Day five was something which I personally was looking forward to. Cooking has now turned into a passion and whenever I get a chance I want to make use of it to learn new dishes and cuisines. That's what we did on our fifth day. We experienced a unique attraction which is the Balinese cooking class. Day started early as we got up at 6 am and left the villa at 7 am. We were first taken to a local market to introduce us to the basics of Balinese cooking, the core ingredients. Balinese cooking involves a whole range of new flavors like the peanut, lime leaves amongst many others. The market reminded us of the local markets in India.
We were then taken to Anika Cooking Class. We were around 15 people and they divided us into three groups of five people. First we were served with some Balinese breakfast which included hibiscus tea, black rice pudding, pandan cake or klepons and rice cake.
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| Traditional methods for Balinese cooking |
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| A very tasty breakfast |
After the breakfast, we all were asked to chop the veggies and get things ready for cooking. If you are a vegetarian, they have different dishes for you. So we all had to prepare a 7 course meal for our lunch which included, sweet corn fritters, Fern Lawar, fragrant yellow rice, Balinese fried rice, the traditional sambal, peanut sauce, tofu satay, fish curry, shredded spiced beef, chicken satay, fruits in coconut milk and fried bananas. Each of us get a turn to cook for others. There will be instructors who hwlp us. We prepared all the vegetarian dishes. After it's all done, it a big feast as all of us get to share and have a nice lunch.
The thing which impressed me the most is the way food items are cooked in Balinese cuisine, The traditional method is still alive and you get the best results when you use the traditional way of cooking. I learnt many techniques and I'm very sure of applying them in everyday cooking. The taste was very different and a few ingredients which are very common in Balinese cuisine are the lime, peanut, galangal(Thai ginger) and fried onion. They give a whole new taste to the food.
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| All set for the feast |
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| The group |
After our successful cooking class, we went back to our villa, had a good massage, had early dinner and went to Seminyak beach and walked around the beach restaurants. That was a tiring Day 5 and we were looking forward to Day 6 for the very famous Tanah Lot tour.
Day 6 went lazy in the morning as it was completely relaxed. Tanah Lot tour begins in the afternoon. Our guide picked us from the villa around 1.30 pm and we went to the Mengwi temple first. It was as beautiful as anything could be. The temples are just amazing and so different from the ones we have in other Hindu countries especially India,
The Alas Kedanto Monkey Forest was another attraction which we were waiting for. This was our second monkey forest experience. It's amazing to see how these little creatures behave. I had the best experience when a monkey hugged my legs for a very long time while searching for food. I was very scared when it came near but when it hugged me, I was so touched and I literally felt as if a baby was hugging me. We were so much into these monkey acts that we forgot to click photos. But that was a indeed a very touching experience. In this monkey forest, we get to feed them peanuts whereas in Ubud monkey forest , we fed them bananas. We even had an awesome Bat encounter.
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| This was the monkey which hugged me |
After the monkey forest, we went to Tanah Lot. Tanah lot is among the biggest attractions in Bali because of the breathtaking views and unique sunset experience. The views of the huge rocks amidst the massive ocean is mesmerizing. We were awe struck when we went there. At the end of the rock, they have a temple too. There were people everywhere. It's a great place to click a few amazing pictures. The sunset is too good to imagine. We loved the whole experience. We even got to taste the holy water.
After a delightful tour, we came back to the villa for a surprise candle light dinner which I had arranged for Naveen. Candlelight dinner by the pool is the probably loved by every couple. We had a few lip smacking dishes and wrapped it up with some traditional desserts.
Day 5 and 6 were very productive and in different ways. Hope you guys enjoyed reading :) Thanks a lot.
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