In Reply to: Cooking a Dinner for your Balinese posted by luvthe NT on Monday, 14. January 2008 at 18:02 Bali Time:
Whatever you will do, be prepared that some neighbour kids will drop in and some later of course their parents to look after them, for sure the cousin with his wife and the four kids, another cousin will just come by to present the new exhaust pile on his motorbike, maybe an uncle or two just by accident ;-)
A Balinese kitchen and the equipment are most likely very basic, so don' expect too much!
I don't know your friends, but in general Balinese don't have this kind of dining culture, like we have, will mean, it's rather difficult to get all the people sit together and eat at the same time.
Why don't you try it the Balinese style?
Talk with them about your intention to have a Balinese dinner all together at their house, the women will go to the market in the morning, they will know what to do, help them with the preparations and get a cooking class for free with probably lots of fun.
They will cook different vegetables, white rice, maybe yellow rice, whatever, depending in which area you are in Bali the one or other special thing.
For the evening your friends will know where to order the meat, everywhere on Bali are specialists which are cooking Bebek betutu, Babi Guling, and so on, the food is ordered there and some might be amazed, that the Bebek betutu you are eating in a fancy tourist restaurant hasn't been cooked there, it's been delivered to the restaurant from the same source where the Balinese family also get's it from.
I love Thai cuisine, but in a case like this, I'd rather like to stay on the save side - so no experiments, this could easily turn into disappointment for you!
Either your hosts will prepare a nice Balinese desert or you can order this too in advance, add two or three Durians and everybody will be happy at the end.
Best regards
Thorsten