However, I find it hard to believe that any dish that had been good in 06 can deteriorate to such an extent over 5 years. The Chinese version has been around for more than 2,000 years and yet virtually every Chinese restaurant in any part of the world is able to roast it to near perfection. I’ve tried Chinese suckling pig in virtually all the corners of the world from Lima to Acapulco to Montreal to Paris to Vienna to Rio to…over 200 cities worldwide, and yet the dish has been consistently good with only a couple of exceptions!

The irresistible conclusion is therefore that the crispy sound of the crackling shattering as Bourdain bit into it was probably sound effects introduced during post production in the studios. On all the three occasions that we tried it the crackling was as tough as cow hide…even when piping hot!

I certainly hope that Bourdain will wise up that he has dropped the baton big time on this Bali episode and realize that he has to get his act together. At the rate that he’s going, I fear that his credibility will soon be shot! Remember his program has caused countless tourists to fly in from all the corners of the globe to try this babi guling in Bali only to get thoroughly disappointed! I was one of them.

On reflection, however, I suppose it’s tough to be a food critic as you have to remain objective, almost counter-intuitive with our childhood conditioning to always be kind, considerate and generous. That is ok in most instances of life, but it can become albatrosses around the necks of food critics as they owe a duty to their readers to tell it like it is.

However, considering the way that babi guling has been hyped by most tourism guide books, food channels and virtually every cab driver in Bali, I guess that it is difficult not to be sucked into the vortex of ballyhoo, hoopla and puff surrounding the dish!

This is our third visit to Bali so we decided to give Ibu Oka one last chance, in view of the many superlative reviews. Reasoning: So many cannot be wrong.

But it looks like they can be. Although the meat itself which was served piping hot, was fairly tender and flavorful enough, the crackling was still as tough as old leather shoes! It really makes my DW and me wonder whether those folks who write glowing reviews of Ibu Oka and their babi guling, including Anthony Bourdain and the travel writer from Lonely Planet have ever ever tasted suckling pig in a Chinese restaurant? If they have, they would have tasted exactly how good suckling pig should taste like with crackling so crispy thin that every bite is to be savored! It is highly unlikely that after that, they would ever venture to describe babi guling as “amazing”, “best ever” and all the silly hyperbole that have come to dominate this debate and given Ibu Oka an undeserved reputation. I have nothing against Ibu Oka per se, but it is the integrity of reviews that I’m concerned about.

To draw an analogy, if you live in a small outpost, say in the far reaches of Siberia, you may describe your local football outfit as “amazing”, “best in the world” or whatever superlative terms you may wish to employ, not out of intellectual dishonesty, but only because you have not been exposed to the silky skills of the likes of Barcelona or Manchester United.

That is probably how it is with this “amazing babi guling” nonsense! We were in Shanghai for 9 days and tried Peking Duck and suckling pig IN SEVERAL RESTAURANTS and the stuff that they served up were slices of culinary heaven!!

As we live in San Francisco, we have developed an affinity for the dish. We know that everyone is entitled to their opinion. But how do you judge a dish when you haven’t tasted even remotely the best? It is really like the uncultured and the philistine trying to pontificate on high-brow literature and classical music!

We remain baffled over these superlative reviews, because when we compare Ibu Oka’s babi guling to the suckling pig we have tasted in Chinese Restaurants from this side of San Francisco to Hong Kong to Singapore and Bayswater in London, we have to say that if the Chinese version and Ibu Oka’s babi guling are compared and placed on a scale of 1-100, the Chinese version would easily place near a hundred and Ibu Oka’s would limp in below minus 10. That is the difference between a culture with 2,000 plus years of culinary development and a rank amateur!

Sorry to disappoint you Ibu Oka fans….but this time it was worse. On a scale of 1 to 10, this babi guling was minus 6. That’s how bad it was!

The waitress was a little more cautious this time, deciding to give us a smaller portion of the skin obviously remembering our disappointment the first time around.

The skin was as hard as plastic laminate, you know, the kind that carpenters clad wooden tables with to protect the surface!

We saw a Taiwanese couple enjoying the babi guling. From their expressions, we guessed that they must have hit gourmet pay dirt, that is until they came to the skin. We asked them how their meal was and from the little English that they spoke, we could make out that the skin was tough…as tough as their shoes or words to that effect!

Anthony Bourdain and that chappie from Lonely Planet. What were you eating? Your credibility just dropped a little in our judgment!

If you must have suckling pig, go to any Chinese restaurant anywhere in Asia and including those in Oz, US of A or even Bayswater in the UK. Don’t waste your time with babi guling. Its the most overated, most overhyped dish in SE Asia!

We queued like suckers for this overhyped suckling pig only to find that they have no clue what a roasted suckling pig should be. The skin was like leather…no, more like hardwood! A real insult to our tastebuds. Makes us question Anthony Bourdain’s & Lonely Planet writer’s judgement.

You wanna try real roasted suckling pig? Go to any Chinese restaurant anywhere in the world, from San Francisco to London to Singapore and Hong Kong and order suckling pig. What you’ll get is a slice of suckling pig heaven with skin so crispy that it’d make Ibu Oka’s the rankest of amateurs in the world. You see, the secret starts with the selection of the pig. Only baby pigs are used with skin so thin that it’d never be the thick hide that Anthony Bourdain calls “crackling”??? How can the thick hides of the big fat pigs used by Ibu Oka ever hope to match a cuisine that more than 2,000 years old?