<\/p>\n

There are people who like to eat local and then there are people who like to eat local. <\/em>It\u2019s quite a difference. Eating street side vendors is often an experience, a lesson in culture, and a deliciously cheap\u00a0meal all wrapped up into one juicy, roasted, suckling pig.<\/p>\n

Ibo Oka is what the Balinese locals call a warung, the kind of vendors scattered all around the island, and Asia for that matter. The NY Times<\/a> shares four of these prime spots, easily sitting me down in a wobbly plastic chair, with an absurdly good martini, under a weathered CocaCola umbrella. Besides Ibo Oka\u2019s pig roasts, check out Merta Sari\u2019s fish patay, Ayam Taliwang\u2019s whole chicken rotiseries, and Naughty Nuri\u2019s popular sushi Thursdays (and vodka martinis- just tell them Anthony Bourdain sent you).<\/p>\n

Street side vendors are kind of an anomaly, really. Guidebooks and hotels scream warnings about places like this, but “if you heed their warnings, you\u2019ll miss some of the best food the island has to offer, from melt-in-your-mouth roast pig and fish satays to just-caught sashimi and spicy fried rice served with chicken prepared three ways.”<\/p>\n

Ah… I know where I\u2019m eating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are people who like to eat local and then there are people who like to eat local. It\u2019s quite a difference. Eating street side vendors is often an experience, a lesson in culture, and a deliciously cheap\u00a0meal all wrapped up into one juicy, roasted, suckling pig. Ibo Oka is what the Balinese locals call […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,2576,2562,2572],"tags":[1113,139],"yoast_head":"\n