I recently had this experience at a Balinese seafood cafe by the main road in Kusamba Village. It was one of those random stops on my way back from home after working in east Bali.
As I walked in, the place was buzzing with families digging into their meals. Some sat cross-legged while having their meal. Some sat on the proper table. I decided to go for the meal package, which came with rice, fish soup, peanuts, veggies with coconut, fish satay, and pepes. Yep, you guessed it—lots of fish!
While waiting for the food to be served, I peeked into the kitchen at the front of the restaurant and saw this guy working his magic on the grill. He was flipping fish satay and preparing pepes like a pro. This was a common traditional cooking method in Bali.
Five minutes later, a girl came with the food. I eagerly waited as the food package placed on my table.
When our food came, it was pretty quick. Well, it was quick as it was a fast food type of restaurant. I never thought about this before, I just realized it when I was here. The satays and the pepes were all pre made. When there is a food order, the seller just take all the food that had been cooked before. As the result the food wasn't piping hot, but hey, still tasted great!
Overall, it was quite a memorable lunchtime adventure. Sure, there were a couple of bumps along the way—the salty soup and not-so-hot food—but flavors of the dish made up for it
