My New roommate

Another day of cooking lessons. I learned more traditional food, like Lawar, Bumbu Kuning which I previously learned at Waka di Ume but it is nice to see how recipe varies and she insist, the right combination is very important, the other recipe I previously did, had more turmeric , she insist many people know the composition but few know the appropriate proportions like garlic and shallot should always be 1-3 (one garlic bud for 3 shallots) Here, garlic is less pungent so you can use more than our garlic. Once you have the Bumbu Kuning preprared, you can used it to make a wide range of dishes. The basic sauce will keep up to 3-5 days and longer if you don’t had the shrimp paste. Once we have our basic sauce we prepapred the Lawar(cold salad of ground chicken, long beans, coconut), Bakwan Jagung (corn fritters and the tastiest I ever had)Pepes Ikan (Grilled fish in Banana leaves) Satay Lilit (chicken skewer on lemongrass stick). Also learned, the Tempe Manis (Tempeh with soya sauce). All the dishes were delicious and my favorite one was the grilled fish in Banana leaves, it was so good if you closed you eyes and didn’t know it was fish you would say, it’s chicken. She gave some important tips about cooking fish. Never use garlic when cooking fish, garlic will make the dish taste fishier, always cook fish with ginger, ginger removes the fishy taste and smell and it really does. She also mention that here, if someone is allergic to prawns (they always call shrimp, prawns here), before consumption of prawns if you drink the water of a yellow coconut you will be fine. She brought me the two books of the Dharma Caruban which is a reference on how and why to prepare the offering food. Off course, they eat also the food prepared for offerings, it is fascinating to see the logic behind each ingredients and dish. For example, food for offering must always have a dry(Satay Lilit), moist(Lawar), wet(Jukut Ares) dish. The five key ingredients of Balinese food represent the five sons of the Dharma Wangsa(God) which he had with 5 different wifes, in order to keep peace and harmony between the five sons from different mothers, Kafir Lime is always included as it is acts as an amalgam. Each son represents a symbol. Bigamy is not practice in Bali but in many parts of Indonesia, bigamy prevails. She explained, the religion in Bali is unique to Bali only, when Hindu came to Bali, Balinese had already some form of religion and incorporated both of them, which elucidate why their religion is so intricate.
1-Shallot and Garlic (Yudistira), 2- Greater Galanga Bima),3-Turmeric (Arjuna),4-Lesser galangal (Sahadewa), 5-Ginger (Nakula). Kafir lime is for the wife Drupadi who is wife number one and to keep harmony among the brothers. It is quite fascinating and I am starting to understand why each family has many different holly book, as one contains the medicinal recipes, one contains all the rules of their religion, and one seem to contain the history of the family. These books are always kept in their little temples (each compound has a Temple). For rituals of their Hindu calendar they attend ceremonies at the Big Temple. Everything here happens twice as the calendar is divided in six months, so they have two Christmas, which is not the commercial one we have, but one that you go see family and bring offering. No gifts are exchange, gifts are only given on birthdays. New Year is only once a year.
After the class, my driver took me to the Supermarket, to purchase some Traditional Balinese ingredients. I did not find all of them, here Balinese shop at the market, rarely at the supermarket. I was surprised of the size of the supermarket, bigger than I had imagined. I guess for them, it’s the equivalent of our Wal-Mart’s. From pots and pans, make-up and prepared food like chicken broth. The typical ingredients and fresh vegetables and fruits are purchase at the market. The refrigerate section is different; refrigeration is all in one big room. If you look for milk, vegetables, fruits, ice cream, it’s all in that big room.I was surprised to find a nice bottle of red wine from a Balinese vineyard. A nice and light red wine, perfect for this climate. `
Last night was another big ceremony, the biggest since I have been here. The big Temple is on the other side of the river bank from our hotel. After I had diner, I came back for a mandatory change of clothes and a cold shower as I had to walk back since the shuttle could not make it back due to the high volume of traffic. The amount of people expected is near a million, all coming at different time to the Temple until the little wee hours of the morning. The notice we received at the hotel the previous night, was a legitimate one! At 1:30am a procession of drums and bells following but a crowd having the time of their life, laughing and cheering came roaring down the path just beside my room. At first I taught I was having a dream, as the noise came louder and louder I realize it wasn’t a dream. I was deep asleep and couldn’t go out to watch, beside the point, I would off have to cover myself with clothes , being sleepy and in the darkness I chose to just listen. I was wondering if it had scared the living life of my new roommate! When I return from my cooking class, a tiny slender cat, and I might add, not the best looking cat, was sitting comfortably in my chair just like it was his place. When I approach he saw me and greeted me with a franctic starving meowing and behave has we known each other all our lives, rubbing his frail body around my legs.! I tried to feed him some almond milk, starving but fussy, he did not dare to taste it. I called room service to offer my visitor a good meal and ask for a can of tuna. You can imagine the surprise of the lady answering the phone, she repeated, tuna in a can only? Yes please. I thought it was taking an awful long time for a can of tuna, after awhile, a lady came with a beautiful plate of Tuna Steak with rice and vegetables. She saw my face and asked me if this was, what I ordered, I told her I wanted just Tuna nothing else than she pointed to the cat and I said yes, and the usual, I am sorry, she said no problem, came back almost instantaneously with tuna in a small dish. I asked her where was the bill to sign, she said no it’s ok. I insisted she kept saying no it’s ok. I remember Hani explained something to me about the cat and dogs here. I will need to find out some more in order to find out if this is seem as a good thing or a bad thing that I have a cat?! She said here if you hit a dog and kill it(by accident off course) it’s ok to leave it there (road kill) but if you kill a cat, no one would dare to leave it there. They would have to pick it up and buried the cat. It has something to do with reincarnation.
