March 3

March 3

Friday...

Having learned our lesson from yesterday, we decided on pancake for breakfast and maybe tomorrow we may try the nasi goreng with the telor mata sapi on top.

Nasi Goreng

Today we need to bring the motorcycles back, so we wanted to one more day of exploration and headed towards the mountains, as we had already covered all the other wind-directions, except for south, into the mountains or north, into the sea.

We turned into a kampong road and headed up the mountain. The ride was just fantastic and the higher we got, the cooler it felt. It seems like we were into the clouds and we were in a less inhabited area.
We saw beautiful vistas of the jungle mountains and deep valleys below and in the far distance, the Sea of Bali....
Stopping on the way to look Round, we reached what we felt was a good place for a short rest and to take in the view. It was beautiful...I decided not to take any photos from his spot, because I knew that there was no way that my lens could show the beauty we saw, looking all around us.

Great view.

When you see this and other vistas, like our house in Bolulla, Spain, you'd wonder why anyone would what to live on a busy beach, especially "Hassle Beach" as this stretch of beach in Lovina is internationally known....

We reluctantly headed back down the mountain, which was a lot trickier than ascending the mountain, because we had automatic transmissions on our bikes. So, the first miles or so, we used our brakes to the point of over heating, until we discovered that if we would give a bit of throttle (very counter intuitive, ascending a 40 degree angle) that the tranny would actually break the speed.....clear sailing after that, all the way down.
We stopped by one of the cleaner warongs for a delightful Mie Ajam Bakso. A soup with chicken, noodles, meatballs and vegetables. It was quite nice...

Pasar in Singaradja

Since we were in the Capitol of North Bali, Singaradja, we decided to stop at it's pasar. It was the kind of pasar that I remembered as a kid,s dark, dirty, noisy bit with loads of character. The scents of the salted fish, the ikan teri, the salted mackerels and the large chunks of ikan gereh. I remember eating those salted fishes with white rice, a bit of sayer and  bit of sambal. I recall my father biting bits of cabeh rawit with his meal...
At the market I was on a mission to find mangistan, because it was not in season, and I hoped that if it was anywhere to be found, it would be here at the pasar of Singaradja.....

We walked in and out of the tiny little isles, searching for the elusive mangistan? We found a ton of things, even vendors, that with the aid of a couple of batteries, would turn any metal into gold...sheer alchemists.
We stopped by the "natural healer" who sold natural medicines from piles and buckets full of bark, nuts, chunks-o-wood, roots, dried mushrooms of any kind, dried sea urchins and sea horses, you name it, he had it for your ailment.
He would even tell you that you had an ailment unbeknownst to you and happily mix you a secret elixir and have you drink it as a tea.
When he sees you the next time, he would say....
"see, it worked...you look great, i can tell by the color of your eyes that the decease you came in with, is cured...but it may come back...now to maintain your new found health...take....etc"
 

Finally Mangosteen...

He may not have found any ailments in me or Menno but just down from his stall, I found an old neneh that had about 6 mangosteens and I bought them all, I may have paid 60 cents for them, which is for local tastes, much too much, but I was very pleased with them.
The lady from the tempeh stall saw me again, as she did on the way in, and asked me if I knew what to do withhold tempeh, so I told her in my broken Bahasa Indonesia that I would fry it with bawang putih, bawang merah, terassi and sambal and sedikit gulla Bali, ....she got a big kick out of it and said that she knew that I was a gado-gado (mix of Indo and Dutch)

Gado-gado

We drove back to the hotel eager to try the mangosteen and as soon as we got here, we devoured them. I think that these must be my favorite fruit, even more so then mangoes. They are so succulent, purest white, sorta hard to get at, but such a reward when you finally do...
Menno went to visit with his friend Kuman and I decided to have a little siesta.

After the siesta we brought the bikes back and shopped for some souvenirs, that Menno wanted to get for friends in Holland. He found some very nice buddhas carved out of a local black wood, like that little fisherman, on my Chinese altar at home.
We realized that the prices in this little shop are les than half of what the beach vendors were charging for the crappy stuff. We may go back tomorrow to see if the is anything else the lady has that is of interest.

