Cooking With Gas

So today,  Christina booked us an all day cooking class in Ubud. Great idea as good Indonesian food can be scarce with the abundance of tourist restaurants catering to the variety of imported palettes. To be honest I did not have high expectations,  but looking forward to the experience none the less.

The class started with a pick up and meet at the Ubud market,  the same one we wandered through earlier. The guide gave us some pretty cool information about the fruit,  vegetables,  meat, and utensils all specific to Indonesian cooking. Our previous venture through the market was pretty fast as the choices and structure seemed overwhelming. It was nice to casually walk through the market and focus on soaking up information,  rather than just being careful where we were walking. Also we were told that if properly washed us outsiders could probably handle the market food,  save the meat. All meet for outsiders has to be handled under the guidelines we take for granted,  or we risk a case of Bali Belly. Though if you grow up eating the local meat your stomach becomes super human and immune.

Market food

And the fruit section. 

After the market tour we (15 or so participants) were shuttled to a nearby village, whose primary focus is rice production.  Once there Wayan explained to us how the typical Bali village and family was organized. How the one large fresh water stream at the top of the rice terrace was split to service the rice fields of the different families.

Wayan and his teaching. 

Parting of the stream. 

As a side note Bali had been under some form of Dutch control since 1846 all the way up until the early 1900's.  The wars with the Dutch did have a high cost for the Balinese. Without the Dutch though,  the Balinese people would not have learnt about proper irrigation, as well as structured government. Apparently the Balinese would fight amongst themselves for water prior to the occupation. Wayan was very thankful to the Dutch for this,  despite all the negative press that came with these benefits. Goes to show the character of the Balinese I guess.

Back in the rice fields more info was passed onto us specific to growing rice. About 68% of Bali was rice fields 10 years ago but has now been reduced to 58%. Because of this the government has protected most rice producing land from development. The Balinese eat rice at all 3 meals and rely on the sale of any surplus for their livelihood. A good portion of the rice fields are also privately owned. Passed down through the generations so each family has a reliable food source. Also interesting to mention is that the rice can be harvested 3 times a year,  with a 3 month break every 2 years.

Moving on from the rice fields we finally made it to the family compound where our class would be taking place. Each family lives together in their compound until the women are married off to go live with another family,  or you die. Wayan only had 4 members of his family,  but his next door neighbour had 55 people in their compound. 55 family members living and working under one roof,  some details of their culture are always going to be a mystery to me :)  Wayan went onto explain how all the different buildings in the compound are arranged and a bunch of other details that are a separate post on their own. One thing that did come across is that Wayan and his wife are very happy despite being married by accident (or as they called it a Balinese MBA). Having a kid out of wedlock is a big no-no in Bali if the woman is not married if the kid is born before the marriage is complete she will essentially be kicked out of the community - pretty harsh.  To be clear there are solutions that help keep the mother and child in the community,  this is just an extreme case. The Balinese are very family oriented and feel a strong responsibility for everyone in the community.

Welcome music. 

Puspa,  showing us the ropes. 

When we finally got our hands dirty with the cooking the group of us was responsible for the majority of the work. Wayan's wife,  Puspa,  was the ring leader and she had about 5 helpers running around guiding us,  cleaning up,  and taking care of the general details.

The cooking was well organized and fun to work through. It went on for a few hours with each member of the group taking on new and different tasks throughout the preparation of each dish. I started off deep frying,  and Christina was on knife duty.  I moved onto to chopping once the frying was done and after a hard few minutes Christina took a powder ;-)

All participants then had to take a go at the Bali Blender.  As the name suggests this process turned the chopped veggies and spices into our yellow curry sauce. Some say I was the best, but bragging about my skills with a giant wooden stick just doesn't seem right.

Right at home in the kitchen :-D 

Amazing skills

The intoxicating laugh. 

Lots of chopping and lots of mixing through out the class. We were able to take a small break with the clear mushroom soup before we finished with our mains. There were two separate tables in the compound to accommodate the class size.  Christina and I had a great time talking with the couples from NYC,  France,  and Australia. Though we particularly did not like the Aussies for the sole reason it was a cheap 2 hour flight to Bali for them at anytime of the year.  Bottled water was free the entire time and Bintang was a cheap 15,000 ($1.50).

After the mushroom soup more chopping and cooking followed to complete our mains.  Just shy of another hour we all sat down to reap the rewards of our labour.

The food did not last long as we we were all very hungry. A lot of the class enjoyed the deep fried tempeh coated in sweet soy sauce,  Christina included. Where as my favorite was the chicken with yellow curry and potatoes. No one really likes vegetables in any country,   but I heard no complaints :-P

The view from the table. 

The spread,  and a poacher. 

The class finished off with dessert - boiled bananas with jack fruit and coconut cream sauce.  Jack fruit is like crossing a mango with a pineapple,  sweet and tasty. Where boiled bananas tastes exactly how it sounds.

We paid upon leaving and collected a little pamphlet and the recipes for the class. We owed $70 for the two of us - great bargain by our standards - but Puspa was gracious enough to not charge us for the 4 Bintangs we drank. Free beer!  What a hostess!

We were then carted back to our hotel (pickup and drop off are all included in the price) where we found the pool quickly and lounged like beached whales with our well developed food babies.

All in all a great experience that I would recommend to anyone going to Bali to put on their list.  The only downside is finding Indonesian food of similar quality at any restaurant.  Most westerners know that is it usually the hole- in- the- wall restaurants that do home style cooking the best. Though searching for one of those in Bali is a challenge my normal human stomach will definitely start a mutiny over.