Work through the list in order. Hide the notes when you know what to do.
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Eat babi guling
A suckling pig stuffed with a turmeric spice paste and spit-roasted until the skin turns glassy. Served as a plate with rice, blood sausage, lawar and a piece of crackling.
Go before noon: one pig is cooked per day and it is gone by lunchtime. You can ask for extra crackling, which is what people come for.
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Try bebek betutu
Duck rubbed with base genep paste, wrapped in leaves and cooked for hours in embers or an oven until the meat falls off the bone. It is made to order, often a day ahead.
Places that do not take orders sell out of ready betutu by evening. The chicken version, ayam betutu, is cheaper and easier to find, with the same spice paste.
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Build a nasi campur in a warung
A plate of rice with several small portions chosen from a display: braised vegetables, tempeh, egg, chicken, sambal. You point at the counter and the meal is assembled in front of you.
The price depends on what you take, and a full lunch costs less than a beachfront coffee. Ask what is hot; sambal is often already mixed into the dishes.
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Try lawar
Finely chopped vegetables or young jackfruit with grated coconut, spices and often meat. A version made with raw blood exists, called lawar merah, and is worth asking about.
White lawar without blood is served everywhere and is gentler on an unaccustomed stomach. The coconut is freshly grated rather than desiccated, and it shows.
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Eat sate lilit
Balinese satay of minced fish or chicken with coconut and spices, wrapped around a lemongrass stalk instead of a skewer. The stalk perfumes the meat from inside.
Unlike Javanese satay, peanut sauce is optional here because the flavour is already dense. The lemongrass is not eaten, though it is worth smelling after grilling.
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Try nasi goreng and mie goreng
Fried rice or noodles with kecap manis, a thick sweet soy sauce, an egg on top and krupuk crackers. The Indonesian staple, eaten at breakfast and at one in the morning.
The sweetness comes from kecap manis rather than sugar and is unmistakable. In a warung ask for pedas if you want heat, or tidak pedas to skip the chilli.
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Try sambal matah
A raw sambal of finely sliced shallot, lemongrass, chilli and coconut oil with a touch of shrimp paste. Fresh, citrusy and hot: the signature of the Balinese table.
Unlike cooked sambals, matah is never fried, so the lemongrass stays bright. Take a little at the edge of the plate and mix it in as you go.
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Try ayam betutu
Chicken rubbed with the same base genep paste and slow-cooked in leaves until tender. The everyday, more available version of betutu, on almost any warung menu.
The heat varies enormously between kitchens, so ask first. It comes with rice, lawar and the obligatory sambal.
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Eat pepes ikan
Fish with spices wrapped in banana leaf and steamed or grilled over coals. The leaf keeps the fish moist and gives it a grassy aroma.
You unwrap it at the table, and the burst of steam is part of the serving. The same method is used for tofu and mushrooms, and the vegetarian version is common.
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Pick grilled fish by weight
Fresh fish, squid and prawns picked off the ice and grilled over coconut husk with sambal. The pick-and-grill format works along the coastal seafood strips.
Agree the price per kilo and for cooking before the fish leaves the counter. Coconut husk gives a particular smoke that charcoal does not.
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Eat martabak manis Desserts and pastries
A thick spongy pancake split, filled with condensed milk, chocolate, peanuts and cheese, then folded and cut into pieces. Evening street food of heroic richness.
Cheese with condensed milk is a classic local pairing rather than a mistake. The savoury martabak telur with egg and meat comes from the same cart.
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Try pisang goreng Desserts and pastries
Battered bananas fried until crisp and served with palm sugar or condensed milk. Sold in warungs and from carts all day, and especially with coffee.
The bananas are pisang kepok, firm enough to hold shape. Eat them hot; the batter softens as it cools.
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Try dadar gulung Desserts and pastries
A green pandan crepe rolled around grated coconut cooked in palm sugar. The colour comes from pandan leaf rather than dye.
Gula merah palm sugar gives a smoky caramel flavour unlike ordinary sugar. Sold at morning markets alongside other jajan sweets.
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Drink es cendol Non-alcoholic drinks
An iced drink with green pandan rice jelly, coconut milk and palm sugar. You drink and spoon it at the same time.
Its relative is es campur, which adds fruit and jellies. Both are sold at markets and warungs, and the ice is industrially made.
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Drink Balinese kopi tubruk Non-alcoholic drinks
Strong coffee brewed straight in the glass with grounds left at the bottom, which are not drunk. The beans come from the Kintamani highlands, where the plantations run tastings.
Civet coffee is sold expensively at plantations and often involves caged animals, which is worth knowing before you buy. Ordinary Kintamani arabica is more interesting and more honest.
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Try Balinese arak Local alcohol
A local spirit distilled from palm sap or rice, drunk diluted with lime and honey. Buy only licensed bottled arak; homemade batches have caused poisonings.
Bars serve it as arak madu, mixed with honey and lime. Loose arak of unknown origin sold at markets is not worth the risk.
