In such situations I would normally play it safe and go for the kind of food that I’m familiar with like Mcdonalds or KFC or Pizza Hut. Put the I-can-eat-this-in-Singapore theory aside, at least you know what you’re expecting.

But the thing is sometimes there can be nothing familiar within your sight so what do you do? I remember eating a Tom Yum Chicken soup somewhere in a small lane in Phuket while driving to the mountains and that was to be the most delicious Tom Yum I ever eaten. I also remember eating a Burger in a cafe beside the subway station called Hamburger Hill in Perth one night which turned out to be the best Hamburger I ever eaten. I also remember eating many delicious Middle Eastern food in London that was operated from little corners of little lanes and was some of the best Middle Eastern food I had.

Those experiences tell me that at times it pays to pay attention to food outlets that are off the high street. The thing is some famous food are simply overrated for reasons like because they’re in a good location blah blah blah. Then you have others that were used to be good but suffer the ’standard dropped’ effect after they have built up a good customer base.

Anyway one of my way of sourcing for good food on the go is to see whether staffs in a restaurant are being kept busy. Usually if they are, it is for good reasons.

So when we came across this kopitiam close to lunch time which were seemingly extraordinary busy on a Thursday afternoon somewhere between Kuta Beach and Jimbaran, we can’t wait to park our car and head straight in to find out what’s the fuss all about. As we were to find out later, the reasons were all for this thing called Ayam Betutu.

If after looking at the photo you still don’t know what it is, then let me tell you that when I stepped into the shop and after seeing a plate of it on every table there, I also can’t figure out what it is. On one hand it looked like steamed chicken in some kind of herbal sauces, on another hand it looked like some kind of chicken cooked in some mild curry gravy.

Ayam Betutu: 7/10  

Ayam Betutu is infact chicken cooked in some Balinese spice mixture which consist of tumeric, ginger, kencur, onion, garlic, chilies etc. All in all, the chicken is nothing that I like how my chicken to be cooked – grilled(bakar) or fried(goreng) therefore I were looking at some other things like their Ayam Bakar instead while my partner went for a set of the Ayam Betutu meal.

Ayam Bakar: 7/10  

Our food came and what surprised me is that my half portion of Ayam Bakar is smaller than my partner’s quarter portion of the Ayam Betutu. Ok the Ayam Betutu looked more like the Singapore’s version of chicken while my Ayam Bakar is the Indonesian kampong version. It’s hardly enough for me and I had to order another half portion and after eating 1 whole chicken, it just only managed to satisfy me. Their kampong chicken really need meals that are more nutritionional.

Ayam Betutu here came with pre-fried chilli vegetables(pelecing kangkung) which tasted awful for me but otherwise delicious for my partner. Also accompanying the setwas some peanuts and some sauces.

This place is very very near to the airport, infact just 1 junction away if my memory didn’t fail me. So if you’re going to Bali and got a rented car and it’s about lunch time when you’re about to go out from the airport, then I recommend this Ayam Betutu Khas Gilimanuk place at Jalan Raya Kuta to kickstart your Bali makan adventure.

Price: SGD$2-3 for half a chicken

Recommendation: Ayam Betutu(that’s what it’s famous for)

Conclusion: The crowd is amazingly huge at lunch time. Every table there has a plate of Ayam Betutu but it didn’t excited me unfortunately. The Ayam Bakar was good though not exactly fantastic.

Likes: Food is fresh, looked like they cook it after you ordered unlike other similar eating place.

Dislikes: Food not warm enough.

Address		Overall Rating
Ayam Betutu Khas Gilimanuk 203 Jalan Raya Kuta, Bali		Food: 7/10   Value: 8/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 6/10   Cleanliness: 6/10   Overall: 6.75/10

Off the top of my head, I can name a few places like Jumbo or Long Beach at East Coast Seafood Centre, those seafood stalls at Newton Hawker Centre or Boat Quay or Clarke Quay, other restaurants in shopping centres like Tung Lok or Crystal Jade, some Cze Char places like No Signboard or any Cze Char coffeeshop.

As a matter of simple fact, certain places are actually meant for the tourist. Such places exist all over the world and are of course cleverly avoided by the locals. For example, Phuketians would tell you the Patong Beach area is expensive. Johorians would say Kukup is expensive. Heck, Balinese here will say Kuta Beach is expensive to dine but yet for us tourists, here is where we must dine because it is recommended in the travel brochures or in some local tourism websites.

