Cooking in Bali

Balinese people eat rice with most meals. They also eat with their fingers but they give tourists a spoon and fork to eat with. Two of the most common dishes here are Nasi Goreng (rice and vegetables) and Mei Goreng (noodles and vegetables). Balinese people also like their food spicy so they add a lot of chili or chili sauce to it.

I did a cooking course in Ubud and I took the Flat Stanleys with me.

They had all of the ingredients ready for us and we just needed to cut, grind, mix, cook and assemble them.

Peanut Sauce and Sate

All of the ingredients were chopped up then ground together to make a paste. 

Then the paste was cooked in a pan with stock and soy sauce.

The peanut sauce was used in lots of the dishes but it is also served with sate (sar-tay) which is meat cooked on a stick.

Sates are cooked over hot embers. The person cooking them waves a fan above the embers to make them hotter. There are lots of people on the side of the streets all around Bali cooking sate.

Bumbu Bali (Balinese multi purpose spices)

All of these ingredients go into the Bumbu Bali which is used in lots of different recipes.

All of the ingredients are ground together.

Sambal Ulek (spicy sauce)

All of these ingredients are chopped and sautéed then ground together.

Pepes Ikan (steamed fish in banana leaf)

 We flavoured some tuna with Bumbu Bali then rolled it in a banana leaf with basil leaves and slices of tomato.

 Then they were steamed over a pot of water.

Then they were grilled over the same embers as the chicken.

Sweet Potato in a Palm Sugar Gravy

 There was rice too, of course.

Ubud Market

I visited the market with a local lady. She goes there every morning at 6am to buy food for her family. The market starts at 4am. It is different to a supermarket because there are no prices. The buyer and the seller have to agree on a price they are both happy with.

The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, Ubud

Map of where the Monkey Forest is

There are lots of rules to read before you go into the Monkey Forest. I decided that it was best for the Stanleys if they stayed inside my bag. I didn't want any cheeky monkeys to steal them.



The monkeys that live in the forest are Macaques. There are about 600 monkeys and there are five different groups that live if different areas of the forest.  They eat mainly sweet potato and some fruit. Tourists can buy bananas to feed to the monkeys. While they are eating the bananas they sit on your lap, shoulder or head. Normally the monkeys don't climb on you unless you have food. I had a monkey jump on me while I was crossing a bridge. It was very interested in my bag, but it couldn't figure out how to get inside it so the Flat Stanleys were safe.



You can find out more information about The Sacred Monkey Forest here.