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Learn the secrets to Bali's freshest and boldest flavours, then put your skills to the test, in an afternoon at Casa Luna Cooking School.
If the world was judged as a menu, Bali would be a contender for every course. Rachel Thomas hunts out six of the best experiences a foodie can have in the Island of the Gods.
1. CASA LUNA COOKING SCHOOL
Jalan Bisma, Ubud
Classes daily $$
The blade sticks to my hands as I mash garlic on a round slab board that's almost as thick as the humidity.
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Rachel Thomas, right, watches Janet De Neefe stir fried tempeh into a sambal dish.
The apron feels cumbersome around my waist and sweat builds on my neck, but the sambal isn't going to make itself and Janet De Neefe wants me to keep going.
She's spent the afternoon acquainting us with Bali's flavour heroes – an army of intense, bulbous flavours, at her famed Casa Luna Cooking School. It's a crash course in Indonesia's backyard of unapologetic foods and flavours.
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Janet De Neefe also owns Indus restaurant in Ubud, which serves a spectacular seafood paella.
* Kiwis in flight: A beginner's guide to Ubud, our favourite town in Bali
* Green School, Bali: where there are no walls, no algebra classes and no limits
* Bali travel guide and tips: 20 things that will surprise first-time visitors
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Banana leaves on woven plates make for an environmentally friendly dinner.
We pass around ginger's gargantuan brother, galangal, which smells of pine and is said to help with circulation.
She introduces us to candlenut, or kemiri, like a macadamia but oilier, and not to be eaten raw.
"If your plumbing isn't working, you can take a dose of this," De Neefe says in her Australian twang.
Melbourne-born De Neefe came to Bali as a tourist in 1984, when ducks and cows still wandered the streets. She fell in love with a Balinese man days later and abruptly packed up, left Australia, "and threw myself into a new life". She's since established the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, a homewares brand, become an Airbnb host, and started a handful of bars and restaurants in Bali.
One of them is Ubud's Indus restaurant, which overlooks a dense river valley, and serves a seafood paella I'd pay for twice.
As the sun goes down, we prep pumpkin and bamboo curries, greens with roasted coconut – or urab, and the crowning glory – sambal.
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Tegalalang rice fields, outside the main centre, showcases Bali's most cared-for land.
Sambal is a hot sauce, as common to Balinese people as salt and pepper. It's essentially shrimp paste, fresh chilli, garlic, shallots, coconut oil and salt.
Making it requires a huge stone mortal and pestle and sustained elbow grease. After a long day in the sun, each person that steps up to grind is quick to quip, "anyone else want a turn?".
Finally, fried tempeh goes into the red whirlpool and De Neefe hands out forks.
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Locavore sources its staff based on willingness to learn and social skills, rather than experience. Managers carefully train the staff, give them responsibility and let them fly.
The curries come out, and we dish up on woven bamboo plates, covered in compostable squares of banana leaf. It's delicious, and rewarding to think we made every coloured morsel from scratch.
Classes start from Rp 400,000 ($NZ41) a person and last an afternoon.
2. LOCAVORE
Jalan Dewi Sita, Ubud
Open Mon-Sat, lunch and dinner
$$$
RUPERT SINGLETON/SUPPLIED
Locavore's crab dish is a blend of crab meats, spicy creme, cantaloupe melon, dark sour dough and cured egg yolk - all locally sourced.
TripAdvisor named Locavore the best fine dining restaurant in Indonesia in 2016, and 23rd worldwide. It's little wonder. Every dish has a story, and every taste is on purpose.
"Into the Sawah" takes its name from rice fields – sawah – and marries high grade rice with snails, garlic, duck egg, fern tips and wild flowers.
Locavore – as its name implies – exists to celebrate locally grown food, prepared by classically trained chefs, Eelke Plasmeijer and Ray Adriansyah.Plasmeijer cut his teeth at a two-star Michelin restaurant in Amsterdam, and Adriansyah, born in Jakarta, trained in Christchurch.
RUPERT SINGLETON/SUPPLIED
Kasida, AKA "Boss", left, from Locavore To Go - a popular destination for fresh home made breakfasts, lunches and snacks throughout the day.
Ninety-five per cent of ingredients are sourced locally – down to the sea salt and unique serving dishes. "Everything we use was still on/in the land/water/farm/sky on that same morning," Plasmeijer explains.
"It just makes sense to use the things from your surroundings, especially if they are as beautiful as they are here".
Locovore is typically booked out a month in advance, sometimes two, so it requires some precise pre-planning.
RUPERT SINGLETON/SUPPLIED
Locavore's dish, Into the Sawah marries high grade rice with snails, garlic, duck egg, fern tips and wild flowers.
