The Quinn Family Excellent Adventure: Balinese Cooking Class at the Amala

Today we did a Balinese cooking class at the Amala, a really nice hotel near the airport. https://www.theamala.com/balinese-cooking-class/ We got up early, Yoga, Swim and prep for a busy morning. Our cooking class started with a pickup by the chef himself. I Gede Sarjana got us at exactly 8:45 AM. Out first stop is a cool local market. This place is a gem. The fishermen (and women) leave at 5 PM and return at 5 AM with their catches. You can get there early and negotiate with them if you wish. Otherwise the fish are awaiting in a pretty big market. Beside that is a huge selection of vegetables and stuff. Our tour was very helpful in showing and describing items used in Balinese cooking. I wish I had taken notes. Michelle took interest in some interesting eggs. These are normal chicken eggs cooking in an interesting process. They are placed in the ground, covered with dirt and rock salt. Then above the ground a fire is started for 15 days. The result is a slowly cooked and salted egg. They were kinda salty. We were armed with fish and veggies for our journey to the Amala. We met another participant from Austria. We had a cooking hat, apron and cutting center for each of us. We reviewed what we were to cook and later eat. Base Gede is a traditional spicy chili paste very very common in Balinese foods. Jukut Gedang Mekuah is a green papaya sea food soup. Sate Lilitayam is a chicken sate on a stick. Desert was a Godoh Biu, Balinese fried banana. It was a blast cutting, cooking watching and learning. After we ate everything. Yum. It was way too much food so the leftovers went with our Austrian friend. We got clean copies of the recipe, certificated of participation and got to keep our aprons. Cool. We were kinda baked after getting home so we slept like champs, lazily ordered room service and relaxed like rock stars. Awesome day.

Lobster at the market