I left Bambu on the balcony and went to the Temple, it was special, the atmosphere loaded with energy, it was very powerful and joyful. I took lots of a nice photos. A group of young teenagers, all boys, saw me and clap as I approach, obviously proud to be the subject of my photo. They had a great time, laughing and cheering! I took a lot of pictures. I was told more and more Japanese girls are getting married to Balinese, and tonight I saw it was true, they came down with their husband or boyfriend, dressed in the Balinese traditional costume, which is so beautiful and went to the Temple. Apparently, they have the ability to learn the language very fast and I can see why. In a way it is similar, at least the way they pronounce word, is, more accurate I should say, words they don’t pronounced! Here’s an example why I had difficulties understand Hani, who has a very good English. The word in bracket is the word I would think she was saying;
Shallot(Salam), Off(up), Sauce(Sour),Pinch of salt(Pinosal), Shower(Sour). Hundreads off people kept flowing into the Temple, lots of vendors were selling Satay . One man had converted is scooter into a portable clever B.B.Q. I couldn’t believe it, from his makeshift B.B.Q he was selling corn on the cob, I was so tempted to have good organic corn, almost certainly not MGO here, as back home all corn are now control by giants that use only, modified seeds and highly sprayed crop. But they don’t eat it with butter and salt like we do, or mayonnaise , cheese and lime like the Mexicans do,but with some hot and spicy sauce. I saw a lot of foreigners going to the Temple, they are obviously residents of Bali now, who most likely have adhere to the religion as they had the full gear, even the cute little hat, Balinese always wear. The only difference is that theirs is an already formed hat, unlike the Balinese who use something like a scarf (thick material) and have a way to wrap it around their heads, which looks so much better than the pre-formed one. I did not enter the Temple, as a huge line up was forming, and felt rather uncomfortable being in that crowd all alone, if I had someone I would off entered. After a few photos, I went back. Bambu, as I named him, was still on his chair waiting for me. Doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere…
I went to bed, leaving Bambu outside, even if he clearly wanted to sleep inside, meowing at my door. The last thing I need is an infestation of fleas in my clothes and bed! When I woke, shortly after Bambu came in the room, this time not through the door, but through the window. We had walk along the ridges of the roof of the balcony and decided to wake me up! I keep my windows open at all time, there’s no such thing here as a screen window, so geckos and crawlers came come in, you just have to get use to it. Geckos are good, they stay on the perimeter of the room, so they will never go on your bed, but on the floor underneath your bed! They eat all the little insects that crawled around, and it seems like they like to warned you of their presence by making a noise similar to squirls. Here not only my windows are open but my door.If anyone would break in my room, it would be a foreigner not a Balinese. As I was completing this blog, the lady who brought me my coffee this morning, said “cat” and she said, good, cat. So I asked her and she said, cat is good. So, I guess Bambu can stay has as long as he wants, I don’t think any of the staff will chase him away. And he has made himself at home, as I am writing on my usual chair on the balcony he decided to find one too, the one in my bedroom! He liked the Bali milk used for my coffee. My sister would love him, as he is a calico cat but with the face of a Siamese, quite different from my cute pussy, with a fluffy round face that awaits for me, back home!
I guess the gods have a way to keep providing here, as I did feel a little lonely, I am not used to be by myself this long, and I miss the presence of the people that are dear to me. So they sent me Bambu, I must mention another funny thing happen, I received an e-mail from Western Union saying there is money being sent to me, to present myself with the control number at the nearest location. I thought this was strange, I didn’t ask anyone to send me money. I had e-mail my daughter, but I still didn’t receive a reply, so I went to one of their branch, gave the lady the control number and she said I needed it to fill a form, which requires the name of the sender, she said I need to know who is the sender. I told her my story and she said it was strange.I left the building with feeling her look, probably thinking I was just a crazy tiurist! I came back the day, with my computer to show her the e-mail, she was baffled to, she said it was the real thing, the e-mail is exactly one someone would received if money was being transfer, the number had the right amount of numbers but was invalid. Now, she believed me, that I did not know the sender. She laughs with me, and she said, sorry, this is very strange!Back in my taxi, Dewa and I laugh some more, thinking, the gods are trying to send me money! Dewa did not believed I had won the contest the next day after the ceremony, I had to show him the e-mail! I cannot help to think, what’s next?