BBQ party at Peter and Aiko’s in Seminyak Bali

Sunday morning came along and I was feeling groggy.

Cloudy weather combined with the drinks I had the night before while going for ‘just one beer’ put me on slow mode. I knew I had to get motivated and organize everything for the upcoming evening bbq at Peter and Aiko’s. This would be a little different from just setting stuff up at home as 1) equipment needed to be moved and 2) Nobody who was invited knew where the house was.

The plan was to haul over my Weber bbq complete with 40lbs of lava rocks and get it going around 5pm..

Peter and Aiko’s place is located down an alley behind Bintang supermarket in Seminyak and is about a 3 minute motorbike ride off the main road. Most people would not be able to find this place without being shown and Peter had met me at 10am already to direct me back to the place.

Physically I was dragging, kind of similar to the morning after Mick Turnbull’s going away party, and was even more pushed for time when my old friend Mike showed up out of the blue and wanted to hang out.

The guest list for this bbq featured plenty of old faces and a few new ones. Many of people who were at Mick’s going away party sms’d me on Saturday to say they were tired, busy, working, or out of the country. To be honest I had no idea how any people would show up and when Peter asked me how many he could expect I said ‘about 20′.

After Mike left I jetted down the Sunset road to Ace Hardware in the Kuta Galleria to pick up 9 kilos of charcoal bricks. On the way I ran into a police road block where they were checking licenses. Mine is a year out of date and I usually open the license for to show them the photo and the details (the date of issue is on the outside cover). It always works…except this time where the officer looked at the date and pointed me to another officer standing in front of a Patroli Polici SUV. He had an array of licenses spread across the hood (bonnet) of the vehicle and there were ‘bules’ and locals standing there. I observed a ‘bule’ handing over 50,000rp so got my 20,000rp ready. “You must pay 50,000rp” said the officer.” “Here’s dua puluh ribu (20,000rp).” I said. “No 50.” said the officer “the last man paid also 50.” “Saya tinggal desini ( I live here),” I said “50,000rp mahal, he’s just a tourist.” “50,000rp, same for local people too.” He said. I had no choice and there was no point in being saucy with him,so I just handed over the 50,000rp and left.

Back at the house I set about organizing tongs, cutlery, plates, and the little items that we’d need. One of the first items to make it over to Peter’s was my plastic box that I use as a cooler. This thing is huge, light and does the job for a few hours. I filled it with plates and other gear and with a backpack full of soft drinks again road down Jl. Legian with the box between my legs and pointing up over the handle bars. Good thing I’m 5′ 10″ as a smaller person would not be able to see over it.

Palu called and said it would be much easier to have him bring his gas powered bbq as long as I could guarantee a gas bottle. I have a full one in my kitchen and rode down Jl. Legian nursing it between my legs.

With Bintang being so close and the motorbike having the ability to zip down narrow alleys I managed to pick up salad items and meats (steak, chicken and tuna) I one swing and dump them off. Bintang can be a one-stop-shop for a bbq and I also picked up Italian dressing, soy sauce and bbq sauce. I also dropped off my ‘electric bug swatter’ for Aiko who gets eaten alive.

Peter and Aiko were nice enough to organize some light snacks including blue cheese and crackers as well as wine for the early arrivals.

My first 2 arrivals were Ketut from Negara in Bali and Ika from Sumatra / Jakarta. Ketut and I picked up 4 bags of es (ice) and we all rode to the pad.

I had told people to meet in front of Bintang around 5pm and over the next hour a whole slew of people came. On one of my runs to Bintang I met up with Dallas Finn from Bali Peace Park, Palu, Wiwin, Sri, Stewart, Ebong from Magic Wave Magazine and Ibeth.

Peter had himself invited 4 musicians he and Aiko had meet the other night and somehow they found the house.

A couple of faces I didn’t expect to make it but who actually did show up were Komang and Ika from Ade Rai’s gym. I felt a bit guilty as many of these people didn’t know each other and I had to spend my time organizing food, drinks and directions instead of socializing.

One face that is new to the bbq’s but familiar to Baliblog readers is Angie, who after successfully pulling off her first Buddhist wedding in Bali came along with her business partner Ellie.

At one point I was introducing people and Ibeth’s posse showed up…literally a ‘Batak attack’. Many of the ladies were Bataks from N. Sumatra and a couple of them taught me my first Batak phrase…’matule jongjong’ (its naughty so I can’t really explain it).

Once Palu and the team had arrived and downed there first drink I relayed a slight problem to them…we didn’t have a bbq. Somewhere in our organization process I had taken it for granted that Palu was bringing the gas grill, seeing how I brought the gas bottle. He has transport problems and thought I’d have my charcoal burner. Never mind, no worries. We both hopped on his Chinese built dirt bike and jammed through traffic over to ‘Camp Palu’ in Legian. Once there were disassembled the grill and wrapped it in bubble wrap, stacking the other parts in the luggage rack, with me balancing the metal grill between us. The great thing about a gas grill is that once you have it set up you can turn it on 5 seconds before you want to cook, right? Not exactly how things went this time. For some reason the gas flow wasn’t getting through and the grill just didn’t heat up enough. Wiwin and her sister Sri, who own a warung were ‘stars in the kitchen’ fixing the salad and one of them manning (or ‘womanning’) the grill. Palu also had the kitchen’s stove going to quickly finish off the meats. Wiwin commented that this felt like my first bbq where things didn’t exactly go to plan and once again I forgot to bring salt and pepper.

Interesting that anytime you cook on a charcoal grill someone will comment that gas is so much easier. That is true but at least with my grill its low-tech and once its going you can cook a cow.

Towards the end of the cooking cycle I just had to let go of responsibility for a while and jumped into the pool. The water was cold and just the thing to revive me. No one else wanted to join even though I had told them about the possibility of aquatic antics beforehand.

The good thing was everyone got fed and after I checked with people I myself had a plate. Everything had worked out well thanks to ‘Team Palu’ and our hosts and looking at the situation logically if was to arrange this event again it would be good to appoint one person to be in charge of drinks, one grill, one kitchen and one contact person.

As the evening wound down and people left Peter, Aiko, Ika, Ebong, Ketut and myself relaxed on the couch telling stories and enjoying the company.

For me it was great to have bbq / party in a new location and bring together cool people. Peter and Aiko were super hosts and very cool for letting a bunch of strangers descend on them. I did a rough head count and in all 27 people made an appearance include the Peter, Aiko and myself.

Photos of the party were taken by Peter and I will share those when I get them.