Hi Gram,
I woke early this morning, excited to head to a cooking class with my friends. I was running a little late and I worried that I was going to miss it, but after a brisk walk I got to our meeting point. I seem to have walked so briskly, in fact, that I made up the time and actually got there early. A few other people walked in around the same time , so we relaxed on the couch together as more people trickled in. It was fun sharing our stories of flights and jet lag, and soon we were all piling into two vans headed for our first stop.

We chatted as our driver navigated the narrow streets to the market. Once there, he walked us through the open air market, which opened at 4am with raw ingredients such as fruits, vegetables, and spices. We learned about different types of ginger, why Balinese use more shallots than onions, and got to smell the aromas of different herbs and spices. The vendors were all friendly and smiling, and our driver even brought us each a little breakfast cake to sweeten our mornings.

Back in the van we headed to our next stop, a rice field, for an explanation of the life cycle of rice, the intricate network of irrigation channels, and how ducks are used to help clear the fields after the rice is harvested. One more short drive, then we were ushered upstairs to the cooking classroom. After a serving of ginger tea and an overview of what we would be doing, we paired off at our cooking stations for an explanation of the first preparation of nine.

We washed our hands, then got to work dicing up the vegetables and garlic. The instructors came by and corrected our knife handling form, then collected the product of our work to prepare it for the next stage. We took turns pounding a set of ingredients in a giant mortal and pestle, then headed back to our stations. The rest of the class went by in a bit of a blur.

I remember dividing the contents with my lab partner, Heather, then cooking and stirring each set of ingredients until completion, then sampling our creations before pouring them all together to be set aside for later. We learned some of the history of chicken sate, then made our own little chicken meatballs that we formed around sticks.

We made some mie goreng – fried noodles – and a salad that contained fish sauce that I vowed to try, but decided to forego after just one sniff. We rolled balls of dough with a sweet palm sugar center, watched to see how peanut sauce and sambal tomat – spicy tomato sauce – were made. We switched partners from time to time, joked around with each other, and all got a chance to get our hands dirty and our confidence boosted.

Once we were all done, we were treated to a buffet lunch of the food we’d prepared. Something about eating food that I made from scratch with my own hands made it taste better. We topped it off with the dessert cakes we had made, and all agreed that we are of course wonderful chefs. After thanking our hosts, we filed back downstairs to the vans and headed back to our Plataran starting point. Some headed off to their own adventures, but a few of us decided to go get a massage and pedicure to reward ourselves for slaving over a stove all day. My pedicure helped me feel amazing, restoring my feet to their butter soft texture and making me feel pampered. Judging from the looks on everyone else’s faces when they came back from their massages, they all had a great experience too. We headed to get some drinks and watch traffic for a while, then each headed home to shower up and get ready for dinner.

We got to the Cafe Lotus only to learn that there was a show that night, leaving the restaurant packed. We scored ourselves a traditional table with floor seating just before the show started, and enjoyed the music and traditional kecak story while we ate. It provided a nice backdrop to our conversation as we got to know each other and share our backstories. Of course the food was amazing, and the service was friendly and polite but we’ve come to expect that. Full and tired, we decided that the crepes we had planned for dessert would have to wait for another night when we weren’t all so full. We parted ways and each headed home, satisfied with another spectacular day.