food glorious food

i was perfectly content not being in the kitchen anymore in this lifetime. it didn't interest me anymore. and so grateful that i could just buy such delicious spicy concoctions for a dollar everyday from some nice women that cooked well and sold their "wares" each day to the typical balinese housewives and workers, since it was good, cheap, fresh and quick. in general about every other store sells homemade food, just at different times and different styles.

there is the early morning warongs, from about 4:30 to 8, where all kinds of "sweets" made from coconut, rice or rice flour and palm sugar are sold for 10 cents. they come in all colors,shapes and sizes; light green, pink, black, brown, white, round, square, triangle, oblong, flat, big, small, and usually have some palm sugar drizzled over them, or some grated fresh coconut that you dip the sticky pieces into while eating them from the banana leaves or brown paper folded triangle that they are wrapped in. some are deep fried, some are steamed, some are warm, some are room temperature. and a cup of strong balinese coffee is drunk with them....i guess kind of like a cup of coffee with a doughnut by western standards.

the next type of warong opens around 8:30 until 11:00. here you find an array of cooked vegetables, soup/sauce, fish, sambal, chicken, pork, all spicy, and usually fried, but sometimes some are wrapped in banana leaf triangles or oblongs and they have been grilled or steamed. a heaping tablespoon of each of the above also costs about 10 cents, and is eaten with a large portion of white rice, the rice is the main dish, and these little spicy additions are for pleasure.

some warongs go on all day, and have the mornings pots just sitting there, room temperature, and you just sit down on the narrow wooden bench and get a plate with whatever you pointed at. gado gado, a tofu and peanut sauce combo, is made on the spot at some of these, by placing the raw ingredients on a mortar and pestel and mashing it around a bit, adding a few pieces of fried tofu and some bean sprouts, and walla....for 20 cents, you have a meal.

from around 2:00- 7:00 is another kind of warong that serves steamed little palm leaf packets of rice that are added to a fish soup or a peanut sauce, or sates; sticks with a grated coconut and ground fish, chicken, or pork mixture stuck on the end and grilled while you wait, on a narrow little mangal with an electric fan blowing nearby to keep the smoke out of your face and the flame going.

siesta time is between 11:00-1:00 so most places close down then, after having started their day at 7 in the morning if not earlier. builders take a break then and go home, and return again from 1:00 - 6:00. they are doused with coffee and sweets about every 2 hours by their employers in order to keep them happily building. the balinese seem to do a lot of eating...but most of them are quite thin or normal, without many overweight people around, but i think their life span is around 70. men die alot of heart problems, and women too. their diet is mainly white rice, white sugar, tapioca, chilis and coconut and coconut oil. they do not have ovens in their homes and either cook on open fires or use gas burners with a wok. most of the food is deep fried, some is steamed or grilled. children buy and are given candy all the time. nutrition does not seem to be a topic that is part of their common knowledge. some people have huge beautiful white teeth that they show with their huge smiles, or with their buck teeth, others, are toothless or have brown teeth; either for lack of hygiene or dental treatments.

so, the first couple of weeks i was mesmerized by the delicious tastes and concoctions. each day something new. my body seemed to be able to handle it all. it was a surprise, after having lived here for a year in a resort and ate mainly western food, never even thinking of going into any local spot. then i bought a rice cooker and started playing around with red rice, and black rice, and putting fresh curcum in my white rice which made it a lovely yellow and soft texture. the red rice reminded me a bit of the natural brown rice i had been eating for years now, and the black rice was a fun change, especially when i made black rice pudding from it.

then i met a balilnese yoga teacher while i was hooping on the beach. we spoke about alot of different topics, but one that he mentioned was " we are what we eat". i was always conscious of my food, but never really took it to that extreme that "we are what we eat". i began thinking about my food more, and decided to return to my healthier way of eating fresh fruit for breakfast and a salad for lunch with some protein, vegetables and rice for lunch. but where to find fresh produce? it turned out that the main place was at the market in the early morning hours. later in the day you can sometimes find a warong selling whatever fruit is in season, (at the moment mangos) but at a much higher price. so....i started going to the market.

since most people don't have refrigerators, they go each morning and buy just for that day. when i asked about prices and how to know (since nothing has a price on it) i was told i can just ask for 10 cents worth ("satu ribu") and it is acceptable. sometimes that buys 2 handfuls of mung bean sprouts, and sometimes it buys 10 white peppercorns. sometimes it buys 350 gr. of tofu, and sometimes it buys a small tomato. so i have been feeling my way around the two markets in the morning, which are within walking distance of each other, trying to find the kind vendors, the generous ones, and the honest ones, rather than the ones that are just laughing at "the tourist with the sarong" that has shown up in their village.

while i am living in the balinese household for this month i invited myself into the kitchen while the maid is preparing food for the owners each morning. i sit on a little stool, usually silent, and just watch what she is doing, she speaks english, and we are friends, but i think she assumes that each day i sit there i will again pay her the $1 tip i gave her on the first day, telling her "thank you for the cooking class!" (she makes $2 a day for a 10 hour day... they had generously invited me to join in on the prepared food instead of buying it. which i did for the first few days, until i sat in on the "cooking class" and saw how they things were being made, and what the ingredients were (that day i asked questions.) and ever since then it is becoming clearer and clearer to me that i need to prepare my own food made in a healthier more sanitary way.

so, being a lover of the little triangular steamed fish balls that i only manage to find about once a week at the warongs, i decided to try my hand at making them myself. also, after realizing that everything that was being made in the kitchen had been deep fried, delicious, but deep fried. i just couldn't put it into my body anymore. i needed some "more airy" type of food. so this morning, instead of just ignoring all the fishermans' wives that sit on the floor in the corner in the market with their tray of the early mornings catch, i stood there and looked. hmm...didn't know how to say the names in indonesian, and they didn't know english. eventually we figured out that the reddish fish that was there was tuna. i asked for my "10 cents" worth...and she looked a bit shocked...(i guess fish is more expensive....) so i upped it to 50 cents worth, saying "i am alone". and she cut me a piece that was the size of my palm. i thanked her and went on my way, finding a little box from the rubbish bin to put the smelly fish bag in so that my fresh flowers and tofu and carrots wouldn't all smell from fish!

after eating my papaya for breakfast (first the sexy black seeds which are great for digestion) and then the bright orange slices of nice healthy papaya, i was ready to tackle how to make the little steamed fish balls. i had seen ilut, the maid, making fish patties one day (deep fried) and figured i could try the same thing, just fold it up in the little banana leaf and steam it in my rice cooker. i tried to remember the ingredients she put on the mortar and pestel; chili, garlic, salt, fresh fish, and lots of freshly grated coconut. i added some shallots too. surprisingly enough it turned into a nice little paste that i then made little packets of in the banana leaves and put in the steamer of my rice maker for 20 minutes...

while i was waiting for them to be ready, i was reflecting on the miracle of me figuring out how to make balinese food for myself! and then i started to smell the little packets of fish steaming, and started to laugh, it was a vaguely familiar scent....ah yes...gefilte fish! just with some grated coconut instead of matzo meal! and sure enough, when i took them out after 20 minutes, i was eating little banana leaf wrapped gefilte fish, from tuna, made in my little rice maker....fun! and no Monosodium glutamate or coughing or undrinkable tap water used in it, but just fresh healthy ingredients made with love and fun.