Staff canteen, a love/hate story

Big hotels or resorts normally have staff canteens within their properties. I have worked in as many as five different resorts in Bali and I can say that the common relationship between an employee and a staff canteen is always that of love/hate. A staff`canteen can make your life more practical. It can bore you to death, too. Below are my notes on each of the hotel canteens, in a random order.

• Resort A Canteen: The metal trays didn't give me a good vibe, really. Walking with a metal tray (rice and all on it) in my hands to the dining table felt like I was in a scene of The Shawshank Redemption. Food tasted good, cooked by (grim-looking) in-house cooks, and you could take as much as you wanted, but I suspected that the ingredients came from what was left in the fridge after all the best ones were taken for the guests. Too bad, the closest restaurant outside the hotel was about 15 minutes away.
• Resort B Canteen: Food were not bad with good varieties. This came as a result of the hotel using a catering company service based on a six month contract, after which a new catering company would replace. The drawback of this system is not all caterers were consistent in complying with the hotel standard. There were days when food was poor, both in quality and presentation. 
• Resort C Canteen: If the previous two resorts apply a certain allowance per employee, for example IDR17,500/staff/day, this resort had a different system. At the beginning of every month, every employee was given monthly meal allowance in form of hotel money (similar to monopoly notes), with values range from IDR1,000 to IDR10,000. There was a good selection of main course items to desserts in the International-standard canteen, each was given a certain price. They even had an a la carte menu (burgers, salads, steaks, etc.), given that order was placed one day in advance. But still, some of the staff got tired of the food options and preferred eating in a food stall just outside the hotel.
• Resort D Canteen: Similar to Resort C in terms of food options, minus the hotel money and ice cream selections. The only drawback was inconsistency in taste and cooking methods. Different cooks, different methods, and there were these hotel kitchen trainees who might still need to learn how to make a dish correctly.
• Resort E Canteen: It was by far the lowest in standard in terms of space. It was quite a tiny canteen for hundreds of staff with quite poor ventilation. There was a fan on the ceiling for air circulation, but some staff smoke in the room, too. Food-wise, it was fair. The servers were kind and strict at the same time facing staff who asked for additional this or that. Good thing was there were quite a lot of options outside the hotel within walking distance.

Some hotels also have separate eating spaces for management level staff and common staff. I don't favor this, to say the least. I may write about it some other time.

Obama, bakso, and the lucky guy...

"Let's go to the beach!" is quite often heard in my office around lunchtime. That's a sign of someone tired of the staff cafeteria's food. And the idea is almost always welcome by the rest of us. I work in a resort in Tanjung Benoa. This area in Bali does not have the most beautiful beaches, as compared to Nusa Dua, for example, but Benoa is always famous for its wide selection of water sport activities. And for us, hotel staff, we love Benoa beach for its wide selection of delicious, cheap treats offered by various simple-looking food stalls.

One of our favorites is 'tipat kuah', rice cake in milky chicken soup, with boiled egg, vegetables, fried shrimps, and Balinese chili paste on the side. Yummy! 'Tipat kuah' only costs IDR10,000, roughly USD 1.00. If you're lucky, you can get a seat by the window with an ocean view and the best breezes. While eating, you can see tourists in swimming wears on speedboats, banana boats, and colorful parasailings.

Our second favorite is meatballs soup we call bakso. You know, I personally think that 'bakso' as a word should be internationalized because US President Obama who spent  several years living in Indonesia still favors it. If you don't believe me, try search on YouTube with key words: obama bakso, and see yourself.


A lot of bakso sellers in Bali, unlike in many other parts in Indonesia, sell bakso on motorbikes. One of these bakso sellers is a Javanese guy named Untung, literally meaning 'lucky'. He always serves us kindly and efficiently. He acknowledges me instantly because, like him, I am a Javanese and therefore speak Javanese to another Javanese.

Bakso is a perfect treat in a hot afternoon. A bowl of bakso consists of five small chicken meatballs, fried and steamed tofu, rice noodles, and fried dumpling. If you're like many other Indonesians who call a non-rice meal a snack, you can add rice cake into your soup, and your lunch is valid! All of these costs only IDR5,000 (50 cent!) If tomorrow I go to the beach to eat bakso again and Untung doubles the price, I wouldn't mind at all.