Cooking Masterclass – Page 5 – the world of masterchefs

Mingle, Ubud

A well ranked restaurant in the Ubud area, so we thought we would check it out. It’s on Jalan Dewi Sita.

We started with a tasting plate, a great way to sample a few different Balinese dishes. IT included spring rolls, satay sticks, bregedel (corn and potato fritters), served with a tasty chili sauce.

Clare’s choice was a caesar salad with chicken, to get some western variety that we miss. It was a very good quality caesar, and I am usually very fussy with them.

The pesto pasta was very nice. It is surprising that many restaurants in Ubud struggle to do such a simple dish like pasta. The garlic bread did not match the quality of the pasta, again that is something that has rarely been mastered by the Balinese chefs.

Mingle is a very nice place for a drink and to watch the busy street below. There are two levels to dine at, and we chose upstairs to avoid the noise of the street. The atmosphere was really relaxing and the staff were very friendly.

Warung Pojok, Nyuh Kuning, Bali

Warung Pojok is a small restaurant in the centre of the village of Nyuh Kuning, opposite the football field. It is our favourite local restaurant.

We go regularly to this restaurant, so have tried most of the items on the menu. Takeaway is also an option if you need it.

Most times (for Rob) the meal starts with a serving of lumpia (spring rolls). Their satay peanut sauce is one of the best in Ubud, nice and thick.

The special fried rice which comes with a fried egg and sate ayam (chicken on a stick) is a favourite with the kids, as long as we can communicate that we don’t want it spicy! They know us well enough now, to know what we want!

This dish does not look very appetising at all, but it is actually quite delicious. It is fried egg/omelette with vegetables and tofu, and satay sauce on top.

Not sure what this meal is, maybe chicken with a balinese sauce. The tower of rice is symbolic though, with the uppermost part being reserved for the oldest member of the family!

Other meals we regularly order are: Mie goreng (fried noodles), cap cay (stir fried vegetables), fried rice with cap cay on top (Clare’s favourite), satay chicken, fried chicken.

Whatever you choose, it is the best value in the village at around $2-3 per meal. The food is always fresh and tasty. I would not make a special trip to Nyuh Kuning to eat here, but if you are staying nearby it is definitely worth coming for a meal or two.

Cafe Teras Lempuna, Bedugul Bali

The Cafe Teras Lempuna (Teras means terrace). A lovely English garden that could only be located in the cooler climes of the hills of Bali. Near lake Batur.

Café Teras, Bedugul

Rob was very excited to see onkonimyaki on the menu, his favourite Japanese dish, and it was a very good one too by western standards.

A club sandwich, the usual quality, presented nicely.

It was soup weather, but the spicy tomato soup really wasn’t spicy at all, which was rather disappointing! It was also tea weather, so I indulged in a pot.

Café Teras, Bedugul

The cafe must attract many Japanese tourists as there was also katsu don on the menu, which is a fried meat and egg style omlette with a sweet soy sauce on top of rice.

This is a good place to stop for lunch if travelling to or through Bedugul, in the north of Bali. You don’t get the lake view that many of the other lunch stops may have but the quality I think would be better here, plus it has some western choices.

Ombak Restaurant Jemuluk Bay

Warung Ombak is located at the end of Jemuluk Bay, next door to the blue star hotel, in the area of Amed in the north of Bali. It is a basic warung, but we were attracted to it’s view of the ocean, and it was just next door to where we were staying at Villa Coral.

Being by the sea, fish dishes seemed like a good idea. Rob started with fish cakes, then ikan pepes, fresh fish wrapped in banana leaf.

The kids were keen to try the chicken nuggets, even though we have had bad experiences with them recently. Thankfully they were not the processed type, but pieces of real chicken battered.

Clare went with an interesting soup, coconut and carrot, with a salad too. It was soup was not in a coconut cream base, but it actually had bits of coconut in the soup. It worked well.

Then there was grilled chicken and chips.

And some more fish. The only fish available was Mahi Mahi, as we found every day we were in this area.