The thing is usually such places are not orchestrated but manifested as a result of popularity. Maybe there just used to be 1 or 2 good restaurants having good business in the beginning and that started to attract others to setup restaurants there and slowly and steadily that place begins to develop a name for itself gradually and before you know, horde of customers are flocking there. Now that obviously would push up valuation of that area and shopowners would obviously begin to increase the rental and these overheads are obviously going to be passed on to consumers and it would become a cycle which would transform the place into one that has the competition where shops need to tout or charge astronomical prices to survive and then it would become what we would call touristy. That situation would be a dead end by itself and has absolutely no appeal to locals and would forever going to be frequented by tourists because if they depended on the locals, they would definitely be in the red. One of such place is of course the famous Newton Hawker Centre.

Yet when we go for a trip, it’s these places that we die die must go, isn’t that a laughable irony? Ok if you agreed with what I said but yet have been to Xu Cheong Gai in Kuala Lumpur, Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong or Shilin Night Market in Taipei, then you can laugh at yourself now because another one of those places is Newton Hawker Centre in Singapore but yet you are clever enough not to go.

Ok Jimbaran is a fishing village in Bali and this place is highly recommended for seafood according to many brochures and the resort that we stayed even have a shuttle service to that place a few times a day. So really that almost ring a ‘Die Die Must Go’ in my head and so we decided to visit on our second night in Bali. The funny thing is while driving towards those restaurants, we suddenly came to this checkpoint and we were to find out that we have to pay just to enter the area where the restaurants are. Now that’s a little funny to me because we’re technically entering a public place which is the beach. We were entering not to see some ancient sculpture or read a piece of any history but to decide which restaurant to dine. It’ll make more sense if they issue a ticket for parking but entry?

Anyway we then were recommended a restaurant by the guy who were collecting money at the checkpoint. He said “Go to Sea Side Cafe. They are good!”. Being naive, we thanked him and count our luck to have a stranger giving us good information as we make our way to find the Sea Side Cafe.

BBQ pit

Dining area

We found it quickly, parked our car and then head into the restaurant. Now since this place is famous for seafood, then we must expect good quality right? In that case any high price should be justifiable right? And so we thought. The prices were very steep. Squids were selling at Rp260 000(SGD$30+) per kg. Mussels were selling at Rp 90 000(SGD$10+) per kg and prawns were selling at Rp290 000(SGD$40+) per kg. We took half a kilo of squid, a kilo of mussels and half a kilo of prawns.

We were then ushered to the beach where there were like 20 tables which were sitting and facing the ocean. It was going to be a candle light dinner. Now that will be a million dollar view during sunset but unfortunately we arrived late at 8+ so all we saw is the same as what you can see at home by painting your wall black.

Our food arrived quickly and we were given complimentary steamed rice and stir fried kang kong.

Grilled Sotong: 4/10  

Our seafood meal: 4.75/10  

Now maybe my expectation was raised after being put through the process of hearing all about Jimbaran from making the trip there to picking my own seafood at the counter but quite frankly my tastebuds hardly fail me and on this occasion, I found myself having to retrain my tastebuds to accept the taste of the food which was way below mediocre for the kind of publicity it had and the price that I saw at the entrance.

Grilled clams: 4/10  

The mussels looked as if it was boiled and tossed with some tasteless chilli sauce and it tasted really really bland, so bland that I couldn’t eat more than 2. The squid which I thought was to be grilled looked more like stir fried with the same chilli sauce. The prawns were grilled but didn’t taste any much better than if I were to grill it myself. The complimentary stir fried Kang Kong tasted like it was cooked few hours ago. The entire meal just didn’t taste like it was cooked right before it was brought to our table. Of course, what truthfully went on behind the scene, we’ll never know. But I wonder how many customers they served had cursed and swore when leaving the place.

Meanwhile let me tell you that the meal cost us Rp394 000(SGD$50+) and it was to be the most expensive meal and yet the worst meal in my entire 11 days trip. That is what I call really ‘Terrible Value’ for the money spent because I can eat better food for half that amount spent in a Singapore coffeeshop anytime.

No amount of spectacular view or immaculate service can cover up for the lack of food quality, in my opinion at least. If anyone ask me if he should eat at Jimbaran at Bali, two words – FORGET IT!

Price: SGD$10 to $40 per kg

Recommendation: None

Conclusion: Possibily the worst seafood meal in my entire life. Nothing I paid for here is of any value to me. I can even watch the same sunset for free at Kuta Beach.

Likes: Nothing.

Dislikes: Quality of food is not acceptable for the price.

Address		Overall Rating
Sea Side Cafe Jimbaran, Bali.		Food: 4/10   Value: 4/10   Service: 5/10   Ambience: 6/10   Cleanliness: 5/10   Overall: 5.75/10

But places like Phuket and Bali suits me just fine because I can move around and especially to find those ‘Die Die Must Eat’ local dish. Now before I came to Bali, I told myself this place I ‘Die Die Must Go’. So many things had been said about this local delight called Babi Guling and not only eat, you must specifically go to the one at Ibu Oka at Ubud which is something like 1 and half hours drive away.

