I am in Bali from July for around 1 year long project. I tried to setup something which I can call a small home here - and the home is always connected with good food, at least in my case. During around my 1,5 month stay I visited many restaurants across all price levels- in Seminyak, Cangdu, Jimbaran, Sanur, E and N parts of Bali, but to be honest, did not find something really memorable or justifiable the price tag. I realized that Bali, in contrast to many other SAE countries, is not definitely gourmet destination (I did not expect Singapore, HK or Panang, but still had some expectations, however for the local people the good food is probably not so important and many "western" restaurants are far beyond the real western standards, for the price).
So we decided to cook by ourselves - food is our passion, so no problem. But I have problem with the ingredients and materials. I made many deep inspections in various shops and markets around and would like to ask the experienced where to buy (if they are available here) the following things which I miss:
A. Food
1. Root vegetable, which is essential for European cuisine - celery (did not find the root, just leafstalk of mediocre quality), parsley/parsnip (just found very pricey imported root in Deli Bali), carrot (found, but really nothing special), garlic - non Chinese origin (it has low level of garlic oil, so the taste is very weak)
2. Horseradish - found just imported one in Deli Bali, mouldy and around 4-5 more expensive than in the Europe
3. Sour cream - at least with 12-15 % of fat
4. Cream - at least with 30% of fat
5. Non grinded spices - juniper, allspice...
6. Good quality Italian olive oil - just found something of the supermarket quality, but really nothing exciting
7. Good quality Italian aceto balsamico - ditto olive oil
8. Peanut and sunflower oil - did not find, everywhere is just refined palm oil (uff) and from time to time canola or rice oil, or some horrible mixtures of everything
9. Flour (not rice) noodles
10. Flour - semolina, semi fine and coarse grained wheat flour
11. Gherkins
12. Speck
13. Fermented vinegar made from potatos (found just one made from corn)
14. Good dark chocolate (with at least 70% of cocoa) - found some, but overall just supermarket quality
15. Italian tomatoes purée and cut tomatoes - canned, made only from ripe tomatoes and eventually salt, found something but tasteless
16. Yeast - but not the dry one, but the "wet" one
17. Good quality pork, veal, lamb, duck and chicken
18. Fresh leaves and spices - basil, rosemary, parsley, sage, thyme, lovage, mint, oregano...found something, but variable quality and many times tasteless (obviously fast grown under glass)
19. Ice cream - made from real cream, sugar and vanilla (not any chemical mixtures of vegetable oil and aromas). Found just the mass producted Haagen Dasz, which can be called ice cream (well, I know), around 2x the price in Europe, but nothing else...
I was quite surprised with the beef selection (even for broth) and the availability of the real parmesan...even we found a quite good bakery with real bread ( slightly sour and salty, not sweet toasts , so that's good.
B. Seafood
Where to buy fresh, or if possible, alive seafood (like in SG or HK) - is that available here or is here some good market? Found some seafood stalks, but mostly just with refrozen seafood declared as fresh...
C. Drinks
Big pain here...
Is it possible to buy somewhere good quality wine for reasonable price? I just found some Balinese, Australian or Chilean wines, but usually very basic quality, for the price 20-30 EUR per bottle or more, although in Europe such sort of wines would hardly be sold for 3-5 EUR.
The same with the spirits, common JW Black Label costs more than 50 EUR per 0,7l (normally around 20 EUR incl. all customs and VAT, which is very high in the Europe), Vodka Absolut around 50 EUR, normally around 15 EUR and so on. Are the taxes and customs here really so high so even the very basic alcohol is priced like middle class fine drinks? I did not find any really good quality spirits - like good grappa or so…
D. Import
How does it work if I would import some food and drinks from outside exclusively for my own consumption:
1. Personal import, just few bottles - at the airport, do I have to just go through clearance there and pay the duties and taxes - is that easy or complicated? What are the taxes?
2. Delivered via cargo - around 10-20 boxes (aprx. 100-200 bottles) , how it is in that case?
3. How does it work with import of food, again strictly for personal consumption?
Thanks a lot for all advice, this is a truly vital matter.
Patrik
So we decided to cook by ourselves - food is our passion, so no problem. But I have problem with the ingredients and materials. I made many deep inspections in various shops and markets around and would like to ask the experienced where to buy (if they are available here) the following things which I miss:
A. Food
1. Root vegetable, which is essential for European cuisine - celery (did not find the root, just leafstalk of mediocre quality), parsley/parsnip (just found very pricey imported root in Deli Bali), carrot (found, but really nothing special), garlic - non Chinese origin (it has low level of garlic oil, so the taste is very weak)
2. Horseradish - found just imported one in Deli Bali, mouldy and around 4-5 more expensive than in the Europe
3. Sour cream - at least with 12-15 % of fat
4. Cream - at least with 30% of fat
5. Non grinded spices - juniper, allspice...
6. Good quality Italian olive oil - just found something of the supermarket quality, but really nothing exciting
7. Good quality Italian aceto balsamico - ditto olive oil
8. Peanut and sunflower oil - did not find, everywhere is just refined palm oil (uff) and from time to time canola or rice oil, or some horrible mixtures of everything
9. Flour (not rice) noodles
10. Flour - semolina, semi fine and coarse grained wheat flour
11. Gherkins
12. Speck
13. Fermented vinegar made from potatos (found just one made from corn)
14. Good dark chocolate (with at least 70% of cocoa) - found some, but overall just supermarket quality
15. Italian tomatoes purée and cut tomatoes - canned, made only from ripe tomatoes and eventually salt, found something but tasteless
16. Yeast - but not the dry one, but the "wet" one
17. Good quality pork, veal, lamb, duck and chicken
18. Fresh leaves and spices - basil, rosemary, parsley, sage, thyme, lovage, mint, oregano...found something, but variable quality and many times tasteless (obviously fast grown under glass)
19. Ice cream - made from real cream, sugar and vanilla (not any chemical mixtures of vegetable oil and aromas). Found just the mass producted Haagen Dasz, which can be called ice cream (well, I know), around 2x the price in Europe, but nothing else...
I was quite surprised with the beef selection (even for broth) and the availability of the real parmesan...even we found a quite good bakery with real bread ( slightly sour and salty, not sweet toasts , so that's good.
B. Seafood
Where to buy fresh, or if possible, alive seafood (like in SG or HK) - is that available here or is here some good market? Found some seafood stalks, but mostly just with refrozen seafood declared as fresh...
C. Drinks
Big pain here...
Is it possible to buy somewhere good quality wine for reasonable price? I just found some Balinese, Australian or Chilean wines, but usually very basic quality, for the price 20-30 EUR per bottle or more, although in Europe such sort of wines would hardly be sold for 3-5 EUR.
The same with the spirits, common JW Black Label costs more than 50 EUR per 0,7l (normally around 20 EUR incl. all customs and VAT, which is very high in the Europe), Vodka Absolut around 50 EUR, normally around 15 EUR and so on. Are the taxes and customs here really so high so even the very basic alcohol is priced like middle class fine drinks? I did not find any really good quality spirits - like good grappa or so…
D. Import
How does it work if I would import some food and drinks from outside exclusively for my own consumption:
1. Personal import, just few bottles - at the airport, do I have to just go through clearance there and pay the duties and taxes - is that easy or complicated? What are the taxes?
2. Delivered via cargo - around 10-20 boxes (aprx. 100-200 bottles) , how it is in that case?
3. How does it work with import of food, again strictly for personal consumption?
Thanks a lot for all advice, this is a truly vital matter.
Patrik