In Reply to: Balinese Food posted by Star12 on Monday, 17. October 2005 at 15:43 Bali Time:
.. good cos you can make a variety - pork, chicken, beef, fish - marinade them ahead of time and put them on water-soaked bamboo skewers (to avoid the skewers burning) just before BBQing. Use a variety of sauces, not just satay sauce - eg small bowls of plain kecap manis, kecap manis with chopped green seedles chillies, soy mixtures etc. Also gado-gado - good prepare ahead dish. If you have access to a banana tree, use the leaves on plates, and as a wrap for a stuffed whole fish on the barby. Beef rendang can, and should, be prepared a day or 2 early to allow the flavours to develop. Ayam goreng can be marinated and partially cooked ahead, then into the oil (or onto the barby) at the last minute - if you chop a chook into small pieces it's good finger food with a sweet chilli dipping sauce. Spring rolls are a must and you can buy them frozen from an asian shop. One of my easy peasy finger faves is halved hard boiled eggs topped with chilli sauce. Another is krupuk surrounding a dish of tuna mixed with ginger, chillies. Nasi putih and noodles, of course.
Most Asian food shops have a great selection of marinades, sauces etc for Indon cooking - if you're in Perth, head for a Kongs or just about any food market in upper William Street. Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian cook book is an asian foodie bible, still after all these years. Another fave cook book is The Food Of Bali by Heinz Von Holzen - it's a ripper - and while it seems time consuming making the pastes, they can be made in bulk and frozen in meal-size quantities.
BTW when we were married in Bali in 1983 we had a traditional wedding in the village where we lived for almost a year - and the traditional food they prepared involved lots of blood from freshly killed chickens, as well as babi guling etc - I imagine you're not into chook blood for your guests LOL.
Have a great time - I'd love to be there.