“Bali Asli” is the realization of a long-held dream by its Executive Chef and Director, Penelope Williams.


“Bali Asli” also promises to offer Balinese cuisine cooked traditionally in wood-fired, mud brick stoves,
A cooking school also forms part of “Bali Asli” with lessons themed on “a day in the life of.” This unique approach includes excursions into surrounding farming communities as well as hands-on cooking experience.

To celebrate the opening of “Bali Asli Restaurant and Cooking School” Penelope Williams has invited fellow-chef Tony Howell of the Cape Lodge in Western Australia to join her in the kitchen on Saturday, July 30, 2011.
The celebratory opening dinner is strictly limited to only 40 diners, beginning with a cocktail at 5:00 pm followed by a special menu cooked entirely on wood-fired stoves and open fires.
Like Chef Williams, Tony shares a commitment to absolute freshness and uncompromisingly good ingredients.

Describing the decades long process, Williams said: “Bali Asli is the product of my many dreams. After a four-year apprenticeship at the Savoy hotel in London, where I didn’t see a fresh chili for the entire period, lots of foie gras and truffles, but no chili! It too 12 years in Sydney working in cutting edge eating establishments such as Restaurant 41, Boathouse and Bather’s Pavilion, followed by a three year posting as Executive Chef at the Alila Manggis hotel East Bali to make those dreams come true. A spark inside me was ignited when I went travelling through Asia in the late 1980s, little did I know the spark would lead me to where I am now.”
Penelope relates how it was during her time at the Alila Manggis that she discovered the rich array of fresh produce available in East Bali and the Balinese ability to “create a unique tapestry of flavors.”




Bali Asli is located in Gelumpang village, near the town of Amlapura the capital of Karangasem regency in the Bali's northeast. In terms of driving time, Bali Asli is about 2 hours from the airport, 30 minutes from Candidasa and 30 minutes from Amed village.

Located in the very shadows of Mount Agung, the restaurant strives to be both “from” and “of” East Bali; relying heavily on the local community to supply fish and produce that stock their kitchen and eventually grace their table.

Kupang rice cake, a traditional food from East Java, especially from Sidoarjo or Surabaya, which exactly in Kenjeran. These foods are usually foods coast. Kupang rice cake is made up of kupang; Kupang is the kind of small oysters or clams, rice cake or rice cake and completed by shrimp pasta sauce. Similar to Lontong racing, kupang lontong also have Lento or fried cassava for the topping and satai shellfish.

Kupang rice cake is an all-time appetite, hot and spicy flavor with swinging between sweet and salty taste. Materials in Kupang lontong simple, just garlic, shrimp paste and chilli. shrimp pasta plays an important role to present lontong Kupang, to get a special taste and add these delights. They also mixed ingredients and pour kupang, the rice cake and dress up with lento.

In each of stalls offering rice cake kupang in their menu, the seller also provides a green coconut ice. Freshness will abolish the taste of coconut spicy-hot and not feeling comfortable from consuming garlic after Kupang.

Rujak Cingur is a vegetables salad with spicy sauce. There is none of Surabaya or East Javanese people that are not fond of this dish. As the name, rujak, it is a vegetable and fruit dish with sauce. On the other hand it is a one-dish meal. It consiststempe or tempeh, tofu, beef cingur. Cingur is a cow’s nose. For the sauce, it is enriched with peanuts, chili, tamrind, water, pisangbatu (unripe/green cooked banana), and petis. Petis is another East Javanese special ingredient. It’s made from shrimp, fish or clam. It has dark glossy color with strong smell .

This food has become the unique taste of Surabaya. The flavour is really unique, because it combines of slices of cooked buffalo or beef lips, yam bean (bengkuang), young raw mango, pineapple, cucumber, bean sprout, kangkung ( water convolvulus), lontong (compressed rice), fried tofu and tempe, all served with black sauce made from fried garlic, chillies, a slice of young banana, petis (black fermented shrimp paste) and ground peanuts.