It was a risk ordering pizza at an Indonesian Warung at the beach, but this wasn’t so bad. It was packed high with an unusual mix of ingredients. You would struggle to really call it a pizza.

We liked it!

Trattoria Ubud Review

Trattoria is an Italian restaurant chain that has 16 branches mostly in South East Asia. They must be doing something right to have so many successful stores. Lucky for us, one is just down the road from our house.

On arrival you will be served bruschetta and 3 different types of bread, all complimentary! Got to love some free food!

The menu has a large selection of good pizza options. The pizza are a traditional Italian style with a thin base, but large enough to still be filling. They do some extra-large (some may say giant in fact) pizzas with half and half, if you can get the right match these are a winner.

Two in one

The baked eggplant Parmigiana stack, was super tasty but a little oily, and very filling. It was best shared as a side with some pizza.

Of course they do pasta too, which is very authentic and tasty.

We also had breakfast here one day, but it was unfortunately not very good. They served the overcooked eggs with thin white loaf bread, that just crumbled on the plate.

An omelette

It is a fairly kid friendly place because, firstly most kids love pizza. But also because the plain brown paper place-mats are perfect drawing pads for the creative munchkins, not sure if that is the intention however it works for us! Buon Appetito.

Warung Saya, Ubud

Warung Saya on Jl Goutama in Ubud is one of our favourite places to eat. It is tiny and exclusive little venue nestled between a villa (and currently a construction site). There are only two tables, possibly three, but only if it’s not raining. It is highly recommend that you book, as this place is booked up for at least a week in advance. It is that good.

The menu varies each night, having different choices each day of the week, but only limited choices. There are only three options each night, one Indonesian, one Indian and one Thai choice. Sometimes one of these is a vegetarian choice but not every night. Of all the meals we have had (2 choices on two different nights), they have been excellent quality meals.

Unfortunately we only have one picture of the dishes, which does not give justice to the place. Pictured is Badal Jaam (Indian) eggplant with tomato, creamy yoghurt, a huge entrée size meal. This had amazing depth of flavour being an Indian style curry.

On this night on the menu was Ayam Kecap (Indonesian) – chicken with soybean sauce, and Gaeag Gari Chicken (Thai) – coconut chicken curry with basil.

The chef is a highly charismatic fellow, with a very relaxed attitude. He cooks for the love of it, and loves what he does. He runs the whole show on his own, as he wants the quality of the food and service to be of his very high standard. Not sure how long he will be in the same location as last time we dined there (November 2014) he was talking about moving to a new place. You will not be disappointed with any meal here!

Jamie’s Italian in Perth Review

Jamie’s Italian Restaurant in Perth had been on our wish list for quite a while, and as we walked past one night we decided to see if we could score a table.

It was ‘only’ a 1.5 hour wait. With a very efficient booking system, we visited a nearby pub and waited for their call when a table was ready. Alternatively you can have a drink at the bar within the restaurant.

The place was buzzing, or you could describe it as crowded and noisy. They have certainly maximised their floor space, so we felt quite cramped on our small table for two, squeezed in between two other tables with a very narrow walkway.

The decore was a little eclectic, with a high industrial roof with exposed air-conditioning tunnelling, with an enormous fancy chandelier hanging. The bathrooms were slightly retro with cool coloured tiling.

They have a huge team of greeters and seaters, order takers and food deliverers. They were all very efficient and always polite.

It was an interesting menu, not just the standard Italian items, although they were all still their. Some great salads, a burger, some share ‘planks’ with meat, seafood or vegetarian were some of the more interesting options

First course was crunchy arancini balls. These had a fabulous taste, with garlic, lemon and a touch of chilli, but were super crunchy as though they had spent a little too long in the deep fryer!

Main course of deliciously tender baked salmon, with a crunchy salad and olive oil dressing, and some roast veggies.

The main course of fennel sausage pasta, was a classic Italian tomato based sauce with some sausage meat for flavour. Great al’dente in-house pasta.