Set menus start from $65 each, up to $148 with drinks pairings.
The good news is, Locavore has opened a sister restaurant, Nusantara, right across the street, which welcomes walk-ins.
Locavore To Go is just up the road too, where you can pick up a Banh Mi or pulled pork bun for under $9.
RUPERT SINGLETON/SUPPLIED
Slices of rujak, served as an amuse-bouche snack at Locavore.
3. BALI GEO COFFEE PLANTATION
Jalan Banjar Gagah, Tegalalang
Luwak coffee should taste like s..t, because technically, it is.
It's made from the poo of the Asian civet – a cat-like creature that's left to roam coffee plantations at night and eat the finest, ripest cherries.
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A local roasts coffee at Bali Geo, near the Tegalalang rice fields.
Stomach acids from the civet are thought to take away the bitterness and leave a smooth taste. Luwak – done properly – is about $5/cup and should have an earthy, smooth taste. Many hate it, but it's worth trying once.
Balinese coffee, traditionally, is black and bitter, with grounds in the bottom. Variations include those with ginseng, chocolate or ginger. It's not for everyone and certainly not for me.
The coconut blend goes down the best – with its coconut cream, non-dairy cream and sugar, followed closely by the sweet teas – lemongrass, rosella or hibiscus tea, and fresh ginger.
PANDE KADEK/APEL PHOTOGRAPHY
Coffee plantations are the best place to try the famous luwak coffee, which has been through the digestive system of a civet. Buying a luwak coffee usually gets you a smorgasboard of extra tasters.
For a familiar flat white, head to Sisterfields, Bo$$ Man or Bikini in Seminyak Square – all the brainchildren of New Zealand-born chef Jethro Vincent.
4. MAMA SAN
Jalan Raya Kerobokan, Badung
Open daily, lunch and dinner
$$-$$$
It's lunch-time at Mama San just outside the crowded shopping hub of Seminyak, where an enormous portrait of an Oriental woman on the back wall entice us into the air-con.
PANDE KADEK/APEL PHOTOGRAPHY
Mama San's interior has a rustic, Asian-fusion theme.
We're on a $43pp set menu, but we've over-indulged on crispy squid and Thai beef salad entrees so we're leaning back in our chairs even before the main course arrives.
Will Meyrick, the executive chef and innovator behind other top restaurants Sarong, Hujan Locale and Tiger Palm, pops out to meet us and laugh at our full stomachs.
The main courses are served, generous portions, and we ignore our internal warnings to fill our plates with braised, short-rib beef, massaman curry, red curry and crispy pork hock – all of which prove well worth the discomfort.
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Mama San's crispy pork hock.
If you do decide to skip the main course, the loft-style cocktail lounge upstairs – filled with leather armchairs and ottomans, is worth a look for the vodka chilli limoncello martini.
5. THE NIGHT ROOSTER
Jalan Dewi Sita, Padangtegal, Ubud
Open Mon-Sat, 4pm-midnight
Another of Locavore's spawn, The Night Rooster is not yet 2 years old, but has already snuck onto a list of Asia's 50 Best Bars, at No 50.
As staff pass out the Loloh 2.0 – a symphony of ginger, white rum and tangy lime, manager Raka Ambarawan explains how this is what he loves.
Ubud is a magnet for yogis, girls on vacay and honeymooners, and The Night Rooster goes against the grain in not pandering to any of these groups.
Ambarawan offers cocktails that showcase the abundance of fresh, local produce, and mix Tanqueray and Sailor Jerry with unique, locally brewed spirits. They're intended for fun, and art, not precursors to wild nights out, or health kicks.
RUPERT SINGLETON/SUPPLIED
Raka Ambarawan manages The Night Rooster - Ubud's coolest cocktail bar, which is shaking up Bali's cocktail scene.
Opening the place may have been a gamble but owner Eelke Plasmeijer says it was a happy one.
"We had Raka working with us since the day we opened Locavore and he was doing all these amazing things that we simply had to open his own place were he can shine."
GETTING THERE: Air New Zealand has a partnership with Virgin Australia, flying from Auckland to Denpasar, via Brisbane, from NZ$883. New Zealanders are automatically granted a 30-day free visa upon entry. No need to apply in advance.
TIPS
Unless you're willing to gamble on eating dog, don't eat the street food.
Always drink bottled water. Hotels, villas and ubers are all pretty good at providing free bottled water, but if you run out, any Circle K, Alfamart, Minimart or pharmacy sells them for small change.
Opt for Ubers over taxis. Uber drivers can't rip you off. If you do catch a cab, agree on a flat rate before you get in.
Only change money at the airport, or authorised money changers. They look like banks, and usually have guards out the front.
The writer travelled courtesy of Airbnb.
- Stuff
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