First dinner in Ubud @ Siam Sally

Have I mentioned that Wade and I had to go to Bali recently to renew our visas? What a shame!  What an amazing few days! 

After a couple of weeks of eating out for every meal in Dili, I was feeling pretty unhealthy.  So it was surreal to suddenly find ourselves in Ubud, where eating out for every meal could actually be a nourishing and enjoyable experience.  I was determined to make the most of my access to the variety of healthy and wholesome foods that Ubud has to offer.  That, combined with a 5-class yoga pass at the Yoga Barn (with our accommodation right next door), meant I would be coming back from Bali a more limber, glowing, trim, clear-eyed version of my former self. 

It started at Siam Sally.  Siam Sally is a Thai restaurant on the corner of the little walkway that leads to the Yoga Barn, and so it was really close to our accommodation.  We hadn’t arrived until six that evening, so we were pretty tired and hungry.

For entree, we ordered Vegan Summer Rolls:

Look how healthy they are!  Just a bit of rice paper, some crunchy greens (I believe it was spinach, lettuce and a herby trio of basil, mint and coriander, but I could be wrong) and fresh roasted cashews.  The dipping sauce was soy and coriander.  Just divine.  My first bite almost made we want to turn into a vegan. Eating them felt like all my iron levels were being restored and the cells in my face were reconstituting. 

Main course: I had the Crisp Fish and Green Mango Salad.

What made me so excited about this salad was that it is something I can easily make at home.  After all, I do own a mandoline, so those pretty green mango strips are a breeze.  The crisp fish was actually dried fish that had been toasted (or fried – I’m not sure) and then crumbled over the salad.  The sensation of the crispy fish in my mouth felt a little bit like eating sand, but the flavour was nice. Dried fish is quite strong, but I really enjoy it.  There were cashews again, but I wasn’t complaining.  The “sweet sour garlicky dressing” was as per your usual Thai salad – fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, chilli – and although I was dubious of the “garlic” factor, I didn’t feel like I’d just eaten a whole head of raw garlic by the end of it.  The chilli punch was powerful, but I felt that that only added to my cleansing/detox mood, as my pores got a good flush out.

My drink was a traditional Thai iced tea (unsweetened). 

There was some pomp and ceremony in its delivery, where the waitress brought the glass of crushed ice to the table and poured over the steaming cup of orange, milky tea at the table.  I have no idea why the tea was orange; it certainly didn’t taste like orange.  I really enjoyed the flavour, but for a dinner accompaniment, I would have to say I would prefer something less milky.  A bad choice on my part.  I thought the lemongrass swizzle stick added to the aesthetics of the drink, but nothing to the flavour.  A couple of times I mistook it for a straw, which was a little embarrassing.

Wade went for a celebratory cocktail:  the Bangkok Bling:

Tequila, rum, triple sec, passionfruit puree and Angostura bitters.  Refreshing, passionfruity and alcoholie.

Ginger fish @ Beach Cafe

One of the more reliable restaurants in Dili, Beach Cafe is a Burmese restaurant along the beach, just near Castaways.  I like it most for its crinkle-cut chips (see below), and least for its swarms of mosquitoes (due either to the water feature inside the restaurant or the open sewer nextdoor).  It doesn’t have a view of the beach.  But don’t let that stop you from going.

The description on the menu for the “Ginger Fish” went something like this:  Fish fillet with ginger on a bed of salad.  And I suppose that’s what I got.  I guess I was expecting a simple “green and white” theme, which one may expect from a healthy steamed fish dish with salad and shredded young ginger.   I may have been in denial about the “bed of salad”.  I may have subconsciously thought, “Oh, it probably won’t be a ‘bed of salad’ – more like a side salad’”.  I wasn’t expecting it to be the kind-of gingery, sweet and sour dish with deep fried bits of fish that you might find in a Chinese restaurant, complicated by the “bed of salad”, which was in fact just lettuce leaves drowning in the sticky sauce to the point of impotence. 

The overall flavour was fine, albeit sugary.  I nibbled at the few pieces of lettuce around the edges, but I definitely couldn’t bring myself to eat the wilted dark green pathetic bits sitting in the bottom of the bowl.  I also wasn’t a big fan of the barely-cooked pieces of onion.  The capsicum was ok, but it gave the impression that it didn’t really understand why it was there.

