It was quite a long flight, and they did not make a good coffee on the plane. We went for a good reason to Tutmak, at our first hours in Ubud, Bali, to taste again their excellent coffee, that is.

I glanced around. Tutmak hasn’t really been changed since the last time we went there in 2006. It is still breezy as I remember. The platform is the best spot we, as a family, always agree to sit back and relax, while waiting for our orders ready.

Where

Tutmak is situated on Jl. Dewi Sartika, Ubud. You can access it through Jalan Monkey Forest if you just come from the airport and take right when you come to a junction of both street.

Service

The service is quick and the waiter/waitresses are friendly. They won’t fail to give you their best smiles! Food’s served usually comes warm or hot, depending on what you order.

Best of Tutmak

They have excellent coffee. I have tried cafe latte, cappuccino and Americano. They have strong flavour, thick aroma, and foamy frothy milk.

Food

The average is good. Nothing really is special. The price is reasonable. They serve various cuisine, from Middle Eastern, Indonesian, Balinese, Italian, and Mediterranian. Pretty much world cuisine. My favourite that I often come back to is Indonesian platter, which is called Nasi Campur. The combination is great. You can get steamed rice with tempeh and egg curry, snake beans and mung bean sprouts salad, diced tempeh in hot chili sambal, grilled tofu topped with hot sambal, cornfritter, potato fritter, fried peanuts, and steamed vegies. There’s also a side dish of two different sambals there, which I did not dare to take. I tasted each of them but they are too hot for me. I guess, I am not that kind of a chili person.

You may want to try out their Middle Eastern plate, Caesar Chicken Salad, Spicy Chicken Sandwich (which you can order baguette instead of white bread for the sandwich), Nasi Goreng, Pancakes served with tropical fresh fruit and honey, or perhaps spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce for the children? Your choice.

Bonus

Indonesia is into Wi-fi at the moment, and so is Bali. Tutmak has an id and password that you can use for free. While you’re ducking into your latte, you may be as well able to checking out what’s happening in the other world, or even better: running your business?

Since I can’t eat dairy products, particularly milk, Summer is quite boring not to be able to lick creamy ice cream. Apart from my homemade Plum Butter Ice Cream, any other ice cream using milk and cream has failed the muscle test. There’s an option though, other than being miserable, to replace milk with soy milk that is. So, here’s my first soy milk ice cream ever! It is quite nice, to be honest, although you need to switch your creaminess level from cow’s milk to soy one. It may not be the same, but the addition of chocolate chips is awesome!

Soy Milk Chocolate Ice Cream

Ingredients

1 liter plain soy milk

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

½ cup caster sugar

8 egg yolks, separated

200g no-added sugar dark chocolate, shaved or chopped

Methods

Put soy milk and vanilla bean paste in a saucepan and put it on the stove over a low heat until warm. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks with caster sugar until well combined. Pour in the warm soy milk. Bring the saucepan to the stove and cook on a low heat until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and let cool. Pour into a freezer container, cover and freeze for 2 hours. Remove from the freezer, put the ice cream into the food processor. Pulse until smooth. Pour into a freezer container and fold in chopped chocolate, mix well. Freeze again until ready to use. Makes 1 liter.

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