I quickly fell in love with the bustling town of Ubud. Impressive points in the town include but are
not limited to the numerous used book stores, the Monkey Forest,
attractive silver and batik shops, fire dances, rice paddy walks, creative vegetarian
food, a plentiful supply of transport drivers, free wi-fi and real espresso. It was not difficult to understand why many
expatriates make their homes in Ubud and start export businesses back to their
motherland.
One day we took a vegetarian style Balinese cooking class and
learned how to make a few traditional Indonesian dishes. Our chef, Nyoman took us on a tour thru the
local pungent smelling market and pointed out the different kinds of rice,
roots and spices we would use in our cooking.
Most Indonesian
dishes (as well as Thai) are made with shrimp paste but we opted out for strict
veggie matter in our recipes.
The first concoction we made was called Base Gedi
– a basic spice sauce consisting of four fragrant roots and seven spices. We
cooked steamed vegetables mixed with Base Gedi and sweet coconut shavings.
Gado-Gado is a popular Indonesian dish consisting of fried tempeh and tofu, a
hard boiled egg and peanut sauce served over at least two different types of vegetables,
garnished with shrimp or soy crackers. Our favorite tasting dish was fried
tempeh mixed with palm sugar, chilies and shallots served over rice, which will
certainly be on my restaurant menu one day.
The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary proved to be a much loved
attraction for us as the name says it all. For a small fee of $1 we spent all
day (or a couple days) in the lush green jungle of the Monkey Forest
witnessing grey-haired Balinese Macaques in their haunt. Visitors have
the opportunity to hand feed them bananas, peeling their little pick-pocket
fingers off your leg meanwhile observing them methodically wash rocks in mud puddles,
swimming and diving into their pond, wrestling with their cousins, leaping from trees, making babies and picking
cooties from each other’s coats. One
small monkey climbed up Randy’s arm, contently perched on his shoulders and
hugged his neck. I worried we would not pass customs with the extra furry
backpack so we returned him to his sacred forest.
