This was a long anticipated day for Liz and me: A Balinese cooking class! It started with a visit to the market and the cooking was at the restaurant situated in the middle of rice paddies. It. Was. Amazing.

So we had our 8am pickup and drove at good speed and no shocks (awake!) to the market in Singaraja. This market opens at 5am, so when we got there closer to 9am the good stuff (certainly much of the meats and fish) was gone.

You'd never find this place. Its entry to a narrow dark alley, maybe 15 feet wide, does not stand out to the casual visitor. Sure, there's activity in that alley, but you wouldn't walk past and think "huh, let's go check this alley out". Until you step inside, your eyes adjust to the dark, and you see a long alley lined by fruit and vegetable stands. As we later found out, the left goes much deeper with more food stands, and the right is filled with clothes.

An interesting point is that every stand has a little place for offerings, and offerings are all across the floor, too. You have to watch where you walk! It's clear they even employ the gods to get you to buy from their stand. We bought a few ingredients for the class, but we were allowed to test and taste a number of things. Behind the scenes they just leave a quick 1 or 2 thousand bucks (~50c). You don't even notice it and it enhances the experience for us guests.

Liz, Janna and Ans went to the clothes side of the alley and walked away with a few things our chaperon negotiated for us. Nothing highlights the difference between our wealth and theirs as much as buying something for local prices on a market like this. And all the people are just SO genuinely friendly, it's amazing. I love markets. The colors, the scents, the people. It's a true reflection of the culture.

At the restaurant we picked 6 dishes to prepare. Fish, meat, vegetarian, something for everyone. We prepared one after the other and then sat down for lunch to eat it all at once. Indonesian food is not meant to be eaten hot. You see, hot food tends to loose the flavor a little bit, and as intricate and key as the spices are to each meal, you don't want to miss out one bit on the flavors. Just warm (not fridge cold) is just right - thank you Lisa. So it makes it easy to cook a lot of dishes throughout the day and maybe warm them up a little bit in the oven prior to serving. We cooked for about 2.5hrs, but we had 10 chefs (plus 2 pros).

The bumbu paste is a key ingredient for many meals. It is best made with mortar and pestle, because grinding releases the aromas and juices of the fruits and herbs best. It could be made in a baby Cuisinart, but cutting doesn't release the power of the ingredient as well as grinding does. So we know own a large, heavy stone mortar and pestle and will carry that throughout SE Asia… We've traveled with 75lbs of stone elephants, or 30 bottles of wine, oil and balsamic (pre 9/11) before, so we're good. We made the bumbu 3 or 4 times and took good notes for each dish. We are well positioned to repeat at home. If you're reading this blog, you are a friend and may be served an Indonesian meal in 2019.