Babi guling. A royally delicious dish, a must for any pork lover. A whole pig stuffed with an array of aromatics including lemongrass, coriander seeds, turmeric, pepper (recipes vary from restaurant to restaurant), and spit roasted. The result: not just juicy flesh and an unbelievably crunchy skin, but the every inch of meat and offal are all used to create a myriad of delicious elements which sum up to create a truly godly dish.
Now, babi guling was originally intended as a celebratory dish but the advent and spread of tourism throughout this island has meant that this dish is available year-around. Rarely does tourism do good things for local food, but in this case, I approve.
In this article, I'm gonna recommend two places which are both state-of-the-babi-art, in my view. I'll start with Babi Guling Sanur. As a hungry diver on my way to catch the ferry from Sanur to Nusa Lembongan, I had to make a pitstop at this restaurant to pickup a portion for takeaway.
This was my first ever babi guling, but I knew from my research that this was meant to be one of the best, and it certainly didn't disappoint. Crunchy skin (could be a bit crunchier or more glass like in my view), moist meat permeated with turmeric and lemongrass, pork satay brimming with caramelised lemongrass overtones (see my Vietnam posts to understand more about why I like this pork and lemongrass combination so much), crunchy shredded intestines dotted with tiny hits of fiery chili, a fatty sausage, chicharron, crunchy vegetables, fried liver. The rice, which is stained with the colour of turmeric and the fire of the chili, brings together all the extremely spicy and flavourful elements of the dish.
And, their soup, which comes as part of meal, was one of the best soups I've ever had. Pork bones, mung beans, greens, and a crunchy vegetable that resembles a lotus root (but with more holes in it, and not starchy) together with plenty of lemongrass and chili, make for a superb accompaniment to the plethora of pork. All for just 40,000 Rupiah.
After our diving escapades in Nusa Lembongan and a memorable encounter with magnificant manta rays, we needed to try more roasted babi. Again, research directed us to another restaurant frequented regularly by locals: Babi Guling Candra (or Chandra, depending on who you ask). Overall, very good. Less spicy than Babi guling Sanur, and probably a better introduction to the dish if you are a tad sensitive to chili.
The flesh and skin were similar to those of the Sanur restaurant, and the pork satay was equally delicious (though a tad sweeter). One other difference was the pork terrine-esque satay on a stick (the turmeric-coloured one), which was extremely flavourful and quite mild from a Scoville scale point of view. The price was about the same (35,000 or 40,000 Rupiah, I can't recall), a definite steal of a meal.
A side note: on the global scale of pork skin, these two places do pretty well. But still a bit behind the exceptional glass like crunch of CnT's lechon in Cebu.
Warung Babi Guling Sanur
Jalan Bypass Ngurah Rai, Denpasar Selatan, Bali (tell you taxi driver it's opposite McDonald's on Jalan Bypass Ngurah Rai)
Open: Mon – Sun 11am – 7pm (get there early to avoid disappointment)
Babi Guling Candra
Jalan Teuku Umar, Denpasar Bar., Kota Denpasar, Bali 80113
Open: Mon – Sun 7am - 10pm
