The Bebek Experience

Ubud Bali is famous for its culture, friendly local community, beautiful countryside views, and of course the local specialty that has grown to be world renowned -- Bebek Bengil. It literally means Dirty Duck Diner. No, it's not dirty at all. On the contrary, it's actually a very beautiful restaurant overlooking paddy fields, you get to sit under wooden and straw huts or long tables.

Whence come the name? Here's the story from the owners...

When we were building the restaurant, we thought long and hard about a name. Many good suggestions came from our friends, but none seemed just right. We knew we wanted a Balinese name that translated well into English. However, for a long time the metaphor eluded us.

One tropical monsoon morning, when the restaurant was very close to being finished (we had the concrete floor down, and the tables in), a flock of ducks from the rice field across the road (yes, there were rice fields all around us then) ran quacking and squawking into the restaurant and across the floor and tables. They left muddy webbed footprints all over the place. They were our first guests - those dirty ducks!

 And so the name stuck. Bebek is duck in Bahasa Indonesia. Their signature dishes include Bebek Bengil (half a duck marinated in spices and deep-fried to crispy perfection) and Balinese Smoked Duck, which takes many hours to marinate and prepare so that you have to pre-book and pre-order this dish. According to our driver Nyoman (who happens to live nearby and knows the guy who handles the marinating spices for the restaurant), apart from the many spices used to marinate the duck, it's actually the special cooking technique that makes it so good. After marinating the duck, it is buried into a heap of rice husk, which will then be lighted. As rice husk does not catch on fire easy or can't be burnt easily, it ends up smoking instead, and the heat from the rice husk smokes the duck slowly, taking at least 4-5 hours to fully cook the duck.

The meat is so tender and juicy, with a slight tinge but not too strong of the taste duck meat. The herbs and spices are so well executed that it doesn't take away the original taste of duck meat, but complements it perfectly.

 The set comes with rice,

Vegetables, which is long beans with beans sprout,

Balinese Sate, which is totally different from what we have in Malaysia and worth trying. The sauce is Mmm~Mmm Yummy!

Keropok

2 glasses of pure fruit punch

 

 True satisfaction! Totally worth its price of IDR 185,000 / RM 67.50. The Smoked Duck set feeds three to the brim.

21 years of business, with branches in Jakarta and Hong Kong (I think). Here's the address:

Bebek Bengil (Dirty Duck Diner)

Hanoman Street,

Padang Tegal, Ubud,

80571 Bali, Indonesia

Telephone Number/Fax No : +(62-361) 975 489

Thank you Lord, for the delicious dinning time together. :)

Bali

My family and I were in Bali for a week. Been to many places (will try to remember the names), saw many interesting sites, and tasted great many good food. Although the aftereffects of having too much spicy food for a week is what I'll have to bear with now.

Bali is beautiful. But one piece of advise: if you're like me and like culture and nature more than commercialism, clubbing and congestion, then you might want to stay in Ubud for 3-4 days and only 1-2 days at Kuta.

Here goes the pix...

Babi Guling -- famous and must have at Ubud.

Mum and I sitting under a bamboo bush.

The Ubud Pasar. Lots of arts, crafts and souvenirs.

Guitar Miniatures

Padi -- you'll see fields all over the countryside of Bali.

And even at where we stayed -- Nick's Pension. Ducks in the field going home after the evening feed.

Ever seen spiders like this before?

You ain't seen nothing yet. This one's bigger!

Sunset at Nick's Pension

Rice Terrace

Nyoman, our driver, talking with Mum

Kintamani Volcano

And Batur Lake beside the volcano.

Tampak Siring -- holy spring temple

Visitors and locals taking a dip in the temple's holy water.

Balinese worshiping in the temple.

More paddy fields. See this almost everywhere.

And they are mostly planted on terraces.

Goa Gajah. No elephants, though. This is an ancient temple.

 The next day...

 We went to the palace temple.

 Then we went to Bedugul.

 It was a rainy day, but it was still beautiful all the same.

 Ulun Danu Temple -- Beratan Bedugul Lake

 Beratan Lake

 Gitgit Waterfalls

 The water is ice cold.

Thank you Lord, for your wonderful creation. :)

More in the next posts...

Melbourne Zoo

Melbourne Zoo is only 4 km away from the central business district of Melbourne. That's the wonder of it. You're hopped on a tram towards the zoo, you passed the modern buildings and architecture in the city, passed Queen Victoria Market, and the next thing you know you're going on a track towards a lush tropical park.

With more than 320 species on view, Melbourne Zoo offers a window into the diversity of the world’s wildlife. There are designated time slots each day for visitors to meet the keepers at some of the animal areas. See them feed the animal and explain about conservation projects or interesting facts about the animal.

The zoo's botanic garden setting also provides a relaxing atmosphere with a variety of landscapes, from the Victorian-era formality of the main drive to the lush jungles of the African and Asian rainforest areas.

Have a walk down nature's lane, you'll find that God is such a creative God that He even created some animals that have no apparent reason to be there. And when we look at His beautiful creation and the variety of it, wow... you'll see Him at work; you'll be amazed!

The blue frog -- looks like the colour of china porcelain. Opps... privacy invasion. XD

Looks like this lizard's body is too fat for its small legs to carry it. It's lapping on the water with its blue tongue.

Meerkats! So cute when they stand up on their hindlegs.

This looks so much like a peacock.

Ostrich holding its head up high.

Zebras have shorter necks than horses. Did you spot the giraffe behind it?

Erm... sorry, don't know the name of this deer-like animal.

Giant Tortoise with its keeper. Yes, they are huge and look like rocks, but it's real. They can grow up to 150 kg. This one's still in its teen years.

Kangaroo feeding from the trough.

Don't look at me, I'm just lying here.

Emus are like ostrich, but they don't have wings.

Here's another kangaroo. They basically just sit around, that's because they are not in the wild.

Wombat! One of my favourite animals.

Giraffes

Otters sunning themselves by the waters.

Baby elephant

Pelican

Ducks have beautiful water-proof feathers

Mum shading the gorilla

Bamboo forest

She tamed the vicious croc!

Surprisingly, they actually have signboards in Bahasa for tropical animals.

Orang Utan arts & crafts

Mandrill is bored

Lemur

Let there be a white-furred monkey.

A peacock sneeking up to people in search for food. They aren't shy or scared at all.

Little Penguins. These are a different species from the Antartic ones.

Poor bear, he's got nothing to do all day except just lying around

Stacy, reporting from Melbourne Zoo, March 19, 2009