Cooking with Desa

 Now that you've briefly met "Irish Jenny" - you can get an idea of our colorful adventures together while only know each other for a week, actually just a few days. Jenny and I met at a yoga class, went to get some lunch together after class and hit it off and enjoyed each other's company. She's traveling alone and has left now to go to an organic farm in Malaysia to volunteer and live there for a little while. I'll explain about the organic farming later on...she may be on a farm in Thailand in a few months so I hope we meet again.  But for the purpose of this adventure Jenny and I were hanging out for a few days before my retreat started and before she left for Malaysia.

I happened to mention to her I was excited to try a cooking class here. Maybe at one of the restaurants I would take a class and learn to make a good, basic Nasi Goreng or Chicken Satay. Something I could make at home and impress my friends. Jenny mentioned this to the man who owned the place she was staying that we were looking for a cooking class. He said his wife Desa could take us to the market and give us a lesson in her kitchen. It would only cost us $125,000 rupiahs each (about $15) and she would be happy to do it. Jenny told him we wanted to cook, Nasi Goreng, Nasi Champur and something else very basic, thinking of course we would be cooking in Desa's kitchen and it would be a hands on lesson.

Well, Desa and her kids were charming. She is sweet and gentle and does not speak much English, so between her and her adorable daughter Esa (who is about 9 years old) we could all communicate with our broken English and Indonesian. Desa gets up and goes to the market at about 5:30am so we missed that part, but Dewa (her husband and owner of the Hostel) took us around 9am. (this was when I went to the dreaded ATM that ate my card)

What fascinated me most about Desa's kitchen (besides the gecko's (lizards) crawling up the walls) was the old stone stove sitting next to the electric burners. Every kitchen in Bali has the electric burners that people us as stoves. I'm still not sure what people do without ovens, but no one seems to have one. Desa told us her mother still make rice and does all her cooking in this old stone fireplace type thing. She won't use anything else. ( elegant description I know) Desa now uses a rice cooker and blender for juices. When you see these things next to each other it's such a striking contract of generations. It says so much about how they live.

 Jenny and I sat in Desa kitchen and watched her make a few things that I still can't pronounce, but I did write them down. Basiglia -which is a chili and tomato side sauce that Indonesian warungs (cafes) and restaurants seems to serve with everything. Samba Matte and Semat. Semat is like a spicy chicken filling  wrapped in a banana leaf and boiled. Also chicken satay.
Desa is amazing.