Babi Guling at Gung Cung
All We Can Eat are posts focused on all the cheap and/or street food that Megan and Tyler devour.
Crazy good babi guling in Bali
So I have a feeling you’ll be seeing a few babi guling places getting broken down on here. Babi guling is basically a Balinese institution, and foodies come from all over to see how it’s done.
The hero of the dish is its protein—a suckling pig roasted for hours over a fire until cooked to perfection. It’s pretty much that cliche piggy with an apple in its mouth that TV shows use to tell you it’s a Hawaiian luau. Except the part they don’t show you on TV is that this pig is pretty damn big (it’s 30lbs lighter than me)…or the part where this oinker gets dissected and devoured…with its face still intact…right there in front of you…and that hog is beyond delicious.
We ended up at Gung Cung looking for a famous, tour-book approved babi guling place, but ended up accidentally walking right by it. About a quarter mile past it, we were greeted by a cartoon pig wearing a cowboy hat, and the white whale of every food lover…a line that was 100% locals.
Quick aside: why do restaurants anthropomorphize the animals they serve? Wouldn’t I be less likely to eat something that’s clearly being inviting? Like, was he asking me to join him, but something got lost in translation and then BAM…I’m taste buds deep in this dude’s tenderloin!
So, I don’t know how to write about food (I only know that I like it), so I’m just going to talk to you like I do Megan while we’re eating something next-level. To get the full experience, you need to first visualize me softly but excitedly swaying in my chair while bobbing my fork like a conductor. Here’s a visual reference:
While the pork is the tender, juicy hero, it’s not doing the heavy lifting when it comes to flavor here. My favorite parts were the blood sausage and mung bean salad that you mix in with the rice. The sausage added some big-time bitterness and the mung beans were holding in a nice bit of heat that made every bite better. Mind you, this is only our first babi guling stop, but I have a feeling this one’s going to be hard to top.
I give Gung Cung 4 Tyler sways out of 5
If you’re ever chilling in Ubud randomly (I know it won’t be random, but whatevers), head on up to Gung Cung. You’ll need to pass by the delicious smells of the famous Ibu Oka to do it, but you’ll be happy you did.
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