The place is not hard to find, go onto the beach from either the Jimbaran Puri Bali or the Keraton Jimbaran and it is just up the beach on the right, in a group of warungs just north of these hotels. About a 2 minute walk from the Jimbaran Puri Bali.

It was a pleasant dining environment, lulled by the sound of the waves at Jimbaran bay, freshness of the seafood was evident, grilled lightly with salt and served with sides of soup, salad, rice, vegetables, and fruits.

We have a pleasant experience at Lia Cafe, the staffs are friendly, service is good and the food is not overly priced.

Note: you will see lobster on the menu and for your information it is not rock lobster (Panulirus homarus or Panulirus orantus), it is sand lobster (Thenus orientalis), also commonly known as Moreton bay bug, sandbug or mudbug.

Balinese Mixed Chicken Rice Ibu Weti, Sanur

Located by the Segara Village Hotel, Ibu Weti is a household name for great Balinese mixed chicken rice. Her warung (kiosk) is simple, small stall with chairs and tables that adorn the sidewalk of Segara Beach Road (Jalan Pantai Segara). Every morning people queue, even before the warung opens at 8am and most of the times the foods are finished by 12 noon.

Ibu Weti Balinese mixed chicken rice is indeed delicious especially after swimming on Sanur Beach, jogging or riding a bicycle along the stretch of Sanur.
Served with white rice, the main dish is shredded coconut, chicken, topped with hard-boiled egg and sambal, jukut urap, fried peanuts and chicken skin crackers.  The portion is quite huge for breakfast and maybe a little too rich for westerners taste buds, but at around Rp 20.000 per dish is without any doubt the best authentic Balinese breakfast you can find while staying in Sanur.

Jukut Urap (Balinese Vegetable Salad with Coconut Dressing)

Yield 4 – 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup bean sprouts, blanched
• 1/2 cup long beans, cut and blanched
• 3 1/2 oz. spinach leaf, blanched
• Meat from one fresh coconut
• 1/3 inch fresh lesser galangal, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorn
• salt to taste
• 2 Kaffir lime leaves, very finely chopped
• sambal Mbe (recipe below)
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• Juice of 2 Kaffir limes

Directions:

1. Cut away the inner skin, a thin brown layer leaving pure white ball of coconut meat.  Cut open the coconut ball, removing the coconut water, washed and dried with paper towel.  Toast the meat over hot coals or under the grill until light brown, then grate it coarsely or coarsely grated the coconut flesh then pan fried without oil until light brown, set aside.
2. Use a pestle and mortar to pound the lesser galangal with the peppercorns into a fine paste, then season with salt.
3. Put the blanched vegetables into a bowl and stir in the lime leaves, sambal Mbe, sugar, lime juice, salt, coconut and spice paste.

Sambal Mbe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 teaspoon roasted shrimp paste
• salt to taste
• 3/4 cup coconut oil
• 5 oz. shallots, finely sliced
• 1 oz garlic, finely sliced
• 8 bird’s eye chillies, sliced
• Juice of 2 Kaffir limes

 Directions:

1. Use a pestle and mortar to smooth out the shrimp paste and a little salt into a paste mixture.
2. Heat the coconut oil in a wok and deep fry the shallots and garlic separately until golden and crisp. Using a slotted spoon, transfer them onto paper towel and set aside.
3. Discard all but 2 tablespoon of the oil (oil is flavored with shallots and garlic), add the bird’s eye chillies and stir fry for about 2 minutes.
4. Remove the wok from heat and stir in the fried shallots, fried garlic, shrimp paste mixture and lime juice.

Recipe adapted from whittycute.com

The said pig is stuffed with herbs and roasted over a charcoal pit. As the meat is slowly cooked inside, the exterior is slathered with coconut water, allowing the skin to caramelize to perfection. This dish is well known all over Indonesia as a Balinese specialty, but even at its birthplace, some babi guling stores are more famous than others. Arguably, the most famed of them all is Babi guling Ibu Oka (literally translated as Mrs. Oka’s roast pig), located just a stone’s throw away from the Ubud Palace.

The place is very popular with the Balinese, which means that they would run out of food early in the afternoon. They open at 11am.

The store’s popularity is not surprising, as Ibu Oka is mentioned in almost every travel guide. They also enjoy publicity from celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s comment that Ibu Oka’s babi guling is “the best pig I’ve ever had”.

Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservation Bali – Video

If you feel like recreating the Babi Guling at home, follow this recipe
Yield 6 – 8 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 boneless pork shoulder roast, about 3 pounds (or bone in roast, about 3.5 pounds)
• 4 large shallots or 2 small onions
• 4-8 Thai chilies or 2-4 jalapenos
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh turmeric or 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh galangal
• 3 stalks fresh lemongrass, trimmed and finely chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 1 large lime)
• 1 tablespoon firmly packed light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoon vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Combine the shallots, chilies, garlic, ginger, turmeric, galangal, lemongrass, coriander, pepper, lime juice, sugar, salt, and 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a mortar and pound to a smooth paste with the pestle, or puree in a blender or food processor to a smooth paste.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok or skillet over medium heat. Add the spice paste and sauté until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Stir frequently to avoid splattering. Remove from pan and let cool. The paste can be made up to a day in advance and refrigerated in an airtight container.
3. Trim the roast of excess fat, if any. Using a sharp knife, make a deep slice in the center of roast, starting and ending 3/4 inch from the ends, and cutting almost through to the other side of the roast. You should have a nice pocket about 6 inches long.
4. Fill the pocket with spice paste and tie the roast back together with kitchen twine. Spread the remaining paste all over the outside of the roast. If any spice mixture remains, set it aside to add during the grilling process.
5. If you have a rotisserie, this is probably the best way to cook the roast. Preheat your grill to high and cook for about 1 1/2 hours.
6. I used the indirect cooking method. Move the charcoals to either side of the place where you plan to cook the roast, and place a drip pan in the middle. If you have a gas grill where the coals are not movable, either turn off the middle burner or just put a drip pan made of aluminum foil directly over the center burner. To make a foil drip pan, just tear 3 pieces of foil about 16 inches long, overlap them so they are the width you want, then fold the edges up about 2 inches to form a make-shift drip pan.
7. After setting up the grill, preheat it on high. Turn the grill down and place the roast over the drip pan. Adjust heat or coals so the internal temperature rests at about 350 F. This will ensure nice browning without burning, and should result in a cook time of about 2 hours. Turn the meat occasionally during cooking so all sides get equally browned, and rub on additional spice mixture if any.
8. Transfer roast to cutting board or platter and let stand for 10 minutes before removing strings and cutting into thin slices to serve.

Recipe by John Spottiswood

Yield 6 servings

Ayam kodok, which translates as frog chicken, gets its name from how the chicken looks after the bone and meat is taken out. By keeping its skin intact, the result is something that looks remarkably like a frog.

The dish is basically a stuffed chicken and we all know that a baked whole chicken with stuffing is a delicious and impressive main dish. This is the first time I attempted to cook Ayam Kodok, I wanted to impress my family as we gathered to celebrate the arrival of the year of the Dragon. I succeeded with one note: I did not put any boiled eggs inside the cavity along with the force meat mixture, I was afraid to overstuff the chicken.

So, I think you get the idea that this is not an everyday dish, it is a dish for when you want to impress. It is a little bit complicated but it really is not difficult. Once you have taken the bones and meat out of the chicken, the rest is real easy.

Ingredients:

• one 3 – 4 lbs. free range chicken or Long Kong chicken.  Long Kong chicken’s skin is especially good, thicker with nice snap and less flabby fat, it is also much leaner and do not have the fatty blobs in the cavity and on the leg joints like a regular chicken.  You can find Long Kong chicken at 99 Ranch Market in California.
• Butcher’s twine
• 3 tablespoons butter
• salt and pepper

• 12 oz ground pork
• 1/2 cup bacon, diced
• 1 cup ham, diced
• 1/4 cup sweet green peas
• 1/4 cup carrot, diced
• 1/4 cup breadcrumb
• 5 whole eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Mix in a bowl and set aside, this is the stuffing or force meat mixture.

Directions:

1. To bone the chicken, start at the neck. Loosen the skin around the wings and breast and cut the wings at the joint, freeing them from the body.  Slip your index finger under the skin and carefully loosen the skin from the back, the skin is most firmly attached to the spine of the bird. As you loosen the skin, pull it down over the breast. When you get to the wings, cut them loose from the body. Take your time so you don’t tear the skin. Push out the first joint of the wing (the drumette), . twist the bone to remove it from the elbow joint. To remove the drumstick (the leg of the chicken) use the back edge of a cleaver to break the bone about an inch from the bottom. Push the leg up and pull it away from the skin. 
2. Stuff the wings, the legs and the main cavity with the force meat mixture.  The reconstituted chicken will be flatter than when it still had its bones, rather more frog-like in appearance.
3. I use butcher’s twine to tie the stuffed chicken.  There really is a reason to tie a meat before roasting, it’s not done just for looks. It help to ensure it keeps a neat, compact round shape. That means it cooks more evenly instead of having that little dried out wings or legs.  Keeping in stuffing is another reason for tying. If you learn how to classic tie a roast, you can use the same technique to hold together stuffed roasts, stuffed chicken, even stuffed fish filets.  Read HOW TO TIE MEAT 
4. Rub the chicken with butter and season with salt and pepper.
5. Roast for 1 hour at 350 °F, breast side up until chicken is cooked.  Measure the internal temperature using food thermometer, it should read 165 °F.
6. Let the chicken rest for 15 minutes before carving.
7. Serve warm with mashed potato, steamed vegetables (carrots, green beans, broccoli), and brown sauce.

