Back to the kitchen, I smell somethin burnin

She said:

Woman, get back in the kitchen! You would not believe it, today, even while on vacay, I have slaved away in the kitchen all day. Josh and I rose in Ubud, the cultural center of Bali, ate a hearty breakfast and headed off to learn to cook traditional Balinese food for our own lunch.

We met Desak, a friendly restaurant owner and mother of three, who took us to the busy marketplace to teach us about the spices and traditional foods of Bali. We weaved through the various stands and saw exotic fruits, dried fish, heaps of herbs and spices. But that was the easy part, as we get deeper into the market, I tiptoe over muddy piles swirling with dead fish ooze and blood from the chickens being slaughtered around the corner. The stench seemed to cling to my nostrils as I stayed relatively positive while averting my eyes from anything that might make my tummy flipflop. After that true test of traveling heroism, we finally headed back to the restaurant to make the food.

And OH WAS IT WORTH IT! Desak gave us knives to chop, slice and dice fresh ingredients and toss them together in a wok bubbling with coconut oil. We hand made the Saffron and Balinese sauces as we ground all the ingredients on mortar and pestal. Then onto chicken satay with coconut, pepas- tuna and seasonings wrapped in a banana leaf and grilled, long beans and even dessert which was a crepe filled with palm sugar caramel and coconut. (We had to grind all the coconut by hand on a board with spikes on it, no pre-packaged here, my arm still hurts!) When we finally all sat down to the delicious meal, the shock of the market place faded and all I could think of was the sensations in my mouth. (He said: that's what she said... haha)

With full bellies, the day could only be complete with more tradition. I got to sit down with Desak and help her make traditional Balinese offerings out of palm leaves for her and her family to offer to God. It was a day filled with hard work and humility.

He said:

Shannon forgot a couple things; one we were buying some peanut paste to take back to the states and we saw a rat run through some peppers which was definitly gag-inducing. AND we ate MANGOSTINE!!!! Which if you have no idea what it is, it's one of the worlds healthiest fruits and you can only get it in south east Asia. Since it is supposed to have medicial powers I rubbed it on my bugs bites and they haven't itched since, F U western medicine. And Shannon was right, there were def. moments that I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but then it was taken away by amazing smells of the ripe fruits and fragrant spices.

The cooking class was awesome. We got to learn how to cook the soup that we ate on the beach a day earlier. If you live in Chicago we will def. be having a Baliaense dinner party (sorry Cali. And Colby your taste buds couldn't handle the flavors, you would for sure cry).

We spent the rest of the day on our porch drawing and taking photos as it poured rain, then fell asleep to the croaking frogs and singing of crickets.

Oh yea, and food update, we just ate, I am sorry to say... pizza. Yes folks, she broke me. I ate pizza and it was good. But those of you following my eating challenges, don't worry, after this I am going to eat second dinner and have some Mie Jawa (Javanese style fried noodles) yummmmm. Ok peace out, or should I say Salama Dedat (good night)!