When all the
food had been cooked and laid out, Made’s mother reappeared with baskets full
of flowers and incense so as to make an offering before we ate. We were dressed in sarongs and then Made gave
us a very thorough explanation of the offering. Known as canang sari, each
offering includes a small portion of the food we had prepared for the day, some
flowers and decorations crafted from pandan leaves and three important
components being the dried betel leaf, ground betel nut and limestone. The betel leaf is coated with the grounded
paste of betel nut and limestone and folded into an arrow shape, this is then
place into the centre of the offering, and without this an offering is not
complete.
Once each canang
sari had been completed, we were invited to follow Mum to the temple, where
she visited each shrine individually placing the offerings, lighting incense
and purifying everything with water distributed by dunking a frangipani flower
in a bowl of water then flicking it from between two fingers. I love watching this ceremony, it is as if
the woman when making the offering goes into a trance, such is their
concentration and they are so calm, it is beautiful.
With the
offerings at the temple complete, Mrs Sang continued her way through the
complex to deliver the offering to the other places, Made then announce it was
time for us to eat and we were led back to the outdoors dining area. Once seated, the waitress offered us drinks,
and like music to my ears “Bintangs” was the hearty response and before you
know it a long cold glass with a beautiful head sat there waiting for me to
greet it, cheers!
1st
Course
JUKUT GEDANG
MEKUAH, Green papaya, mince chicken soup with crispy shallot.
No sooner we
wet our tonsils and the soup was brought to the table, I love this soup, it is
so simple, yet soooo tasty and made with the freshest of ingredients it truly
was YUM, the spiciness of the paste we made was awesome.
2nd
Course
IKAN BAKAR
SAMBAL MATAH, Pan seared yellow fin tuna, lemon grass, chilli, kaffir lime
This is the
salad dish I cooked the tuna for, again the vegetables and herbs were crispy fresh
and the tuna was so good, the green chillies in the dish gave it a wonderful
spicy finish, the salad was served on a crispy wafer a bit like a pappadum, the
whole dish was so delicious, my mouth is watering right now thinking about it, I
want so bad to go back and do this all over again!
3rd
Course
AYAM BAKAR
BUMBU BALI, BBQ marinated chicken in spicy coconut sauce
SATE TUSUK
AYAM, Marinated chicken breast with Balinese spices and peanut sauce
SAYUR PAKIS,
Fern tip salad, grated coconut, red bean with garlic chilli dressing
NASI SELA,
Sweet potato rice
SAMBAL ULEK,
Tomato and chilli sambal, served in homemade dishes crafted from Pandanus
leaves
WOW if we
did not know we were in Bali we knew it now, this was Bali on a plate, I tried
so hard to eat this slowly so it would last longer, every mouthful was
fantastic, the satays sauce was the best I have ever tasted and the tomato
sambal was to die for, it really was one of those meals you just never want to end,
it was the best. As we were tucking into
our main course, there was a little bit of commotion coming from outside of the
pavilion above us, we had been talking about snakes in the rice fields and as
if on cue a snake slivered its way towards us, with a couple of young lads with
pole trying to guide it away, it found its way into a drain hole and disappeared,
unfortunately the other end of the drain came out right beside our table, so
things were a little tense thereafter, more so for the ladies, they were not
happy at all.
Dessert
BUBUR INJIN
Black rice
porridge with coconut milk and palm sugar syrup, also served in dishes crafted
from Pandanus leaves
I was dead
sure I was not going to like this dessert, it did not appeal to me at all
looking at it, but I tried it and to my surprise I liked it, the flavour was
very nice and the rice had a really nice bite to eat that made it enjoyable to
eat.
Once we had
completed our meal, Made reappeared to present us all with a parting gift of a
bottle of their coconut oil and a recipe book with step by step instructions to
recreate the beautiful meal we had shared, it also had alternative ingredients
for the times when you cannot find the right ones, which has already proofed
very helpful.
 |
| The next generation of the Sang Family |
I could have
stayed there for the rest of our holiday, it was so nice, as were the people we
had met and spent our day with, but all good things come to an end and we were escorted back up them bug steps and ushered
into our ride home just as the rain started to come down, it did not dampen our
spirits though, we had had a great day, one that I rate as the best experience
I have had whilst travelling overseas, it really was that good, I cannot wait
to go back to Bali, I will be booking to do this again without doubt!
If you are going to Bali, book this day with them, you will not regret it even if you hate cooking, will still be the best day!
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