 Recipe by my Mom and Dad and cousin Stephanie

Mom’s Special Noodle Soup

I love to prepare this dish for special occasions like birthdays, Christmas, Chinese New Year or whatever red letter day there is marked on the calendar.

Since I learned this recipe at a very young age, I can memorize the ingredients by heart and now I am going to share this recipe with you and I hope you will try it!

Yield 12 servings

The noodle topping can be made one or two day ahead, keep in the refrigerator.  Reheat prior to serving it.

Noodle Topping

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 6 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
• 8 oz chicken thigh, cut into 1/4 inch squares
• 10 oz pork shoulder, cut into 1/4 inch squares
• 12 oz shrimp, peel and devein then cut into 1/4 inch square.  Reserve all the heads and shells
• 1 1/2 cup chicken broth, preferably homemade or if store bought opt for low sodium
• 2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• 6 green onions or scallions, utilizing just the white part, finely sliced
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat the skillet then add the vegetable oil.  When oil is heated sauté garlic until light brown.
2. Add diced up chicken and pork, cook until evenly brown.  Season with a dash of salt.
3. Then add shrimp, season with a dash of salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Let cook for 3 minutes.
4. Add the chicken stock then add sweet soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar.  Bring to boil.
5. Add green onions, stir and cover with lid, and let it cook for 30 minutes on low heat.
6. Adjust the salt and pepper to taste. After 30 minutes turn the heat off and set aside.

Soup Base

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
• 3 cups shrimp stock made from the reserved shrimp heads and shells.  Bring 4 cups of water to boil, add the heads and shells, bring to boil, then simmer for 1 hour or reduce to 3 cups of stock
• sugar, salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoon corn starch to thicken the soup base (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat the skillet then add the vegetable oil.  When oil is heated sauté garlic until aromatic.
2. Add sweet soy sauce and swirl around for about 30 seconds just to get it to slightly caramelized.
3. Add shrimp stock by ladle careful not to get the hot oil and sugar from the caramelized sweet soy sauce splattered onto your skin, stir gently  continue adding the shrimp stock then bring to boil.
4. Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste.
5. Dissolve corn starch with water (room temperature), add gradually into the boiling soup base while continue stirring until it reach the level of thickness desired.

How to Serve the Noodle

Ingredients:

• 12 individual portion fresh egg noodles
• crispy fried onion (optional)
• If you prefer some heat, mix 2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce with 4 to 6 bird’s eye chilies, sliced.  Serve it as a condiment to the noodle soup.

Directions:

1. Boil a large pot of water to rolling boil, add the fresh egg noodles (Chinese Style). Follow the directions on the package to see how long to cook. If you are missing the directions, I would remove one noodle with a slotted spoon, run under cold water and taste to see if done. If not done, repeat this every minute or so until they taste cooked. When they are cooked, use the strainer to remove noodle from the pot and let the liquid to drain.  Note: Chinese noodles cook very quickly, generally requiring less than 5 minutes to become al dente.
2. Place noodle in a bowl, add a little bit of cooked spinach or water spinach, add the noodle topping and finally add the soup  base.  Serve hot!
3. Sprinkle some crispy fried onion (optional).

Many companies produce corned beef now, but they use many different chemicals and preservatives. Sodium Nitrate,or salt peter, is one of the primary ingredients in even homemade corned beef, used to keep the meat a pink color. It is totally unnecessary to the taste or quality of the finished recipe. The nitrite in curing salts does a few special things to meat: It changes the flavor, preserves the corned beef’s red color, prevents fats from developing rancid flavors, and prevents many bacteria from growing.

Yield 6 – 8 servings
Cook Time: approximately 3 hours
Inactive Prep Time: 10 days

For the Brine

Ingredients

• 2 quarts water
• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons saltpeter
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken into several pieces 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns 8 whole cloves
• 8 whole allspice berries
• 12 whole juniper berries
• 2 bay leaves, crumbled
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 pounds ice
• One 4 to 5 pound well marbled beef brisket

Directions

1. Place the water into a large 6 to 8 quart stockpot along with salt, sugar, saltpeter, cinnamon stick, mustard seeds, peppercorns, cloves, allspice, juniper berries, bay leaves and ginger.
2. Cook over high heat until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the ice. Stir until the ice has melted. If necessary, place the brine into the refrigerator until it reaches a temperature of 45 degrees F.
3. Once it has cooled, place the brisket in a 2-gallon zip top bag and add the brine.
4. Seal and lay flat inside a container, cover and place in the refrigerator for 10 days.  Check daily to make sure the beef is completely submerged and stir the brine.

