Stick a fork in me...‏ - Wed 3/04/09

Dear Everyone,

I thought I was living in the jungle but is becoming increasingly obvious that I haven't left the farm. Today, the neighbor's pig got loose and when I left the house, he was happily munching on the plants lining the rice fields. I had to literally step over him to get to my motorbike. The fields themselves are heavy with rice, ready to be harvested. In the morning, I've been getting torn from sleep by a rooster I have started to call "The Warden". He goes from one end of the walkway to the other crowing until he reaches my house and bellows directly into my bedroom window for fifteen minutes. It is all I can do to refrain from going out there with my Balinese chopping knife. Perhaps it is my lot in life to be surrounded with loud, unruly animals (Is life in New York City any different?) Unfortunately, my friend Antonia had to suffer through this during her stay but we left town pretty quickly to SCUBA dive in the islands.

I'm calling her visit the "Culinary Tour of Bali." We did almost nothing but stuff our faces and hang out underwater. It was quite lovely and I got to introduce her to many classic local food items.

There is the ubiquitous Nasi Bungkus, the fried grease bombs with rice that the locals eat three times a day. We sampled the babi guling (roast suckling pig). We dabbled in goat sate and its equally delicious accompanying soup of goat offal. We slurped noodles and Bakso, which is a ball of any kind of smushed up meat, combined with cornstarch and egg to bind it together, cooked in soup.

(As a sidenote, the newspaper, after Obama was elected, had a front page article with the title "Obama Kangen Bakso" (Obama misses Bakso). Indonesians love that he lived here for a time.)

We ate grilled seafood on the beach...A lot of grilled seafood on the beach. We had an
exceptional duck feast, and we finished off the grand tour with another feast at the night market in Seminyak which serves that delicious squid I have gone on and on about. We ordered a whole grilled snapper, a whole grilled squid, a few tiger shrimp, a bunch of grilled clams, along with the usual green vegetables and rice, washed down with a couple of beers (all for $10). Not a bad sendoff after a nice trip, if you ask me. I also watched them prepare the tomato sambal that I said was the best thing for seafood ever. I witnessed another step that those cheeky ladies "forgot" to tell me about. They grilled the tomatoes before grinding them for the sambal. Just think of the flavors that would add.

But the real star of the show was the duck feast that I just ghosted over. The dish is called Bebek Tutu (smoked duck) and the recipe will have to remain a mystery until I learn how to prepare it next week. What I do know is this. The duck is stuffed with 15 or 20 Balinese spices (balanced with centuries of collective Balinese knowledge), as well as five whole hard-boiled duck eggs. Then they rub the outside of the duck with the same mixture. The seasoned duck is sealed in banana leaves and smoked over a wood fire for many hours. When the leaves are finally opened the duck inside is incredibly fragrant, fall-from-the-bone tender, and deeply seasoned in a way that I've never experienced before. I do believe it has changed my life. It has definitely set the bar for all subsequent fowl. When I told my host about how much I loved it she said, "Great! But if you want to try some really good smoked duck you need to try my mother-in-law's." Apparently there are realms of taste I haven't even begun to scale.

I have to admit, I'm skeptical. I mean, how much better can food get?

So I think Antonia had a good time. There is something to be said for spending an entire 10 days bloated and satisfied. I have to admit, when we got to the airport I had a strong desire to fly home and see everyone. Then the day after she got home a blizzard hit New York. I'm keeping busy detoxing from the food overdose and my sister arrived yesterday. After she leaves, I have only a couple of weeks left to learn all the recipes I haven't gotten down yet before flying to Vietnam. So I'm close...but not quite done yet.

Hope all is well back home.

Love,
Alex