Wordless Wednesday~ Kecak Dancers, Uluwatu Bali

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Happy WW all!

Wordless Wednesday~ Koi Carp @ The Haven, Bali

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Bali: the Ocean Walk

i was meant to write about this long time ago (like immediately after we came back from ali 6 months ago~that long time ago...damn! & i still miss Bali...& that was part of the reason why i have been delaying the post ) but never get around (this is just the excuse)  to it until i saw one of meBIL's Storm trooper ~star wars' helmet collection that it remands me to write this post.....;P

this was probably as close as we could get at diving i suppose... although there wasn't much to see..the corals were dead (u'll see in the pics below) & the fishes were either on holiday themselves or they were on strike...cos there were not that many around....we were seriously sad that there were not many to see..& sad that the underwater fauna & flora is practically dead on that part of the ocean

 so here are the underwater version storm trooper pics that the guide help us snapped....

what we had on our hands were bread for the fish..

what actual hold us down in the water were ankle weights
 
what's the cost per head: between-Rp350,000.00-Rp500,000.00

how long were we underwater? about 15-20 minutes i think.

please be cautious: one could feel a lil bit dizzy after resurfacing because of the underwater pressure.  

i'm not sure if  i've ever heard of ocean walk before or if there are any other places that offer this activity other then here in Bali.

well, it was a good experience & a memorable one for us but it could of course have been better if the coral weren't dead & more fishes around to look at.

hmmm...  i still think i owe a few more posts on Bali n promise to write about them as n when something else reminds me of those overdue posts ...later...one day...maybe...:P 

Happy Weekend All!

Bali: Sate Lilit & recipe~Cooking Mode ON.

the first time mehubby & i tried sate lilit was when we were in Bali where it's originated from. when we got home, i kept thinking about it & it kept on haunting me... last couple of weeks while flipping thru the cable channel (while mehubby was away, obviously ;P ) i saw Bobby Chin - Discovery Travel & Living, World Cafe Asia was making them sate lilit~. haish tak leh jadi nih, but since i missed the 1st part of the program i didn't get to see what he used ta make them & try to put it at the back of my mind, after all my cooking mode was still OFF then. last week plak, while flipping thru some old magazines at my FIL's... @ the recipe section...they showed the pics of  them glorious sate lilit & for some reasons they have the same recipes on two different categories~ if that's not enough hint to make me try it, i don't know what would lah...:P

however i don't really trust recipes in magazines cos they bound to omit certain things & the instructions would either be confusing or there would be some missing link somehow, somewhere...these sentences seem redundant don't they... oh well....;P
so i googled. found lots of postings on the recipe with lots of variation.so i used this recipe below as a main guide with several other recipes combined.to create my own version...hehehe...

yesterday after finalising the recipe with my cooking MODE went ON again, i left the office~ told mehubby & meFIL that i'm going to make them Sate Lilit for berbuka puasa....

so here's the recipe, the writing in orange is my variation;

Recipe: Sate Lilit Bali 
Ingredients:

250 grams shrimp (cleaned and deveined)
250 grams mackerel or any firm white flesh fillet
50 grams desiccated coconut -i used fresh shredded coconut.
65gm coconut milk
6 pieces kaffir lime leaves (thinly sliced)-i mixed it in the process ingredients
2 tablespoons palm sugar (gula jawa)-mixed it in process ingredients
Red capsicum (tiny cubes for sprinkles)-didn't have any.
Bamboo skewers or fresh lemongrass may be used-i used both

Processed Ingredients:
red chili- depending on ur taste, how mild or hot or super hot u like.
8 shallots
2 cloves garlic
2 cm galangal or blue ginger
2 cm kencur / cekur or lesser galangal- i love this but no one else at the house likes it so i skipped.
1 teaspoon coriander seeds-somehow i missed to use this one...oops!!:P
1 cm fresh turmeric- didn't have any so i used powdered turmeric instead.
3 kemiri-or buah keras- candle nut
1 stalk lemon grass / serai
some recipes use belacan/ terasi or shrimp paste but i didn't
Mince all ingredients until they turn into a smooth paste- some recipes say~do not fry / saute-
some say~ Saute.over medium heat. i prefer the later. let is cool then mixed in the fish & shrimp paste.

Method:

1. Mix both fish & shrimp in food processor until smooth. Mix in coconut. Add the coconut milk.
2. Add processed ingredients, mix well. Add salt & sugar to taste.
3. If the mixture is still too dry, you may add 1 egg white and a bit of olive oil.-with the coconut milk it should be ok.
4. Shape the mixture on sate sticks/lemongrass stalk, flatten slightly.- use a bit of  olive / cooking oil while shaping to help it stick to the lemongrass or skewer & that also make the uncooked sate not stick to each other.
5. Charcoal grill sate until light brown and cooked through.- i used bbq electric grill.

 the sates after i'ved shaped around the lemongrass

 

on the BBQ electric grill

please note that those serai that i used were taken from my FIL's back garden hence the various sizes. ;P

so here are my Sate Lilit Bali ala SLR ready to be tried & tasted during berbuka yesterday~ forgot to take the pic of the sambal matah (something like sambal belacan with a twist). sate lilit are usually eaten with nasi, pasal tulah ade sambal matah.

