Bumbu Bali (Bali, Indonesia)

Jl. Pratama, Tanjung Benoa,
PO Box 132 Nusa Dua 80363
Bali - Indonesia
+62 361 774502

There's a lot of hype surrounding this place. Numerous guidebooks list it as one of Indonesia's best restaurants. I suspect that might be a slight exaggeration: There are local restaurants that specialize in a specific dish that are probably better for that item. It's hard to tell how dumbed down the food is for tourists without spending more time eating in this country, but it is clear to me that the food is legitimately well made. It's a great place to try a wide variety of Balinese dishes by ordering the rijsttafel (a way of feasting that actually originated with the Dutch).

By NYC standards, it comes at a good price. All dining is outdoors, so wear your mosquito repellent and wear light, loose clothing... You get hot when you eat this food and there's also a great deal of it, so a roomy waistline is a must. Trust me on this!

Clockwise from 12 o'clock, the rijsttafel included: white rice; red rice; sayur of cabbage and I think squash in coconut milk; ayam betutu (banana leaf wrapped chicken); be sampi mebase bali (beef cooked in coconut / cumin sauce); kambing metuah (lamb stew in coconut milk); sayur of green bean and mung bean sprout sautee; ikan bakar (grilled fish with sambal); pesan be pasih (minced fish in banana leaf); tum bebec (minced duck in banana leaf). In the middle: be celange pase manis (pork in sweet soy sauce). I wasn't a huge fan of the beef, lamb and pork. It seemed like all the meats we had in Indonesia was overcooked to the point of being shoe leathery in consistency. But the sayurs were excellent and so were the minced meat and fish dishes.

The restaurant has a shuttle service that can pick you up from your hotel in Nusa Dua (and I think other locations, too), and drop you back off, after dinner. Even if you rent a car on the island as we did, the shuttle service is a good idea. We found this place surprisingly difficult to find amidst all the winding, curling, sharply turning streets, even by day.

Gia (Nha Trang, Vietnam)

30 Tran Quang Khai Street

Nha Trang, Vietnam
+84.58.352.5220

http://www.giarestaurant.com/_sgg/m3m2_1.htm

At Gia, the food is authentic, upscale Vietnamese with excellent regional specialties like lemongrass beef, grilled at the table and wrapped in rice crepes with a variety of greens and fruits (Thai basil, cilantro, shiso, lettuce, green banana, mango, pineapple, cucumber). Ribs with grilled glutinous rice were also delicious (tender, well grilled). And our appetizer salad of beef with papaya, green banana and other fruit was competent to good.

For two of us, including two non-alcoholic drinks, the total was just under US$15. The restaurant has a nice, open air courtyard planted with bamboo and frangipani, as well as two floors of covered wings for rainy days.

For the nice service and delicious food, Gia is head and shoulders above any other restaurant we've tried in Vietnam so far.

Ilili (New York, NY)

June 2010

236 5th Ave
New York, NY 10001
(212) 683-2929

Mike, Justin and I went to Ilili on a mission: to find a place that does kibbe nayeh better than M's mom, whose Lebanese dishes are the best in the world, if you want to go by M's version of things. Did we succeed? Thankfully for the sake of familial harmony, we did not -- but we came dangerously close. Ilili does a lovely kibbe nayeh and other dishes, too.

All three of us did the evening tasting menu, which amounted to quite a lot of food to share.*

Many of the appetizers had an acidic component to them from lemon juice and pomegranate molasses, which actually went extremely well with the more-acidic-than-usual, light, young Louis Latour Burgundy. It's not a wine I'd ordinarily like, but we ordered it at our waitress's suggestion and it was a good recommendation.

My favorite mezze, the chicken livers, was a perfect balance of salty, sour (lemon, pomegranate molasses) and sweet (pom molasses, again), with delectably caramelized / crisp edges. Even my liver-hating SO professed love for the dish before I fessed up to what it was. The warm eggplant -- disks thinly sliced from long, narrow eggplants -- was also incredible, again with a nice balance of sweet (tomato, tamarind molasses), salty and sour (tamarind molasses). M loved his kibbe nayeh, though it was a variation we weren't familiar with, made sans allspice and with more heat than M's northern Lebanese mother uses.

Other appetizers (listed below) were all competently prepared, but not as noteworthy.

Believe it or not, things actually got even better in the next course. My harissa-roasted hamachi main, brilliantly prepared with deep umami flavors, was truly a highlight. It was nicely seared on the outside and perfectly rare, inside and bathed in an incredible butter sauce that perhaps reflects Lebanon's history as a French colony. Alongside the fish were lightly cooked cucumber and grapefruit, both of which added a lovely brightness and welcome contrast to the rich sauce. This was a perfect dish if I've ever had one, perfectly balanced in terms of textures and flavors, and perfectly executed.

M's duck kebabs were deliciously rare and fairly straightforward in peparation. The basterma topping my SO's burger transformed an otherwise solid, but not remarkable, lamb burger into something heavenly.

The ashta clotted cream was a true-to-form traditional dessert, homey, yet delicate with the addition of orange blossom essence. Lebanese ice cream, which none of us had ever tried, was gummy (chewy) and matched the descriptions I've read of Turkish ice cream. I'm not sure I loved the texture -- the boys adored it -- but the pistachio flavor in ours was concentrated, deep and very rich. Wonderful. The candy bar was nice, but too heavy for me after this meal and I'm very glad that someone else had primary responsibility for it!

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* Full listing of dishes we tried:

Appetizers:

- Mekanek (lamb sausage sautéed w/ olive oil lemon, pine nuts)
- Warm Eggplant (tomato, tamarind molasses, scallions)
- Kibbeh Nayeh Jnubieh (steak tartar, burghul, cumin, marjoram onion, mint)
- Fasoulia (cannellini beans, lemon, garlic)
- Fattoush (Lebanese garden salad toasted pita, sumac lemon vinaigrette)
- Chicken Livers (lemon, pomegranate molasses, sumac)

Mains:

- Duck Magret Kebab (Magret duck breast, lettuce, garlic whip, spiced pita)
- Lamb Burger (basterma, kashkaval, arugula)
- Harissa Marinated Hamachi (roasted w/ harissa, cucumber, grapefruit, butter sauce)

Desserts:

- Pistachio Lebanese ice cream
- Ashta (traditional Lebanese clotted cream w/ orange blossom simple syrup, bananas)
- Ilili Candy Bar (chocolate kataifi crunch, chocolate ganache pistachio and fig caramel, table side finish w/ warm chocolate sauce)