Feasting for Hours: Rijsttafel in Ubud-Bali

I had seen Warung Enak mentioned in a travel review before we left so I had jotted down some information about it. (Warung is the name for a casual, usually outdoor, restaurant in Indonesia, by the way.) When we arrived I was surprised to find that the restaurant was practically next door to the bungalows where we were staying.

Each selection came out in a small dish with enough for a couple bites for each of us. This was such a great way to try to so many foods! We were full by the end, of course, but not disgustingly stuffed.

The starter included four dishes. We began with the Tum Ayam from Bali, a chicken terrine on fern tip salad. On a hike I will talk about in a later post we were able to see these fern tips in comparison to the ferns that wouldn’t be eaten.

Next was the Lumpia Semarang from central Java. This deep fried spring roll included shrimp, bamboo shoots and fermented soy bean sauce. In this same picture to the right you will see the Empek-Empek Palembang from south Sumatra, a deep fried fish dumpling filled with egg and served with on sour palm sugar sauce blended with dried shrimp.

Finally, Asinan Jakarta from Batavia. Yam bean, carrot, cucumber, bean sprouts tofu which were tossed in chili rice vinaigrette and served with fried egg noodles.

On to the soup course. The Soto Betawi was from Batavia as well. It was a beef soup with fragrant spices. I’m not exactly sure what spices, but I can tell you there was kaffir lime leaf that is so delicious in Thai curries. I’ve found some recipes online so I will have to give it a try myself.

Now, onto the main courses and, wow, there were a lot! It was all served in this lazy susan turntable with a candle lit underneath it to keep the foods warm. There was also a beautifully carved decoration on the top. Now that I think about it, I can’t remember if it was a squash or papaya, but looking at the photo again I’m pretty sure it was papaya.

The main courses were served with rice from a bamboo steamer. Half was white rice and half was saffron yellow rice.

We began with the Sate Kambing from central Java. This was grilled lamb with peanut-soy sauce. Call me boring, but sate was my favorite dish while there. I just love the flavor of the meat, the sweet glaze combined with the salty peanut sauce and the simplicity of the whole thing. It was so delicious straight from the source while in Indonesia.

Next up was Woku Blanga Cakal Putri from Manado. This consisted of trevally (fish) poached in a broth spiced up with lemongrass, ginger, chili and pandan-lime kaffir leaf. Given that I already stated that my overall favorite of this stop was sate, this fish came in second for the meal.

The meal also came with lots of traditionally prepared veggies. Sayur Urab from Bali which is blanched mixed veggies topped off with grated coconut. In addition there was Plecing Kangkung from all over Indonesia which was a spicy water spinach.

Semur Tahu from Batavia was a stewed bean curd in soy broth. The bean curd was a common dish throughout our entire trip. It is something I had never had before, but ended up enjoying. Think of it as a tough tofu that has been fried and is crispy on the outside.

My favorite dish of this meal was the Pangek Sapi from Sumatra. This spicy beef stew with sweet basil leaves had simple flavors, but it really stood out among the rest of the dishes. The beef was so tender.

There were a couple other dishes I didn’t get good pictures because we were enjoying our dinner as the sun was setting. The Ayam Madu Katulistiwa from Kalimantan was a pan fried chicken that was marinated in coriander, cumin, honey and palm sugar. In addition, we had Sambal Goreng Undang from central Java, prawn cooked in coconut broth with snow peas, baby potatoes and quail eggs.

Are you full yet? Well, we still have dessert. Dessert with five different dishes to be exact.

Tamarind and coconut cream ice cream. Then Kue Lumpur from Kalimantan, a sultanas (raisins) and young coconut pancake with vanilla and chocolate sauce followed by Dadar Gulung from all over Indonesia which was a banana crepe filled with coconut jam and pandan (tree leaf) sauce.

There was Bolu Tape from all over Indonesia which was a baked fermented cassava cake (shown below) with raisins. As I’ve mentioned before, cassava is mandioca in southern Brazil and in all our time there I never saw it used in a dessert. Perhaps they use it for this purpose in the north of Brazil. I should look that up.

I saved the most intriguing to me for the last, Bubur Injin also from all over Indonesia (shown above). This was a black rice sticky pudding with jack fruit and coconut cream. At first bite I immediately noticed how it lacked an overly sweet flavor. This was actually a very good thing. I got so used to the desserts in Brazil being so overwhelmingly sweet that this contrast was nice. I could be completely wrong is this assessment, but from what we tried, I got the impression that in Bali most of the desserts are only mildly sweet.

That was one long list of food and honestly there was nothing served that we didn’t like. I was going to continue with the rest of our good eats in Bali, but I think I’ll save it for a part 2. I need to tell you all about our visit to the Dirty Duck, a recommendation for Selba at Selby’s Food Corner.

There is a lot more to come on the foods of Southeast Asia! Hopefully after the first of the year I will begin making my own versions of some of our favorites.

Warung Enak Bali
Ubud Bali
Phone: 62 361 972911
Getting there