Bali on a platter

Early morning by the beach at Nusa Dua

Place: BALI

Look out for the seafood. Smell the durian (you can’t miss it even if you try, as discovered later). Don’t miss the suckling pig (well, I for one had full intentions of doing exactly that). But of course, going to the land of the satays and nasi gorengs meant a lot of wishers were going to have vicarious advice. Well before the itinerary for the trip to Bali had been finalised, food was already high on the priority list.

For an Indian, a trip to Bali has an added attraction — spotting the Indian connection. Bali is full of temples of Wisnu (yes, that’s how Vishnu is spelt there) and tales of Ramayana. There’s Gayatri mantra as caller tunes. Delve deeper and you realise that just the names have remained — Hinduism here has taken forms that few from the subcontinent will recognise. Including its food.

A little deviation to the land that provides the food. Not to forget the sea, which contribute as much. Think of a large seaside mountainous natural park of lush tropical beauty and an entertainment resort put together. Add miles of colourful shops, and ubiquitous tourists. Sprinkle with raindrops and generally perfect weather. You conjured up Bali, ‘island of the gods’.

People of all shapes and sizes, from all corners of the world, look far more relaxed than they do at home. Straw hats waving, they are at the golden beaches and on idyllic cruises, climbing for views of rice terraces and hopefully active volcanoes, sipping Balinese coffee amidst frenzied shopping in bargain and luxury markets, even canyoning, parasailing, mangrove trekking… And like me, cooking! Yes, many tourists do that as well, given the extent of fresh raw food, all waiting for the cooked!!

We stayed at The Laguna Resort and Spa, part of what is probably the Vegas of Bali — Nusa Dua, a peninsula nestled in the south- east corner of the island. It is paradisical in its structured beauty of the multi-million dollar resorts, though not exactly authentic Bali as it was created on UN recommendation in the 1970s, to concentrate tourism in an area. We hadn’t reached in the best of tempers — our flight from India was delayed by three hours, had dinner shoved at us at 5 am-IST and body clock time, ran from arrival to departure at Bangkok’s swanky Suvarnabhumi Airport (the changeover destination, there are no direct flights to Bali from India yet) and our baggage failed to join us!. After some vigorous pidgin English-Bahasa explanations and gesticulating — it was agreed that we would let the baggage arrive before further negotiation.

Vegetable vendors at Bandung market in Denpasar, Bali

Shop to cook 
Well, the next morning, baggage retrieved in a late night sojourn to the airport, under the able guidance of Executive Chef, I Made Putra, we sallied forth to cook. Only to discover we had to buy the ingredients as everything had to be fresh, and we had to buy it.

Off we went to the Badung market, in capital Denpasar. We emerged an hour later — laden with vegetables and spices — some familiar, others exotic — including cassava, candle nuts — again, beware of the smell, galangal roots, shrimp paste and a lot of advice from the shopkeepers and other buyers… The seafood market could be smelt a considerable distance away — fish of many hues overshadowed by crustaceans, squids, octopuses, crabs, shrimps, lobsters, and many other unidentified creatures, some still alive. Seeing the Balinese go about their regular life, in which religion and culture are intertwined was worth wading through the slime!

Back to 5-star environs, washed, we set about putting things in order, right by the seaside! Like most of the region, the accent is on freshness, though perhaps Balinese cuisine uses more spices than all of the rest of south -east Asia. Not just is the use of galangal and lemon grass distinctive, combinations of cinnamon, coriander, shallons, kaffir lime, nutmeg, cardamom and turmeric flavour the recipes too. Most vegetables and fruits are tropical sized, ie huge, creating a novelty factor right from the time you see them. While regular food is rice with vegetables and seafood, festive fare is, well, indeed festive and elaborate. Warung, or local food stalls are everywhere, and despite apprehensions of hygiene, are usually fresh as there is no local provision or concept of storing food!

The condiments are ready to get into the fire

We started with sate lilit ikan, or Balinese minced fish satay with sweet soya and chili. In the name of cooking, all ingredients (see box, and pictures) were mixed together and grilled. Quick, healthy and scrumptious. After applauding ourselves, we moved to the ikan bumbu kare, stewed butter fish curry with steamed rice and vegetables. Just a little more elaborate, this involved creating a basic paste called bumbu wangen — a combination of about 10 ingredients grounded with a lot of fresh ingredients. We cut the beautiful bass we had just bought, in cubes. Cooking time was minimal, and again the result was lip smacking.

The dessert, called kolak, simmered fruits in palm sugar liquid, was less to our taste. Exhausted by our efforts, we voted to let others do the cooking for the rest of the trip. The cuisine justified its reputation, and though MacD beckoned with its huge “welcome home” billboards, we stuck to gado gado, steamed vegetables, all pale coloured usually, lawar, a sauce of minced vegetables, meats and spices, sambal, hot chilli paste, sometimes with shrimp on it and a lot of seafood, some of which took getting used to.

There are a lot for vegetarians in Bali, and for those so inclined, try exotic stuff such as nangka, young jackfruit or pakis, fern tips. Fruits abound, including finger bananas, mangosteens and durians. While you can ask your food to be tidak pedas, or not spicy, if you are the average spice-loving Indian, go for the real thing. You won’t regret it.