Andrea Hearts Traveling

Feast at Canting Bali

If you know me you know I love love love loooooove food and you will always find me "TripAdvisoring" the best places to eat! And since I love to eat so much I knew I had to try a Balinese Cooking lesson!

The home stay recommended a company called Canting Bali and it was perfect! The Jessie's, Rachel, and myself signed up and the next day we were picked up at the homestay and our first stop was at the local market where the driver showed us different shops and explained what we were looking at.

Street food at the market

Flowers for the offerings

Walking down to the produce

Temple in the middle of the market! A temple does not have to be big like a church, you can find many little ones like this one all over town.

Spices Spices and more Spices

On our way to the location of the class in a busy street one of the tires of our Van Got stuck in a hole! Quickly the Jessie's and I got out and pushed the van out! It was super funny and of course I had to tell the story when the safari truck got stuck in the middle of Chobe's National Park in Botswana and we actually had to get off and push the safari truck- it did not move at all! http://andreatravelstoafrica.blogspot.co.id/2013/08/embracing-bizarre.html

The drive to the school was beautiful surrounded by forest like street and rice paddies. When we arrived the driver parked in an empty lot full of kids playing soccer and I was a little confused to where we were. To my surprise cooking school was actually in the middle of rice paddies on the other side of the street and it was beautiful!

Walk to cooking school

We started the day by making our own offering baskets:

Then it was time for cooking... The menu for the day:

Balinese Non Vegetarian

Soup Ayam Jamur ( Chicken soup with mushroom )
Tempe Lalah Manis ( Spiced and sweet fried tempe )
Tahu Kare ( Tofu curry with Balinese spices )
Sate Lilit ( Minced of spices fish skewer )
Pepes Tuna ( Grilled fish in banana leaf )
Lawar Bali ( Mix Vegetable with Balinese spices )
Sambal Matah ( Raw spices with coconut oil )
Dadar Gulung ( Rolled cake with coconut & palm sugar )

Balinese Vegetarian Menu

Vegetable Soup ( Assorted vegetable with lemongrass )
Tempe Lalah Manis ( Spiced and sweet fried tempe )
Tahu Kare ( Tofu curry with Balinese spices )
Sate Tempe ( Soybean cake skewer with peanut sauce )
Pepes Tahu ( Soybean curd grilled in banana leaf )
Lawar Bali ( Mix Vegetable with Balinese spices )
Sambal Matah ( Raw spices with coconut oil )
Dadar Gulung ( Rolled cake with coconut & palm sugar )

The ingredients

"Who is vegetarian?"

Here we are chopping all the vegetables and the tofu/ tempeh. We all had a chance to do some work.

Chop Chop Chop

It looks easy but grinding with your hands is hard work... Where is my cuisinart when I need it?!?!?!

Tempeh Tofu and Veggies skewer AKA Sate Tempeh

Grillin'

Pepes Tuna

Flipping the Dadar Gulung

We are all amazing cooks!

The class was a lot of fun. It was interesting to see how the same sauce that we made at the beginning of the class went on almost every single one of the dishes but at the end they all tasted very differently. I think the whole group enjoyed the lesson and we loved the eating even more!!!

Restaurants

I spent most of the time trying different restaurants and they were all delicious and super affordable!!!

Dayu's Warung

Super delicious Indonesian Food with an extensive vegetarian menu!

Seating upstairs on the floor was perfect! Rachel and I just melted into the cushions after a long day walking!

Warung Sopa

Probably one of my favorite restaurants in Ubud!

The food was so tasty and it was 100% vegetarian!!!

I ordered the Nasi Campur which is rice with different sides of Balinese food. You go to the front of the restaurant and pick what you want on your plate. Each item was Rp8000 ($0.60!!) I ate an appetizer, the Nasi Campur, and a green juice for $5.24!

Bali Buda

Well, this place was delicious but it lacked when it comes to service! Plus, it took me a good 2 minutes to figure out that the menu was actually the newspaper sitting on the table... and that was the first time i picked up a newspaper in the last 20 years!

Also, the vibe is kind of weird, it's like 99% hardcore Yogis in here. It felt like going to Cafe Gratitude circa 2005!

The prices were "higher" than the usual Warung and no Wi-fi!... $5.70 for my meal consisting of the traditional Balinese dish of cooked veggies, rice, and tofu with a dipping peanut sauce! Yum!

Gado Gado... yumm

Atman Kafe

Came here to check it out and use their fast wi-fi!

The ambiance is super cool and my beetroot, cocoa, and coconut pie was very ineteresting. I also ordered a coconut the size of 2 heads combined!!!

Seniman Coffee

Another cafe that got my attention due to their super fast wifi!

They are super famous for their coffee so I decided to order one just for fun!

Prices a little higher too ($10.46 for coffee, avocado toast, and an alfajor... breaking the bank with this one!)

Here I met and shared a table with Hannah, a Swedish girl doing a yoga training for a month! I just love that everywhere I go I get to meet new people!

Warung Boga Sari

This restaurant is in the main busy street by the Ubud Palace and only has a couple of tables. The decorations in this place makes it super cool and cozy. My meal was good but not excellent compared to the other dishes I've had at other restaurants.