Buddha

 We went back to the hotel and had a nice swim, to celebrate the new buddhas Menno bought and we decided to have some food in the little warung where were had some tasty food before. Before we went, however, we watched a bit of American Idol on Java TV.
,ennoble asked who the skinny, Mic Jagger type judge ( name is steve.... ) was on the panel, and even though I was told his name, I cannot remember, so, anyone put there....drop me a line and let me know, okay?
In the meanwhile, Annetta told me that it is Steven Taylor from Aerosmith.

Not long after we arrived at the warung "apple" it started pouring, and it came down my sheets....the real monsoon type of rain, that would soak you to the none in seconds, at time we could not even see across the alley.
The oppressing heat and atmospheric pressure was released and we could all breathe a bit better, after the first down pour. The lightening show was impressive and every bit as wonderful as a scheveningen fireworks show...

Now the heat had died down a bit we order each a bowl of chicken and noodles, pedis....and it was pedis.....we loved it. Goes great with a large bottle of Bintang beer (made locally by Heineken)
we were still a bit hungry so we ordered a plate of tahu goreng with kacang sauce and ketjap manis, it was delicious.
An hour later the rain let-up enough for us to hasten back to the hotel, where we just relaxed and had an early sleep.

Recipe for Gado-Gado
The vegetables:
112 g / 4 oz / l cup cabbage or spring greens, shredded
225 g / 8 oz / 2 cups French beans, cut into 1-cm / 1/2-inch lengths
4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
112 g / 4 oz /1 cup cauliflower florets
112 g / 4 oz / 1 cup beansprouts, washed
For the garnish:
Some lettuce leaves and watercress
2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
1 medium-size potato, boiled in its skin, then peeled and sliced;
   or 225 g / 8 oz of slices of lontong (optional)
1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced
1 tbsp crisp-fried onions
2 large krupuk, or a handful of fried emping, broken up into small pieces (optional)
Boil the vegetables separately in slightly salted water, for 3-4 minutes, except the beansprouts which only need 2 minutes. Drain each vegetable separately in a colander.
To serve, arrange the lettuce and watercress around the edge of a serving dish. Then pile the vegetables in the middle of the dish. Arrange the eggs, sliced potatoes or lontong, and sliced cucumber on top.
Heat the peanut sauce in a small saucepan until hot; add more water if it is too thick. Adjust the seasoning, and pour the sauce over the vegetables. Sprinkle the fried onions on top. Serve warm or cold. If you want to serve hot gado-gado, it can be reheated in a microwave oven. When reheating, however, do not include the lettuce and watercress, cucumber slices, fried onions, krupuk or emping. Add these garnishes immediately before serving.

For the sauce:

Sambal Kacang (Peanut Sauce)

Makes about 280 ml / 1/2 pint / 1-1/4 cups of sauce
This is the best-known, most popular sauce for satay and goes well with any grilled meat.
If you like your satay sauce chilli-hot, there are several quite passable powdered instant sauces on the market. For making it yourself, there are various so-called short cuts, most of them involving crunchy peanut butter. Avoid these; the method described below is as easy, cheaper and much nicer.
112 ml / 4 fl oz / 1/2 cup vegetable oil
225 g / 8 oz / 1-1/3 cups raw peanuts
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 shallots, chopped
A thin slice of shrimp paste (optional)
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
450 ml / 16 fl oz / 2 cups water
1 tbsp tamarind water or juice of a lemon
Stir-fry the peanuts for 4 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to drain in a colander, and leave to cool. Then pound or grind the nuts into a fine powder, using a blender, coffee grinder, or pestle and mortar. Discard the oil, except for 1 tablespoonful.
Crush the garlic, shallots and shrimp paste in a mortar with a little salt, and fry in the remaining oil for 1 minute. Add the chilli powder, sugar, soy sauce and water. Bring this to the boil, then add the ground peanuts. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce becomes thick; this should take about 8-10 minutes. Add the tamarind water or lemon juice and more salt if needed. When cool, keep in a jar in the fridge.