I don’t think I’d order this one again.  The “Yangon Chicken Rice” – a Burmese specialty – is much fresher, healthier, and has the “green and white” theme that I mentioned above (green: sliced shallots; white: steamed chicken sitting in a bowl of flavoursome broth – served with rice (also white)).

For my drink, I ordered a fresh lime juice, which is really quite a popular drink in Dili. The sugar syrup, served on the side, gives you control over your glucose intake.  It came in an awkwardly tall glass, which made for awkward photography.  But it DID have a swizzle stick!

It doesn’t quite compare with my “soda water with lime” that I ordered at Castaways, but it was a passable beverage as far as non-alcoholic beverages go.

Wade ordered a fish burger.  No surprises here.  He orders these a lot, which is why I quizzed him recently on which place rates the best fish burger in Dili.  His pick was this one:

Beach Cafe’s fish burger with crinkle cut chips.

A soft, sesame-seeded bun, a breaded fillet of fish, cheese and salad.  A standard combination, made spectacular by the addition of crinkle-cut chips, cooked to perfection.

I would be lying if I said we weren’t total greedy gutses and didn’t order an entree.  We were.  And we did.  The vegetarian spring rolls.  They were good, albeit rather heavy on the cabbage.  The sweet chilli sauce was: (a) watered down; and (b) not nearly enough to dress the massive mound of rolls, so we had to ask for a second lot.

Mr Kerala is back!!

After leaving us yet again for a number of weeks, this time to attend his daughter’s wedding in India, Dili’s finest Indian cook, Mr Kerala*, is back in town.  We can all breathe a sigh of relief.  Happily, he has brought his wife with him, so the one-man-show now has an extra pair of hands to help the deliciousness get to the table quicker.

After ordering our banana lassies and scouring the menu, we asked Mr K (a little tentatively) whether he had fish tonight.  Sometimes he answers this question by telling us that we should always ring him in advance if we want his special fish curry with the special recipe all the way from his village in Kerala, but tonight he replied with a simple: Yes!!!!

So, fish curry it was, accompanied by palak paneer and brinjola (eggplant).  We also ordered the flaky, crispy parathas (fried flatbreads).  Wade went with the plain, but tonight I had a curiosity about the egg version.  I also had a hankering to relive my Bangladeshi road trip breakfasts, which involved a green chilli-spiced omelette rolled up in a paratha.  A good, greasy hangover cure.   Mr K’s egg paratha was scrambled eggs folded inside the bread, and although it wasn’t quite the same as the Bangladeshi version, it was equally as tasty.

Curries from left to right: Brinjola, fish curry, palak paneer.  Egg paratha in foreground, plain at the back.

The fish curry is spicy and tomatoey, with just a hint of coconut milk, excellent for soaking into the rice/bread.  The fish itself is of the meaty variety – I think perhaps a kingfish – cut across the bone, but the taste is so good the bones don’t matter.  This was the star of the show. 

The brinjola is a slightly drier style curry, but has a high oil content, giving it some moisture, and lots of silky onions. The flavour is a little bit smoky. 

The palak paneer, while still passing as a good curry, could have been of a smoother consistency.  In most of the other palak paneers I’ve had, the flavours from the onion, curry paste and spinach are blended together to make one beautiful mass of edible green moss, dotted with spongy cubes of cheese.  Mr K’s onions were fully visible amongst the not-quite broken down spinach leaves, resulting in a somewhat disjointed flavour. His cheese was just right.

It’s good to have you back, Mr K.

Leftovers for lunch #2: Coleslaw Noodle Salad

I had leftover rice noodles in the fridge from a laksa I'd made for dinner.  I also had a type of coleslaw in the fridge, with finely slice cabbage and grated carrot, but the dressing was more of a vinaigrette than a mayo.  I mixed the coleslaw in with the noodles, adding some chopped mint, chilli, leftover tinned tuna, crisped lettuce from the fridge and boiled egg.  The chopped, roasted peanuts gave it a bit of texture.  This made a fairly hearty lunch.

Leftovers for lunch #1: Fish cakes with two salads

We had some fishcakes left over one day, which I had actually made from leftovers from the fridge – some tinned salmon, boiled potatoes and a smidgen of Malaysian-style home made curry paste.

On this particular day, I had been perving at the fantastic vegan blog, Easy as (Vegan) Pie, with my mouth watering at all the yummy salads, including a delicious guacamole and the handful salad, on which I based the two salads here.

