February 28

February 28

This is the day of the Babi Pangang Guling...named after the roll- cushion shape....

the pasar

I was up early, this morning; knowing that Putuh, his wife Kuman and their little son would be waiting at the hotel gate to take us to the pasar( market ).
They were there on time, and we departed on our motor cycles for the pasar. The pasar was like all the pasars in Indonesia, you can smell them a mile away. The scent of tjenkeh (cloves) fresh pala, (nutmeg), kunjit (fresh turmeric), duren (durian), djahe (ginger), fresh fish...so fresh, some of them still moved....many types of bawang.....and many types of dried fishes, great fried with white rice and sambal, onions....all those scents mixed with a little diesel fumes and the smell of carbide lights will take anyone back to the days when indonesia was, as we Indos remember it.

a vendor at the pasar

The easy going attitude of the vendors, the interesting way the customers take turns buying stuff....when you need 6 things, it is customary that the  vendor gets you the first thing you need, then goes onto the second client and helps her to her first thing, and so, back and forth. Perhaps to make sure the client doesn't  impatiently walk away, perhaps it's being polite, in any case, it is lovely. It also makes for great socializing.

Temple at Putu's house

We bought lots of lomboks, a shopping bag full....the sweat broke out on my brow, just thinking of all this sambal, terassi (fermented shrimp paste, stinks like heck, but tastes great), djahe, kunjit, katjang panjang (long string beans), bawang putih, bawang merah, a type of ginger that I know as laos. Daun Salam, daun perut, and several other leaf-type herbs.
Loaded to the ears with bags we drove 15 minutes down the road to their kampung. We left the road and entered a narrow dirt road, a few lefts and rights and we were at the house of Kuman and Putuh. This was a  basic brick and stucco house but clean and we were welcomed like if we were long lost kin.

The neneh, Putu's mom..

I was introduced to the neneh an elderly lady, the mother of Putuh, who is used to live in the Bali of old; the days before the puritan Dutch forbade the local women to walk around bare breasted. The lovely old woman, perhaps in her 70's, or so it seems, is a gem..when I wished her a selamat pagi, she thought that my behasa was excellent and she would continually try to speak with me(in Balinese….nothing like Behasa)
Now...here in Indonesia, if you observe the speaker carefully and watch the hand gestures, absorb the look in the eye, you should get a long way towards understanding what is being said.
So as not to waste to much time, we went for a short stroll to collect the Babi, a pig of about 70 lbs. It was hog-tied and carried skewered on a pole to the house oh Putuh and Kuman.

on the way to Khuman's house

Here some water was brought to the boil and once it did, the pig was slaughtered, the blood collected to be made into Lawar, a dish of blood, coconut and bumbu. I made sure that they understood that I am not a lover of anything containing blood, luckily, Kumar doesn't like it either, so that made it so much easier and less insulting, when it gets offered and refused.

Once the piglet was in lala-land, it was poured over with boiling water and the hair and, first black layer of skin was scraped off. This was all done on a piece of plastic tarp.

Pig-Roast

Once the pig was deemed cleaned and ready, it was eviscerated and washed. It is then filled with the bumbuh and the mystery leafs and the cavity is skewered shut. The final treatment is a hand rubbing of kunjit mixed with a bit of water, and the piglet was a pretty yellow....


The biggest issue proved to be the lighting of the fire, which took almost an hour, but finally it started and once the fire was deemed ready for the pig, it was covered with a large piece of corrugated metal. Then the pig was put on the bamboo spit and cooked over indirect heat, shielded by that corrugated metal.
We figured that it was going to take about 3 hours for it to cook, so we decided to come back at 3.30 to see the progress.

Khuman deviding the pig up

We had about 5 men working on this pig roast,  with their wives, and I hope they stay around to help us eat it, because there will be lots of food. I noticed that my capacity for eating rice is not what it used to be, a little fills me up quite quickly, whereas the locals here, eta rice at least 3x a day.
The bumbuh that was made to fill the pigs cavity was made of finely chopped, ginger, turmeric, shallots, garlic, lomboks, salt, daun Salam and daun jeruk perut, as ell as laos and terasi bakar.
This was all gorenged and mixed with the mystery leaf. I since found out that is called daun cin kong. ( pronounce chin kong), it grows wild just about anywhere
As we were stuffing  the piglet, I'm noticed the youngest son of Putuh and Kuman chewing on a piece of roasted pork liver on a stick....better he, than I....

Young son, chomping on liver

As well, some of the helpers were chomping on some intestines, that were cleaned and roasted on a stick.....

As for me, …I'll wait for the crispy pork skin, yah....?
It seems that the helpers are fond of the liver, intestines, kidneys, spleen and other odds and ends...again....call me spoiled, but I'll hang around patiently for the "main course"....
I found out that the mystery leaf grows on a tree that looks a bit like a papaya leaf and has the flavor of spinach with a bit more body. It is called daun kan-kon.
Well, the pig was quite tasteless (please use a bit of salt, next time?) although it was very tender. The skin was crispy at some spots and the meat was quite well done and juicy and slightly fatty.

Glenn--Khuman--her sister in law

 Side dishes included a sayur, a sambal bawang putih, lavar of chicken, which is classically made by mixing pigs blood with grated coconut and bumbu, to the best of my knowledge, is this dish not cooked. There were also crisp fried intestines and blood cake and of course their staple, nasi putih, white steamed rice...
Of course, there was a sambal mentah, which means fresh(ly-made sambal). This is made by chopping several varieties of lombok, including the rawit and the regular tjabeh ...this is mixed with chopped shallots, garlic, salt, jeruk and a bit of oil, so it is quite intense and flavorful, if you like sambal
We enjoyed the food in general, but in general, I prefer the Chinese roasted pork, it seems more flavorful and he skin is in general crispier.

My platefull

Even though we had about 10 people eating from this little pig, there was a lot left over. Later, as we were about to leave, we saw that they had cut-up the left over meat and were frying it crispy, I believe as a preservation method and another way of serving pig...
We had a taste of this  babi goreng and agreed that this tasted a lot better than just babi pangang.
Too bad that this dish was prepared after the main dinner....next time we know!
Just as we said our thank you's and good byes, it started to pour, you know the pour I am talking about...the water came down in buckets and turned to kampung into a muddy mess.... Menno and I decided to wait a bit and see if we could find a clear bit of sky....no such luck!!
The ride back, through the muddy kampung would be a challenge
I wrapped my camera and telephone in a plastic bag, stuffed everything under my seat and we took off for the hotel.
We were soaked to the core and it wasn't until we pulled into the parking area, that it led up... Now our clothes are drying on the "line" and we will bring them in tonight, into the air-co, they will be dry by tomorrow.
Menno and I will stay in tonight and discuss the Babi Guling and how we think we may improve on the taste, if we were to make one.....
Yea, just then I remember several years ago, when Tante Riet made us her Babi ketchap....now, that was delicious..... With nasi putih, aduh seh.., sedep!

Salak

It is odd how some tastes live with me forever, it seems....
Like, take the fruit salak, I remember the name and the taste of this scaly fruit, I remember not being crazy about it, but I also remember tolerating it. I have a picture of Kuman holding a couple of salak.