Bali Day 2 - Wandering the streets of Seminyak

Once again I was up early and had a leisurely breakfast. Once again I succumbed to the Omelet so I definitely needed some exercise to work it off.
I decided to take a walk and try to find some accommodation options for a future trip. I intend to re-visit the Seminyak area of Bali next year as part of a group. The party girl has already nominated times and places. The accommodation selected is a bit pricey for a single person. It is certainly OK for couples wanting a splurge. So part of my tasks while here was to look nearby for alternates that better suited my budget.
I wandered along my chosen path and got tempted by a massage along the way. My Masseuse was quite insistent that I should be having 2 massages, one to be conducted later in the evening in the privacy of my hotel suite. I declined the offer, much to her disappointment. A nice hour long massage is not a bad way to start the day however.
A little further along I then got tempted by a Barista and had a nice coffee in one of the cafe's that I passed. I felt very relaxed by this stage.
By the time that I got to the area to search for accommodation the day had warmed up and the thought of imminent dehydration was beginning to concern me. However I held off from having a beer and did some door knocking in the area. This part of Seminyak is just off the main road and has several private (and expensive villas). A little bit far from the beach, so it does not attract the beach crowd, but close enough if and when you want to get there. As it was I ended up back very close to Vivai restaurant the scene of yesterdays Cooking class. This was a fortunate coincidence not so much planning or design.
By the time that I had inquired at a few places, it was hot and basically lunch time. I popped into Zappaz Bar and Restaurant and had a couple of beers. Having a paying customer in the place seemed to be all a bit difficult for the staff, who were more interested in chatting to their friends, so I moved on. A nearby restaurant in the same complex as Vivai caught my eye and I settled into a chair and a Mojito and a very nice Nasi Campum (they insisted it was Campum not Campur) for lunch. This variant had Beef Rendang as the meat and was very tasty. Washed down with another beer also after the Mojito.

Nasi Campum - delicious

 After that I wandered back to my hotel and had a late afternoon swim in the hotel pool. The water was very cool and not very pleasurable.
That evening I had booked at Vivai for their Spit Roast Suckling Pig dinner (Babi Guling). I was a bit surprised when I was the first person at the restaurant, at 7pm. It will no doubt get busy later I thought, but in fact it never did. I settled at the bar and had a damn good Mojito. So good that I had another, and later on another and after that who cares.

This baby hit the spot

The staff began to bring my meal out to where I was settled. That was OK as it was all pretty much nibbles and finger food at this stage. A succession of Satay, Corn fritters (Perkedel) and other nibbly bits. Each was very well presented and very tasty. I felt like I was being treated like royalty.

Prawn nibbly bits

When the main course came out I asked to move to a proper table. I was presented with a huge plate of pork belly and crispy pork crackling and a plethora of side dishes to go with it. It was obvious to me that as the only person eating pork that night I was not eating off a spit roast. I was not upset by this however as the meal was delicious. Far too much to eat but I struggled on.
I have found that it is common practice in Bali to have to order suckling pig and in some cases even whole duck, a day in advance. This is due to the length of time to cook it and the expense of the meat. Restaurants simply do not cook these meals and hope somebody comes in and buys them. I was lucky that the chef at Vivai had accommodated my desire for Pork, and he had also done a fabulous job.

The Roast Pork with accompaniments. The camera angle does not do it justice.

A close up.

 After the "pig out" I returned to the bar area, where I was presented with 4 different ice cream samples for dessert. Rum and Raisin, Lemon and I cannot remember the other flavours. All freshly made on the premises (as far as I know).

Dean the chef joined me and we sat talking and drinking for some time. The restaurant was very quiet that night. When I left Vivai, I discovered that the other restaurants and bars were also quiet and my taxi driver who took me back to my hotel lamented how little work he had that night.
In fact during the drive back the Taxi driver convinced me to book him for the next day and have a tour of various parts of the island. I had been considering that so it was an easy decision. We arranged that he would pick me up at 9am the next day.
The Bludger was overly full but very happy.

Bali Day 1 - Cooking Classes with Dean

I awoke very early, it was still dark outside, and fought the desire to get up, however by 7 am I was ready to head down for breakfast. A fairly typical range of options for this class of hotel, the Coconut Suites. I had babur ayam (rice porridge with chicken), followed by fruit and then an omelette with Bacon and some chicken rings. I did have a trace of guilt about the hot food but not too much.

