Bali Street Food: Satay

Bali Street Food: Satay

*Note from the author - This post is part of a series and the complete list of related  posts is available here - Bali Street Food*


Satay (or sate in Indonesian) is a wonderful dish that comes with a peanut sauce, is served with rice and includes various different meats such as chicken, pork, beef, rabbit, goat and, a Balinese speciality sate lilit (which I will explain more about later!).

The satay sauce is made from peanuts, shallots, garlic, lemon juice, soy sauce and chilli, with a few other
choice ingredients thrown in for good measure.

For a full satay sauce recipe, see this page: BBC Food Recipes: Satay Sauce 


The meat used in satay recipes is a marinade placed on the skewered meat which is then cooked over a fire of coconut husks for several minutes. This gives the meat a fantastic flavour before it is dipped in the peanut
sauce (or saus sate). 

For a chicken with satay sauce recipe, see this page:  BBC Food Recipes: Satay Chicken with Crunchy Peanut Sauce

The price of chicken satay in most street stalls in Bali is usually around 10,000 Rupiah per 10 tusuk or skewers. This includes your rice and sauce. I believe goat and rabbit satay are slightly more expensive than this, maybe around 15,000 Rupiah per 10 tusuk. These prices may vary greatly depending on your level of Indonesian!

The Balinese satay of choice is sate lilit, which uses seafood and lemongrass, among other ingredients, to give it a strong aromatic flavour. However, this is not usually served as a dish in itself but often is used as an accompaniment for the most famous Balinese delicacy, suckling pig, or babi guling. 

 

Some useful info about sate lilit with a recipe to boot!
Taken from Let's Eat! Magazine - a guide to all the
best food spots in Bali!

The recipe from above zoomed in - click to enlarge!
Taken from Let's Eat! Magazine - a guide to all the best food spots in Bali!

Another thing I should add is that sometimes the rice is not the standard white rice from a rice cooker but a packet of rice smoked in a banana leaf, called lontong. This is more typical on the street stalls and, although it is still fine to eat, personally, I  find it slightly too thick. Here is some useful vocabulary for ordering satay:

A girl working at a street satay stall in Munduk, Bali

Indonesian	English
Daging *Daging saja! (‘Saja’ is also often pronounced as ‘aja’ in slang i.e. daging aja!)	Meat *Just meat! (i.e. no entrails/offal!)
Daging ayam	Chicken
Daging babi	Pork
Daging kambing	Goat
Daging kelinci	Rabbit
Lontong	Rice smoked in a banana leaf
Pedas *Tidak pedas!	Spicy *Not spicy!
Sambal *Tidak mau sambal!	Chilli sauce *No chilli sauce!
Tusuk	Satay skewers/sticks

I hope you found this information useful and that you enjoy some great satay on your stay in Bali!

Bali Street Food: Satay