EVERYDAY LIFE IN BALI

BALINESE COOKING

Great numbers were obtained in this curious manner, their wings taken off, and the bodies fried crisp in coconut oil with spices and vegetables. Great delicacies are also the scaled ant-eater (klesih) , the flying fox (a great fruit bat) . porcupines (Iandak) , large lizards (au) , wild boar, squids, rice birds, from the glatek to the minute petingan, which was eaten bones and all, and all sorts of cravfish. In every food-stand we saw small fried eels from the ricefields, looking suspiciously like shrivelled baby snakes. Although dogs are included in the list of what not to eat, they are eaten in some of the remote villages in Klungkung and Gianvar, but the rest of the Balinese will have nothing to do with people of such disgusting habits.

With meat eaten only occasionally, the diet of the Balinese consists, besides rice, corn, and sweet potato, of vegetables and fruits, of which they have a great variety. Besides eggplant, papaya, coconut, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, oranges, melons, peanuts, and so forth, there are others unknown among us, such as the delicious breadfruit (timbul) , jackfruit (nangka) , acacia leaves (twi) , greens (kangkung) , edible ferns (paku) , and extraordinary fruits such as salak, a pear-shaped fruit that grows on a palm, tastes like pineapple, and is covered by the most perfect imitation snakeskin; the delicate djambu, fragrant wani, the rambutan (a large sort of grape inside of a hairy transparent pink skin) , the famous mangosteen (manggis) (for which a prize was offered by Queen Victoria to anyone who found the way to bring the fruit in good condition to England) , and the stinking durien (duren in Bali) .

A good deal has been written both in favour of and against this spiky sort of custard apple, whose putrid smell has been compared with every decaying or evil-smelling thing from goats to rancid butter. The meat of the durien is a creamy custard, the undefinable flavour and texture of which develops into a passion among those used to eating it. Most Europeans, however, object to its offensive smell to such a degree that they forbid their servants to bring durien within a distance of their house. The fruits are eaten raw and the vegetables are boiled or fried after being washed carefully in a special bowl.

The Balinese peel vegetables away and not towards themselves, as is done in the West. Although the Balinese are not fond of sweets, they make a delicious dessert of coconut cream with cinnamon, bananas, or breadfruit steamed in packages of banana leaf.

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