Bali is a mecca for wellness, outdoor adventure, unique architecture, culture, and Indonesian FOOD! From sate to soup, from tropical fruits to banana fritters, I’m still longing for these five amazing Indonesian foods you can’t eat enough of in Bali and beyond!
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Nasi Goreng
If you don’t eat any other food in Bali, you must try nasi goreng.
It’s a popular Indonesian food consisting of fried rice, meat, and vegetables topped with a fried egg. It can be found in nearly every restaurant in Indonesia, is commonly eaten at breakfast, and is often paired with shrimp krupak crackers.
What distinguishes this version of fried rice from other Asian styles of fried rice is kecap manis, an Indonesian sweet soy sauce.
Sate
Comprised of grilled, skewered meats that are paired with a sauce, sate (often spelled satay) is perhaps the most recognizable global Indonesian food. In Indonesia, the dipping sauce used is usually kecap manis, sweet soy sauce. In other parts of the world, like Thailand, you’ll find sate paired with peanut sauce.
Banana Fritters
During part of my time in Bali as organizer of a wellness retreat, I learned how to make some very tasty dishes, including pisang goreng (Indonesian banana fritters).
This yummy snack of bananas fried in either wheat, rice, or tapioca flour is divinely delish when hot and often served with palm sugar sauce for dipping. I would go back to Bali just to eat it!
Check out this recipe to try it yourself!
Soto Ayam
I sampled local Indonesian foods from street vendors, including soto ayam, a soup of broth, meat, and vegetables. Though it typically contains rice vermicelli, bean sprouts, and scallions, there are many varieties of this soup throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Similar to Vietnamese pho, it’s a heartwarming comfort food!
Tropical Fruits
The fruits in Bali are pretty spectacular. There are the typical mangoes, bananas, and melons, and several not-so-typical ones. Here are three of my favorites:
Mangosteen – Considered a superfood by some, this purple fruit is used for health and medicinal purposes, too. It is also used to make a juice called xango. It has a sweet berry-like taste that is a treat to eat!
Snake Fruit – This fruit doesn’t look so inviting, since its outside looks like snakeskin. However, this fleshy, white fruit is so tasty, I couldn’t eat just one! It reminded me somewhat of lychees. Yum!
Dragon Fruit – Never have I been more attracted to the color of a food. I’d eat this fruit simply because of its beautiful fuchsia inside. It has a plain, watery taste that I found refreshing, and I ordered many foods just because they had dragon fruit in them.
