Eat, Pray, Duck

“Babi guling”— Balinese pig roasted on a spit — is said to be the must-try dish for foodies visiting the Island of the Gods. There is however another Balinese dish that holds court alongside it: ‘”ebek betutu” — roasted leaf-wrapped duck. Richly seasoned, this melt-in-your-mouth masterpiece upstages the flavour profiles of Peking, confit and every duck dish ever conceived. “It’s one of the few things I’ve eaten in my life that’s so good it’s taken up a mythical status in my mind . . . something so beyond regular deliciousness it shouldn’t exist without some sort of paranormal ingredient,” wrote Australian food critic Nicholas Jordan after trying the dish in Bali. To find the best bebek betutu I travelled to Ubud, the Balinese spiritual capital central to the Elizabeth Gilbert memoir and Julia Roberts film Eat, Pray, Love. Ubud has several restaurants that feature bekek betutu as their signature dish.

Restaurants like Murni’s, where duck legs are plated with pyramids of yellow rice and a spicy green bean and shredded coconut salad. Indus, a restaurant co-owned by Australian-Indonesian Janet DeNeefe, is also famous for its bebek betutu, though it must be ordered as a whole bird for two or three people to share. Then there’s Aperitif, a fine dining restaurant that serves a French interpretation of the dish: duck magret (the breast of a moulard duck reared for foie gras) injected with bekek betutu spice mix in place of orange sauce. But the best duck in Bali is not found in any restaurant. It’s made by specialists like Pak Rimpin who work from home and supply locals with ducks for Hindu ceremonies, celebrations and Sunday roasts. When the royal family of Ubud want bebek betutu, Pak Rimpin is who they call. Pak Rimpin, who believes he is 60-something years old and learnt his craft from his big brother, has been cooking 15 to 20 ducks at his home in the backstreets of Ubud since the 1980s. He starts by soaking the birds in water and, after rinsing them dry, massages them with a marinade of coconut oil, fermented shrimp paste, soy sauce, tamarind paste and salt. Next, he stuffs the bird’s cavity with a handful of bay leaves and “bumbu” — Balinese for “spice mix”, which in this case also contains sesame seeds, galangal and pepper. “There’s no secret recipe. If people think my bebek betutu tastes good it’s because of the attention to detail,” the master says, before wrapping the birds in betel-nut bark that contains natural oils to enhance the flavour. He then takes the packages to the cooking pit: a series of raised mounds on the floor. He places each package in a steel wok, covers it with another wok, rests it on one of the mounds and covers it with rice husks.

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