Balinese Cuisine — Pork, Sambal, and Ceremonial Feasts

Balinese cuisine is distinct from the rest of Indonesia in several important ways. Bali is the only major Hindu region in a Muslim-majority country, so the cuisine includes pork — babi — prominently. The spice pastes (basa genep, basa wangenan) are different from Javanese or Sumatran ones. Many of the most famous dishes are ceremonial in origin, prepared in large quantities for temple festivals and only secondarily available as restaurant food. And almost every meal includes a fierce raw sambal — sambal matah — that has become a global phenomenon in its own right.

The base spice pastes

Two paste compositions appear in nearly every Balinese dish:

• Basa genep — the "complete spice paste". A long list of ingredients ground together: shallots, garlic, ginger, galangal, turmeric, lesser galangal (kencur), candlenuts, coriander seeds, white pepper, black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, chillies, shrimp paste. Used in nearly every cooked dish.
• Basa wangenan — a smaller aromatic mix added at the end of cooking for fragrance: lemongrass, salam leaves (Indonesian bay), kaffir lime leaves, torch ginger flower.

The total ingredient list for a Balinese meal can run to thirty or more items per dish. The complexity is part of what gives Balinese food its layered, almost perfumed quality.

The signature dishes

Babi guling — suckling pig roasted whole on a spit, stuffed with a basa genep spice paste, cassava leaves, lemongrass, and kaffir lime. The skin crisps to a deep mahogany; the meat absorbs the spice paste from inside. Served sliced over rice, with the skin, a few spoons of the stuffing as a side, lawar (see below), and sambal matah.

Ubud's Ibu Oka warung is the best-known place to eat it, but every village has its own preparation, often only served on festival days. Visitors to a Balinese family event during a galungan or other holiday will almost certainly be served some.

Bebek betutu / ayam betutu — duck or chicken slow-cooked for hours, traditionally wrapped in banana leaves and steamed or buried in coals, then re-fried briefly to crisp. Like rendang, betutu is an extraordinary slow-cooked dish; like rendang, it requires several hours of preparation. Served whole or in pieces with rice, lawar, and sambal.

Sate lilit — minced fish, chicken, or pork mixed with grated coconut, basa genep, and lime juice; the mixture is pressed around a flat lemongrass skewer (rather than a bamboo one) and grilled. The lemongrass perfumes the meat as it cooks. Unlike most Indonesian sate, sate lilit is served without peanut sauce — the spice mix is already in the meat.

Lawar — minced raw or lightly cooked meat (pork most commonly, sometimes chicken or duck) mixed with grated coconut, herbs, and spices. The classic version, lawar merah, incorporates fresh pig blood as a binder and is decidedly not for everyone; the lawar putih version omits it and is more accessible. The dish is ceremonial in origin and the centrepiece of most Balinese feasts.

Sambal matah — the famous raw sambal. Sliced shallots, lemongrass, chillies, kaffir lime leaves, and shrimp paste, dressed with hot oil and lime juice. Served alongside almost everything; it's the bright, sharp counterpoint to the rich slow-cooked main dishes. Sambal matah has gone international over the past decade, appearing as a condiment in restaurants from Sydney to Brooklyn.

Nasi campur Bali — rice with a sampler of Balinese sides: a piece of grilled chicken or duck, a small portion of lawar, some lemongrass sate, sayur urap (mixed vegetables with grated coconut), shrimp crackers, and sambal matah. The standard everyday Balinese lunch.

Soup ikan — fish soup, served especially in coastal villages, light and fragrant.

Where the food comes from

Bali's cuisine is shaped by the island's geography. The volcanic central highlands produce vegetables, citrus, and chillies. The coastal areas produce fish — especially in the north (Lovina) and east (Jimbaran). Rice cultivation across the subak system provides the staple. Pork is raised by most Balinese families, and pigs are central to ceremonial occasions.

Coconut milk, palm sugar, kaffir lime, and torch ginger flower — all standard Balinese ingredients — grow on the island.

Where to eat

The famous tourist-area places — Ibu Oka in Ubud (babi guling), Gandys in Sanur (variety), Made's Warung in Seminyak — give you the cuisine in a comfortable setting.

The cheaper, sometimes better warung experience is everywhere. Warung Wardani in Sanur and Warung Liku in Ubud are perennial favourites for everyday Balinese food at modest prices.

For seafood, the Jimbaran Bay beach grills at sunset — long rows of plastic tables on the sand, with whole fish, prawns, and squid grilled to order and served with rice, vegetables, and Balinese sambals — are touristy but legitimately good.

If you're visiting during a temple festival (odalan) or a major holiday like Galungan, the food at the temple is usually offered to visitors and represents the real ceremonial cuisine.

What to drink

The local beer is Bintang, the same as elsewhere in Indonesia. The distinctly Balinese alcoholic drinks are arak (a rice or palm distillate, traditionally Balinese, regulated after several mass-poisoning incidents from contaminated bootleg arak), tuak (palm wine), and brem (a sweet rice wine).

Be cautious with arak — buy only from established producers and tourist-friendly bars. The 2009 mass-poisoning incidents involved methanol-contaminated bootleg arak; the legal product is fine.

Non-alcoholic, the standard accompaniment is es kelapa muda (young coconut water served in the coconut), es jeruk (orange juice with ice), or es teh manis (sweet iced tea). Bali also has a strong coffee culture — Indonesian arabica from the Kintamani highlands is grown on the island itself.

What to skip

A few caveats:

• Lawar merah is genuinely an acquired taste. If you're not sure, ask for lawar putih.
• Babi guling keeps poorly. Buy it fresh, eat it the same day, ideally for lunch when it's just been carved off the spit. By dinner the skin has softened and the meat is past its peak.
• Some warungs in tourist areas serve a sanitised Balinese cuisine that's notably less interesting than the village version. Look for places where most of the customers are Balinese.

A note on ceremonial food

The most striking thing about Balinese cuisine is that it's woven into religious ritual to an extent unusual in modern cuisines. Major temple festivals require specific dishes prepared in specific ways. Many of the dishes you eat in restaurants started as ceremonial offerings that were later commercialised. Visiting a Balinese village on the day of an odalan (temple anniversary) is one of the best ways to encounter the cuisine in its original context.