Fish Out of Water

it’s always very smoky and it feels hot when it’s too crowded, but it’s so good, the only thing you care about is the food on your plate…

Tables on the sand, the smell of coconut husks grilling fish, the occasional fireworks, the cheap wine, the cold beer, piles of empty plates and of course the great seafood bites, all make a great Jimbaran beachside dining experience. These joints don’t really care if they should serve food from your right or left side, or that your wine glass needs a second refill. Their charm lies in how their food is simple yet good. They go with the philosophy which believes that if your palate is pleased, nothing else matters.

Evidently, it works. The plethora of seafood restaurants that currently dot the Jimbaran coastline is a major destination for anyone visiting Bali. It’s on the recommendation list of all travel guides. In certain ways, it almost defines Jimbaran.

Looking at this phenomenon, it’s hard to imagine that it all started with one man. In fact, maybe even the entire economic picture of Jimbaran would have been much different without one great idea that exponentially blossomed.

It all started in the mid 80s along the sandy shores of Jimbaran Bay. A young fisherman named Nyoman Bagi’s would guide tourists on small fishing trips on his small boat in the bay. The tourists and Nyoman would fish and take their catch back to shore where the Balinese man would make a fire on the beach and grill the fish for his clients as part of the fishing trip.

It then occurred to him that if he set up a cold drink stand right next to where he grilled his fish, the clients would buy the refreshments as he served their catch. This infinitesimally small idea marks the very beginning of all the grilled fish warungs in present day Jimbaran; much like an infinitesimally small spore implanting itself onto a rock can spawn into a giant coral reef.

In 1987, Nyoman decided to actually grill and sell fish and turned his enterprise into a tiny one-table shack and dubbed it Ramayana. As time wore on and more and more fish were grilled, the shack slowly evolved into a slightly bigger shack, trading out pieces of bamboo and a tarp roof for slightly bigger pieces of bamboo and a thatched roof.

It was at this stage when a Swiss queen came to his shack and tried his delicious grilled fish and wrote him a royal endorsement, an honour which he proudly keeps till this day. Nyoman recalls, “Swiss people would be so surprised to see this certificate, they’d round up all their friends and take them to my café.”

With all things in Bali, original ideas don’t stay original for too long. Soon another grilled fish shack opened up next to Ramayana, followed by another. In 1996, the Bupati decided to move the restaurants to a different location as to not interfere with hotel development. They were allowed different slots on the beach much as how it looks today.

A couple of years later, the Desa decided to build structures behind the restaurants that became shops and kitchens. As demand for more space to build other seafood cafés grew, every available space was turned into a kitchen to support the ever-multiplying restaurants on the beach. This was how a lonely drink shack on a beach evolved into the mass of seafood restaurants you see today.

When asked about what he thought of the all the new restaurants in the format that he essentially started, Nyoman commented, “as long as it’s still healthy and there are still customers, it’s a good thing.”

Today there are 52 seafood restaurants in Jimbaran where tourists and locals alike regularly get treated to fresh seafood grilled on coconut husks. The format of each restaurant is pretty much the same with variations in the sauces and trimmings one can get. All the seafood is from the local Jimbaran fish market located on the beach. Typical establishments offer a variety of recently caught fish, lobster, squid, prawns, clams and crab with salad, morning glory, potatoes and rice. Most seafood is lathered with a generous amount of chili sauce which, combined with the smokiness of the coconut husks, gives the seafood its unique taste. Chilli-phobics need not worry, you can request the concentration of the spice on your meal.

Once you’ve picked a restaurant that seems right for you, the first thing to do is pick your fish. To ensure freshness, the opaqueness of the eyes is a good indicator of how recently your dinner was caught. Dishes are mainly served “family style” where they are placed in the middle and diners divvy up the food. The restaurants may look almost identical, but each one has its own unique way of doing things.

No matter which establishment you choose, the immediate impression you get is of a chilled laid back dining experience, with the novelty of actually selecting your own food to be barbequed for you. It is an essential stop for any seafood lover visiting the island. Therefore, these restaurants are perfect for a casual dinner with friends, family, or a tour bus group. Tables are laid directly on the sand where customers can watch the iridescent sunsets and spot newly arriving tourists on planes landing in Ngurah Rai international. The oceanfront setting is also littered with colourful fishing boats dotting the bay from the beach to the horizon. The atmosphere is also augmented by a four-piece guitar band that serenades diners with hit cover songs. As night falls, the open setting lets you eat under the equatorial stars.

Thousands upon thousands of tourists and locals visit Jimbaran beach every year specifically to eat its now famous seafood. An entire local economy has benefited from both jobs created and the revenue harvested from what started off as a humble fisherman, grilling fish. If you haven’t done it, then chances are you will soon. •

You can find Ramayana, the original fish grilling shack, at Jl. Pemelisan Agung. It’s the third restaurant from the right if you’re facing the beach. T: 0361 702 859