Yum Yum! A Survey of Food in Bali, Indonesia

Food in Bali

Food in Bali consists of a large variety of meat, fish and vegetables. While Balinesian food is not the same as traditional Indonesian food, it is still quite good. Here are a few highlights…

Bakso

This is my favorite dish in Bali. It’s really just a soup with chicken broth, some noodles, a few bits of veggies, spices and weird meatballs made of chicken.

The chicken balls are kind of rubbery and sometimes have ground up bits of bone still in them. However, as gross as this may sound, it’s absolutely delicious, cheap (if you find it on the street outside of a main tourist spot) and somewhat filling.

Nasi Campur

I had this dish twice…once it was amazing, the other time not so much. Regardless, it is the most common food in Bali and consists of rice topped with chicken satay, veggies, an egg and fried shrimp chips.

Gado Gado

Leave it to the vegetarian to find my second favorite dish, as I never would have tried it on my own. The plate has tofu, bean sprouts, peanut sauce, some other sauce that is like a sweet soy sauce, chili (not for Carrie) and compressed rice.

The rice is boiled then cooled while wrapped in a banana leaf, so it has the consistency of tofu rather than of normal rice. When combined, the result is scrumptious.

Other Traditional Balinisian Foods

A few other traditional foods that I liked a bit less included nasi goreng (fried rice with veggies, chicken and egg) and mie goreng (fried rice with veggies, chicken and egg).

I really don’t have anything specific against them other than that they seem more like something I would expect in any Asian country and not Bali-specific.