Balinese Cooking Class

For those of you that know me well, I am not shy of any food and will try everything. I also like cooking and entertaining with family and friends. I have mostly stayed true to Balinese dishes since I got here and that provided a good grounding for what I did in Sayan on our third full day up in the mountains.

Yesterday, I attended a Balinese Cooking Class, with one of the hotel's senior Sous Chefs. Budiarto (he has only one name) was born in Indonesia and went to a 3-year technical school in Jakarta before becoming a Sous Chef for the Four Seasons hotel chain. Prior to his posting in Bali, Budiarto was posted at the Four Seasons at Park Lane in London and the Four Seasons in Jakarta. He commutes to Sayan from a town about 30 minutes away, on his 110cc Honda. He is married and has two daughters, a 14 year old who lives with her grandmother in Jakarta and goes to Junior High School there and a 10-year old who lives with him and his wife here in Bali and attends a nearby International School.

Budiarto in his kitchen at the Four Seasons Sayan

Mrs. Gym was still recovering from the Balinese beating she took the other day, so she stayed home but at 8 A.M., I trudged up the hill to the meeting place in the lobby and was shocked to learn that I was the only student today.  I had the chef all to myself which was a real nice bonus.

The day started with a trip into Ubud, to the central market which is a seedy, uninsulated, multi-story, concrete structure that would fail all the codes in Calgary. But the locals all buy their groceries at this market and they buy them in the morning, when prices are best. Budiarto informed me that prices go up as the day goes on because the ratio of tourists to locals goes up too. So if you want to shop at the local market, you should go early to get your best deals and the freshest ingredients. If I can add my own advice to those that are reading this blog, go to this market to buy fresh local vanilla and saffron which are very cheap here. It was great having Budiarto along to explain what we were observing and I think he found examples of everything we were going to use at the hotel later that day. He was also able to show me what an ingredient looked like before it is cleaned up and prepped in his kitchen.

Budiarto in street clothes at the market in Ubud

descending into the lower level

chili vendor

making satay for breakfast

fresh duck eggs

the interesting one here is the crocodile skinned, bitter melon in the right hand basket

colourful display

long beans, lemongrass and cucumbers under the Bali carrot

Beans and rices

live eels in the bucket

The other thing that we saw at the market, was just how much food and other resources are used up to make banana leaf baskets of produce and flowers for religious offerings. These offerings are a daily outlay of capital by every Balinese Hindu family. The daily offering packages which contain flowers, expensive bits of fruit and other foodstuffs, are left at entranceways to buildings, family shrines and community temples throughout Bali. Many of the people employed at the market owe their employment to these rituals.

As an aside and since we had time, Budiarto also took me across the street from the market for a special tour of the courtyard, of the sprawling home, of the King of Ubud. As it turns out, Budiarto works-out with the king's son, at the gym, three days a week. Budiarto told me that that son is currently enrolled in some kind of top notch culinary school in Switzerland, so these two guys have some things in common. Budiarto also informed me that the King of Ubud is very well off and not just because he is royalty, he owns many nearby businesses, including a couple of resorts. Not to long after our tour of the King's place, the hotel car swung around and picked us up again for the ride back to the hotel.

Budiarto showing me the King of Ubud's compound across the street from the market

yellow bamboo by the gate to ward off evil spirits

King's guest reception area

family temple

At 11 A.M we got busy in the hotel kitchen. He showed me the area that  the line-cooks call home, the areas for hot and cold preparation, the bakery and the dessert fridge, where they happened to be making coconut ice cream (very nice). Budiarto introduced me to the kitchen staff and his boss the Executive Chef. Then he tied a green Four Season's apron around me and we got to work.

The boss

making Balinese Spice Mix

looking past the cold prep to the hot prep area

I have learned from my consumption of Balinese food and from the cooking class, that Balinese cuisine is all about the spice pastes. It is used to enhance all meats, as well as certain cooked salads and salsas. The real deal uses freshly chopped ingredients, not powdered and packaged spices. I have never seen a tumeric root before or used kencur - a form of ginger root that has a very strong and rich flavour. It is also interesting to note that the Balinese wrap almost everything in leaves such as banana leaves, tumeric leaves, starfruit leaves, pandan leaves, teak leaves and others. Under Budiarto's guidance, I whipped together Ayum Betutu (chicken in banana leaf with Balinese thousand spice), Sate Lilit (Balinese beef satay), Ikan Panggang Sambal Matah (tuna steak with lemon grass and shallot salsa) and Lawar Kacang Panjang (long beans with toasted coconut, Bali lime, hot chili and crispy shallot). I then got him to package it up with some rice and coconut ice cream and send it to our room. I said goodbye to Budiarto clutching a bag full of parting gifts, including the apron and the recipes to the above delicacies and more. The chicken was to die for and we both enjoyed the meal and the leftovers. And by the way Chris, the executive Chef said he would take on a good Canadian apprentice anytime.

Mrs. Gym about to try some of Gym's Balinese (she survived)

As I finish this entry, Mrs. Gym and I have sadly left the Four Seasons at Sayan. But don't fret cause - Yo, our new CRIB is Phat, bitches!

More on the new digs later. For now, I will just say it is hotter here, too hot for a Irishman with not a single molecule of melanin in his skin. But I ain't complaining because I know what it's like at home.

Cheers, Calgary!

Brenda and Roland, we thought about you when I had a G & T this afternoon.

Bye for now.

P.S. We never had any more snakes in our room after that first night in Sayan.