Sunday bbq in Seminyak Bali

We are having a small bbq at the house here in Seminyak this afternoon and are inviting friends, relatives and anyone else who reads the blog. The kick off time is 6pm and I will be cranking out some satay, steak, sausages, as well as some 'relative prepared' vegetables. Hopefully I can convince Ika to make more than 4 portions of rice this time and expect maybe 20 people.

My father in-law has never seen a bbq before and I think he will like it. Last night he and I went to Warung Murah on Jl. Double Six. Ba Pak never says much and always looks sad. I'd ask him if he wanted to try the potatoes, the fish, the chicken and he would say "Tidak" (No). Content with a small plate of rice, beef and some vegetable he quietly ate and drank a hot tea. I was worried that he didn't like the food, but when we got home he told everyone it was 'enak' (delicious). So far I have asked him if he wants to go swimming, surfing, bungy jumping and watching music. The answer is always the same, "Tidak". Ika told me something funny the other day. She's always going on about what a great badminton player her dad is and how nobody in their kampung can beat him. He delayed his trip to Bali so he could compete in the big annual tournament. He told me he got 3rd place and received a medal. I learned there was more than 1 category and actually he was in the over 50's. 'Wait a minute!' I thought, 'he's 48'. Ika told me he forged the entry form to get into the over 50's category, that's why he can beat everyone. So funny that he wanted to tell me he won a medal!

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Sunday bbq in Seminyak Bali

Sunday afternoon I was in my room typing as usual. I decided to cook some bbq so rode over to Bintang supermarket in Seminyak. In the meat section I picked up 6 chicken legs a 2 large breasts. In the veg section I picked up zucchini, a bag of red chilis and broccoli. I also got a large bag of rice. My bill was 65,000rp. Back at the house I lit a good quarter bag of charcoal and waited for the flames to burn down. Ika made some nasi putih and I got busy with the chicken, corn and a large Bintang. After an hour in total the food was ready and I applied some hot sambal for Ika and some garlic bbq sauce for me. So much easier cooking for 2 people than 20.

Right now the weather is changing from steamy to pleasant. Mornings and late evenings do not have the same bake quality as a month ago. Being able to fire up the bbq and know that the weather is good is a thing I appreciate.

By Nick | Permalink | 1 comment | May 15th, 2005 | Trackback

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Sunday bbq in Seminyak Bali

Sunday afternoon I got myself straightened out for the bbq by getting 2 cases of beer, plenty of salad and soft drinks and cutting the 3 tunas into steaks.

I also picked up 1kg of chicken from Bintang supermarket down the street from my house.

The usual thing for me to do is go through my address book and Palm Pilot to make sure I don’t over look anyone. I did sense that we’d have a lower turnout than the last bbq which attracted 18 people including myself.

This was also my chance to see how the Gunung Batur lava rocks would perform. I wasn’t really sure how I should arrange them, try to mingle them in with the coals or just pile the coals on top and be glad everything was higher and closer to the meat. My handy coconut lighter was standing by (with a stack of cardboard chunks) as was the bag of charcoal I bought from Ace Hardware for 25,000rp, making me confident we’d get something going.

The first person to arrive was Ebong from Jimbaran. Ebong is a keen surfer who works with Magic Wave Magazine. I have known him almost since my first week in Bali and he’s been a solid friend.

Ebong recently spent a month in France visiting his son and made a trip to Holland and Spain. He actually sms’d me this surf report from Spain!

“4 to 6ft. Side shore wind. Water temp 12 C. 10 people in the water all with full wetsuit.”

Ebong brought some bread, steak and Dutch cheese for us to try, what a guy!

My friends from Palu surfboards (Palu, Stewart, Wiwin and Dave ) had promised to show up and around 7pm I heard the neighbor’s dogs going crazy meaning we had visitors. Palu and wife Wiwin plus Stewart had arrived and immediately Palu had to shoot off to get some more people. Wiwin who until recently owned a warung in Legian, brought home made mashed pototoes and drinks including a bottle of arak and mixer.

Among my other guests were 3 young Canadian Catholic guys from Calgary who had learned to surf with Palu and had all bought a board from him. They were great vibes and we them set up with a beer and told them to feel at home.

Palu and Wiwin were recently married by pastor Tom from N. Carolina who came with his wife. They both live in Bali. Tom is thinking of learning to surf and Palu and the boys did there best to scare the pants off him with drowning stories.

Ebong got a chance to talk to Stewart and swap info on the particulars of the surf scene here in Bali. Stewart is a shaper and glasser and Ebong has a ton of local knowledge.

Dave finally arrived with the tunes, that’s one thing I still haven’t got covered and I started the coals. Making a pyramid of hot coals and piling new ones on top I just hoped to get enough to spread out across the rocks, fish doesn’t take that long to cook anyway and now the distance between the coals and the grill was about 2 inches.

The last of my last arrivals were Amia, Christina and Bobby from Malang Java. They all live in Nusa Dua and had come up for the evening. I am a friend of Amia and it was great to get a local presence, not just a bunch of whitey’s.

The coals took their time getting hot but once they did it was off to the races. I spread them out over the entire grill surface and placed fish and meat on top of the grill. The time the food was ready was about 8.30pm and with the extra pot of rice I asked Wiwin to make we had plenty of food. I had marinated the tuna in garlic and lemon, with a touch of salt and pepper so was hoping for a decent flavours. Pastor Tom was raving about it but then he is a super guy and seems to be the life of the party anyway.

One of the things I still need to do is get more light in my garden. The lamps are more decorative than usefull and its hard to see if the food is cooked. Bobby and Amia helped me scoop the chicken and tuna onto a large serving tray and deliver it to the counter for people to take.

After we had finished eating I made sure everyone had fresh drinks and the jokes were flowing, Dave (Devo) getting into the ‘how to kill a beginning surfer’ stories and telling us about 2 US Special Forces guys he recently taught. After the 2 day course they apparently told him “Man I’ve been bombed in I-raq , shot at and had friends blown up but the scariest thing I’ve ever done is learn to surf with you.”

Palu keeps telling me I need to go to his church to meet some nice girls so with that in mind I told a religious joke which was rated the ‘most inappropriate joke of the night’. Pastor Tom was rolling on the floor however and I couldn’t tell if it was the beer or the joke he liked the most.

The Christian guys had a very funny true story of them all getting massage from a ‘beautiful girl’ and the third guy figures out its a ‘benchong’ (transvestite). The first 2 claimed they had no idea.

I kept an eye on the grill and was amazed that as time went on the thing seemed to be heating up. Seriously at 11.30pm the temperature was like the surface of the sun and I doused it with a gallon of water. The coals has mostly caught fire, fallen into the spaces between the rocks and the rocks had become hot. I could of bbq’d a cow at midnight on that grill if needed. This is great news for me as I really don’t want to stand there like a satay vendor fanning away, I prefer to set it up and away it goes.

This morning I saw that a good proportion of the coals hadn’t even burned yet so who knows how long that thing could of kept going.

We wrapped things up before midnight and all agreed it was a good time, in all we had 14 people including myself.

Tidying up this morning was easy as these guests were on the safe side of ‘wild’. All I had to do was the dishes and clear away some trash.

Putu is here this afternoon cleaning house and doing the garden. She’s a real worker and gets straight into it. I am lucky to have a good worker.

This morning in Kuta I saw workers taking pick axes to the section of Poppies II opposite Jl. Benesari. The local merchants were looking on nervously and I could see on their faces they knew business would be negatively affected for the immediate future with noise and access problems encouraging tourists to shop elsewhere.

By Sean | Permalink | 5 comments | June 14th, 2004 | Trackback

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