Oecusse has excellent avocados (when they’re around).  They have a slightly higher water content than the Hass variety, but are still really good eating, especially when they are perfectly ripe, like this one was.  I added some halved cherry tomatoes, finely sliced red shallots (available in abundance here, but substitute for Spanish onion at home), sprinkled over some lime juice, Tabasco, salt and pepper.  Too easy.

For the couscous salad I boiled up some peace, love and mung beans, which took about 15 minutes.  Then I added grated carrot, some chopped basil and rocket from the garden.  I toasted up some raw  peanuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds for crunch.  The dollopy goodness on top is simply a mixture of tahini and yoghurt, which is one of my new favourite things.  I sometimes eat it by the spoonful.

Bacon and Eggs, Castaway Bar and Restaurant, Dili

This was actually a really tasty breakfast at Castaways. I have had many, so I’m a good judge.

One thing about this place: they really know how to cook crispy bacon, and today was no exception.

Often I’ve had disappointing eggs here (clear liquid weeping into the toast – not good). But today, the eggs were intact but not rubbery, and they were flecked with a little tinge of spring onion. Just delightful.

I could take or leave the cheesy grilled tomato; I don’t find it offensive, and when I eat it I can tick off a half-serving of veggies for the day (or is that fruit?). I really wish they would get some decent bread though. This white sliced sugary crap is so unsatisfying.

The coffee is another thing at Castaways that can be below par. There appears to be some consensus amongst coffee makers in shopping centre cafes globally and the Castaway Bar and Restaurant in Dili that it is really cool to layer a latte, so that the coffee sits on the bottom of the glass and the milk on the top. Although this does not affect the flavour, I can’t help but feel that it is an unnecessary appeal to the aesthetic. I don’t want to be reminded of shopping centre cafes. I have been noticing lately that Castaway’s coffee standards are improving though. Once I’d mixed this morning’s coffee all together, it had a good colour to it – not too weak or strong:

And, although I don’t take sugar, I really love the sweet little packets it comes in:

This was an all-round satisfying weekend brunch.

Home-made lunch in Dili

Wade and I have been in Dili for a couple of weeks learning Tetun at the Dili Institute of Technology (DIT). It’s good fun, and it’s a nice change to be in Dili, but the one thing I dislike about going to Dili for weeks at a time is the fact that I have to eat out for every meal. I love eating out for a few days, but then I start to crave healthy, home-cooked food.

This is one of the reasons why Wade and I decided to stay at Casa Minha this time: they have kitchen facilities. Nothing fancy, just a little electric stove to make a cup of tea and a few pots.

Here’s the kitchen in our room at Casa Minha.

As it turned out, we didn’t end up cooking much at all. We did, however, buy a few fresh veggies and some bread to make a ploughman’s lunch almost every day. I made these little “ham burgers” one day after our Tetun course, washed down with a glass of guava juice and soda:

I bought the bread rolls from the Turkish restaurant near the ANZ bank. Their bread is the best I’ve found in Dili (and you can also buy it from Tiger Fuel, but it isn’t always fresh). The Turkish restaurant also does yummy, sticky baklava, and whenever I eat it, I get syrupy goodness running down my arms because it’s so juicy.

It was so lovely to eat lunch at home every day. Especially when we were staying in such a nice place.

Cute Casa Minha.

Sunshiney Breakfast

The breakfast at Casa Minha is the nicest “free” (ie included in the already-inflated room price) breakfast I’ve been able to find in Dili. It is a buffet-style brekkie with all the regular fare: fruit, cereal, toast, eggs, etc, but there are a few points that make Casa Minha’s really yummy:

1. The fruit is really good quality – really sweet pineapple, orange and papaya, as well as red bananas (the sweetest of them all).

2. The bread is not the regular, sugary, airy white sliced crap you often find at breakfast buffets. They also have Burgen fruit and muesli bread, which is delicious as well as filling. And they have yummy Lurpak butter.

3. There is cake!

4. They have filtered coffee, which is better than many other options (although I’m currently off coffee, so have been getting a pot of tea which comes with a cute little yellow tag).

It also helps that the tables look over the calm blue waters of the Dili seaside, making it a really nice place to start the day.

It’s not really your weekend brunch destination, but for a “school day”, it’s a lovely, healthy, sunny option.