September 19,

We were both awake for the call to prayer. I thought I was past waking up for this. There’s only one good thing from this rude awakening is going out to the bathroom and seeing the stars!! We finally got around at 0630. While we were showering outside, we saw a small gecko war with and defeat a cockroach! That was exciting!! Anyway, we had our javas and we were served banana pancakes for breakfast. YUMMY!

We did not do much today due to our sunburns – just hung out. I caught up on blogging and Jeff read and planned. For lunch we had PB/Nutella sandwiches. It was a hot, sunshiny day. Our AC had some problems. Jeff got a new battery for the remote and that seemed to help.

Afternoon turned to evening and we did get out. We went back to Warung Pencar Seaside Restaurant. I had the Grilled Red Snapper with a great rub/seasoning, accompanied with Rice; Beansprout side; and Fish Soup. Jeff had the Grilled Tuna; Rice; and Sambal. It was as good as we remembered. I had a lemon iced tea drink, Jeff had a lemon squash drink. They gave us their “Chocolate Pudding.” The meal cost us 320,000 IDR ($19.28) with a small tip. We went back and met our third neighbor. She is from Germany. We went in and had some real chocolate, calling it a blessed day!

      September 20,

We both awoke to the call to pray. This was bad because the alarm was set for 0530. So we did not get back to sleep. Anyway, we were up early to go to the market! We readied and went to the Ode Restaurant by 0600. We met Ode, the owner, and he took us two villages over to go to an active, hidden market. It was tucked just behind the main road. And boy, was it busy!!

Ode said, “Today was a celebration day,” then he added, “we have so many here in Bali that we don’t really have holidays.” Anyway he walked up though the place. He pointed out various veggies- eggplant, tomatoes, water spinach, and tourist chilies versus Balinese chilies; herbs- lemongrass, coriander, galangal, turmeric, and ginger; and fruits- pumpkin, oranges, and snake fruit. He opened a snake fruit and let us sample it… similar to a strawberry, but with citrus notes. Then we went to fish stalls. He bought a whole tuna for his restaurant. It looked really good!

Lastly, he took us to a vendor selling “Balinese Breakfast- ‘pancakes’,” as he called them. There were little, three-inch, half moon shaped ones, topped with chocolate shavings, sprinkles, or cheese. He offered us one each. We both had a chocolate one. There were also larger folded pancakes with chocolate inside them. Ode had him give a wedge of this also. We preferred this last kind. Now, we left and came back to the restaurant – market outing complete, by 0700. Ode had told us our menu and that he would send the recipes on WhatsApp. We left back to our place for a break- class didn’t start for three hours.

At 1000, we returned and donned our supplied caps and aprons. Our Chef, or teacher came out and introduced himself, Putu. He wasted no time and told us what we would be making. He went over some of the ingredients we had in front of us, and we started chopping!

We made Lumpia Bali, or Spring Rolls with carrots, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, and leek. The veggies were seasoned with S&P, sesame seeds, and oyster sauce; sauteed; and then rolled in rice paper, sealed with egg. These were fried in palm oil. Next was Bumbu Gede, or Balinese sauce. This was a rough chop of shallots, garlic, ginger, aromatic ginger, turmeric, galangal, lemongrass, tourist pepper, bay leaf, and celery leaves. These were all blended together with a small bit of water. Then the fragrant mix was simmered for ten minutes or more in quite a bit of palm oil. Next we worked on Ayam (Chicken) Soup. This was cubed chicken, with julienned Sayote (similar to a green Papaya) and lemongrass. I sauteed chicken then added Sayote and lemongrass, with two Tbls. of the Balinese sauce, S&P, sesame seeds, and one tps. of oyster sauce. Then added water lastly coconut milk, boiling until veggies cooked through.

Next we did our mains: I had Ayam Sate, or Chicken Satay. I had some minced chicken that I seasoned with two Tbls. of the Balinese sauce, and one tps. of coconut milk. Then mixed that together and formed the mix onto bamboo sticks. They cooked them on a grill. Jeff had Ayam Betutu. He boiled the chicken (thigh & leg) in water, as he finecut lemongrass and shallots. Then Putu had Jeff put five Tbls. of the sauce in a pan, then add the chicken, and the finecut veg. turning/stirring and coating the meat. Meanwhile, I was mixing by hand and mildly crushing shallots and tourist pepper together. This was our sambal.

Lastly, for dessert, we made Dadar Gulung, or Coconut Pancake. Putu had a premade mix of rice flour, eggs, tapioca, and coconut milk. He spooned this mix into a buttered hot pan and we made our pancakes thin like crepes. We even flipped them, tossing them in the pan! We added a premade mix of palm sugar syrup and grated coconut to the pancake and rolled them like spring rolls. Finally we drizzled palm syrup over them.

We plated our stuff and ate our labor! It was so good!! The Balinese sauce is awesome!!! We had to take some of the food home in takeaway containers. We paid 880,000 IDR, which is $52.87. Jeff tipped Putu 100,000 IDR, or $6.

We chilled out the rest of the day in a food coma! We had the dessert we made for supper.