As a major tourist destination in Indonesia, Bali has various culinary choices that divided into two category: the fancy restaurants kind, and the 'by the roadside' kind a.k.a street food.

While for the fancy restaurants kind Bali have Mozaic, Metis, and Sarong which frequently gained international acknowledgements; how about its street food? Are there any options worth to try?

Turned out it's the same thing; no less than two well known chefs with international TV shows praised the beauty of Babi Guling Ibu Oka in Ubud. They are: Anthony Bourdain (No Reservation) dan Andrew Zimmern (Bizzare Foods). Added Bobby Chinn to the list (World Café Asia), then there's been at least three international TV shows made its whole episode to elaborate on Bali's street food richness. In her travel show about Bali, Samantha Brown (Samantha Brown's Asia) also made sure that Babi Guling Ibu Oka is on her visit list.

Started her business since the 70s, currently Babi Guling Ibu Oka serves at least 500 customers everyday, and 1,000 on weekends; an achievement can hardly matched by most restaurants in Bali, even those backed by international reputation. The majority of Ibu Oka customers itself are tourists; either from Australia, Japan, as well as domestic ones.

In other places, Warung Nasi Ayam Kedewatan Ibu Mangku with its signature dish Nasi Ayam Bali, caters to at least 200 customers a day; and it's the same numbers of customers reported by Warung Mak Beng in Sanur selling Sup Kepala Ikan, or fish head soup. In all of those places, visitors willingly queue -- something rarely seen in Indonesia -- shared table (and sometimes sweats) with total strangers, for the sole interest of trying out the uniqueness and deliciousness of the signature dishes in those three warungs.

Local Taste

While the street food is often identical with discomfort, low hygiene, and there are many alternative options available in classier restaurants, what are the reasons tourists (especially foreigners) flocking those street food eateries?

While the writer can guess the reason himself, it gets verified in many inquiry emails received from fellow food lovers; both local or foreign ones planning to visit Bali. As they have quite limited knowledge about Bali good food scene, what they usually asked is which eateries are recommended to try out? And quite amazingly most of them don't really excited about fancy restaurants but instead for local dishes, which more than often can only be found on the street.

Upon asked why, turned out their reasons are usually revolves around the same reason about the importance of local taste: "We can find French fine dining easily where we live, so in Indonesia we want to try Indonesian real taste." Or to quote from another foodie: "Why would I want to travel across the globe from US to Bali only to eat Mexican food?"

One thing observed consistently from those emails are the high interest level of tourists wanting to get in touch with the 'local taste'; something that will be different from region to region, and would be hard to duplicate elsewhere. This is in line with the writer's own understanding that local food are best eaten not in fancy restaurants, but by the roadside instead.

While there are foreign tourists who disliked the discomforts of street food, the possibility of indigestion, or simply reluctant thus prefers to eat something they already familiar with back home; with the growing interest in ecotourism and backpack traveling, local experience is highly sought for by these new kind of tourists, and local food is part of that experience.

One of the advantage of street food compared with international restaurants, was highlighted in a conversation with a foodies couple from San Fransisco, USA. Among the Bali eateries the writer suggested, they seemed to be more amazed with Nasi Ayam Betutu Warung Liku, and Sop Buntut at Warung Nikmat Bakungsari, than with the array of western food restaurants stretched along Seminyak and Oberoi street. A thing that sometimes surprising -- good one though -- especially for those already familiar with those local food.

I think it attests to the importance of being able to wear other people's shoes, or take a step back from your own reality, and realize that something we considered so usual could be other people's source of amazement.

As with the opinion from the foodies couple, I considered them as valid since they travels to different countries a lot, and before reaching Bali they have eating their way through various SE Asian countries so there's no question about their reference pool. Not to mention that those two eateries mentioned are also well known among national foodies.

Based on this knowledge, the writer sure that if there are famous street food outside Bali that only has seen few foreign visitors, it must be because they're located in a less-popular tourist destinations, instead of having low quality or a serving a totally foreign taste preference.

