What do we mean by ‘earth friendly food’?

Put simply, we are trying to create food that is delicious and healthy to eat but which doesn’t endanger the health of the planet in its making. We don’t claim to have all the answers or that we don’t make some compromises along the way, but we are moving towards our own sustainability and trying at the same time to raise the awareness of visitors to Ubud, our local guests, neighbours and staff.

refuse: reduce: reuse: recycle:

our fundamental policy in all things is to apply this awesome mantra when we are confronted with a choice. the classic example is that we take our own bags to the supermarket so we can refuse the ones they offer us. on the occasions we forget – yes even us holier than thou types – we make sure we reduce the number of bags they give us by squishing everything we can into one. then we reuse those suckers again and again on trips to the supermarkets and finally as garbage liners. and ultimately we recycle any excess. if you do the maths on it this simple process could have a massive effect – use a bag 5 times and you cut your consumption by 80%. imagine a world where 4 out of 5 plastic bags never got made, never got chucked into a river, never went to landfill. also, we retrofitted our restaurant with used and secondhand equipment and furnishings. looks good, didn’t cost too much. didn’t eat up lots of unnecessary resources. try the refuse:reduce:reuse:recycle philosophy sometime, you’ll be saving the world a little bit.

waste management:

we separate all of our waste comprehensively so that the organics get eaten by pigs, the reusables get reused, the recyclables get recycled and the residual amount only goes to accredited landfill, ie not to some cowboy who dumps it in a river, an unlicensed dump or beside the road as often happens, even with paid collectors. we don’t endorse or profit from pig farming but we are glad to help pak ketut peternak turn our waste into income.

chemical free vegetables:

we buy from reliable farmers those fruits and vegetables which are being grown “organically” in Bali. all of our salad greens and herbs; stir fry and juice ingredients; our cauliflowers, broccoli, gailarn, bok choi, green beans, zucchini, paprika, rosemary, rocket, romaine lettuce – the list goes on – are grown using traditional, natural methods, 100% free of fertilisers and with only minimal use of anti-fungal pesticides during rainy season. not as many of our hard vegetables – potatoes, carrots, pumpkins, garlic, onions – are from organic sources but in total more than 2/3 of our produce is clean and green

permaculture garden:

please visit dumbo garden behind our sister restaurant’s parking area. we compost what the pigs won’t eat there and the DUMBO staff grow their own herbs and garnishes for the kitchen and bar. there’s a beautiful view there too.

packaging and plastic:

our staff hand make bags from old newspapers & we use paper and cardboard and banana leaves (with just a little bit of hard to avoid plastic for sauces & dressings) for take away and delivery. reusable bamboo straws save us thousands of pieces of plastic each year. we are working with our suppliers to reduce the amount of packaging they use, an ongoing challenge.

water:

while you wouldn’t know it in Ubud during rainy season, Bali is fast approaching a water crisis through overuse by hotels and villas. please respect that and don’t waste water during your visit. we filter our own water with a 3 stage physical filtration system and UV treatment before using it to wash your vegetables. by the time you read this we have probably added final stage reverse osmosis to the process and will be serving it as pure, clean and healthy drinking water, reducing our carbon footprint by getting rid of delivered water cooler style “galons”.

pest control:

in our surrounding gardens it is organic by means of permaculture landscaping, companion planting and by the local cat. inside the restaurant we mostly use fans and herbal lotion to repel mosquitoes but also have those little HIT vaporisers if you require them…because of our beautiful open to the elements feels we can’t guarantee you won’t see critters running around in the roof beams but all of our storage and preparation areas are clean and hygienic and chemical free.

cleaning products:

must try harder here. we are starting to use hydrogen peroxide and are following up some other leads. keep you posted

energy use:

we are using efficient bulbs where we can in the kitchen and work areas, but not in the restaurant where we value the ambience.

low food miles:

more than 75% of our ingredients are local. we are proud, card carrying members of the international slow food movement, doing our bit to make food sustainable.

education:

apart from proselytizing to you here we are trying to teach our staff the meaning and importance of these practices to this island of the gods, Bali