Balinese snack from Wayan

Galungan means ceremonies honoring ones ancestors. It also means food and this morning a Balinese lady came over with a package of Galungan food. Wayan was the pembantu who was cleaning my house on the day I found it in 2004. She is married with 2 young kids, doesn’t speak a word of English, but is a very nice person.

Yesterday she came in to visit Jevon and that prompted the food. The package included rice, lawar and cakes. It was still hot and Ika said it smelled nice. Lawar really is a ceremonial dish, served at weddings and other events. You can’t just go into a warung and say “lawar and chips take away.” Lawar is made of raw meat, blood and spices ground into a pulp. It is served with babi guling (spit roasted suckling pig). Wayan included chunks of the pig, in pieces the size of chicken McNuggets. Each has a slice of pork fat, which I don’t really care for. Still I’ll give some of it a shot at lunchtime.