Recipe: Sambal Matah


INGREDIENTS:
15 shallots, peeled, cut in half and finely sliced
4 cloves garlic, cut in half & sliced
15 small sliced chilies
1 tsp roasted shrimp paste (terasi)
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice-i used limau kasturi

2 tsp palm sugar

PREPARATION:
1. Combine all ingredients & blend.
2. Season to taste with salt

sauté mixture for two minutes over medium heat to enhance the flavor.

the verdict: mehubby said, it tasted like the ones that we tried in Bali..hehe( kembang jap), laith said it tasted like otak-otak~ he loves otak-otak & the rest simply loved it...including my picky eater nephew mike whom hardly touches anything he is not familiar with. so i guess either it was actually good or it simply different from the normal food that we always have...hahaha...:D

happy fasting & happy trying  the recipe sate lilit Bali ala SunnyLovesRain.:D

Bali: Kopi O Coffee

i used to be a coffee drinker...well once upon a time, long time ago...  now, i only drink coffee occasionally...if there are no other drinks or plain water available that is. i can go high on coffee with or without milk. on top of that if i were to drink it in the morning, it will basically lead me to toilet trips every 5-10 minute throughout the day...it's just so tiring so i stopped.

during our so called honeymoon in Bali recently, a visit to Domba Coffee company was somehow unplanned but we learned quite a bit about coffee which is interesting.

 

Balinese women sorted coffee beans into different grades at the entrance

here are all the coffee beans sample they have on display.

the different kind of beans that they grade from the cheapest to the most expensive. according to the guide the beans are categorized to female (flat beans) & male beans (peaberries).  female beans are the cheapest & mild tasting while the male beans are a lot more stronger and more expensive because male beans, quantity wise when the coffee cherries are harvested, between 5% to 10% of the cherries will contain only one bean.

coffee trees produce red or purple cherries which typically contain two seeds. Open the fruit and you’ll find two green coffee beans, face to face.

female beans/ flat beans

 

male beans/ peaberries

~it’s simply the description of a coffee cherry which contains not the usual two green coffee beans (female beans/ flat beans), but one (male beans/ peaberry).

moving on to a more interesting coffee topic &muck talk about just recently is the coffee luwak

 coffee luwak beans

coffee cherries are eaten by a civet for their fruit pulp. After spending about a day and a half in the civet's digestive tract. the beans are then defecated in clumps, having kept their shape and still covered with some of the fleshy berry's inner layers. They are gathered, thoroughly washed, sun dried and given only a light roast so as to keep the many intertwined flavors and lack of bitterness yielded inside the civet.

according to the guide again, i'm not sure how true, but if they want to have the coffee flavored, they'll feed  the civets with fruits like strawberries or jackfruit or vanilla then the coffee produced will have the  said natural fruit flavour. at $400 to $1,000 per pound, kopi luwak is said to be the most surprising and unique morning wake up you'll ever taste....thanks but no thanks...i guess for that amount of  money i'd rather extend my stay in Bali instead...lalalala....;D

Bat Fruit beans

claimed to be more rare then coffee luwak. unlike coffee luwak where it comes of civet poo, this particular beans basically collected from the fruit bats' vomits. hmmm...how interesting!

during our coffee tasting session...& of course i went high the rest of the day & trip after trip to the loo at every stop points.

we did buy some...the cheapest one of course to give away...(a package of 6 packs flat female beans- & u have a choice of payment~if u pay in Rupiah it's Rp300,000.00 but if u pay in Ringgit Malaysia it's RM120.00...that's how they sell it unfortunately, to buy just one pack is considered a sin ;P)

it's  kinda weird that just a few days after we came back from Bali an article came out  in the utusan newspaper on kopi luwak aka  kopi tahi musang. but it's ok, we're not that crazy over coffee & definitely not willing to pay so much for a cup of coffee anyway so~Pass...;P

there another topic covered.

Bali: Spa berSePAh...

Spa is like bersepah-sepah all around Bali, just take ur pick~ from the road side type of massage,(some even offer mobile spa treatment~ where the masseuse walk around (at the beach / town)and offer their services)  to the high class top notch spa whatever it means...again everywhere anywhere...

i'm not really into spa.for reasons i've posted here but when we signed up for our holiday package, not one but 2 spa treatments were included! adeh...:(
anyway i went along halfheartedly to one..& what happened to the other one? the tour operator somehow made a muddle over our itinerary and missed out to include the other spa treatment in their dossier to their counterpart in Bali but we'll get a refund for that so that should be good. ;P

well here's the pics to the one that we went to... (@ Bali Khama)

@ the entrance..

 while waiting for treatment...

 the entrance to the spa- view from the waiting cum reception area..

the treatment room~open spa concept

soak-ur-feet area..

the lesung batu that they fill with rose petals for u to look at while they work on u..

 all the scrubs, the massage oil, the yogurt & not forgetting those disposable undies (the rolled up thingy at top left hand corner) for us...

the shower...told ya it's open concept...well the roof that is..;P

the tub for after treatment dip...for all the birds to see...

 & a cup of herbal tea after the treatment at the tub...

the treatment were in general a lot better then the one that we went to. only that, i kinda feel a lil bit more uneasy at the therapist for mehubby when she went a lil bit more & beyond during the scrubbing, yogurt'ing' & oiling... *sigh* :(

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

& here is the massage, hair braiding, pedi & menicure the outdoor version..outside of Bali Khama where we stayed for the last two days of our "honeymoon" trip at the beach..

hehe...'platting hair'!!!

during my hair braiding session...

while the Hair 'braider' Bibik worked on my hair, the pedi- manicurist Bibik worked on my fingers & toes...well it's more nail art then pedicure & manicure really...

tadda...the one style only braided hair look from Bali~cornrows at the front.and plaited back hair...

& they only cost me Rp250,000.00for all three (Rp100,000.for the hair & Rp150,000 for the pedi & manicure) even though some said they could get a lot cheaper around Kuta area but i thought i'd never get my hair braided for about RM36 here in Malaysia!!
so there another topic updated...& a lot more to go....till the next update~have a great weekend all!