Babur Ayum

The main item on the days agenda was to find the restaurant where I was booked to attend a cooking class. I elected to walk and sought the aid of the reception staff for directions. I was advised to take a taxi, but I chose to ignore their advice and walk. After all it was not far on the map.
I boldly set off, being careful to avoid holes in the foot path, and walked and walked.  Street signs are rare in Bali, but I did find one and referring to my woefully inadequate map taken from a tourist brochure determined that I was still on track. Time was passing however and I needed to be at the restaurant by 9am. I considered it may indeed be time for a taxi but still felt that I was close. Just another few minutes walk and I would surely be there......
However I had not had an opportunity to change money so before calling a taxi I needed to change some money. Up ahead there was an ATM sign so I kept going toward the ATM. At 8:59 I arrived at the ATM and from there I could see my destination! Yay.
I made it basically on time. At Vivai I was greeted by Dean the head chef and person who would conduct the class. Dean proved to be an excellent host and friendly and hospitable. I joined the other two participants and we chatted over a very nice coffee and then a shot glass of chocolate drink to start the day. Dean talked with us and showed us the special coffee beans that are eaten by Civets (Paradoxurus) and shat out and collected to make Luwak Coffee.

Combat - so tiny

After this introduction we piled into a minivan and were driven to and conducted around the Denpasar  market. Having been in plenty of Asian markets it was not new to me but I relaxed and went with the flow. We were joined by “Combat” a young girl whom Dean referred to as a shopping trolley. I thought it a bit rude at first and it had overtones of the western superiority but in a way this made sense, if you could put that thought aside. Combat carried a basket on her head and all the groceries went into it. We didn’t actually buy too much so she had an easy trip. Her fee for this service did not seem much, but apparently Dean was paying double the price that the locals paid.
We headed back to the restaurant. By this time it was close to 11am and I was beginning to wonder how much cooking would be done. Back at the Restaurant I was offered another coffee and then Dean took us through the ingredients that we would use that day.

I was familiar with many but there were certainly some new ones on me. Finally we put on our aprons and started on a basic curry paste. By this time it began to become apparent how the day would run. We all had chopping boards and made a token effort at chopping some vegetable. The helpers gathered our chopping’s and then did the hard work of making the paste. And so it went. This was the “glamping” equivalent of cooking, with people to clean up after you, others to prepare parts of the meals and cook. To be honest it was not hard work, more like going round to a friend’s place and having a chat in the kitchen and lending a hand while others did the work.

Dean and some of the staff

Between us we turned out a surprising amount of food. We all did little bits and pieces, I ended up stuffing the duck, while the helpers had done all the hard preparation work and then took it away to cook. The three of us also prepped a whole fish each, we scaled it, gutted it, filleted it, pin boned it, and then de-skinned the fillet. That was good learning. We also de-veined a prawn in a way that I had not seen before leaving the shell intact, and prepared a whole squid, which I have done before. It was all jolly nice with the helpers cleaning up all the mess and doing the cooking. In between we chatted and took photos.

That Duck will never fly again

By this time we were all getting a bit hungry and the food preparation had got the digestive juices flowing.  By about 2:30 ish it all started to come together. Technically the class was meant to end by 3pm so I was wondering how this was going to turn out.  We cleaned up and sat down at a restaurant table, drinks came out and then plate by plate a veritable feast of Satay, fish balls on lemongrass skewers and corn cakes.

Entree's

This was just the entrée’s and already far too much to eat. Then came the mains, the whole duck had been baked in banana leaves then the leaves removed and finished in a hot oven. There was a lovely chicken curry, pork curry, rice, a bowl of simply incredible seafood soup and a lovely fresh salad. The seafood was the popular dish of the day, but it was all superb and we had “cooked it ourselves”. By now we had all conceded defeat and then were offered black rice pudding and rum and raisin ice cream. Groan. We all tucked in anyway.

Duck - an after shot

Seafood Soup - it was magnificent

Dean joined us for mains and desert. All day he had been a genial host, willing to explain and share his skills and knowledge. All of the would be cooks were well satisfied with the day.  It was gone 4:30 when we eventually left
I walked back to the hotel which took a solid 50 minutes with stops to change some currency and pick up some drinks for the evening. I was too full to consider eating that night and even the drinks were a struggle to find room for.
The Bludger was full and more than happy.