uncomfortable to sit cross-legged on the floor, we did a "dine and dash" and gave up our little spot to pay at the cashier.  As we searched four our flip-flops in the growing mound of slippers and shoes on our way out, a motorcycle came chugging by with two men on it, one driving and the other balancing a metal tray with a whole roasted pig on his head.  I missed that photo but that's what Bali is all about - fleeting moments of interesting photo and food opportunities, if you look really hard and pay attention to what's going on around you.  Ibu Oka is one of those so get there if you can.

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Warung Babi Guling Ibu Oka 

Jalan Tegal Sari 2

Ubud, Bali

Telephone: +62 361 976 345

GAYA GELATO

On our way back from Ubud, A insisted to take me to what he considers the best gelato on the island - Gaya Gelato.  Further up the road towards Ubud from Gaya ceramics, this little ice cream place is located alongside the large modern structure which is the Gaya gallery on the ground floor and the Gaya restaurant on the upper level.

This modern concrete box has a few ceramic tables and chairs outside and a display counter on the inside where the multi-flavored gelatos and sorbettos are displayed.  They also serve granite (slushy flavored ice) and tiramisu.  Also for sale are cookies, home-made cakes and ceramics.  Hard to choose when there are so many delicious flavors, we finally settled on a scoop of cioccolato for A and a scoop of caffe for myself.  The cioccolato was pure dark chocolate and the caffe was frozen espresso.  Creamy gelato perfect for a sunny day in Bali.  Best part is they deliver.  Just wait until we move into our house, I'm putting their number on speed dial.

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Gaya Gelato

(in the same building as the Gaya gallery and Gaya restaurant)

Jl. Raya Sayan, Ubud

Bali, Indonesia 80571
Telephone: +62 361 979252  or 979253

NAUGHTY NURI'S

Last weekend, we went up to Ubud for the day to see a few places.  First stop was Gaya Ceramics on the main road where we spent most of the morning chatting with Marcello and Miki about their amazing work and seeing the ceramics being made.  Next stop was a tour of the Como Shambhala estate which was impressive - the location right by the river gorge and the feeling of being completely surrounded by nature. Trekking up and down the property made us hungry which is what brought us to our penultimate stop - lunch at Ubud's infamous Naughty Nuri's Warung .

Naughty Nuri's is well-known for its' killer martinis, rowdy mix of expats and locals and barbecued ribs and this is what we went there for.  The place was packed - communal tables filled with groups enjoying cold bottles of  Bintang and plates of their famous ribs.  As soon as we found a space, we sat at on one of the benches and placed our order - two ribs, one mashed potato, one rice, two iced teas.  While waiting for our ribs which were being grilled right behind me on the roadside barbecue, we watched the crowd around us enjoy their lunch and fanned ourselves silly.  Soon enough, two plates of sticky-looking rib racks with half a lime were plonked onto the wooden table along with a bowl of garlicky-mash and another of steamed rice.  We squirted the lime juice onto the piping hot ribs and dug in.  Were they good? Yes!  Was it worth the trip and the heat? Yes again! There were lots of people standing around waiting to sit so after our lunch, we did as the large sign near the front said "Eat, Pay Leave."  Naughty Nuri's is a dive, one with a sense of humor and delicious ribs. 

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Naught Nuri's

(Across the road from Neka Museum)

Jl. Raya Sanggingan

Ubud, Bali
Telephone: +62 361 977 547
Open daily from 8am - 10pm