Monday, March 23, 2009

The largest tasting menu I've ever eaten

I must have looked like someone who could really eat a whole cow, or maybe the waitress was too polite to tell me NO, but anyway, I ordered the Rijstafel tasting menu at Bumbu Bali in Nusa Dua, Bali last weekend, and lived to regret it. Don't get me wrong, the food was fantastic, and with tasting portions that represented a large portion of the restaurant menu items, but there was simply too much food for one person to finish.

For starters, there were 4 different types of skewered meat, a very delicious and unusual green papaya salad, a tuna salad and a rice cake dish with 2 accompanying dips. The main dishes arrived on a large platter with various types of meat - marinated chicken, sweet pork stew, various types of grilled meat in wrapped in banana leaf, a spicy vegetable dish, beef rendang, another chicken stew and a final met dish that I couldn't remember (and barely tasted).

A barely made a dent, only managing to taste tiny morsels of meat while having some of the white, yellow and red rice varieties. Anyway, finally on to dessert, there was a mixed tropical fruit platter, a black rice pudding, a palm sugar rice pudding and some local glutinous rice pastries. There was definitely enough food for two, but it was just a pity I was dining alone that night.

Bumbu Bali also has cooking classes during the day, and will arrange to take students to the local market to shop for ingredients before the lessons start. The open air kitchen is a great place to watch the experts cook up a feast, and there are cookbooks on sale for those really keen on trying their hand at Balinese cuisine.

The restaurant is located at Jalan Pratama, Tanjung Benoa, P.O.Box 132 Nusa Dua 80363, Bali - Indonesia. Tel: 62 361 774502, 772299

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