A Conscious Feast by Nicole Aloni

photo Danu Tours

When I saw an ad from Danu Tours for a backcountry culinary tour to Bali, I was in. Cooking! In the wilds of Bali! Are you kidding? After some serious personal setbacks, I was more than ready to experience something entirely new.

I expected gorgeous beaches, golden gingerbread temples and lush tropical forests. I hoped to get to work with exotic ingredients and eat great food. Honestly, I hoped to be distracted. What I didn’t expect was to start cooking classes in a tiny mountain village the minute we landed. Class was set up in an “open” kitchen with a dirt floor and colorful birds watching us from the overhanging branches. Danu co-owner Made Surya and an eccentric American chef/interpreter, Joseph Schultz, led us through the classic ingredients and the preparation of a complicated nine-dish meal. This was more than just 4,000 miles from the Parisian cooking school I had attended. It was lifetimes.

I learned that traditional Balinese cuisine is built on a core group of intense flavors: lime, a family of chiles, galangal, fish sauce, coconut, dark sugar, garlic and bags of herbs. These are used to create sambals (spicy condiments) and pickles that season everything.

photo Danu Tours

Ultimately all of this was displayed on a long teak log on which branches of flowers served as a tablecloth. As I assembled my feast on a banana leaf, I noticed that the Balinese were all building themselves nearly identical meals. The entire center of each leaf was filled with a mound of the peanut coconut rice we’d made. Some sambals were piled around the edges and a tablespoon or two of the Gado Gado (shredded pork and mango stew) we’d made was drizzled over the rice.

It turned out their diet is as unswerving as a Koala’s. The classic Balinese meal is two-thirds rice and one-third some flavorful, saucy dish, like that Gado Gado, which may contain a teaspoon or two of shrimp, chicken or pork, all seasoned with an assortment of sambals.

After another week of rural cooking adventures, I ventured into the town of Ubud for an urban culinary experience. I found a little room on a side street with a beautifully carved wooden pig standing out front and ducked in. I’d heard that the local free-range, nearly wild pork, which was definitely a special treat in the Balinese diet, was a thing of wonderment. I ordered lots of the little plates of food on display and the waitress recommended that I also have the Balung Nanka (sugar and tamarind-glazed pork ribs). I waited impatiently for I wasn’t sure what.

The rich, smoky-sweet flavor of the pork made me moan in astonishment over my tiny dish of ribs. This old-fashioned Balinese pig—as different from the lean white meat our farmers have crafted as Roquefort is from Cheese Whiz—blew the fuzz off my taste buds. If you’re going to have a little meat, let it be something like this old-world, honest to God, wild-as-sin pork. That’s how the moderate, glowing Balinese do it.

Every traditional meal I enjoyed—and there wasn’t much else available—followed the balance I had witnessed that first day of class: Starch/vegetable/sambal. Protein optional. And it was exciting, beautiful food—a central chunk of meat was never missed. I also ate like a fiend and lost five pounds.

At the time I had no idea that this would eventually stand out as more than just a spectacular vacation. In Bali I’d been exposed to the essence of green entertaining before I knew the concept existed. This food was all very local and definitely organic. The pig (named Wayan) had been raised on wild forage and humanely slaughtered by the teacher. We ate from the most biodegradable of plates—a leaf. These meals had an authenticity that stayed with me long after I got on the plane for home.

This remarkable adventure was the beginning of my continuing friendship with husband and wife Judy Slattum and Made Surya, who have run Danu tours together for over 20 years. Their journeys are a finely crafted blend of local village and farm life with luxurious, local-style accommodations and private access to the great artisans and chefs of the region. I know the trip I’m co-leading with Made Surya to Vietnam in January is going to be the trip of a lifetime. For us all.

photo Danu tours