Balinese Food The Traditional Cuisine & Food Culture of Bali Balinese Food The Traditional Cuisine & Food Culture of Bali Vivienne Kruger Tuttle Publishing Tokyo Rutland, Vermont Singapore Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd www.tuttlepublishing.com Copyright © 2014 Vivienne Kruger Photos © Vivienne Kruger, except for the following: Front cover main photo: © irman/istockphoto.com; Front cover inset: © KellyOla/istockphoto.com; Color insert pages 1 top: © magicinfoto/Shutterstock.com; 1 middle: © Henry Stockton/Shutterstock.com; 3 top, middle, bottom: © www.murnis.com and © www.jonathaninbali.com; 7 middle: © Gail Palethorpe/ Shutterstock.com; 9 top: © Marat Dupri/Shutterstock.com; 13 middle: © Redchanka/Shutterstock.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kruger, Vivienne L., 1950- Balinese food : the traditional cuisine & food culture of Bali / Vivienne Kruger, Ph.D. pages cm Includes index. 1. Cooking, Balinese. 2. Food habits--Indonesia--Bali (Province) 3. Bali Island (Indonesia)--Social life and customs. I. Title. TX724.5.I5K78 2014 641.59598’62--dc23 2013040457 Distributed by North America, Latin America & Europe Tuttle Publishing, 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436 USA Tel: 1 (802) 773-8930; Fax: 1 (802) 773-6993 [email protected]; www.tuttlepublishing.com Japan Tuttle Publishing, Yaekari Building, 3rd Floor, 5-4-12 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0032 Tel: (81) 3 5437-0171; Fax: (81) 3 5437-0755 [email protected]; www.tuttle.co.jp Asia Pacific Berkeley Books Pte Ltd, 61 Tai Seng Avenue, #02-12, Singapore 534167 Tel: (65) 6280-1330; Fax: (65) 6280-6290 [email protected]; www.periplus.com Indonesia PT Java Books Indonesia, Kawasan Industri Pulogadung, JI. Rawa Gelam IV No. 9, Jakarta 13930 Tel: (62) 21 4682-1088; Fax: (62) 21 461-0206 [email protected]; www.periplus.com Printed in Singapore 1401MP 16 15 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 TUTTLE PUBLISHING® is a registered trademark of Tuttle Publishing, a division of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. contents 7 Dedication and Thanks 4 11 Introduction 13 CHAPTER ONE Sacred Ceremonial Cuisine: Food of the Gods 27 CHAPTER TWO The Balinese Kitchen: Hearth and Home 41 CHAPTER THREE Traditional Village Foods: Cooking in the Compound 57 CHAPTER FOUR Snacking on Bali: Warung, Markets and Banana Leaf Wrappers 75 CHAPTER FIVE The Balinese Bumbu: A Sacred, Powerful Paste 89 CHAPTER SIX Breakfast in the Morning of the World 98 CHAPTER SEVEN Dewi Sri and the Cult of Rice 112 CHAPTER EIGHT The Hanging Ketupat Basket: Rice on the Run 117 CHAPTER NINE Babi Guling and the Balinese Pig: From Secular Sausages to Sacrificial Offerings 132 CHAPTER TEN Bebek Betutu: The Balinese Duck 141 CHAPTER ELEVEN The Village Chicken: Ayam Kampung 151 CHAPTER TWELVE Seduced by Saté: The Balinese Twist 160 CHAPTER THIRTEEN Seafood in Bali: Bounty of the Ocean 177 CHAPTER FOURTEEN The Perils of Penyu: Ritual and Dietary Turtle Meat 187 CHAPTER FIFTEEN Bali: Emerald Vegetarian Garden of Eden 202 CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Sweet Life: The Balinese Palate Falls in Love 216 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Fruits of Bali: Nectar from the Trees 228 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Sacred Refreshments: Smooth Healing Ambrosia 235 CHAPTER NINETEEN Traditional Village Drinks: Creeping Green Vines and Sweet Ginger Tea 243 CHAPTER TWENTY Sweet Spirits, Hot Arak Nights and the Gods of Wine 249 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Kopi Bali: The Heavenly Coffee 273 Balinese Equipment 277 Balinese Ingredients 281 Balinese Resource Guide 284 Index Dedication and Thanks 4 his book is dedicated to the extraordinarily beautiful young TBali-Hindu goddess Saraswati. Seated atop a pure white multi- layered lotus flower with her loyal white swan mount at her feet, Saras- wati is the revered goddess of literature, wisdom, science, music and the arts. She is worshipped by everyone interested in knowledge and learn- ing, especially students, teachers, scholars and scientists. I also dedicate Balinese Food to my beloved, precious, beautiful Ba- linese dog—and constant companion—Chessie. With love and protec- tiveness and loyalty, my sweet Chessalopolis sat right by my side, watching me and guarding me during virtually all of the joyous, creative, multi-year writing, tasting and photo-taking process. Chessie and I lived side by side, body to body and soul to soul with each other; we shared the same karma and the same road towards enlightenment. Very special thanks goes to Starbucks on Jalan Pantai Kuta, Starbucks in the Discovery Mall (Tuban), Starbucks on Orchard Road in Singapore (Plaza Singapura) and in Waikiki, Oahu (Hilton Hawaiian Village), USA. My pretty black and white border collie patiently sat underneath the table at every single Star- bucks from our home base in Kuta