At first I thought 1 and half hours drive is like from Singapore to Malacca which is about 200 kilometres if you were to travel around 120-130km/hr. Of course in Bali, you don’t have expressway wide enough for your car to go at that speed, instead you’re going to be driving dangerously on a single lane road and needing to fight for space with motorcycles. Ok the distance from Kuta Beach(which is the most happening place in Bali) to Ubud is only maybe around 20 to 30 kilometres. The terrible road and traffic conditions made it a 1 and half hours journey which otherwise would just taken you around 10 mins on a highway.

There were recommendation on some websites that said arriving early is good as at times it might get sold out just at lunch time. That really got me worried as we started our journey only at 10 30am and would be reaching at 12pm which is infact lunch time.

We arrived at Ubud just before 12pm and were surprisingly greeted by what seems like a posh restaurant which calls itself Ibu Oka Babi Guling 2. From memory the one I saw on many websites didn’t look like that but is some kind of coffeeshop.

Now, the last thing I want is to come all the way here and go to the one that is an imitation of the original one but as I were to find out later, they actually opened this new branch only recently.

We ordered 2 sets of Nasi Babi Guling Special as recommended by the waiter. Babi Guling is basically suckling pig and so Nasi Babi Guling is technically Suckling Pig Rice served with some vegetables that is cooked in some spices and herbs.

Babi Guling Special: 9/10  

Ours arrived and it had that wonderful bud tiltillating flavour from some kind of herbal gravy covering and decorating the meat. Nasi Babi Guling Special consist of rice, sliced pork, a piece of pig skin, a piece of Gorengan(some kind of fried pork) and vegetables.

Eventhough this is a so called’ Die Die Must Eat’ food, many people after coming all the way here to eat didn’t find it extraordinary and instead asked ‘This is just rice and pork, what’s with all the hype surrounding it?’. My partner belonged to that group and can’t really see where’s the special taste in this food.

Anyway I belong to the opposite and perhaps it is my tastebuds that is easy to please but the fact is at times I can really find joy in very simple food as long it is delicious. And that is what Babi Guling is to me and I will attempt to give it a theme – Simple but yet Deliciously Good. Ok this dish is really very simple visually. There is the rice, the pork, the skin, the goreng and some vegetables. I think you can compare it to our own ‘Sio Bah Peng’ but the thing is there is something special about this version of ‘Sio Bah Peng’ that can please me a few notch higher.

First instead of ‘Sio Bah’(BBQ Pork), they used ‘Sio Ter’(BBQ Young Pig aka Suckling Pig) and we all know that Suckling Pig taste better than the normal pig any time. Second the meat taste like a piece of soft and tender chicken breast more than anything else and it’s to do with the way they slice it just like how the duck meat is being sliced is important or it can taste like a piece of cardboard. Here they’ve clearly not only got it right but perfect.

Gorengan: 9/10  

As if that is not enough, they made the effort to create something which I would call the best ‘Pork Goreng’ in the world though I suspect the pork they’re using here are something that they couldn’t finished selling the previous day and deep fried it in some kind of goreng marinate. This piece of goreng meat is seriously so damn delicious that I ordered a pack for take away(which my partner finished almost all of it leaving just 2 pieces of it while on the way back).

Then above all, they have this herbal aromatic gravy that is poured generously over the meat that made it looked like chicken breast covered with some rendang gravy.

The only thing I didn’t like about this dish is the vegetables. I can’t see where it can blend well with pork and rice though I must say I’m usually not very adventurous with vegetables cooked in exotic ways.

Packet Babi Guling

If you’re wondering, yes I can’t imagine coming here just for a plate and so I ordered another one for takeaway for dinner.

Now I can see why people are screaming that this dish is a ‘Die Die Must Eat’, it is a simple dish no doubt but one that is perfectly put together, in taste, in smell, looks and above all else in the value.

You definitely cannot eat Suckling Pig for $3 in Singapore and even if this were to be exported to Singapore by someone, it will gonna cost you something like $10 to $15.

So there you have it, the Babi Guling at Ibu Oka is something that everybody is talking about simply because this thing is not only deliciously simple but also everything that is being put together here is simply delicious.

Price: SGD$3+

Recommendation: Nasi Babi Guling Special and Gorengan(Fried Meat)

Conclusion: Fantastic Balinese flavoured meal with bit of Indonesian spices in a meal with Suckling Pig that we Chinese are so familiar with. Clearly this is an Indian-Muslim-Chinese fusion food.

Likes: Gorengan.

Dislikes: The vegetables.

Address		Overall Rating
Ubud Babi Guling Along Jl. Suweta, Opposite Ubud Palace & close to the Tourist Information Centre.		Food: 9/10   Value: 9/10   Service: 8/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 6.5/10