Kreneng night market offers Balinese food

Wahyuni Kamah, Contributor, Denpasar

Situated on Kamboja street in Denpasar, the Kreneng night market is famous for being the right place to find traditional Balinese food and snacks.

Open daily, visitors begin flocking to the market at around 7 p.m., dining on wooden benches under simple, makeshift blue plastic tents.

Vendors offer different foods, snacks and drinks in simple ways, presented on push-carts, or open tables where the diners can pick food of their choice.

Apart from those selling traditional Balinese food, one can also find vendors with simple Chinese dishes, although tastes will certainly differ from those in real Chinese restaurants.

Common food stalls with bubur ayam (chicken porridge), nasi padang (steamed rice served with various side dishes), bakso (meat ball soup) and satay can also be found. However, you will find no seafood vendors here.

For those in search of a taste of Balinese babi guling (grilled pork) or other pork-made cuisines will find this market the right place to visit.

In a stall selling grilled pork, one can also find other pork-made cuisines like traditional pork-made sausage, soup, innards, empal (made of meat and liver) and Balinese satay, a blend of spices, pork meat and grated coconut, wrapped in sticks and grilled.

One can also find stalls with fresh lawar -- a mix of young, chopped, cooked jackfruit, grated coconut, and spices and pork.

This lawar is made on the spot.

Vendors selling drinks offer juices with different fruits like mango, avocado, jackfruit and, during the rainy season, you can taste durian juice. Drinks like es campur (mixed with various fruits in syrup, milk and ice), es kelapa (coconut in ice), and es teler (a mix of coconut, avocado and jackfruit in ice).

Prices for food and drinks are cheaper than for the fare found at various food courts and department stores.

With just Rp 10,000, one can have a very satisfying meal. Most diners are people with their families and children and young couples who want to spend the night together.

"This is a place to eat on a low budget," said Putu Ari, who used to come with her parents for chicken porridge.

With the growing presence of shopping malls and department stores in Denpasar, people visiting the night market are beginning to decline in number.

"People start to think that eating in a market like this has no value and that they, mostly urban people, prefer to eat in food courts in malls," said Agus, a Denpasar resident.

The traditional night market does offer a different atmosphere from modern restaurants -- and there are some items that cannot be found in more upscale restaurants.

For instance, in the market, you can buy serombotan, a Balinese food made of five to six kinds of cooked and fresh vegetables, showered with peanut sauce, hot sambat, and grated coconuts.

The way the food is served, however, could make a person lose their appetite. The vendor, a woman, usually picks the vegetables with her care hands, and then mixes the sauces and vegetables by hands. No spoons or forks in this operation.

Apart from serombotan, you can also find other traditional food like Balinese pepes ikan (fish cooked with spices in banana leaves), satay made out of fish, hot telengis (traditionally made coconut oil essence, mixed with prawns and hot spices).

Balinese food, it is worth noting, is always hot -- so beware.

Other than food stalls, various traditional Balinese snacks are available in this market.

The night market is also called Pasar Senggol because people have to nudge their way to get from one food stall to another.

Saturday nights are the busiest time, when more sidewalk vendors crowd the market, selling everything from counterfeit VCDs to shoes -- a traditional night market in the truest sense.