AmyHuang
Bali - Cuisine
I love food, all kinds of food. Everytime I go somewhere besides sightseeing and learning the cultures I would try as much of the local cuisine as possible.
And when I was in Bali earlier this year I thought to myself - when it comes to cuisine experiences, what could be better than actually learning how to cook the local dishes?
So I signed up for a cooking class. First thing in the morning after being picked up at my hotel, we were taken to the local markets to learn the different herbs and spices that are used in Balinese cooking. The smell of pandan leaf and other mixture of different herbs not available in Australia filled the air as we zigzagged between the crowds to identify what we needed for the day.
I have never been that much of a cook at home. Will does most of the cooking and I do occassionally come up with some surprisingly good dishes. However while our cooking mainly revolves around the basic seasoning ingredients such as salt, vinegar and italian mixed herbs, there was so many variety of root spice and other types of seasoning I was never aware of until this day.
Did you know there are at least 5 different types of ginger? And that they all have different smell and taste and are used for different purposes? Did you know that instead of using just normal sugar, palm sugar is another way of making such natural delicious syrup that once you've tasted it, you'll never go back to normal syrups again?
Back in the class room, although many of the ingredients were already assembled and cut up, we were still made to do the most labourious work of all - grinding the spices.
We were taught that most Balinese cuisine uses the same spice mixture as base seasoning, and this mixture is ground by hand daily on a slab of stone and its little grinder. Much like the bowls you smash up garlic and herbs with, but a lot larger. "You are only finished when you cannot tell what is in the mixture no more!" said our teacher. It was hardwork, but the aroma that was created made me work harder, as I knew the real cooking was to come.
In the two hours we learnt quite a few dishes, including fish curry, some type of fern salad, spicy shredded beef, chicken satay (the best satay ever, without any of that yukky peanut sauce taste!), nasi goreng and fragrant yellow rice.
The best thing was that we got to have our creation for lunch. I couldn't have asked for a better cuisine experience. I think I am going to try a cooking class everywhere I go now!
And when I was in Bali earlier this year I thought to myself - when it comes to cuisine experiences, what could be better than actually learning how to cook the local dishes?
So I signed up for a cooking class. First thing in the morning after being picked up at my hotel, we were taken to the local markets to learn the different herbs and spices that are used in Balinese cooking. The smell of pandan leaf and other mixture of different herbs not available in Australia filled the air as we zigzagged between the crowds to identify what we needed for the day.
I have never been that much of a cook at home. Will does most of the cooking and I do occassionally come up with some surprisingly good dishes. However while our cooking mainly revolves around the basic seasoning ingredients such as salt, vinegar and italian mixed herbs, there was so many variety of root spice and other types of seasoning I was never aware of until this day.
Did you know there are at least 5 different types of ginger? And that they all have different smell and taste and are used for different purposes? Did you know that instead of using just normal sugar, palm sugar is another way of making such natural delicious syrup that once you've tasted it, you'll never go back to normal syrups again?
Back in the class room, although many of the ingredients were already assembled and cut up, we were still made to do the most labourious work of all - grinding the spices.
Grinding our base spices together was hard work, but well worth it in the end!
We were taught that most Balinese cuisine uses the same spice mixture as base seasoning, and this mixture is ground by hand daily on a slab of stone and its little grinder. Much like the bowls you smash up garlic and herbs with, but a lot larger. "You are only finished when you cannot tell what is in the mixture no more!" said our teacher. It was hardwork, but the aroma that was created made me work harder, as I knew the real cooking was to come.
In the two hours we learnt quite a few dishes, including fish curry, some type of fern salad, spicy shredded beef, chicken satay (the best satay ever, without any of that yukky peanut sauce taste!), nasi goreng and fragrant yellow rice.
Our (ok, our teacher's) creation! Lunch time!
The best thing was that we got to have our creation for lunch. I couldn't have asked for a better cuisine experience. I think I am going to try a cooking class everywhere I go now!
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