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Why
Bali
dishes
are special
 In Bali, most home cooks use quality meats, fresh seafood and newly harvested fruits & vegetables seasoned with an intricate blend of herbs and spices.
Hot chilies are liberally used (though visitors can easily request "mild"
in eateries).
Bali's four
most
famous specialties
Babi Guling - Spit-roasted, crispy skinned suckling pig
Bebek Betutu - Spiced duck slowly cooked in palm or banana leaves
Lawar - Minced innards mixed with chopped vegetables
Bubuh Injin - Black rice pudding (served with sweetened coconut cream)
Balinese cuisine
at the table
Most visitors sample few if any
local meals because authentic Balinese is
difficult to find in restaurants.
The best way to
enjoy the real thing is to be invited to dinner in a Balinese
home or to attend a temple ceremony or festivity that serves Balinese fare.
If that's not in your cards, you can
sometimes find Balinese meals in small roadside
eateries called warungs. Or, for a plusher
setting, dine at the tourist-focused Bumbu Bali
restaurant (just north of Nusa Dua).
Although the
atmospheric Ketupet restaurant in Kuta specializes
in Indonesia fare, it does offer some Balinese mainstays.
Indonesian
Preparations originating in Java, Sumatra
and other parts of Indonesia are easier to find in the Bali restaurants that cater to tourists. Bargain prices
usually prevail. Well-known specialties include:
 Satay (or Sate) - Charcoal-grilled meat or prawns on mini-skewers.
Gado Gado - Fresh and parboiled vegetables tossed in a spicy peanut sauce.
Nasi
Goreng - A fried rice mixture with finely chopped vegetables and either meat or prawns. For the sibling Mei Goreng dish, noodles are used instead of rice.
International
You may be surprised about the large number of
Thai, Chinese, Japanese and European restaurants
in the tourist areas of Bali. There is even a MacDonald's.
Balinese fruits
Be sure to sample a wide variety of Bali's
succulent tropical fruits including mangoes,
papayas, snakefruits, rambutans and passion
fruits.
They can be eaten out of hand or blended
into superb mixed-fruit drinks.
Your favorite
gourmet store back home may stock those fruits,
but they will never be as fresh, ripe and tasty as
in Bali.
Drinking water
Never drink tap water in Bali unless you're positive that that the
hotel or restaurant purifies it. Otherwise, you could get sick.
The same is true for drinking
beverages containing ice cubes made with tap (instead of purified) water.
Sealed bottled water bearing established brand names is safe, widely available and inexpensive in Bali.
Balinese alcoholic beverages
Imported spirits, wines, beers and soft drinks are expensive in Bali due to a hefty import tax.
More affordable are
the Indonesian made beers, soft drinks, wines (top seller is the Hatten brand rose), and these traditional beverages:
Tuak - Sweet palm wine with low potency
Brem - Sweet non-distilled rice based drink with modest potency
Arak - Distilled rice based drink with strong potency
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