Balinese food guide

Balinese cooking and cuisine is enough to get anyone’s tastebuds tingling and so no wonder it is one of the highlights of most people’s visits to the Hindu island paradise. Food ranges from delicious sizzling snacks at roadside hawker stalls to luxurious banquets and fine a la carte dining at the upscale resorts of Nusa Dua.

Bali fruits are always in season and include the star fruit and the papaya. There are more than enough coconuts to go around and the ever present avocado never fails to appear at least once on any menu. Look too for pineapples, carved to order right on the sand of the beach by expert fruitologists.

Close to this scale of operations are the markets that run night and day, serving up all manner of delicious treats from sizzling hot plates and barbecues. These treats are very inexpensive and in general are fresh and hygienic. There are occasional problems from food bought at stalls, but that can be said for more formal dining options too.

More upscale dining options are not difficult to find in Bali. All the top resorts in Nusa Dua will have five star fine dining restaurants and there are several very flash outfits in Ubud also. Prices at these places represent exceptional value since even though they are many, many times more expensive than a typical meal elsewhere in Bali they are dirt cheap considering what is on offer.