This was something that I had been meaning to try for a while after an acquaintance of mine raved about it a few years ago. He called it "volcano chicken" since it was supposed to be some really spicy paper wrapped chicken, if I remember his description accurately. I got a bit worried though after having had bebek betutu last time, thinking that maybe this was just the cheaper chicken version of a dish that wasn't anything spectacular to me when I last had it. But I still had to give it a shot.
Fortunately, it was much better than bebek betutu...at least, this rendition of it. This was just a leg roasted on a fire just right rather than an entire duck sitting in a banana leaf. (I think "betutu" is just a general reference to Balinese spices rather than a specific cooking style...can anyone please verify this?) It wasn't exactly "volcano"-like nor fiery (even after telling the lady to give it to me as spicy as the locals eat it) though, nor was it paper wrapped. So I wonder if I was getting the real McCoy or not. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed eating this.
2 comments:
Hi, where inBali exactly did you taste this?
Thanks!
Yes, "betutu" is actually the cooking style, which means meat is wrapped in banana leaves with the spices and cooked in charcoal fire over a few hours to tenderize it. There are many versions of betutu but most of them use similar spices, except for Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk which is a lot spicier and tastes more like Madurese spices.
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