To cook the corned beef

Ingredients 

• 1 small onion, quartered
• 1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
• 1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. After 10 days, remove from the brine and rinse well under cool water.
2. Place the brisket into a pot just large enough to hold the meat, add the onion, carrot and celery and cover with water by 1-inch.
3. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and gently simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until the meat is fork tender.
4. Remove from the pot and thinly slice across the grain.

Corned beef if excellent for sandwiches (on a toasted rye bread) or it can be served as a main course, served with sauteed blanched cabbage or brussels sprouts with a mustard vinaigrette and boiled potatoes, or as breakfast item corned beef and hash.

Recipe by Alton Brown

Yield 8-10 servings

Ingredients

5 oz. softened butter
1/2 cup cup sifted powdered sugar
8 egg yolks
8 egg whites
5 oz. bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup of flour
A half cup sugar
2 tablespoons apricot jam

Glaze Ingredients

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate
2 tablespoons butter

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375°F.  Cream together butter and powdered sugar.  Add 1 egg yolk at a time, mixing until creamy.
• Melt the 5 oz. bittersweet chocolate in a double boiler, gradually add to the creamed mixture.

• Fold in flour.  In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and sugar until stiff.  Fold into chocolate mixture.

• Pour batter into a lined 9-inch springform pan.
• Bake for 40-50 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.
• Heat apricot jam and smooth over entire torte, including the sides.

• For glaze, melt the 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate with butter and frost the cake.  Serve with whipped cream.

Recipe by Viking River Cruises

I always buy shell on shrimp, why? For the same reason I buy bone in cuts of meat. Stock. The amount of shrimp you are using for this recipe will produce just enough shrimp stock (recipe below).

Shrimp Stock Recipe

Yield 1 – 1 1/2 cups of stock

Ingredients:

Shells from 2 lb of shrimp, deveined the shrimp and use for Étouffée recipe
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
2 garlic cloves
1 lemon sliced
2 fresh bay leaves
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 teaspoon black peppercorns

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to a 2 qt. saucepan.
2. Cover this with cold water, it should be about 6-8 Cups. You’ll need 1 1/2 Cups for the Étouffée.
3. Bring almost to a boil, reduce the heat to a low simmer. Simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour. Strain.

Étouffée Recipe

Yield 6 servings

Directions:

I am baking a variety of shapes – christmas trees, gingerbread men, christmas bell, christmas angel – so kids can have fun decorating with icing.  I have to modify the recipe from the traditional gingerbread men cookies in to a simple cookies with no addition of ginger or cinnamon, because kids are not up to the taste of ginger and cinnamon.  The result is a surprisingly wonderful cookie with maple aroma, soft and chewy, durable enough for kids to decorate it.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup dark corn syrup or pancake syrup
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla
4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1. Combine butter with sugar and corn or pancake syrup until smooth.
2. Add the vanilla and the egg, mix well.
3. Sift together dry ingredients and add slowly to the sugar/butter mixture.
4. Blend until dough is smooth.
5. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least one hour, or overnight.
6. On a floured surface, roll out dough until 1/4 inch thick, cut with cookie cutters.
7. Bake on a slightly greased cookie sheet in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
8. Allow to cool before decorating with icing (recipe below)

Royal Icing

Ingredients

2 large egg whites or 5 tablespoons meringue powder
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Food coloring, if desired

Directions

1. With a hand mixer, beat the egg whites with the lemon juice or extract until frothy.
2. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined, smooth, and shiny.
3. Turn to high and beat approximately 5 minutes till stiff and glossy.  Add food coloring, if desired.
4. Transfer to a pastry bag to pipe onto cookies.

Yield 14 – 2 inch oval grilled meat

Ingredients

• 4 cloves garlic, mashed or grated
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 pound minced lamb
• 3 tablespoons grated onion
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 – 12 inches stainless skewer

Directions

1. Mash the garlic into a paste with the salt using a mortar and pestle or grate the garlic using microplane.  Mix the garlic into the lamb along with the onion, parsley, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, allspice, cayenne pepper, ginger, and black pepper in a mixing bowl until well blended.
2. Divide the mixture into equal size using #20 ice cream disher and form into balls.  Form each ball around the tip of a skewer, flattening into a 2 inch oval; repeat with the remaining skewers. Place the kebabs onto a baking sheet, cover, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes, or up to 12 hours.
3. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat, and lightly oil grate or set the broiler on high heat.
4. Cook the skewers on the preheated grill or under the broiler, turning occasionally, until the lamb has cooked to your desired degree of doneness, about 6 minutes for medium.