Little Sister is a midtown restaurant that opened in 2014 with a tapas menu inspired by Indonesian cuisine. The restaurant is the sister establishment of Quince (now Noorden), located just three blocks away, which is one of my favourite lunch spots in the neighbourhood. Although I work within a 10 minute walk from Little Sister, I had yet to visit until last month. Little Sister is open only for dinner and I rarely stick around the area after 5pm. After enjoying a meal at the restaurant, I may be changing my habits.

Atmosphere: Walking into the restaurant, the first word that came to mind was “hip”. Decor reminded me of places I ate at in Bali, lighting was dim and music was loud. My friend made a reservation for 5:45pm because she noticed that there were none available after 6pm. The restaurant does save half of their seats for walk-ins, but even on a weeknight, the restaurant was pretty much full the entire time we were there. It was a bit hard to talk over the music, but not to the point where we needed to yell. It was hard not to listen to the conversation next to us with the close proximity.

Service: Over our meal, we interacted with our server, who took our order and checked in on us. She was friendly and attentive. Once she noticed us taking photos, she pointed the restaurant’s social media handles that were written in chalk behind us. When dishes were ready from the semi-open kitchen, another server brought them to our table with a quick description that was hard to hear.

Food: For two people, we weren’t totally sure how many dishes to order. The menu had a lot of words we didn’t recognize and few that I did from my trip to Bali. Needless to say, we had a lot of questions. I also did end up ordering fried rice instead of coconut rice due to my poor memory. Oops.

The menu was divided into 3 sections, skewers and sides, snacks and traditional. From the selection of skewers, we decided to try the Satay Ayam, chicken with peanut sauce, a fairly safe choice. One order came with 4 skewers of tender chicken and a generous blanket of sauce that had a strong peanut flavour and lime fragrance. Next we tried the side of Fried Cauliflower Salad that was topped with a dark savoury sauce, green onion and puffed rice. I loved this dish. There were strong flavours (fish sauce? Oyster sauce?), lots of crunchy textures and a touch of sweetness.

From the Snack section, I ordered the Babi Guling, remembering the crispy pork skin from Bali. When the dish arrived though, there was more of a pulled pork with the lettuce wraps. I was confused, but wasn’t sure if I had ordered wrong. The pork was well seasoned, but a touch chewy and dry. Our other Traditional dish was the Udang Kari, a shrimp curry. When I ordered, based on the price of $16, that it was a be a healthy portion. The bowl was on the smaller side and did not come with any rice. There were 6 plump shrimp that were sweet and cooked to just done. The curry itself was thick and spicy. We ordered a Nasi Goreng (fried rice) on the side, which meant our curry and rice totaled $22.50. Not too bad when shared and for seafood, but compared to the value of the rest of the menu I was surprised at the portion size.

Overall, dinner at Little Sister was fun and delicious. I really enjoyed how authentic the flavors of the dishes were with a bit of fusion flare. I’d recommend trying out the restaurant with a few friends on a first visit in order to taste more of the menu.

Staying at the St. Regis Bali was my first time at a luxury hotel. Our villa was triple the size of my condo in Toronto and the private hot tub of our pool suite made me question if we ever needed to leave. To be honest, The Hubby and I didn’t really take advantage of the personal butler service, because we didn’t even know what to ask for, but we did find the concierge incredibly helpful and useful. Before heading out on our first day to visit Ubud, we sat with the concierge desk who helped us find and book a cooking class for the next day and suggested restaurants for dinner. We were looking for traditional Indonesian cuisine close to the resort. The concierge recommended Bumbu Bali, a popular, well rated restaurant with a shuttle service. I had come across the restaurant in my own research as well so we made a reservation.

My first day in Bali was spent exploring Ubud and meeting the local monkeys. The Hubby and I returned to our suite pretty exhausted, and sweaty, so sweaty. A quick shower and some downtime was perfect before we headed back out to dinner.

Bumbu Bali was an open air restaurant with several wooden tables set under the night sky and others under canopies. I loved being able to enjoy the fresh tropical air with my meal. While the setting was lovely and romantic with soft lighting and lots of greenery, service and food was underwhelming. Also guests at the table next to us were loud, cracking inappropriate massage jokes with the servers and distracting. In fact, we had time getting attention from servers, because they were busy managing that table.

Being our first night in Bali, we were still learning about Indonesian cuisine. Thus the safest bet for dinner seemed to be Bumbu Bali’s set dinner, 550,000 IDR ($55 CAD) for two people. The set included a soup, 10 traditional dishes and a platter of desserts. Based on the many platters being served to tables around us, other diners had the same idea.

Dinner included pork, chicken and seafood satay skewers, beef rendang, lamb stew, grilled fish, two vegetable dishes, shredded chicken with chili and tomato, tuna salad and nasi. I found the flavours muted or overpowered by heat. Dessert included a selection of Balinese cakes, black rice pudding, a glutinous rice flour dumpling and seasonal fruit. I have to admit, I was being spoiled by the St. Regis’s daily fruit plate and Bumbu Bali’s didn’t quite compare in sweetness or selection. Unfortunately, Of the 10 dishes, I only enjoyed about half of them and even then none were spectacular. I was also surprised at the level of spice, taste buds disintegrating spice. Watching the kitchen, none of the dishes were prepared to order, simpled ladled out of pre-prepared pots. This may be how dinner is served, I’m unsure. That night, the Hubby and I were mildly disappointed with dinner but after our experience the next day with Paon Cooking Class, we were super disappointed.

