Just after booking our holidays to Bali, I started browsing for restaurants in the places we would be staying. Locavore in Ubud always popped up in the top lists of restaurants.

I was able to book for lunch on the Tuesday we were in Ubud. In hindsight, I was quite lucky as in view of the Galungan holidays Locavore was closed for the remainder of that week. 🍀

The term locavore refers to a person interested in eating food that is locally produced, not moved long distances to market. In that respect, Chef/owners Eelke Plasmeijer and Ray Adriansyah have been building close relationships with local producers well before they started Locavore rather than importing many ingredients. Or growing the ingredients themselves if needed.

Locavore already caught the attention of World’s 50 Best Restaurants in their following blog post, which concludes as follows: “Locavore wants to be the best restaurant in Indonesia. It has never become so officially, but maybe it has become something better”. After having had our lunches, I can only say: rightfully so. They are capable of amazing things; combining innovative European cuisine using sustainable, high-quality local ingredients and adding interesting Asian twists to their dishes. A real pleasure for both palate and eyes.

Chantal had the 5-course Herbivore (vegetarian) menu, I had the 5-course Locavore menu and the kids each picked 3 courses from the Locavore menu. You need to work up quite an appetite before you go there as we were also served: home-baked bread with 3 dips/spreads, several amuses (the sliced tomato with cold tomato sorbet and a hot, spicy tomato consommé was an ingenious take on a Bloody Mary!), a dessert amuse (the mango sorbet with clove infused yogurt foam was amazing) and we ended with coffee/tea and friandises (oven fresh madeleines and cinnamon donuts and mango/chocolate/sea salt bonbons). We were so glad we didn’t opt for the 7-course lunch…

In total, we paid about IND 3.650k (including tax and service – about EUR 240 / USD 265), but it also included 2 cocktails, mineral water and a bottle of Aussie 2008 Tyrrell’s Rufus Stone Shiraz, so overall excellent value for money. Highly recommended!

Cucumber & Lemongrass Mojito
Cucumber & Lemongrass Mojito (muddled cucumber, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, lime juice & simple syrup, dry shaken with Plantation 3-star rum, served over crushed ice topped with homemade herbed soda water, garnished with cucumber lemongrass and mint leaves)
Into the wild cocktail
Into the Wild cocktail (Muddled local wild berries, mulberry, rambutan, strawberry & thyme, shaken with Tanqueray Gin & Cointreau, topped with local made Muscato D’Bali, blowtorched herbs as aromatherapy)
Tuna
Tuna (Brined tuna loin, cooked on low temperature (62C), pickled sea lettuce, dehydrated seaweeds, cucamelon, local miso mayonnaise, sesame seeds, compressed watermelon with a chilled tuna consommé on the side)
Beets
Beets (Salt-roasted beets, grilled beet consommé (warm), tamarillo & mulberry vinegar sorbet, pickled beets, burnt bread crumbs, nasturtiums, dehydrated beetroot oil)
Beef
Beef (Short ribs from Malang, Java), served raw, wasabi leaf mayonnaise, fried shallots, pickled shallots, shaved radishes with a separately served herbed brioche crouton with melting beef lard)
jerusalem Artichoke
Jerusalem Artichokes (Brown butter roasted Jerusalem artichoke, cured duck egg yolk, creamy artichoke sauce, Italian parsley puree, crispy artichoke, homemade raw honey vinegar)
Langouste
Langouste (langouste from Tabanan, West Bali, poached in cocoa butter infused with vanilla, cauliflower mousseline, clam juice with langouste roe, seaweeds, shaved cauliflower, slightly bitter tangerine & vanilla reduction)
Rice & Beans
Rice & Beans (Smoked fresh soybeans (edamame), organic rice foam, wild black soybeans, grated fresh horseradish, crispy black rice, young pea shoots)
Pork
Pork (Two preparations of pork, green peppercorn sauce, swede & brown butter crème, blanched Russian kale, bacon crumbs, dehydrated kale leaves, pickled zucchini)
Berries & Chocolate
Berries & Chocolate (seasonal mulberry sorbet, strawberry consommé, bitter chocolate ganache, mulberry gel, mulberry meringue, chocolate mint leaves, bitter chocolate mousse)
Chocolate & Citrus
Chocolate & Citrus (Bitter chocolate foam, served warm, local mandarin segments in red wine vinegar, bitter tangerine sauce, yogurt & mint sorbet slightly salty chocolate sable, tangerine tuile, chocolate mint leaves)

2 replies on “Around the World – Locavore – Ubud, Bali (Aug 2015)”

  1. Pingback: Top 10 posts of 2016 – ARCISFOODBLOG
  2. Pingback: RIJKS x Locavore, Amsterdam (April 2017) – ARCISFOODBLOG

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