Omelette for brekkie @ Bar Luna, Ubud

“Chic and cheerful” is a phrase that comes to mind when I think about Bar Luna. It’s a place where the cool crowd hangs out, but it is still down to earth enough that you can feel at home, it’s not overly expensive and the food is excellent.  Wade and I were here for 2 meals in a row – dinner and brekkie the next day.

The dinner was a selection of mezze-style dishes – breads, olives, dips, grilled mushrooms, smoked marlin pâté as well as grilled fish and chips.  We may have over-ordered just a tad.  But it all tasted sensational, especially the mushrooms.

Brekkie started off on a high and then just got better.  The latte, although a bit strong for me, came with a little round of shortbread which I very much appreciate first thing in the morning.  It helped to offset the strength of the coffee, but it also helped to quiet my grumbling tummy until my brekkie arrived.

And I loved the tiny glass of iced water that came with it, too.

Wade had a strawberry lassie, bursting with fresh strawberry-ness...

... with scrambled eggs, mushrooms and tomato relish:



The only downside to this dish was the fact that the scrambled eggs were weeping, but they were otherwise excellent.  The mushies were spongy and full of flavour and the tomato relish had a good sweet/smoky balance. 

I had an omelette with tomatoes, spinach and fetta:



This brekkie made me smile and smile.  I loved the salty fetta with the eggs and the tomatoes didn’t make it too watery, which is often a consequence of tomatoes in omelettes.  The sourdough bread helped to tip the balance of what constitutes a reasonable amount of food to eat at any given time, but it was too good to pass up.  And the tomato relish was relishious!  In fact, the tomato relish at Bar Luna has inspired me to make my own at home – or at least have some sort of relish or chutney with my eggs on a regular basis.  It’s becoming my new thing.

French toast @ Casa Luna

Back to the familiar territory of the quickly-expanding empire that is Casa Luna (+ Honeymoon Bakery + Honeymoon Guesthouse + Casa Luna Cooking School + Indus restaurant + Bar Luna + an emporium selling giftware, and, by the time I’ve finished writing this, they will have probably opened up a yoga studio or a bookshop too).  They are effective self-promoters.

It is an empire, but it is a locally-owned empire, which doesn’t make it so bad.  Janet de Neef is an Australian woman who went to Ubud, met a Balinese guy, got married, had kids and started opening up guesthouses and bakeries and restaurants etc.  She has written a book called Fragrant Rice, which is about her life, her initiation into the Balinese culture, as well as her love of Balinese food, and it includes recipes.  I own that book, and I have to say that it has helped to bring a little bit of Bali to Timor, as many of the ingredients for Balinese cooking are available in the market in Oecusse.  

The food at Casa Luna is of a distinctively high quality and the owners have a pretty good ethos around using local produce and cooking everything from scratch, which is perhaps why I like it so much.

For breakfast on this particular day I ordered a mixed juice and French toast with yoghurt and palm sugar syrup.  Wade had a strawberry lassie:

The bread is made fresh at the Honeymoon Bakery and the palm sugar syrup is a good example of using a local product instead of importing, say, maple syrup.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the yoghurt was homemade either.  I enjoyed this brekkie, but it was a bit too heavy on the bread.  As you can see, they are really thick slices (but at least it’s not that sugary white sliced crap for a change), and it was a bit light on the “French” aspect - the bread was merely shown the egg batter.  But it wasn’t too bad.

I also ordered a Flores latte, which is like a chai latte, made with tea from Flores:

Again, it’s a good example of using local products – Flores tea, cinnamon, cloves, etc.  There is something in this tea that is overpowering though – I think it’s the cloves.  Maybe they could ease up on the cloves.

But, do you know what I really like?

A little biscuit served with my cuppa.  It is a nice detail that goes a long way.