February 24

February 24

Balinese rice sawas....

After an uneventful trip by turbo prop, we waved goodbye to Lombok. We can truly say that Lombok is a wonderful island with enough to see. The only negative thing is the continuous hassle by people that cannot understand "No-terima kasih"---
No, thank you !!

Somewhere along the road, they have learned that as long as they keep bugging you, you'll buckle and buy something just to be rid of them.
Menno said that I “ain't seen nothing yet and that Bali is a lot worse”....yummy....

The ride from the airport at Dan Pasar to Ubut, which is the artistic hub of Bali revealed a part of Indonesia I have never experienced. Everywhere you look you see evidence of the predominantly Hindu religion and lifestyle. Pagodas, temples ornate gates and wonderful decorations everywhere.

Teba house guest room "Eksekutif"

Balinese temple

We arrived at our hotel , Teba House.
It is a group of small and rather basic "bungalows" around a central courtyard, governed by a Beo bird who greets us whenever he gets a glimpse of us.
The quarters are moldy and the paint is peeling, the beds looks kinda clean though. And there is an airco on the wall, later we will find out if we can get it to work. Thanks goodness we chose the "executive" cottage. (see pix)

I tried to send the last blog out, but it seems that the Internet is down as well.....maybe tomorrow, Menno and I will look for alternate accommodations.
As soon as we washed the mornings sweat of our bodies, we rented a couple of motorcycles and toured the immediate areas surrounding Ubud. It was great fun driving a bike again, after all these years. In the beginning it was a bit odd driving at the left side of the road, and to have to negotiate all that traffic, coming from all directions....

traffic's crazy

Menno took me up the mountain, to see what could be the nicest view of sawas yet...they were stunning. No picture I can take, will do justice, I am sure.
Just as we reached the top, where the sawas were at their grandest, it started to pour... Like really hard, tropical monsoon but, typically, in a half an hour it quit as quick as it started.

light show

Even now as I type this, it is thundering like mad and we are watching a nice "light show" in the sky.
This evening we stopped at a tukan sate and had the first pork sate in a long time, here in Bali, pork is a priced meat.
After this appetizer worth less than $1.00 for 10 sticks, we stopped at a restaurant that Menno had read about in the "lonely Planet" this restaurant was a bit "alternative" serving shots of wheat grass juice....I should have ran away, right there....

We ordered some appetizers,

1) lumpers…. a roll of sticky rice, filled with spiced chicken, rolled in banana leaf and steamed.....these were very good.

2) we also ordered some orak-orak, which are steamed fish cakes in banana leaf and finally

3) some cumi-cumi, battered and fried calamari. These were delicious.

I personally, found the orak-orak to be tasteless and if it was not for the sauce, they would be a waste of time.
By the way, this toko is called "Batan Waru" maybe named after the infamous Bataan Death March of WW2.

Anyway, lesson learned, when you spot signage that suggests that you should try squeezed wheat grass juice.....run and don't stop until you find a warung that sells soto ajam, bubur ajam or at least sate....

We had a super time driving round, tomorrow we may go either east or west.

*If we go eastwards on our bikes, we will see Padang Bai a nice little harbor town, where we would have disembarked at, had we taken the boat from Lombok. As well there is some very nice coastal towns and fish markets to see.
*If we go west, we should see Tanahlot, home of the main temples of all of Bali, built into the ocean and accessible only when the tide is out, just like Monte St. Michel in France.

Temple of Tahnah Lot

So, we’ll see what we do in the morning.

Recipes

Lumper-lemper

A. Ingredients:                                                                 

For the Filling
¾ lb. boneless chicken
½ cup coconut milk
1 cup water / fresh chicken stock
1 lime leaf / 1 square inch lemon peel
1 tbs. fried shallot
½ tsp. ground coriander
¼ tsp. cumin
¼ tsp. shrimp paste (if you like)
2 cloves garlic (fried)
½ tsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt

For the Sweet Rice
1 ½ lbs. sweet rice
¼ cup coconut milk
4 cups of water
½ tsp. salt

For the wrapping...plastic wrap.

B. Method

Filling
Bring water in a pot to a boil
Add chicken and other ingredients; cook for 15 minutes
Discard lime leaf or lemon peel
Shred chicken finely; add to broth
Simmer until liquid is absorbed; stir occasionally to prevent burning

Sweet Rice
Soak sweet rice in water for 1 hour
Drain; place in a heatproof container
Add salt and coconut milk; mix
Steam for 30 minutes

Wrapping
Use saran wrap...
Layer rice ¼ inch thick; cut into 3 ½ x 2 ½ inch pieces
Place a piece of rice onto each 5 ½ x 3 inch saran wrap section
Spread 1 tbs. filling lengthwise along the centre of the rice
Fold both sides of rice toward each other, pressing firmly to make a roll
Close the two ends to make a firmly packed rice roll
Wrap the 51/2 x 3 inch saran around the roll; and tie the ends.