6 dishes every Bali visitor needs to try

These days though, plenty of classic dishes are served everywhere from tiny warungs through to high-end restaurants, making it easy for travelers to savor the flavors of real Balinese cuisine.

Babi guling (suckling pig)

Pork dishes are relatively hard to find across the mostly Muslim Indonesian archipelago, but Bali’s famed suckling pig makes any roaming traveler’s wait worthwhile.

While strictly speaking a suckling pig should still be feeding on its mother’s milk, in Bali the pigs used in this popular dish can weigh about 70 kilograms (150 pounds).

They are rubbed with turmeric then stuffed with a “base gede,” or spice paste, which usually includes a combination of coriander seeds, lemongrass, Asian lime leaves and salam leaves, chillies, black pepper, garlic, red shallots, ginger and kencur (lesser galangal).

The pig is roasted on a spit over coconut husks or wood to tender perfection.

When ordering a plate, expect sliced meat, a few pieces of satay, caramelized crackling and more obscure parts, like crispy intestines — this is nose-to-tail dining at its most traditional.

Be siap sambal matah (chicken in ‘raw’ sambal)

Eelke Plasmeijer from Locavore (Jalan Dewi Sita, Ubud) nominates be siap sambal matah as his favorite dish: it’s shredded chicken in a raw sambal of shallots, lemongrass, ginger torch, chillies, coconut oil, shrimp paste, salt and lime leaves.

Most warungs offering nasi campur (rice with mixed dishes) will have it among their dishes of the day, but Locavore’s restaurant manager’s mother makes the version he likes best for their staff meals.

“I can’t get enough of it! It is a dish you won’t find anywhere in Indonesia other than Bali and cooked properly it’s not to be missed,” he says.

“People can always come and join our staff meal if they like.”

MORE: 40 of Indonesia’s best dishes

Samantha Brown has been living and working in Southeast Asia since 1997
and these days manages online regional guide Travelfish.org.

CNN