After touring the morning market in Ubud, we were shuttled to Wayan’s house where his wife Puspa led us through preparing a traditional Balinese feast. There were 25 approximately 25 students in the class and everyone was involved in cooking. I liked the structure of the class, preparation of the ingredients was broken up into stations and students rotated through them, students then paired up at stations and took turns cooking each dish. Each pair’s contribution was then added to a large pot and mixed together, which meant mistakes were hidden. Even if your dish was a little burnt or had a pinch too much salt, once in the big pot, the final product was delicious.

Many of the dishes we cooked had lots of vegetables, which I loved since usually vegetables are hard to fit into meals when travelling. There were also no small appliances in the cooking class, this was the traditional way of cooking. Puspa mentioned how a food processor would cut down a lot of prep time, but she wanted us to have an authentic experience. Every sauce was made from scratch, fresh raw ingredients and blended using a Bali Blender, aka by hand with a mortar and pestle. Almost all of the dishes included yellow sauce, which has close to 20 ingredients. With the tasks of mincing and grinding broken up though, it took no time at all to put together.

To start, I was at the deep frying tempeh station. One of the assistants showed me the colour I wanted to achieve for the tempeh and kept an eye on me since this was one of the more “difficult” stations. The Hubby was set to work dicing long beans before being moved to the Bali Blender to work on grinding fried peanuts. His wrist was sore, but the aroma of fresh peanut sauce was mouth watering.

After all the ingredients were diced, minced and chopped, there was a break while Puspa demonstrated how to make yellow sauce using a giant mortar and pestle. Students took turns to try their hand at pounding out the sauce. During this time, the prepared ingredients were measured out for each dish and couple. The flow of the class was at a good pace and efficient, we were always active and there was very little waiting time.

For each dish, Puspa demonstrated the instructions and then walked around to each station as we cooked. In general, one person was responsible for adding seasoning while the other cooked. With each dish, The Hubby and I switched roles. In addition to curries and salads, we also wrapped fish in banana leaves to be steamed and made skewers on sugarcane that was grilled.

Once we were done cooking, all of the food was set up buffet style to be enjoyed. The food was delicious, rich in flavours, fresh and fragrant. I had two full plates and went back for a third helping of bean salad. Creating such a tasty meal in the communal effort was incredibly fun and satisfying.

Overall, both The Hubby and I had an incredible tine with Paon Cooking Class. We enjoyed the hands-on teaching style, Wayan and Puspa’s easy-going humour made them fun hosts, and the food was really good. In fact, better than a popular traditional Bali restaurant we tried the night before. For anyone visiting Bali, I would highly recommend including a cooking class in your itinerary, even to make the time for one. 

One of the coolest days I had in Bali was spent with Paon Cooking Class. In fact, The Hubby and I enjoyed our market tour and hands-on experience so much, we’ve started researching similar classes for our next vacation (One month until Italy!). Based on Ubud, the concierge at the St. Regis helped us book a morning class the day before. Two start times were available, 8:30am, which included a tour of the Ubud old market and 4:00pm, which was cooking only. The cost was 350,000 IDR per person, about $35 Canadian with today’s exchange rates. While we had our driver drop us off at the meeting location in Ubud, Paon Cooking Class does offer pick up services. The class itself took place in a Balinese village a short drive away and a shuttle service was provided to bring us back to any address in Ubud.

We chose to go with the morning class, which meant leaving Nusa Dua at 7am. As much as I hate early mornings, walking through the market was worth the extra caffeine I needed. When we arrived at Ubud, we met up with our guide, Wayan, who was lovely. Wayan and his wife run Paon Cooking Classes and he was our tour guide for the morning. His English was accented, easy to understand and full of humour. Our group was made up of tourists from Australia, Europe and Singapore with the majority being couples, many on honeymoons, a group of friends and one solo girl who was in Bali for work.

Wandering through the market, Wayan would stop at certain stalls and explain the products being sold and answer questions. The market itself was located in a stone building with a few levels. Produce was on the lower levels while meat was in the basement. Wayan included details about how the market was deeply rooted in everyday Indonesian life and how vendors pass down their spots through generations. We sampled fresh fruits, like mangosteen and passion fruit and learned about how essential pandan was in Indonesian cooking. Throughout the tour, Wayan pointed out ingredients that we would be cooking with later that day.

In addition to fresh fruit and produce, the market also sold bales of flower petals (used in crafting daily offerings). After 9am, the produce vendors pack up and the market becomes an art market filled with souvenirs and handcrafts. As is, by the time we had arrived, all of the meat vendors were cleaning up. A blessing as the market wasn’t overly hygienic and strong odurs still lingered. Wayan actually gave each guest a flower blossom to smell if they found the meat section of the market too overpowering.

After our market tour, we piled into shuttles and headed to his house for the next part of our day, cooking.