Two blogs in one night! Goodness!! I just have so much to talk about from the last couple of weeks, I want to get it all noted down before I start to forget everything.
On Thursday I did a Balinese Cooking Class at the Anika Guest House in Kuta, Bali and I cannot recommend it enough. It was such a fun day full of new discoveries and the most delicious food I came across in my whole trip.
We started the day off at the local markets in Kuta. I must admit they were quite confronting. I've explored food markets in other countries, in India where we had to cover our faces with a wet cloth to get through the Spice Section with out choking on the chilli and find my way through Morocco's dense medina's with camel heads and stinky dye baths. But the Bali market was not pretty or clean, it was really dark and cluttered, with rotting vegetables, old offerings and rubbish littering the uneven floor.
I didn't take any photos of the meat and seafood section because it was quite horrible. But aside from the mess and grime the people, as always, were lovely and accommodating letting us look at produce and ask questions. Our guide pointed out things we may never have seen before and gave us medicinal purposes for everything.
We then jumped back into the vans and went to the cooking school. Everything was already prepped and chopped (which was very lovely) all we had to do was absorb information about the ingredient combinations. Even then a lovely booklet was supplied detailing information on all the ingredients and recipes.
The recipes included:
- Balinese Beef Satay
- Grilled Fish in Banana Leaves
- Chicken Curry
- Water Spinach in Tomato Chilli Sambal
- Gado-Gado
- Nasi Goreng
- Tempe Curry
- Pickled Carrot and Cucumber Salad
- Fresh sambal
- Green Pancakes with Coconut
- Black Rice Pudding
It was fresh and delicious and extremely well organised. The head tutor Komang was happy, laughy and very knowledgeable. And his right hand lady, Nyoman, was amazing calm, collected and talented chef. I'm sure I'll be using the cooking book that they gave us for years to come.
I think the only criticism I had of the day was that it semi-outdoors and extremely hot. (But it could possibly have been even hotter if it was in doors). Just be prepared and have a breakfast before you go and keep hydrated, because you're standing in hot, hot, heat and don't really eat until 10-11am after a 6am start!
I will be looking at adapting some of these recipes soon and when I do I'll post the photos and recipes - I was going to post one of my favourite recipes that we did during the course, but it just didn't feel right to post something that's not my own.
If you're going to Bali, definitely check this out.
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