Yellow Flower

I went here to meet my friend Liz, my neighbor at the home stay, on a Sunday night for their dinner buffet. The food was delicious and the ambiance was very chill.

I took a motorbike here and it was absolutely hard to find but well worth it!

Walk back to our home stay

I have eaten so much in the last week in Bali but I think it all balances out with all the walking and heavy sweating! haha... or at least that's what I am telling myself :)

So sad to be leaving Perth but so happy for what comes ahead!

Neil dropped me off at the airport and of course I get to the counter and they look at my passport like I'm from Mars and the staff starts questioning each other about whether or not I need a visa since they had never heard of El Salvador. They even asked me if I had ever used my passport and I just said "Yes, I have my Australian stamp in there!" Of course I knew that would happen and I was prepared with the Bali.com website that stated that I do not need a visa! Now... Off to Bali!!!

From the second you get out of the airplane you feel the change in temperature and pretty much start sweating!
I had forgotten about third world countries airport craziness! I had arranged a pick up from my home stay but when I got out no one was there holding a sign with my name. Once taxi drivers see somebody without a driver they literally harass you and come to you as often as they can saying "taxi, taxi" or "you need taxi?" Or "cheap cheap taxi come!" It is very annoying! Thank goodness I am smart and I use my "No english" phrase and they all banish! yeay! After 30 mins my ride finally arrived and we were on our way to Ubud!

OMG... No words really to describe Ubud!
Everywhere I look there are beautiful statues, temples or offerings happenings. Every single door is beautifully decorated and has offerings by them. Bali's religion is Balinese Hinduism and Ubud is very traditional so throughout the day you will see people at temples doing prayers and bringing offerings.

I am staying at a home stay, meaning that a family has rooms for travelers and they rent them. The place is very simple and beyond cheap, at only $13 per night including a small breakfast and hot showers! I found it on AirBnB and it was actually free since one of the moms from the school I taught gave me a gift card as an end of the year present. But if you just come in you would be able to book for Rp180,000 a standard room with fan (no air con)

The entrance of Teba House

The beautiful garden

My room right at the end of the path

View from my room!

My super simple room... the bathroom not so nice, but for $13 is good enough!

Simple breakfast overlooking the garden

It was just a lucky coincidence that on my 1st day the owners of the home stay had a traditional ceremony for the owner's grandchild who is turning 3 months and all the guests were invited to attend.
Apparently in the Balinese Culture a baby does not touch the ground until he turns 3 months and there is a grand celebration called 'Bali Nyabutan Celebration.' For the first 3 months the baby is held in someone's arms at all times and when he turns 3 months they celebrate when the baby touches the Earth for the first time in a super big celebration... another Balinese tradition is not to name the baby until he is 42 days old!!!

My room is located on the first floor right by the garden and at 5am I could already hear people getting ready for the big day.
At breakfast I met some other travelers and they said the celebration was at 12 and we could all attend. At noon I came back and I was amazed at the amount of people in the guest house, then I was even more surprised when all those people left and the next set of people came! It seemed like everybody in town was invited and they came in waves, people would bring gifts, eat, and then leave. All of the travelers in the guesthouse were invited to the ceremony and we were given a traditional Balinese buffet lunch.

With the "Jessie's" and Rachel outside my room

The actual ceremony did not start until past 1pm but I had a great time just people watching. The women were all dressed up in their colorful temple shirts and long skirts, when they came in most of them had a basket on their head with a little present for the baby.
When the priest came he started by blessing the temple and then ringing the bells for quite a long time while many women walked around the garden of the house with baskets full of offerings and bowls of water (probably holy) that they would splatter around. It was a big procession that lasted about 30 mins. After all the blessing the baby came out and was brought over to the priest and put on the floor and he got blessed by the priest.

The offerings

The ceremony went for longer than an hour and I didn't really understand much of it but I felt blessed by being able to be part of such a special ceremony and witnessing something that I have never seen before.

Women walking from temple to temple

Blessing the baby

Blessing the baby... in a different location! haha

In the late afternoon Rachel, my new friend from the homestay, and I went to the monkey forest!
Those were some cheeky little monkeys!
The forest is filled with wild monkeys that are very used to humans and are not scared to jump on anybody who happens to have food!
Before going another friend warned us that monkeys will grab your sunglasses or take your water bottles and even open your bag and take stuff out! Crazy!

This little monkey was having the time of his life jumping around the tree. Mom was at the bottom just waiting; not much different that taking kids to the park! haha

Mommy and baby!

hahaha... I just had to put this one!

The monkeys were literally crazy!!! They would jump on people if they had food. Some of them were a little aggressive if you had a banana and didn't give them to them!

This monkey literally got a shoulder ride for a good 3 minutes! He would not get down!

My first day was spent just walking around Ubud looking at everything and taking pictures... It is so pretty and it is hard to put to words what you experience while walking this beautiful town!

You see offerings ALL over Ubud, in all different places. This one was in the middle of the street! They put offerings on the floor to protect home from bad spirits.