The Gianyar night market
by Azure
Every night, we go to Gianyar for dinner. There is a night market there and it takes about 20 minutes each way. We get the Nasi Campur from the same dude every night because he makes the best crispy tempe and his sambal is just the right amount of spicy and sweet. Nasi Campur is very typical and it just means rice (nasi) variety/mixed (campur). He puts rice, roasted chicken, beans, coconut, peanuts, hard boiled egg, fried egg, tempe, tofu, and sambal on our plate and we split it because it is big enough to fill both of us. ($1.50, though other places sell it for $1.00-$1.20) (read more)
Nasi Campur
Nasi Campur stand
Then we go over to the Ice stand. I get the Es Buah (ice fruit) and Mike gets the Es Apokat (ice avocado). This consists of cut up pieces of whatever you ordered with shaved ice and condensed milk on top. Once you have eaten the fruit and ice, you drink the sweet milk until the bowl is completely dry. It might be my favorite desert, especially when my mouth is burning from the sambal. ($.30 each)
Es Buah
Es Apokat
We could be done after that, and most nights we are. Some nights I like to go to the sticky rice stall and get some sweet rice for the morning. It makes a good supplement to whatever free breakfast we get from the hotel. Before we found out about the Es Buah, I used to get the rice treats for desert. There are all sorts of rice products and some tapioca pieces at the stand too. When you have made your choices, they sprinkle shaved coconut and chocolate on your selection. ($.20)
Waiting for the rice treats
Adding the final chocolate.
Sometimes Mike wants a Bakso (meatball soup) or Soto Ayem (chicken soup) after dinner. I don’t think he needs this, but he says he does, so we’ll sit down and he’ll load it up with too much sambal and start sweating. He doesn’t think a meal is complete if his mouth isn’t burning afterward. They put cabbage and rice noodles in the bottom, then pour in the broth, top it with chicken and egg. The sauces are on the table to make it as spicy or sweet as you like it. ($.50)
Round 2 at the Nasi Campur stand
Things you can expect from the Gianyar market and others like it.
1. People will serve the food with their hands. They will not use a single utensil to transfer it from its bowl to your plate.
2. There will be flies and other bugs around. They will be on the food. This is unavoidable.
3. At no point will the food have been refrigerated during its journey to your mouth, including meat.
4. There will be dogs and kids running around.
5. The food will be authentic. It will be spicy and delicious.
6. You will know #5 is true because you will be the only white person there. On only one occasion did we see another white couple. They were with a guide and they did not eat any of the food, not even the es buah!
Posted on December 31, 2009 at 12:45 pm.