Culinary Culture Ambassador

Among local tourists too, there are already many claims made as a testament of how eating experience is very important in traveling. It is done in following format:

“You haven't been to” + [region name] + “if you haven't eat at” + [street food name]

For example:

"You haven't been to Kuta if you haven't eat at Nasi Pedas Ibu Andika"
"You haven't been to Yogya if you haven't eat at Gudeg Yu Djum”
"You haven't been to Solo if you haven't eat at Nasi Liwet Wongso Lemu”
"You haven't been to Madiun if you haven't eat at Pecel Mbok Gembrot”
"You haven't been to Garut if you haven't eat at Nasi Liwet di Asep Stroberi”

Seeing the attraction tourists have towards the street food, the writer believe it's a sure indication that street food is one of the key players in introducing a particular region's identity, which in turn would help raising that region's attraction as a tourist destination.

Internationally speaking, street food could also plays a major role in help forming international perception about the quality and Unique Selling Point (USP) of a tourist destination; or even establish the perception of one nation's culinary quality.

Seeing that situation, it's not an overstatement if the writer think that street food is actually the ambassadors of a nation's culinary culture.

Therefore, Indonesia's participation in the World Street Food Congress in Singapura this June 2013 is something important, as it's a good chance to introduce Indonesian rich culinary culture to the international street food lovers; those who believes that the world's best food are usually found not in fancy restaurants, but by the roadside. (byms)

Bepergian dengan Citilink bulan Mei 2013 ini? Jangan lupa buka halaman 50 untuk highlight mengenai jajan kuliner andalan Denpasar terkini, persembahan Epicurina.

Menyesuaikan dengan target tulisan yaitu wisatawan nusantara (wisnus), jadi dipilihkan makanannya yang cocok di lidah dan perut masyarakat Indonesia, sekaligus tidak memberatkan kantong karena rata-rata yang dibahas di sini adalah kuliner kelas streetfood (jajanan pinggir jalan), atau restoran casual:

(byms)

Image from Adam Kuban's Flickr

Often looks like something out from Aliens movie, soft shell crab dishes could look intimidating when you can still see its complete parts, but it's a nice treat anyway, especially with its texture.

Recently I have this dilemma though, about consuming soft shell crab ("kepiting soka" in Indonesia), due to how it's commercially cultivated: the young crabs' legs are mutilated to stress the crab, thus in turn soften their shells. The process itself takes about 20 days.

During the whole process, they're left with just the last pair of legs; the swimming legs so they can still move around in the cage and feed themselves, while failure in mutilating process could cause the crab's death.

Mutilated soft shell crab - Trobos.com

While the legs will re-grow eventually since that's the crab's nature, but isn't it cruel? I mean we foodies often talk about banning the commercially created Foie Gras for its inhumane treatment to the goose, and banning shark fins for similar reasons, but now we're encountered something similar and think it's alright.

Different with the "forced" soft shell crab though, what happens in the wild is quite different; no cruelty it's all natural so there's no ethical issue:

For a crab to become larger, it must first discard its old shell and form a new one, which it does periodically throughout its life. To do this, it forms a new 'coat' under its old shell, then swells itself up enough to cause the top and bottom halves of the shell to separate, starting at the back. (source)

You are what you eat

On another perspective, is it good for our spirit to eat something that's created through so much stress? In the distance past there are cannibalistic tribes who eats their enemies believing they will absorb its live power, or forbidding eating specific kind of meal for believing it has bad aura.

I once watched an episode on NatGeo about the Maasai warriors traveling to US, and they refused to bought "fainting goats" that freezes upon feeling fear, for fearing that it's contagious and interfere with their hunting skill; though the farmer has stated that researches shows it doesn't.

I guess the warriors still believes that you are what you eat; perhaps you would too if your life depends on hunting top predator like lions.

More about Congenital myotonia (also myotonia congenita) a.k.a. the Fainting Goats syndrome here.


Any thoughts on this? (byms)

Sebagai tujuan utama wisata di Indonesia, Bali memiliki beragam pilihan kuliner yang terbagi menjadi dua jenis: kuliner restoran, dan kuliner pinggir jalan; yang terakhir ini dikenal juga dengan sebutan street food.

