April 6—Balinses Cooking Class

On Friday morning, Jessie and I were picked up early by a driver and taken to the Ubud market to purchase some fresh goods for our cooking class and to have a tour of the local goodies.  The cooking class was highly regarded online and the chef Puspa, has excellent reviews, so Jessie and I were both very excited. 

 

We had both already been to the market (we bought quite a few beautiful paintings there) but it was nice to have a guide to explain all of the foreign foods and answer questions.  Many of the fruits were quite different than the ones we get back home.  Some of the unique ones included mangosteen (which is sweet and absolutely delicious), snakeskin (which looks like snakeskin, but tastes quite tart) and durian (which is loved by most Indonesians, but smells quite horrific). 

We were able to sample some of these fruits and we were also taught about some of the Balinese clothing and the traditions they’re used for.  Many of the goods here are made by hand.  Due to the fact that labor is so inexpensive in Indonesia, it’s actually cheaper to make things by hand, than to build a machine to mass produce the same product.  From a tourist’s perspective, this adds charm to everything you touch, but I’m sure it’s not easy for the workers who slave over these goods and don’t reap very substantial rewards.

After the market, we were brought to the rice fields where we were taught all about the harvesting of rice by the husband of Puspa.  According to our guide 90% of Balinese families have a person who works in the rice fields.  This is the main part of the Balinese diet (they eat rice 3 times a day).  We also learned that the Balinese communities have certain by-laws that pertain to rice fields; for example, you can’t sell over a certain portion of your rice fields (they have to stay within your family name), also it’s illegal to make your rice field into a hotel or resort and finally in all of Bali, buildings can only be as high as the tallest coconut tree (which is 15m).  I thought that these were all very interesting. 

We were soon brought to Puspa’s home where she greeted us warmly and offered us refreshing lemonade (fresh, of course) garnished with limes and tropical flowers.  Puspa and her husband spent about 15 minutes talking to our group about Balinese culture and the family life within their village called Laplapan.  Puspa’s husband is a very funny man and he joked that they got married because he had an MBA (which in this case stands for: Married By Accident).  Puspa accidentally became pregnant and it’s very frowned upon in Balinese culture to do this before wedlock, so there was a fast wedding.

They joked around a bit and told stories of their lives together and their children.  We learned that Indonesian culture is very collective.  Families stick together and the family unit is very important.  When Puspa’s husband was very young, he was in a family of 5 people.  His uncle and aunt were unable to have any children (this is very important, because children take care of the parents in old age) so his father decided that he would live with his uncle and aunt and be part of their family unit.  This wasn’t a problem for him; he spoke very fondly of this aunt and uncle.  His uncle passed away just 8 weeks ago, but he said he lived a very good life.  It was interesting to hear about the lengths to which people will go for their families here; they live very collective lives, which contrasts greatly to our independent ones in the West. 

Later, we learned a bit about the structure of Balinese house complexes.  They’re very different in that each ‘room’ is a separate building that stands alone in a beautiful complex.  Also, each house has its own family temple where the family can go to give offerings (usually 3 times a day).  These offerings are usually done by the female, unless she is menstruating, in which case, the male will do it.   The Balinese people are mainly Hindu (which contrasts to the rest of Indonesia, which is mainly Muslim).  Puspa tried to explain the different gods that the offerings are made for, but there were so many and some of them were for dead ancestors.  Nevertheless, it was beautiful and very interesting.

When we were ready to cook, we were lead into the back of the complex where a beautiful kitchen area was waiting for us.  It was extremely open concept (as most of it was outdoors) but it was spacious, modern and very clean.  We all were encouraged to get a cup of coffee or ginger tea before we began the hard work.

Puspa took time to explain each of the ingredients we were going to be using.  She also had a great sense of humor which made the class very enjoyable and comfortable.  She would refer to all of her students as “honey bunny” when she wanted to get someone to do something… “honey bunny, go and chop these green beans”. 

We cooked for several hours and the end resulted in a menu that consisted of the following:

·         Kuah Wong- Clear Mushroom and Vegetable Soup (my favorite)

·         Base Gede- Basic Yellow Sauce

·         Be Siap Mesanten- Chicken in Coconut Curry

·         Sate Siap- Minced Chicken Grilled on Bamboo Sticks

·         Kacang Me Santok or Gado Gado- Vegetables in Peanut Sauce

·         Jukut Urab- Coconut and Snake Bean Salad

·         Pepesan Be Pasih- Steamed Fish in Banana Leaves

·         Tempe Me Goreng- Deep Fried Tempe in Sweet Soy Sauce

·         Kolak Biu- Boiled Banana in Palm Sugar Syrup

 

Wow! It was a feast.  After learning to make such an immense array of foods, we definitely worked up an appétit.  We enjoyed being able to sample all of our creations.  They were delicious!

After the class, Puspa gave each of us copies of the recipes to take home.  Jessie and I will attempt to recreate these in the near future.  We were driven back to our hotel promptly and were thoroughly impressed by the quality of the experience we had.