Lemon cake served with a side of dirty dog…

Place: Rumi villas seminyak

Poison: coke zero

Favourite things: crazy food, mangy dog stories and my friends

Today was brilliant, scary, yummy, hilarious and very memorable.

Bryce, Tin, Charl and I decided to smash Ubud, the epicenter of the climatic end to Julia Roberts last movie ‘Eat, Pray, Love’.

We left early this morning with a driver and made our way to the artistic centre of Bali, intent on eating our way through the town.

The morning began with a pot of Bali coffee and a view to write home about at the Tropical view cafe, in the heart of Ubud, next to the monkey Forrest. It’s an unassuming terrace, which unless you know it’s there you will miss it, but it’s one of my favourites as it makes a lemon crumble cake for one dollar a slice, that you will travel two hours just to get a bit of it’s crumble…we had a slice each, chatted with the very old farmer, who was plowing his field, preparing ourselves for the day ahead.

We sauntered through town, dodging the street hawkers and perusing the spa options, getting ourselves ready for the next slice of our culinary adventure through Ubud. Tin and I could barely contain our excitement as we approached round two, the famous restaurant called the dirty duck. It’s specialty deep fried duck, it’s view and ambience, once in a lifetime. Overlooking another rice field we made friends with another farmer, who will from now onward be named ‘ The great goose warrior!’ He was a kamakazee farmer, with guns as big as Charl, he herded ducks as we watched and giggled, till us girls realised he was about to kill the ducks sister we had just consumed.

The culinary tour needed a break at this stage, so the girls had a Balinese massage, whilst the boys got their girl on and Bryce had a hair spa treatment and Charl had a pedicure, polish and all. Rested and relaxed, we made our way around the town to the pies de la resistance of our day. A restaurant I’ve heard reviews from Anthony Bourdain to master chef, I’ve begged my family to come to Ubud and had suckling pig with me, Babi Guling…as we walked towards this local hero, my stomach turned, my ears pricked and I stood my ground determined to bring our my inner Bear Grylis…it was so disgusting, from the flies to the mangy dogs, the toothpicks to the mould climbing the walls…I was disturbed and laughed at the same time, still determined to taste the delicacy…however a couple of bites later, as the dogs departed the kitchen, I passed up my plate to Bryce and conceded my trial as a fail! Babi Guling you were too much for this young adventurer, but kudos to Bryce and Tin for their iron stomachs.

We finished the day with the three monkeys, much more western, much more palatable to my sensitive eyes with a wholemeal pizza and a hazelnut pate dessert plate.

A day my stomach will never forget. Especially the one eyed mangy dog that waited on us at the table and the smile that started the day at the lemon cake terrace as we all realized how good it is to be ourselves with the closest of friends.

Smashed it

Love ya