Jika untuk jenis makanan restoran, Bali memiliki Mozaic, Metis, dan Sarong yang berulangkali mendapatkan pengakuan internasional. Bagaimana halnya dengan kuliner pinggir jalannya? Adakah juga yang unggul? Ternyata sama juga; tak kurang dari dua chef ngetop yang memiliki acara kuliner di televisi internasional, memuji kelezatan dari hidangan Babi Guling Ibu Oka di Ubud. Mereka adalah: Anthony Bourdain (No Reservation) dan Andrew Zimmern (Bizzare Foods).

Ditambah dengan Bobby Chinn (World Café Asia), maka setidaknya sudah pernah ada tiga acara TV internasional yang membuat episode khusus untuk membahas kekayaan kuliner pinggir jalan yang Bali miliki. Dalam liputannya mengenai Bali pun, Samantha Brown (Samantha Brown's Asia) turut mengulas mengenai Ibu Oka.

Mulai berjualan sejak tahun 70an, kini tak kurang dari 500 pengunjung memadati Babi Guling Ibu Oka setiap harinya, dan 1.000 pada akhir pekan; suatu prestasi yang akan sulit disaingi kebanyakan restoran di Bali, yang bertaraf internasional sekalipun. Mayoritas pengunjung Ibu Oka sendiri adalah wisatawan; baik turis Australia, Jepang, maupun wisatawan domestik.

Di tempat lain, Warung Nasi Ayam Kedewatan Ibu Mangku dengan hidangan andalannya Nasi Ayam Bali, menerima sekitar 200 pengunjung setiap harinya; jumlah yang sama juga dilaporkan oleh Warung Mak Beng di Sanur yang berjualan hidangan Sup Kepala Ikan. Di semua tempat tersebut, para pengunjung rela untuk antre, makan berdesakan, tak jarang harus mandi keringat, semata-mata karena tertarik akan keunikan dan kelezatan masakan yang tiga warung ini miliki.

Citarasa lokal

Jika kuliner pinggir jalan seringkali identik dengan ketidaknyamanan, dan masih banyak pilihan makanan sejenis disajikan di restoran-restoran yang lebih berkelas, apakah alasan para wisatawan (khususnya yang dari mancanegara) memenuhi tempat-tempat jajanan pinggir jalan tersebut?

Walaupun penulis sudah bisa mengira-ngira sendiri apa jawabannya, penegasan atas dugaan tersebut muncul ketika mendapatkan email pertanyaan dari para penikmat makan enak, baik lokal maupun dari mancanegara yang akan berkunjung ke Bali. Berhubung yang mereka ketahui mengenai Bali sangatlah terbatas, maka biasanya mereka akan meminta saran lokasi kuliner yang wajib dicoba; dan rata-rata tidak minta ditunjukkan restoran yang mewah, namun kuliner-kuliner khas lokal, yang tentunya rata-rata dijual di tepi jalan.

Ketika ditanyakan mengapa, ternyata alasannya rata-rata terkait pentingnya citarasa lokal: “hidangan fine dining ala Perancis bisa kami dapatkan di tempat asal kami dengan mudah, sedangkan di Indonesia saya ingin merasakan cita rasa asli Indonesia.” Atau jawaban versi lainnya: “Saya dari Amerika, ngapain jauh-jauh ke Bali kalau cuma buat makan makanan Mexico?”

Satu hal yang konsisten teramati dari mereka semua, adalah tingginya ketertarikan dari kalangan wisatawan untuk mengenal citarasa lokal; sesuatu yang akan sangat berbeda dari tempat ke tempat, sekaligus sulit untuk dibuat tiruannya. Hal ini selaras dengan pemahaman penulis sendiri, bahwa makanan bercitarasa lokal paling enak biasanya ditemukan tidak di restoran keren, tapi di pinggir jalan.

