Back in 2020 pre-pandemic days, we had a trip to Bali planned, booked and paid for.
We had researched all the best vegan places to eat and had even booked into a vegan cooking school to learn the tips and tricks of this delicious cuisine. Of course we all know what happened, and like so many, we have large credits with Air New Zealand and dreams of future travels that we await to go on. Bringing a bit of Bali to Auckland though is Bali Nights on Williamson Avenue, which makes you wish travelling to Bali itself was much easier.
A fun, bright and welcoming atmosphere greets and encourages vegan friends to ‘come chill’ at Bali Nights - assuring that they will not miss out. Serving Indonesian street food delicacies with a Balinese twist, almost half of their menu is vegan, making it ridiculously hard to pick what to order. We asked our waiter for help and he recommended Sayur Pacel, Gorengan Platter, Nasi Goreng Vegan and Nasi Campur Vegan to give us a good overview.
First up was the Gorengan Platter which gave us a little taster of what was to come. The tempeh served on this dish was like no other I’d had before. It had umami flavours, the perfect texture and stood out without the sambal - although that was equally delicious as a pairing.
I too rate the Nasi Campur highly - consisting mainly of jackfruit rendang, sayur urap (steamed salad with spiced grated coconut) and orek tempe with sambal bawang. The elements on the dish were different to the others we had tried and packed with fresh flavour. The jackfruit rendang and sayur urap were able to impress me even as someone who is not an avid fan of dried coconut. While the Nasi Goreng was classic and well done, the Sayur Pecel was my personal favourite - a warm Javanese salad with an addictive pecel peanut sauce.
Unlike many restaurants and their vegan offerings, Bali Nights does not use any fake meats - preferring to focus on tofu, tempeh and jackfruit. As someone who much prefers eating wholefoods and less processed foods, as a vegan this was something I was happy to see. Seeing places, especially those that are not solely vegan, celebrating vegetables and what Earth already has to offer in a way that brings such justice to the produce, is delightful. “You just gotta know how to work the earth, the world doesn’t need more machines making fake things.”
We wanted to try a lot and ordered way too much knowing that the food would work well as takeaways. Other people seemed to know too, judging by the steady stream of Uber Eats pick-ups. And we were right - they made delicious lunch leftovers the next day. (Sofia Roger Williams)
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