When it comes to traveling, experiencing a new culture through its food is a given. During my search for things to do (i.e. eat) in Bali, I latched on to the description for a traditional cuisine cooking class:
Begin your experience at a local market, where your Family Host will purchase and explain the fresh herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables used in your class. Once home, you’ll be greeted by Dewa with a piping hot cup of coffee or tea and his famous Pisang Goreng, fresh made crispy Banana Fritters, to set off your taste buds. You’ll learn how to prepare a complete menu inclusive of appetizer, a variety of traditional mouth-watering entrees, accompanying dishes, and dessert.
Apart from watching two friends get married, The Lobong Culinary Experience became a top highlight in planning the trip. After the experience in Bali and a superlative experience back home, cooking courses will be at the top of my search criteria when I travel rather than “where to have the best <insert regional dish here>”.
The morning of the class, I was whisked away in a van from my home stay in Ubud, with the rest of the students, and driven a short distance away to the region of Payangan. Here, we got a first-hand look at an open-air market without the touristy traffic dominating the market in Ubud’s center. Our 9 am arrival was during the market’s lull given that it normally starts at 2 am and is over by 10 am. As the saying goes, the early bird gets the worm.
Our tour of the market was simply educational, meaning we didn’t actually buy anything. We stopped at a few stands with Sang Made, our market guide, and listened as he pointed out ingredients and produce of interest.
One of the more memorable moments was at the beginning of our tour was when we looked over at a stand with a full Babi Guling (roast suckling pig) laid out ready for consumption. According to our Sang Made, Babi Guling is Bali’s breakfast of champions. The group consisting of 9 Dutch, a couple from France, and me was stunned. Fruit bowls and eggs were in the hotels and home stays! Sang Made clarified that yes, that is what is served to foreigners — not what is actually consumed in a Balinese home.
Sang Made explained that in their culture, fruits are normally used for enhancing the offerings to their gods. Fruits are fun! We inspected many that were exotic for most of us.
We inspected the ‘snakeskin’ fruit in detail. In summary, it’s mildly bland and crunchy. I’ll stick to dragon fruit next time.
During the course of the day, I learned about many facets of Balinese customs and rituals. Most of them related to different stepping stones to reach adulthood.
On our arrival to the Lobong family compound, conversation focused on marriage and the custom for families to ceremoniously come to an agreement about the event.
Families stick together and there’s no such thing as ‘flying the nest’. A male’s residence in his family’s compound changes location during the course of his maturity to indicate the change in hierarchy. This change in is among many intricate rules and considerations that make a Balinese traditional home. The close-knit families make it very rare to see homeless in Bali. Family compounds are forever. You will never see a family compound up for sale.
Learning more about the annual kite festival in Bali was inspirational to me. The driver that picked me up from my home stay explained that it is a rooted tradition that has many representations that have changed over time. In a few ways, it represents freedom and coming of age or a symbol of maturity. Bali’s youth took to the rice fields during dusk each day in the time I was there to practice kite flying.
Apparently, having teeth filed is a common coming of age tradition, and it made my hair rise to realize what Sang Made went through at one point in his life to get his straight pearly whites.
Although we experienced a daily Hindu offering before our meal, during the tour of Payangan market, Sang Made explained that while it’s stereotypical for women to have the kitchen role in other cultures, in Bali, it’s their responsibility to hand-make daily offerings (but in some cases the task is translated to purchasing them at the market).
This is partly because offerings symbolize beauty. As a result of this female responsibility, a man’s place in Bali is in the kitchen. Sang Made also made a point to mention that you will not see men making offerings in Bali, and if you do, that man is referred to as a “beautiful man”.
The primary purpose of the market tour was to have a first hand look at what ingredients would look like among market stands. We talked about the salad we would be making and a distinction was made between the greens in traditional western salads and Balinese salads. In Bali, fern tips are used rather than the common romaine, spinach, and kale.
Bumbu Bali or Base Gede is a sauce that flavors many dishes. To me it sounds like a masala you would make to flavor an Indian dish. We inspected each of the root vegetables serving a role in “bumbu Bali” (base Balinese sauce) and discussed the difficulty of being able to find these in a conventional grocery store back home.
During our tour of the market, Sang Made pointed out snack food common in most markets.
We watched a sate stand owner carefully turn each stick of meat and waft air on the coconut shell charcoal to disperse heat.
As we watched a woman make what looked like a refreshing coconut jelly drink, Sang Made advised us that our stomachs may not be prepared for it, and that we should stay away. I didn’t come across a similar vendor during my vacation so I never got another opportunity to try it.
Our hosts repetitively mentioned we would soon get to go back to the family compound to get down to “chop chop!” This phrase stuck with me and we definitely did a lot of worthwhile chopping. After we licked our plates clean of our day’s work, we received a booklet with all of the recipes we’d prepared for the day.
The grunt of the work in two of our dishes was preparing the bumbu/base gede to flavor the meat. The most involved component of preparation for the day!
The preparation of the chicken for the first two chicken recipes was similar with the exception of allowing the first to poach in the sauce and finishing the second on a charcoal grill.
All recipes, with the exception of base gede, base sate, and jamu kunyit make 2 servings.
Basic spice base. A foundation to Balinese cooking!
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* If storing, remove salam leaf, lemongrass, and kaffir lime.
Shredded poached chicken, lemongrass, chili kaffir lime dressing
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Grilled chicken breast, Balinese spice
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Mixed vegetable salad, grated coconut, garlic chili dressing.
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Sambal goreng (fried sambal, to accompany salad)
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Peanut sauce
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Minced chicken skewers, grated coconut, kaffir lime juice
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Tomato and chili sambal. Served as a sauce to flavor rice.
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Sweet potato rice
I didn’t photograph the preparation of this dish given that making it took place in a dimly lit kitchen with a stove heated with wood. The process of making Nasi Sela, or steamed rice with sweet potato, takes at least an hour and twenty minutes. This steaming process allows each grain to cook to a point in which it will not stick to any other grain. This dish is the first to be prepared in a Balinese home given the amount of time it takes. While the rice cooks, other dishes can be prepared.
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Easy right?
Black rice porridge with coconut milk and palm sugar.
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Fried banana fritters
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Before we ate, we followed tradition to honor Hindu gods with offerings from the food we prepared that morning. Sang Made’s mother did the honors. Usually, these honors are done early in the morning after the day’s food has been prepared and is set aside in the kitchen for whoever is hungry to come and go as they see fit. Balinese rarely eat sitting down together, according to Sang Made.
After we stepped out of the temple we sat down at a table set in the central courtyard of the family compound and waited for each course to be served. My phone was dead at this point and the rest of my classmates were Dutch or French, so focusing on each bite and appreciating the work that had gone into creating each dish was how I kept myself occupied. I had given up on pretending to understand the Dutch and French conversations that dominated the group around me much earlier in the day.
It’s not every day I take cooking classes on a whim, and definitely not when the cost is more than what I would ever pay for a dinner, but cooking with Cocco at Izakaya Rintaro felt very special and I...