Ma-kao Kitchen, Exploring Asian Street Food

Asian Street Food

When traveling around Asia best food that we can find might not from the fancy restaurant but in hawkers, stalls even food carts. Yes, Asia has plenty delicious range of street foods to offer. But if you’re craving for some Asia’s tasty dishes you don’t need to go through the whole continent, just went to Jalan Plawa, Seminyak and find a new humble dining place called Ma’kao Bali.

About The Restaurant

Ma’Kao Bali just recently open, the restaurant itself were decorated in white and blue with classic peranakan and colonial house style with marble tables and wooden chair feel like granny’s dining room, loved it’s vintage and homey ambiance.

From The Menu

As for the food, they served wide range Asian street food selections, in one corner we spotted a buffet station where we can find various ready to eat Asian dishes. We had some from the buffet such as their Pepes Ikan Dory that we loved, made from steamed dory fish cooked with herbs and spices then wrapped in banana leaf, it creates an aromatic, tasty and bit spicy dish. We also had their Chicken Thai Green Curry; it was so tasty and authentic with generous heat. Still, from the buffet they have this crispy and tasty Indian vegetable fritters called Pakora, it had some distinct taste of Indian herbs but not too strong, I think it’s a great way to eat vegetables haha. For the buffet, they have several of side dishes like steam rice, Hainan rice, mantao, Basmati rice and much more.

Aside from the buffet they also served delectable a la carte menu, I like the unique taste of their Makao’s Special Udon with Tuna Tataki it’s like a yaki udon, but the twist is they add some cream on it so it has this bodied, creamy, umami and slightly sweet taste combo. For the tuna tataki I expected it would be rare with only slightly seared, but here they cook it well done. But I still love the taste of the udon 🙂

For pork lover they have Balinese style Babi Kecap, this sweet pork stew was made from pork shoulder cooked in sweet soy sauce with chili, ginger, and lemongrass served with sautéed long bean.

Specialize in creating duck dishes the chef have a whole page for duck menu :), one dish that we tried is the Duck Murtabak is Indian inspired crispy fried martabak filled with minced duck, eggs, and shallots wrapped in thin martabak dough served with a curry sauce it was so good with its robust flavors, I think it’s great for lite bite and perfect for sharing.

Want some dessert? At the moment they only have Vietnamese Cream Caramel for the dessert, it’s a really light and soft pudding with pandan and coconut milk fragrance topped with caramel sauce. The lightly sweet taste is a great pair for a cup of coffee.

So fulfill those crave for Asian street food and just head to Ma’Kao, Seminyak. It’s much cheaper than book an airplane ticket and still would find the same authentic taste 🙂