Monday was a great day because we connected with old friends Made and Nyoman! Made helped me a lot with my research the last two times I was here. She introduced me to D'Ayu who in turn introduced me to Ibu Jero a potter/priest in the village of Bedulu. D'Ayu took me everywhere with her during my past stays. We spent lots of time together in temples preparing for ceremonies making offerings out of palm leaves (banten) and colorful rice dough (jajen). I had old information for made and Nyoman so was worried we wouldn't be able to find them. Unbelievably, I never got the name of their village when I was last here - I suppose I never imagined we would lose touch with one another! However, I found an old email from an American man that she worked for ten years ago so wrote to him and remarkably he had her new cell number! I called her a bunch of times and finally it worked! Her phone had been broken for days so it was very lucky I found her.
Anyway, they came to our villa bearing lots of yummy gifts -- many many flavors of home-roasted peanuts! They have a thriving business now in their village of KlungKung (about one hour from Ubud) where they roast peanuts in coconut oil and sell them all over the island. Spicy sweet with Bali basil (my favorite, and ted's!), sweet sweet and salty (elsa's favorite of course), slivered plain, roasted salted soy nuts too! We devoured them! They also brought durian - a very strange fruit that is incredibly hard and spiky on the outside and slippery and slimy on the inside. It smells like old socks, blue cheese and rotten apples? It feels like rotten mushrooms or fibrous silken tofu? Tastes like garlic and.....god only knows what else. It is truly impossible to describe! The Balinese LOVE durian! It is sold everywhere and Balinese often gather and have giant bowls of durian to enjoy together as a treat. I eat it because I find it to be a fascinating and challenging experience to to eat something that smells and tastes so foul and manage to not throw it up. Also, watching us (try to) eat durian is endlessly amusing for our Balinese friends - how could I deny them that pleasure! Below are pics of Durian and also Dragon fruit - another strange fruit which looks much more interesting than it tastes (kinda rose perfumy sweet yet bland).
 |
| Dragon Fruit! |
 |
| Nyoman opening the 'ugly' fruit |
 |
| mmmmm, yummmmm |
 |
| Elsa is so BRAVE! You go GIRLO! |
I LOVE durian! No kidding. I had it on my trip to Malaysia (where it is also a treasured delicacy), and once I got past the stink, I thought it was delicious.
ReplyDelete