Food

When I came to bali and felt attracted to something in the simplicity and happiness of the people here, I decided I wanted to find out what makes them tick. What is it in their daily life that is so different from the way I live, that enables this? I figured that the best way to figure it out was to do what they do and see what it awakens in me. So I began to dress like them, and pray like them and cook like them, speak like them, shop like them, sleep like them, and prepare offerings like them, and observed what it awakened in me.

For a while now I knew that the next experiment would be to eat like them. It would mean I have to let go of my "protein, carbohydrate mentality" and just eat like them. So today was the day. I had bought some fresh fish at the market, (50 cents for more fish than I could eat). When I sat down with my bowl of green beans and white rice and sambal and the fish, I realized that the food I ingest at my one main meal a day is enough for them to feed a family. I eat the rice just to accompany the spicy sambal, and because it is the foundation of their diet and it does fill me up, but not because I really want it. For me it is still associated with being overweight. Here is isn't.  

As I ate fingerful after fingerful of the spicy fish and realized that it was more than enough for me, I figured now is my chance. Let's see what it feels like to eat like them and have a meal with 9/10 rice and 1/10 vegetable and protein. I took a smidgen of the fish, and mashed it together with about five times worth of rice, and plopped it in my mouth. As I chewed it I laughed inside myself. Ha! They are eating a rice "sandwhich"!  I could finally understand why the kids eyes would open so wide and their mouths would drop whenever we ate together and they would see that I was not eating any rice, just the fish, or the sambal, or the vegetables. They would ask in disbelief if I am eating without rice?! And I would say, yes, I prefer just the fish. Which in our western culture would be translated as someone just eating lots of peanut butter and jelly, without any bread.

But as I continued my experiment I realized that that little smidgen of fish or tofu or tempeh, gives just the hit of interest to the plain white rice. Just like two big slices of hallah bread with a little mustard and a slice or two of pastrami, is a meal. Just like the big hamburger bun with a hamburger inside is a meal. So their big bowl of rice with a little bit of fish, is their meal. I hadn't had a hamburger in a bun for about 40 years and tried one a few months ago by the recommendation of my kids. When they asked me how I like it, I said it is hard for me to taste the hamburger since there is so much bun! My son-in-law laughed and said that it is only because I haven't had a bun in 40 years that it overpowers the taste of the hamburger. So I realize it is the same for the Balinese. When the foundation of their diet is rice, that little bit of protein is enough to satisfy their taste buds. They don't need half a cow to do it. Or a whole fish. 

The other thing I sensed was that it is very humbling to eat mainly rice and a bit of something with it. It is not only because of the cost of food that people still need to base their meals on rice which is relatively inexpensive. I sensed that this whole time that I have been eating my big serving of fish, or tofu or whatever, and just a bit of rice, it was filling and egoistic place inside of me; 'I want fish" "I like tofu",etc.  As soon as plain white unsalted rice becomes the foundation, it is more of an "experience" rather than filling my stomach up with enough protein to keep me going strong until tomorrow. They have fine tuned into food and with just a little bit, they satisfy their hunger, many times a day. I can eat a half of a big papaya for my breakfast, whereas they eat one slice.

Other than experiencing how humbling it was to turn the focus of my protein based diet around and to have the carbohydrate (rice) as my base, I realized that much love and caring is expressed by way of food. More so than by way of words. More so than by way of touch. I return from the sea, and find a fresh coconut cut open at the tip with a straw in it in the refrigerator awaiting me…a sign that they care about me…have climbed the tree, hacked at the coconut (not an easy task) and refrigerated it since they know I like it cool. The sister-in-law comes to visit on the weekend and brings special rice cakes and treats from a village along the way, which is the only place that makes them. She is showing me that she cares.  The patient gives the doctor, my landlord, some homemade rice treats along with the payment,  The 15 year old picks up a cold drink made from jello, avocado, jackfruit, snake fruit, seaweed, chocolate milk, and tons of ice, and poured into a plastic bag,  for each of us on her way back from school on a hot day. The list is endless. Each day brings new treats that are shared with the family, together time, pleasure from special snacks and sweets bought by one of them each day. when i shared with the 15 year old my understanding, she smiled and shyly said "the balinese try to experience a balance of tastes when they eat." ah,., balance!

The rambutan fruit in the orchard on the grounds is almost ripe. This year the bats have started to invade the orchard to eat the ripe fruit every night. Ketut hunts them down each evening, and as a result has been bringing his father up to 20 bats a day to skin and his mother cooks them up for a few meals and to share with friends that believe it helps their asthma to eat it. The village has a unique rhythm to it as far as the fast take away food that most eat, is concerned. Depending on what time of day it is, that is the type of food that someone is serving from their simple food cart in front of their house, or a small stand. For under a dollar they can feed the family with either soup and meatballs, or sate and rice, or fried rice, etc. Everyone eats a little bit. The dog eats along with them and also gets the leftovers, since there is no such thing as dog food, and everyone has a dog.  This morning, as I sat eating my daily morning meal of fresh papaya,  I discovered that our little Chihuahua dog likes papaya too, in addition to all the other fruits we feed him…..