EVERYDAY LIFE IN BALI

BALINESE COOKING

After a few hours of slow roasting the juiciest and most tender pork is obtained, flavoured by the fragrant spices, inside of a deliciously brittle skin covered with a golden-brown glaze. Few dishes in the world can be compared with a well-made be guling.

When the food is ready and the guests are assembled, sitting in long rows, they are served by the leading members of the bandjar and their assistants, who circulate among them carrying trays with pyramids of rice and little square dishes of palm-leaf pinned together with bits of bamboo, containing chopped mixtures, sates, and little side dishes of fried beans (botor) , bean sprouts with crushed peanuts, parched grated coconuts dyed yellow with kunyit, and preserved salted eggs. Others pour drinks; tuak (palm beer) , brom, a sweet sherry made from fermented black rice, or more rarely arak, distilled rice brandy.

More frequently water alone is served; it is only old men who are fond of alcoholic drinks, drinking, however, with moderation and never becoming drunk. During our entire stay in Bali we never saw a man really drunk, perhaps because the Balinese dread the sensation of dizziness and confusion, of losing control over themselves.

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