I haven’t had a whole lot of experience with eating Balinese or Indonesian food, much less cooking it. When Ben and I travel, we try to take a local cooking class if we can, and the timing/pricing is right. Luckily, we were able to find one while we were staying in Ubud. We booked ours via Klook, which connected us with Subak Cooking Class. There was some miscommunication on the transport because they confirmed they could pick us up from our hotel. But about a week prior, they said our hotel was outside of the pick-up range. We ended up extending our half day driver to the full day and meeting the rest of the class at the local market. Aside from the blunder, the guide will take you through the Pasar Tampaksiring Market and explain the local produce. He showed us (and let us try) something called snake fruit, which was actually something we saw back at our hotel but we had no idea how to eat it. It turns out, you just peel it, and it tastes kind of like a cross between a lychee and an apple.
From there, we headed to the guide’s family’s rice field and he explained that the Balinese wake up at 5 AM everyday to go to the market. They buy ingredients in order to cook food to last throughout the three meals of the day, since most homes do not have refrigerators. After that, we headed to the cooking school. We got to make 10 different dishes and the class shared everything, family-style. A lot of the flavor profiles are similar to those of Thai cooking, since both use a lot of similar ingredients, like chilis, garlic, shallot, galangal, lemongrass, and lime. Chicken seems to be the protein of choice. Here is everything we made:
- Base gede – Balinese paste, similar to a curry paste, that’s made with chilis, garlic, ginger, and shallots as the main ingredients. You mash it all together with a mortar and pestle
- Tempe manis – sweet fried tempe using kecap manis, which is a sweet soy sauce
- Sambal kacang – peanut sauce
- Sambal matah – raw spice, made with shallots, garlic, chilis, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, lime, and shrimp paste
- Mee goreng – fried noodles
- Lawar Bali – Balinese mix salad made with long beans, grated coconut, and minced chicken
- Ayam bumbu Bali – Balinese fried chicken, but not fried as in Colonel Sanders fried – more like a stir-fry
- Pepes ayam – minced chicken with lemongrass and coconut, steamed in banana leaves, then grilled
- Sate lilit – Balinese chicken satay
- Klepon cake – made with glutinous rice flour and pandan; reminded me of mochi
It was a LONG class, which took half the day but overall, it was worth it. We got the chance to cook and eat dishes we’ve never even heard of, and share a meal with people from all over the world.
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