The Snowlady Chronicles: Cooking in Ubud

Friday May 9, 2014

Jimbaran, Bali

Hot, Sunny, fabulous Beach Weather

Day 3 in Ubud was spent mostly in an outdoor kitchen in a family compound located outside of Ubud. Apple arranged a fabulous cooking class for us run by a family and called Lobong Cooking School

I can honestly say it was one of the best cooking classes I have taken in a long time. Our teacher is a professional chef and the class included a market tour.

Our day started at 8am where Sang Made, a family member, who is handsome and spoke perfect English picked us up in an air conditioned van. Our first stop was the local market. Not the crazy market in the center of Ubud but outside Ubud where the locals live. We learned that "markets" are always in front of "palaces" and this market was indeed in front of a former palace. We were introduced to all the unique and local ingredients we will use in our class. The ingredients include, wild fiddleheads, fresh turmeric and different kinds of local ginger, palm sugar, kafir limes, lemongrass, and of course coconut. He also introduced us to these creepy looking eels that are found in rice paddies that are a delicacy. We learned to kill them is to sprinkle salt on them just like you would kill a leech or slug... I don't think I'll be trying one anytime soon!

Our host for cooking school

Chicks for sale including "dyed" chicks. They got the idea from the Japanese. I remember growing up in Japan where dyed chicks were for sale at festivals. My parents always bought some as my sister and I felt sorry for the chicks but they always died.... most likely because of the dye. So Sad...

Scenes from the market. Now how do they balance the load on their heads?

Ummm. eels from the rice fields.....

He was selling "sate". We all took fotos of him which led him to say that perhaps he finally can become famous now.

Lady making the morning offerings at the market.

Water guava - have no idea how to serve this.

And we got to meet Apple's Mum!!!

After a fabulous tour, we took the van over to the family compound. In Indonesia, families live in compounds. And it is the sons that usually stay in the compound to take care of the parents. The compound is designed in an "auspicious" fashion, similar to feng shui, and includes a temple. It's outlay is the shape as a Hindu swatzika which symbolizes the sun and god Vishnu. The compound where he lives is gorgeous. He taught us alot about the customs in Bali where one has to marry the same caste. Unlike in India the caste does not dictate "success:, (eg the mayor is from lowest class). But one has to marry the same caste. And I found out that the names are based on when one was born. For example, the first born is always named Wayan, the second born Made, third born Nyoman and 4th born Ketut. With the 5th it starts all over again. We also learned that the placenta of the baby is buried near the family compound temple and babies are not to touch the ground until they are 6 months old. This is because babies are thought to be deities until they are 6 months old. There is an elaborate celebration when the baby turns 6 months old where they finally get to touch the ground because they become human. To understand the entire "custom" takes time but suffice it to say the Balinese make it work. And when one reaches puberty teeth filing occurs, where the teeth is filed flat so that no aggression is implied. Amazing. In addition, I finally realized how much Hinduism plays in Balinese culture. All of their ceremonies and offerings are based on Hinduism which is something I need to learn more about.

Then it was time to cook. Our chef Dewa who is a professional chef who worked in hotels patiently explained to us the ingredients and what we were doing. He made it clear that Indonesian cooking is easy, but time consuming.

We first learned how to make rice the Balinese way. And wow, so time consuming! First you have to wash the rice and soak and in water for about 30 min (until this point it was ok as we do this for Japanese rice too). But then you place it in a bamboo colander and steam it for about 40 minutes. And then after steaming it you soak it in boiling water. After another 30 minutes the water gets absorbed and you steam it again for another 20 minutes or so. Unbelievably, time consuming.

And after the rice lesson, the chopping and multi-tasking began. We chopped and chopped, learned how to make a paste with a Balinese mortar and pestle (which I bought!) and cooked the following dishes: Minced chicken sate with peanut sauce, soup with chicken, green papaya and crispy shallots, Indonesian chicken curry, mixed vegetable salad with fiddleheads, bean sprouts and long beans, tomato sambal, and our dessert Balinese crepes.

The ambiance

LOVE this table in Sang Made's house

The ingredients

We learned to fry fresh peanuts start with cold coconut oil.

Making peanut sauce with a balinese traditonal mortar and pestle

It was a lot of fun! And we got to meet new friends from Finland, South Africa and Montenegro.

But before we ate, we learned from Sang Made's elegant mother how to give offerings to the gods. Given we were so blessed to cook and eat delicious food, we shared our lunch as an offering to the gods. But what I did not realize that on average over 50 offerings were made in Bali in a day. Wow! And it is the role of the woman to prepare and conduct the offerings. They must spend at least 30% of their time making and doing offerings, which just shows how dedicated and devout the Balinese are to their customs and religion.