The Flavor of Bali, at Roadside Stands

THERE are two kinds of culinary travelers who end up on Bali: ones who don’t flinch at spending hundreds of dollars for a bottle of Rioja at a trendy Asian-French fusion restaurant, and those who are obsessive about going as local as possible, searching out the most authentic Balinese meal, a box of Imodium A-D always at their side You’ll find the latter at Bali’s many streetside food vendors known as warungs. Scattered throughout Indonesia, warungs usually occupy a modest shack or roadside lean-to with a small counter and a bench where customers sit and eat traditional dishes. The bigger ones are no more than no-frills cafes, sometimes fashioned out of modest materials like rattan and corrugated metal.