Bali Cafe @ Miami

The day before we left Miami, we wanted to go to Indomania for dinner; they have this Veggie Rijsttafel plate that looked very interesting. But sadly, they are closed on Mondays (bummer, I know). My mind was set on Indonesian food and wasn't willing to settle for anything else. So after some googling, we found Bali Cafe in Miami Downtown which had good reviews. And, it is Zagat rated. We called and made sure that they can make some of the dishes without meat or fish sauce or oyster sauce or of the sort.

Bali Cafe is a family owned cafe. There was a man doing all the cooking. A girl, who was our waitress. Two other women ( probably mom and sis) were sitting outside the restaurant and catching up on some gossip. Very homely and cute place. By the time we were done, they themselves were having their dinner, sitting at a table in the corner and partaking some soup!

The waitress brought out water and explained what each thing on the menu is. She also pointed out the ones that could be made vegetarian. We ordered the Soto Betawi - Tofu in a milk broth seasoned with ginger, sweet soy sauce and lemon then topped with fresh tomatoes, potatoes, beattlenut chips, green onion, and fried shallot.

It is a soupy dish and is usually paired with rice. The blend of various exotic spices make this soup incredibly fragrant.
And then, the Ketoprak - freshly steamed beansprout, rice patties, tofu and rice noodles with crispy chips and garlic peanut sauce.

It seems this dish is mostly sold by street vendors in Indonesia. I guess I would call it the Indonesian Chaat.. It was delicious and quite filling too. Usually it is are eaten with steamed rice or lontong a dish made of rice stuffed into banana leaves shaped into a tube, then boiled until it's ready to eat. The original version of Ketoprak uses peanut sauce, and mainly consists of beansprouts, fried beancurd, and boiled angel hair-like noodle.

It is really worth trying this restaurant out, if you happen to be in Miami.

Frankly, I am stumped by all the different Asian flavors I get to sample these days. And I look forward to many more!

Note:- They only accept cash!