The baked cheesecake was a great finish to the meal. It came with a candied orange sauce which was extremely sweet, but none-the-less rather scrumptious!

The price of the meals were surprisingly very reasole, though it did add up with a bottle of wine, an entrée, two mains and a dessert.

Dreamy Donuts Cannington Review

Dreamy Donuts is a small coffee and doughnut stall in Westfield Carousel shopping centre in Cannington. We were hanging out for coffee and the kids desperate for a doughnut, and the combo deal of coffee and doughnut appealed to our sense of value.

We hoped to be able to upgrade the coffee and doughnut deal to get a nicer doughnut, but they were not receptive to that at all.

The coffee tasted OK, quite strong, though the cappuccino was seriously lacking in froth.

Dreamy donuts? Sorry but the ones we bought did not taste very fresh. Now that Krispy Kreme are in town, they have some serious competition.

But overall, the greatest disappointment in this place is that they spelled doughnut wrong on their signs.

Asian Cuisine Restaurant Review

We were looking for a nice good value meal on a Sunday night, and were directed to Collins Street Willeton by a local who said there were a few Chinese restaurants located along there. To our surprise there was a restaurant hub with a packed car park, and lines outside some of the restaurants. We checked out the menus at a few of them, and settled on Asian Cuisine, a interesting choice of name but definitely no confusion about the type of food they serve.

It was the cheapest of the restaurants in the area, but that was not the only reason we chose it. It was also busy and although the menu was not as extensive as others it had a few things that were very appealing to us.

The staff in this small restaurant were very friendly, with many of the other patrons clearly regulars.

Clare had not had many good laksas lately, but had a good feeling she would get a good authentic one here. She was not disappointed, as it was tasty, spicy and packed with seafood and bean sprouts.

Rob was drawn to the section on the menu for claypot meals, and eventually chose the salted fish, chicken and Chinese sausage dish. The description reminded him off a similar dish he had earlier this year in Singapore. He was so eager to dig in he burnt his tongue on the first mouthful of rice. The claypot sure keeps the heat in. There were generous portions of boneless chicken over the top, mixed with small amounts of sausage, and barely recognisable bits of salted fish, adding just the right amount of saltiness. These pots can hold quite a bit of food, and the normally insatiable Rob was unable to finish it all.

If we come back to the area we would definitely check out these restaurants again, and it would be tempting to go back to Asian Cuisine.

Address: 113 Collins Rd Willetton, WA

Hotel Komune Beach Club, Keramas

Hotel Komune’s Beach Club provides a Bali experience like no other. The heart of the place is the sensational pool, surrounded in a semi-circle of day beds. You have to get there early or you will miss out as we did, and had to wait for a space to become available. Once you settle in though it’s all luxury. You can swim, order food, drink beers, whatever you like, and for as long as you like.

There is no entry fee (as there is at some other beach side restaurants), however you are not allowed to bring in food or drinks from outside, and there is really nowhere else to go to eat or drink, as it is a fairly isolated spot! So you must eat and drink here.

There is a restaurant you can go to if you want to eat at a table, which has a different menu to the day-beds around the pool which provides mostly bar snack options. We ate at the restaurant – while we were waiting for a day-bed – and the food was top quality. We also enjoyed a beer or two when we were back at the pool!

The roast vegetable salad with feta was delicious, and the dressing to die for.

A great quality burger with the best crinkle cut chips I have eaten on the island.

Even the toasted ham and cheese sandwich was served with really nice bread and good quality cheese, none of the plastic rubbish you can often get. …and more chips served with gravy! Yumm.

The Keramas surf break is apparently one of the best on the island, and is a popular spot for surfers and group surfing trips. The beach creates a stunning backdrop for drinks, food, swimming and fun. Even though the surf was rough, the kids still enjoyed playing in the black sand. There is also a large grassy area on the other side of the restaurant, which on the day we were there, had a giant blow-up jumpy castle set up for a kids party! A great space. This was a great day out!