and Tuban in Bali to Karangahape Road in Auckland, New Zealand, to her favorite place in the world— Waikiki Beach in Hawaii. My little girl watched me write and rewrite every single page of this extreme love affair with the food and food culture of her native island of Bali. Special gratitude goes to Wayan Sarma, long-time friend and driver from Pelaga village, Sanggingan-Ubud, who patiently accompanied me as I trekked through muddy rice fields to photograph dragonflies on the wing and ducks on the march, and to distant experimental agricultural farms where he sampled Bali’s famous kopi luwak (civet droppings cof- fee) for me. Wayan showed me almost every edible food source on Bali, 8 Dedication and Thanks from rice field eels to wani fruit, from taop nuts to barrel-cured speckled black eggs. We sat together on a wooden bench at the famous Gianyar night market to feast on Bali’s classic mixed rice dish, nasi campur, and to photograph buckets of blood-blackened Balinese urutan sausages. Wayan drove me to ramshackle rural village stalls, known as warung, to sample delicious finger bananas, tulip-shaped kue mangkok offering cakes and freshly made jaja gina rice cakes. Extra special thanks also goes to another long-time friend and driver in Bali, Gede Kasena from Desa Jinengdalem, Singaraja, who patiently sat with me through endless food conferences and nasi goreng (fried rice) lunches in the mountains of Pacung to answer my most persistent ques- tions about Balinese foodstuffs and cooking. With a happy heart, ready smile and spotless soul, Kasena generously enlightened me about Balinese eating culture and village produce, from the countless species of chili peppers to intriguing varieties of edible yard-long beans to ceremonial turtle lawar. Blessed with Balinese grace, intelligence and kindness, Kasena was my most important living local dictionary. He knows everything about Bali and this book would not have been possible without him. Spiritual thanks go to my yoga teacher and friend in Darwin, Australia, Sanjit Das, who patiently explained the constellation of gods, kings and heroes in the ancient Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. In the legendary tale of the great warrior Yudisthera rests the ancient nexus between steadfast dogged myth and lunchtime dog satay in warung throughout Bali. Academic acknowledgment is awarded to the elegant state-of-the-art Parliament House Library in Darwin, Australia. As a visiting scholar from the United States, I was accorded innumerable research privileges, kindness and Internet courtesies by head librarian Gaynor Lovett and librarian Suzie Young during the initial stages of this work. The library fortuitously maintained an invaluable Indonesian language resource on their reference shelf: Alan M. Stevens and A. Schmidgall-Tellings, A Comprehensive Indonesian–English Dictionary (Ohio University Press, 2004 and 2010 editions). As a social historian with a Ph.D. in American history from Colum- bia University in New York, I wanted to produce a meticulously researched and comprehensive storehouse of hard-to-find information on Balinese Dedication and Thanks 9 cuisine, encompassing all aspects of traditional village food found, grown and consumed on the island. I first began to write about Bali in the late 1990s, producing a number of culture articles for Bali and Beyond mag- azine (2000–6). I have special memories of working with my talented editor at Bali and Beyond, Debe Campbell. During these years, I also wrote a large number of reviews of published books about the island of Bali, which still appear on www.amazon.com. I then spent eight years (2005–12) doing field research on the extraordinary foods and peoples of Bali, during which time I lived in Bali for two years. Earlier and shorter versions of the chapters in this book appeared in the Bali Advertiser (www. baliadvertiser.biz), Bali’s most widely distributed English-language expatriate newspaper in Indonesia after the Jakarta Post: 13,000 copies are printed twice each month. I was fortunate enough to be asked to write their monthly food column (“Food of the Gods”) for two years, from 2006 to 2008. This was a very fertile breeding ground and test run for my own Balinese cultural cookbook. I am enormously grateful to a large caste of Balinese cooks and villagers throughout Bali. They guided me well with open hearts and took me inside many cramped compound kitchens during my spice- laced odyssey through the culinary Ring of Fire. Thank you to the hun- dreds of smiling, giggling, helpful friends everywhere in Bali, among them Mr and Mrs Dolphin (Warung Dolphin), Made Janur and Iloh (Janur Dive Inn), Justine Friedman (owner of the Akar Cafe), Iluh Padmi Antariasih (whose father is a powerful village balian), Australians Moira and David (owners of the Dolphin Beach Holiday Apartments), and my loyal friend and massage lady Yoni—all in Lovina on the north coast of Bali.