The last time [2017] we visited our long-time friend Joel... a fellow foodie living in Bali, he raved about a restaurant in Ubud called Locavore. Of course we we went, to discover one unique more-than-a-meal. It was an experience. I watched chefs plating food using tweezers!
Now for some months, as we planned the recent trip [November 2024], he
was raving even more-so about... Locavore NXT. I'm as curious as I might be skeptical... what's next!?
The experience begins with a drive down a long single lane driveway enclosed with tall old walls;
there's an occasional gate, but little room for another vehicle. A set-up for an adventure! But then we come to a generous parking ramp seemingly tucked into the foliage... the first indication of the careful design of what becomes more a farm than garden.
In fact, it is rather raw land. A feature catching my eye was a bamboo lattice leaning above a muddy plot. I deduced that it was a tool used to examine, analyze & catalogue the biomass of this plot of soil by means of this grid of a few square centimeters.
This is not at all just another eatery, even if it is the latest child of a growing family of experimental foodie ventures. We had marveled at a 20+ course menu featuring very local foods when dining at Locavore, which menu included baby wild field birds, skewered & roasted whole...
So now... here... we are really off into the mud & weeds!
But we are also entering a sophisticated piece of architecture. An elegant structure designed so naturally as to become almost invisible... a display case for a concept. This obviously has very deep thinking investors!
To begin, we listen to a recorded welcome & introduction to the concept...
With a wall of living specimens collected in jars behind us, we begin to perceive that we are in a laboratory for the immersive study of the biome of this place.
To begin, trays were presented by young acolytes who were teach/learning their craft...
Introducing us to some of the variety from the land...
We are invited to examine, & touch... &, invited to play! To rearrange an arrangement of wild flora while we sip an elixir of some kind.
I was fascinated 'trying to suss what those specimens might be...
Being encouraged to play with our food was certainly not a problem! We continued taking lessons, meeting the two co-creating owner/partners [one of whom is the
chef] who explain their dedication to the philosophy -- &
realization that all must play, actually play!, with this life of
learning.
We also need to play it smart!... as explained in part of the menu:
Knowing now the over-arching concepts, we are properly prepped, as we move under the palm-like spread of the bar's roof, to pass through the ornately carved & gilded doors of the elaborate portal... & actually enter...
We visited any number of spaces & places as the meal's education proceeded to present the potential of this institution of teach/learning:
The mushroom cellar was a rather eerie, low lighted space with a stairway down into red light... a very high tech mushroom cellar...
Then up to a demonstration of the digital library housing all the data being collected.
A food lab... as if this entire operation isn't that!
The food laboratory sported a group drawing made by the chefs toward a menu...
The entire staff is attending what is a live college course in food.
This is an aerial view of the entire campus:
Meat curing facility...
After all these pieces adding to our education...
At last, the dining room...
Satisfyingly spacious design.
Lively staff... front back & center ... cooking, prepping, plating... all with attentive personal development as part of the service.
Contemplation was in evidence. This is a school...
The meal of myriad courses was conflated by those side trips to the mushroom cellar; fermentation, aging processes; numerous areas with high tech tools.
The descriptions on the menu... of which I did not keep a copy... would not communicate so well as these images...
Several of those might could have been dessert!
... Still, there is always more...
We were, after all, celebrating Joel's 76th birthday... postponed from last year, when the planning for this month's travel in Asia was first being planned.
HUZZAH!
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