„Chicken Garden Blue“

„Chicken Garden Blue“ is a dish that our chef recommended to us today. You can guess what it is. But more on that later 🤣

The day started as usual, with bright sunshine. Today, we wanted to go to Limah, a „district“ in Amed. It is located in a bay with a black sand beach. I had read a lot about Limah and suggested to Rainer that we walk there. However, luckily our server Su advised against it. She said it was too far and too steep to walk there. Especially with my wound on my calf, it was better to avoid it. When we later drove there in a taxi ordered by her (her husband's friend), I silently thanked her. I, probably also we, would never have made it there. But we have friends here, and especially after my branding on my calf🤣.

Now we were dropped off at the Vienna Beach Hotel and were amazed by the black sandy beach. It sparkled as if it was covered with shards of diamonds. The beach sloped gently into the water. Made, the Balinese beach boy from this beach, approached us and asked us what is usually done here, how we are doing, and where we come from. We quickly got into a conversation with him, and he brought us to our beach chairs. He was 28 years old and had two siblings. He offered to go snorkeling with him. At first, I had concerns because of my wound. But Made said that the saltwater wouldn't be a problem, only the black sand. And it needed to dry. It was good advice that I didn't regret.

However, at first, we just wanted to go for a swim. It was great. There was a "path" where we lay to walk into the sea for a long time. There were corals off the "path". Not only could you have injured yourself, but you could also have destroyed them. So we went into the water and were happy about the not so great depth. Made came with us and introduced us to two women. Approximately in their mid-60s. One lady was from Texas and had bought a property with a cottage here a year ago. She told us that she had a "big business" in Texas, worked a lot and hard, and decided to live happily and contentedly here in Bali for the rest of her life. Unfortunately, we didn't get to know where the other lady came from. Made offered to go snorkeling with us now. He would be a good guide, he said. He could show us corals and maybe even turtles. It was a great idea. We got our snorkeling gear and started. It wasn't as impressive as diving, but still great. Made was always more than 10 meters ahead, no wonder. He had fins on, we didn't. We swam relatively far, always following him, until he showed us a turtle. There it was, not as big as the one we saw when diving, but still a turtle. Turtles can live quite a long time, we have no idea about that either, but this one belonged to the younger generation. It had a great marbled shell and was about 25 cm in circumference. Made kept diving down to it again and we watched from the surface.

Then we snorkeled back, among other things, because my waterproof plaster was about to dissolve. It was a beautiful and impressive experience once again. Unfortunately, Rainer forgot the camera again, but such experiences remain in our minds anyway.

At around 5 pm, we were picked up by a friend of Su's husband again. It was a different friend than on the way there, but he was also nice. We decided to freshen up in our room and then go to a warung for dinner. Kadek had recommended a few warungs in the meantime. We decided to go to the Warung.... It had 4 tables, but one of the tables had a broken lamp, so the owner asked us to sit at another table. It was a really small, cute and typical warung. The owner, who was also the server and chef, was very nice and brought us a menu each. There was a French couple sitting at the next table. There are quite a few of them in and around Amed. Germans are more of a rarity. We ordered a dragon fruit juice and a watermelon juice. Both were freshly made by the chef. Rainer ordered a grilled mixed plate consisting of various types of meat, and I ordered grilled shrimp. However, we had to wait about 45 minutes for our food. Waiting so long for food is a typical German problem. Here, it's normal. Because everything is freshly prepared. So it can sometimes take a bit longer. But it was well worth the wait. It was once again a feast. My dish was amazing 🤩. 5 mega delicious shrimps with homemade fries, sensational. Not only was my dish the best, it was also the most expensive on the menu. It cost 70,000 IDR, which is €4.20 🤣. After his main course, Rainer ordered a dessert. Dadar Gulung, a rolled crepe filled with palm sugar. While we waited for Rainer's dessert, we looked around the warung a bit. I had to take a photo of the kitchen tiles and three notes. Balikurs for run away 🤣. Learned Balinese quickly on the fly. The Dadar Gulung arrived and almost jumped at us with its green color. Since we were now alone in this restaurant, we had a very nice conversation with the chef/owner. We sent warm regards from Kadek to her and she was very happy about it. I had asked her about the color of the dessert because this bright green was not normal for this dessert, and she laughed and replied: food coloring, just like in the dragon fruit juice.

She had a lot of fun telling us this. Life is too dreary, she said, you have to add color to it. And then she told us that Kadek and his family also come to her for food. Then she always talked about Chicken Garden Blue, and we should come and try it. I immediately thought that she dyes cooked chicken blue. She had a preference for colorful food. We agreed with her and promised to come and have the Chicken Garden Blue at her place. While we were chatting with her, I sent Kadek a WhatsApp message and told him that we were sitting in the Warung.... and had sent warm regards from the owner. He was happy and gave me a thumbs up sign. We said goodbye and went back to the hotel. On the way there, I received a long message from Kadek, in which he wrote the same thing that the chef had told us. Just with one small difference.

It wasn't Chicken Garden Blue, it was Chicken Cordon bleu 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

We're still laughing about it.