We love food and believe it behooves all of us to know a little bit more about it. Hope you enjoy these culinary tidbits. RICE, RICE EVERYWHERE  If you have been in Bali more than a day, you already know locals eat a lot of rice, which in its cooked state we call nasi. Rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, rice for dinner. What takes the monotony out of this? Side dishes and condiments, of course. Add it all up and you have the most common meal, Nasi Campur (pronounced “champoor”) which means mixed rice.
If you want your rice to go, ask for Nasi Bungkus. It’s the same meal, but it will be wrapped in either 1) a banana leaf, 2) a paper wrapper. Maybe you have guessed by now that bungkus means wrapper. When the same meal comes in a box, we call it Nasi Kotak. No surprise, kotak means box. Nasi Campur varies everywhere. At Kafe Batan Waru, we serve nasi sela, an old-fashioned preparation made by mixing steamed rice with diced sweet potato. Nasi sela was forced upon the Balinese as a cheaper alternative to white rice during the Dutch colonial occupation, but ironically it’s now quite popular-and even more costly than pure rice. Surrounding the nasi sela we serve sapi sisit, shredded beef dry-fried with chili, gerangasem, chicken stewed with freshly chopped spices, a vegetarian version of lawar (see below), pergedel jagung, a savory corn fritter, and crisp fried soybean cake known as tempe, or tempeh in English. Three different sambals, spicy chili condiments, and an addicting coconut condiment known as saur round out the meal. A vegetarian version adds some tofu in a chili sauce. –> Surrounding the nasi sela we serve organic chicken stewed in freshly ground spices, wild mountain fern tips with grated coconut and spices, sweet corn fritters, a crisp shrimp in rice batter, and lots of yummy condiments and sambals. A vegetarian version is also available.  After the popularity of nasi campur comes the runner up in popularity, nasi goreng, or fried rice. Nasi goreng is a good way to use up yesterday’s rice, whose dryness actually makes for superior results. It’s also quick, so lots of people make nasi goreng for breakfast. Bubur injin, known as black rice pudding, is another breakfast favorite, and very popluar with Westerners who often favor something a bit sweet for breakfast. It’s made with a delicious, very dark strain of rice.
SOTO AND SATÉ Many Indonesians love soto ayam in the morning, a delicious chicken broth redolent with garlic, turmeric, and ginger. (And guess what. They have it with rice on the side!) Our all natural version is popular not only with Indonesians, but Westerners who don’t have a tolerance for MSG.  Then there’s saté, skewered meat grilled over coconut shell charcoals. Most people think saté has to come with peanut sauce, but not true. Madurese saté, typically prepared from goat (kambing) or chicken (ayam), is indeed bathed in a smooth peanut sauce before serving, but once you get to Bali, you’ll find the indigenous saté babi, or pork saté, often rubbed with chili paste, grilled, and eaten with . . . you guessed, rice. Along the coast, Balinese pound fish, coconut, and spices together, wrap the concoction on bamboo or sugar cane, and call it saté ikan lilit.
Upcountry, the same preparation is made with pork or duck, and is not only food for ordinary mortals, but for religious offerings and other ceremonial purposes as well. These saté even appear on trays of food assembled for the express purpose of presenting to a neighbor or friend as part of a formal invitation to one’s family ceremony, such as a wedding or a tooth filing. The more saté on the tray, the more the inviter thinks of you! NOT A GOOD DAY TO BE A PIG During the Balinese holy days of Galungan and Kuningan, Balinese really love to eat meat, especially pork. In fact, in less prosperous times, a typical Balinese consumed the majority of his or her annual animal protein during these holidays. The day that precedes each of these holidays is called Penampahan, and this day marks the climax of food and religious offering preparations for the next day’s ceremony. On the morning of Penampahan, Balinese head to market before dawn to purchase enough food to last at least three days. Once home, Balinese prepare pork in a number of ingenious ways, the most famous of which is lawar. The ritual act of preparing lawar (and traditional saté, for that matter) holds such significance in Balinese culture that it is given its own word: mebat. This applies to its preparation not only in the home, but even in the village meeting house, or balai banjar. (While in Bali, look around the village meeting houses and you may see dozens of men assembled, collectively employing crude cleavers and cutting boards in a communal mebat.) Boiled young jackfruit, long beans, young papaya, and raw coconut are grated or finely chopped, then added to cooked minced pork. It takes a good hand to do the rest, mixing the above ingredients with perfect proportions of fried sliced garlic and sliced shallots, a paste of at least fifteen spices, friend shrimp paste, hot chilies, kaffir lime leaves and juice, and salt. And in defiance of all conventional food hygiene, some Balinese still add a generous dose of raw pig’s blood to redden the dish and add flavor. Trust us, it’s not necessary. On the morning of Penampahan, lawar is usually ready to eat by 7 or 8 a.m., and it is consumed immediately before the ingredients sour. Believe it or not, it’s not the meat that sours first. It’s the coconut.  Stomachs full, Balinese then begin making the other pork preparations, including babi kecap (a pork stew) and tum babi, little dumplings of minced pork and spices wrapped and steamed in banana leaves. And ever-economical and practical, Balinese prolong the shelf life of lawar-if there are indeed any leftovers-by wrapping it into dumplings and steaming it along with the tum babi.
Yet another famous Balinese pork dish is the famed Babi Guling, a spit-roasted whole pig stuffed with a delicious mix of herbs and spices. Baby babi guling can often be seen as the centerpiece of religious offerings, left there just long enough to satisfy the deities, and then eagerly seized and sliced up to serve the pious. Balinese prize the golden skin, so crisp you can snap it in two. Again, many make their fortunes selling babi guling strictly for human consumption. You’ll see food stalls all over the island selling it, or you can order it in advance at Kafe Batan Waru. NOT A GOOD DAY TO BE A DUCK EITHER Ducks also meet their demise during the holidays. You should not leave the island without trying bebek tutu, Balinese smoked duck. Traditionally, it’s a dish a Balinese would only prepare for a ceremony since it involves at least six hours of ingredient preparation, and as many hours again to smoke in a mound of rice husks. Many Balinese now supplement their livings by supplying smoked ducks to the big hotels, most of which don’t want the smoke disturbing their guests. Kafe Batan Waru can provide you with this specialty given a day’s advance notice. Speaking of ducks, since they feed in the rice paddies on worms and insects, they themselves are considered to have a pure diet and their meat is suitable to be consumed by the Balinese Hindu priests. It’s useful to know that lawar and tum can also both be prepared with rice field feeding duck if you have to feed a priest. |
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