Memang ada juga sih, turis mancanegara yang takut panas, takut mules, atau gengsian, hingga memilih untuk hanya menyantap makanan yang sudah biasa mereka makan di negara asalnya; namun jika dilihat dari pesatnya trend backpacker dan ecotourism, pengalaman lokal adalah hal yang sangat dicari oleh para wisatawan jenis baru ini, termasuk makanan setempat sebagai bagian pengalaman tersebut.

Salahsatu bukti keunggulan kuliner pinggir jalan dibanding restoran internasional, muncul dalam cuplikan dialog penulis dengan pasangan penikmat makan enak dari San Fransisco, AS. Dari sekian tempat yang penulis sarankan dan dicoba, rupanya mereka lebih terkesan dengan Nasi Ayam Betutu Warung Liku, dan Sop Buntut di Warung Nikmat Bakungsari, daripada dengan makanan di restoran-restoran Barat yang berderet di sepanjang jalan Seminyak dan Oberoi. Hal yang kadang membuat heran, terlebih bagi mereka yang sudah sangat terbiasa dengan masakan-masakan lokal tersebut.

Namun disinilah pentingnya kita menetralkan diri, dan menyadari bahwa apa yang seseorang anggap biasa, bisa jadi dianggap luar biasa bagi orang lainnya.

Pendapat para rekan dari AS ini sendiri penulis anggap shahih karena mereka berdua datang dari salahsatu kota AS dengan ragam dan kualitas kuliner yang tinggi, sering bepergian keliling dunia, plus sebelum mencapai Bali mereka telah mengunjungi terlebih dahulu negara-negara Asia Tenggara lainnya jadi dasar referensinya pun sudah sangat luas. Ditambah lagi, kedua warung tersebut adalah nama-nama yang juga ngetop di kalangan penikmat makan enak domestik.

Berdasarkan hal inilah, penulis yakin kalaupun ada kuliner tepi jalan legendaris di luar Bali yang tidak/sedikit saja mendapatkan kunjungan turis mancanegara, hal itu lebih disebabkan karena keberadaan mereka yang bukan di lokasi tujuan utama wisatawan internasional; bukan karena masalah kualitas, atau selera yang benar-benar berbeda.

Duta Budaya Kuliner

Di kalangan wisatawan nusantara sendiri, sebagai penegas saking berartinya pengalaman makan dalam perjalanan wisata, maka seringkali muncul klaim dengan format sebagai berikut:

“Belum ke” + [nama daerah] + “kalau belum makan di” + [nama kuliner pinggir jalan]

Misalnya:

“Belum ke Kuta kalau belum makan di Nasi Pedas Ibu Andika”
“Belum ke Yogya kalau belum makan Gudeg Yu Djum”
“Belum ke Solo kalau belum makan Nasi Liwet Wongso Lemu”
“Belum ke Madiun kalau belum makan Pecel Mbok Gembrot”
“Belum ke Garut kalau belum makan Nasi Liwet di Asep Stroberi”

Ketertarikan para wisatawan akan kuliner pinggir jalan ini sebenarnya menunjukkan suatu indikasi penting bahwa kuliner pinggir jalan adalah salahsatu pemain utama dalam memperkenalkan identitas lokal suatu daerah, yang pada gilirannya bisa turut mendongkrak nilai jual suatu daerah tujuan wisata.

Dalam lingkup internasional pun, kuliner pinggir jalan bisa berperan besar dalam membantu pembentukan persepsi dunia mengenai kualitas dan Unique Selling Point (USP) dari suatu daerah tujuan wisata, atau malah menegaskan kualitas budaya kuliner suatu negara secara umum.

Menilik hal tersebut, tidak berlebihan kiranya kalau penulis menganggap bahwa kuliner pinggir jalan (street food) sebenarnya adalah para duta budaya kuliner Indonesia.

Maka dari itu, keikutsertaan Indonesia dalam ajang World Street Food Congress di Singapura awal bulan Juni 2013 ini menjadi suatu hal yang penting, karena ini merupakan kesempatan yang tepat untuk memperkenalkan kekayaan budaya kuliner Indonesia kepada para street-foodies internasional: mereka yang percaya bahwa makanan terenak di dunia seringkali ditemukan di pinggir jalan. (byms)