Day 4 of 7 in Bali - Wednesday 7th September

I got up this morning feeling queasy.
Not "Bali belly", just not quite right. 

It was 28°C at 8am and it felt like it was going to get hotter, so I chose to just sit here and make sure I was feeling much better for tonight.

Although I can sit there and binge watch like a champion, and who couldn't when your viewing  location looks like this, 

Yes, it's easy to do if you can do it in a place like this

Yes, two G&T's by the pool and a TV show about the beginnings of 

Harley Davidson Motorcycles

Tiz, in full relaxed mode. She's quite good at it.

we really  needed to get out, at least for a short walk and get some money exchanged.

We headed towards the Bintang keeping an eye on the rates being offered. We settled on a little place that gave us IDR9970 for our Aussie dollar. A tourist can walk around and around trying to get the “best” rate but they only ever vary ~1℅, and what you get at the airport is pretty much what you will get everywhere else.

We had a cold juice at a cafe, stocked up on tonic water and returned to the villa to resume the relaxed position.  

Tiz and I had decided that we were going to go down to one of the "on the beach" restaurants in Jimbaran Bay as a treat that night and I definitely did not want to feel off for that.

We remebered our last visit there fondly but with all this spare time I started to see what other more recent visitors had experienced.

Again, the world, and Bali, evolves, as we cling to memories of a convenient and pleasant past.

I should point out that I don't  consider TripAdvisor to be the font of all truth but it's not a bad place to start your research. 
One prime example of "strokers" sharing their inane and vacuous thoughts that springs to mind is the muppet dolly that posted the following -

Guess which was my response.

Muppet dolly, it's VIETNAM! This is a place where a dish with “only a little bit of pork” is considered vegetarian. Nay, it's bloody near vegan!

It's a civilised place, not some dinky place that caters for some botoxed Moscovite boney deriered dolly.

Oops! Sorry. Rant over.

Back to looking at the feedback for Jimbaran Bay. It didn't look promising. Quality had dropped, prices had gone up and the reviewers were advising to stay away.

We had already booked our driver to take us to Jimbaran Bay that night so we had to find somewhere special in thta neck of the woods. 
And wow, did we find it.

Cuca <- go to the site here, and then go to the restaurant!

It's not a star or hat restaurant and yet it holds its own against the best we've been to.

You walk in to enormous and beautiful gardens that lead you to reception where the impeccable attention and service begins.

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, about this place is extraordinary.

Architecture, gardens, decor, drinks, service, presentation, food and, although relative, price.

Come 7pm Adi, our driver was at our door. We had booked Cuca for 8:15pm and therefore, as it was only a 25 minute drive told Adi to take it easy as our table booking was for 8:15.

So Adi, being the diligent Balinese driver, heads off at 30kph. Now that's slow even by local standards. We had to explain that he wasn't obligated to take 1 hour and 15 minutes for a 25 minute journey just because we said "Take it easy. No hurry." Tiz and I were in stitches laughing.

We got there at ~7:45 and were asked if we wanted a cocktailin the garden bar first. Yes please ....

My gorgeous dinner companion ....

..... and me. 

I have no idea why I look so sullen 'cos inside I was just beaming with joy.

I mean that.

...... who I managed to "ghost" whilst taking a panorama shot of the garden bar

 Pictures of the slab of 6" (150mm) teak that was the bar.

A friend of ours, Tony Di P, would love to see this.

Tony, if you read this, I believe there are plans afoot for Tiz to bring Nancy over for a "thing". You know, the "thing" that the girls do to outlive us.  

Moon-gria                   Sun-gria

Not really a menu. 

More of an explanation, without giving too much away, 

of what awaits you if you choose the Chefs Tasting Table

The open kitchen 

The first offering, a light-as-air incredibly soft marshmallow textured mouthful covered in a dusting of lemongrass, coriander, ginger and chili took us completely by surprise and I didn't take a pic.

BUT, I did for the rest of the dishes.

The menu above has the dishes in the order they were served.

Truly, when gods dine, this is what they eat.

 Any clichéd explanation of the joy of watching the open kitchen prepare our dishes and then enjoying them as much as we did would be trite. 

At the end of this feast, which really does not do this collection of dishes justice,

we were offered a "digestive".

Arak infused with pineapple and rosemary

Weird, but it works.

That's it for Wednesday folks.

More tomorrow.

Vaya con Dios