One of my favorite things about food is how when you want to travel and have a new experience but don’t have the time or funds to get on a plane or train or other kind of transportation to go afar, you can still travel with the cuisine. Gado gado is a popular street food Indonesian salad, and also the name of an Indonesian food inspired pop up here in Portland by Thomas and Mariah Pisha-Duffly. Today, I am sharing a recent meal I went to where Gado Gado pop up presented the food of Bali. They collaborated with Shipwreck at this particular dinner to also provide some cocktails, but I am currently on a schedule where I have to take evening work calls, so I had to hold back (in fact I took the early seating specifically to make my work call!). Unlike other times it was also a cash bar that pretty much was also a hard cut off for me.
In this case, they went full traditional for the dishes, and even though it’s still on my bucket list to one day get to beautiful Bali, for now I also hope you might consider donating to help since the devastating earthquakes in Indonesia, of which the aftershocks were also felt in Bali, a few days ago. As for Gado Gado, they have another upcoming pop up event already on the calendar: a brunch pop up at Guilder Coffee (2393 NE Fremont) on Tuesday, August 14th from 9am-2pm that will pair coffee from Sumatra, Indonesia with food that Gado Gado has described as including “shaved ice drinks, kaya toast, congee, rujak, Chinese sausage and more!! We are very pleased that this menu will have plenty of options for folks who are gluten free and vegetarian.” No tickets are needed for this event, just walk in.
My dinner celebrating Bali did have a shaved ice dessert – lets’ take a look at my meal, which was all served family style with dishes arriving as they were ready, just like food often comes in Southeast Asia. Most of the people in Bali are Hindu, so you won’t see beef – and you will probably notice some Indian influences in some of the dishes. Also, like foods of Southeast Asia in general, you will find flavors that are spicy, a depth of umami with use of fish sauce, and seasonings that take advantage of chilis, spices, leaves, and coconut milk.
Of course rice is a constant at meals, and for this dinner we had unlimited refills of Oma’s aromatic rice.
First was a series of smaller dishes.
Small Dishes
I love whole quail eggs – they are cute when they are fried, but the fun pop when they are boiled or fried and you break it in your mouth is unique like in this Fried quail eggs in sambal tomat dish.
Split pea tempeh with sweet soy and corn.
An iconic dish in Indonesia is satay, a skewered stick with meat – here we had shrimp satay lilit with sambal matah. The word lilit means wrap, because rather then actually skewering the meat with the stick, interesting the meat is wrapped around the skewer! The shrimp skewer itself was pretty tasty, and even tastier was the sambal matah, that garlicky pepper and shallot relish you see on top that is a bit like a spicy slaw that reminded me of Thai som tum a bit.
Pingdang seaweed salad, and in the foreground a Peanut and roast eggplant sambal – this eggplant sambal was one of my favorite dishes of the night.
This dish of fermented green tomato, salted gherkin, and cauliflower pickle was almost like a bit of a palate cleanser, offering something cool and sour and acidic between the bites of everything.
Larger Dishes
At this point we started getting into some medium and larger sized dishes, starting with green bean urap with spinach, cherry tomato, young coconut, fried sambal mbe, and surendang. As you can see, urap is a salad like dish, usually mixing up vegetables with coconut and lots of other seasonings to make it flavorful, and here I really liked the use of bean sprouts along with bursts of tomato. People do not appreciate bean sprouts enough, and they are so good with a dressing sauce in a salad (you will see it often in Korean banchan), and Indonesia fortunately elevates bean sprout from snack to an actual dish of salad.
Another one of my favorite dishes of the night that I kept dipping into when it appeared on the table was this sweet potato leaf curry with coconut and fresh turmeric which was more creamy then a spicy curry.
Don’t worry, they brought the spicy with the halibut cheek bumbu Bali with padrons and herbs here
Another of my favorites of the night: this iconic Balinese dish of lawar but with a twist – here a pig head and blood sausage lawar with celery, pig skin krupuk, and green strawberry. Lawar is sorta like a minced meat with vegetables that blends together lots of different textures and layers of flavor.
This was the dish that I thought would be my favorite, but I don’t think they were able to get this over a real fire, so it was missing some of the smoky flavor that I would have expected in this babi guling, a boneless roast suckling pig. I’m not sure there was an actual spit roasted pig that happened here, and usually this is a dish that is a bit more rich with
Finally, dessert – and perhaps a hint of what you might find at their upcoming brunch in a way? This is Shaved ice cendal with fresh peaches, basil, sweet corn, red bean, and coconut gula jawa. I love how Asian desserts incorporate so much texture with something as simple ice as a base.
I’m obviously a very adventurous eater – and these travels to other places I’ve never been via cuisine always surprise me even with my experience eating a lot of food out there. I encourage everyone to try to break outside their comfort food and try a new cuisine. When I lived in Chicago, I was part of a book club that we read a book that included passages on food and often would take place in a foreign country as the book setting – and then we would discuss the book at a restaurant specializing in that country’s cuisine. I’ve gotten a lot busier so maybe I can only go as far as watching a movie or TV special featuring that country, and then go out to try that cuisine – take yourself on a little travel trip like I do too!
What dish would you try of what I listed here? Have you ever had Indonesian food, or thought about visiting Bali?
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