Ubud Food and Entertainment

Indonesian food is not as spicy as many of the other foods in Asia. Breakfast was part of our price of staying in some of the hotels that were booked through agents. On our private  deck at \Komaneka Rasa Sayang Hotel, Tom had the Indonesian menu and Joyce had the western menu. How they expect one to eat everything is….well, je ne sais pas. 
Western meal had an omelet, toast, sweet rolls, cereal, yogurt, fruit, tea and more. Unfortunately, most of it was wasted because how much can one eat? The Indonesian breakfast wasn’t as filling, but still was more than we normally eat. 

We also enjoyed dinner, one night at out hotel and one at the nearby Cafe Wayan. They were nice, but nothing special. Tom began dinner at our hotel with a vegetable and mushroom lumpia (like a small fried egg roll), followed by a lightly fried (somewhat dry, not especially tasty) duck. Joyce’s chicken and mango salad was the best of the evening. Not especially innovative, but very good. Since she wasn’t very hungry (suffering from a cold caught from our guide in Bhutan), Tom got more than his share of it.

Cafe Wayan provided a very good dinner experience. We started with shrimp spring rolls with a very good sweet and sour sauce and then split two entrees between us: sautéed prawns with cashews, mushrooms, peppers and cauliflower (very good) and fried rice with vegetable, prawns, tuna (we never were able to find the tuna even though it was on the menu) squid and shrimp crackers (a bIt dry, but much more interesting with the pickled vegetables and chili sauce). The atmosphere was great however. Outside seating (ask to be seated in the back), where you were not rushed. Just really pleasure.

We also love much of the Southeast Asian fruit that we tried in Indonesia. We loved the fresh mango, papaya and watermelon for breakfast, and then stopped at a local fruit stand to get more. Some, such as durian (stinky, but with a pleasant custardy taste), we knew from a previous trip. Others, such as star fruit, dragon fruit, and mangosteen, we have had at home–but seem to enjoy more here. We particularly liked the jackfruit, dragon fruit and especially the mangosteen, and could not leave the fruit market without more. We ended up buying a couple additional snacks, such as the subtlety-spiced steamed tamarind peanuts (yum. You might think this is like boiled peanuts. It is a little but not as soggy and had a great taste if you like tamarind) and the fried tapioca crackers with a drizzle of liquid brown sugar (OK if you are desperate for some crunchy food, but not particularly tasty).

Since it just didn’t feel rIght to end the evening with just dinner, we went out both nights for drinks and music. Although there are many venues to choose from, we went to LOL (nope, not shorthand but the name of the bar) on Wednesday night. While it didn’t have much action, the rock band was decent with the lead singer having a good voice. Tom also went to Laughing Buddha (while Joyce slept off her cold), which was packed on Friday night,drawing people in with a wonderful blues band: great arrangements and a singer with a wonderful voice.