One of my favorite things to do when we (my family) travel is to take a cooking class. I LOVE COOKING CLASSES. The best ones for me are the ones that I get hands-on practice. I want to be able to go home and do it again myself. The Anika Balinese Cooking Class in Kuta, Bali was truly a hands-on experience.
Fresh fruit from the market
We took our class and had a spa experience afterward, all for a really good price. I also like the market option before the class if you get an opportunity. They will take you to the local market to pick-up ingredients you will need for the class. I really enjoy this experience because you have the opportunity to really get immersed in the culture. I think it’s always interesting to see how different cultures value or not value different things than we do in America. This market was no different. Most of the selling of the food was located in the inside of the market while selling trinkets and souvenirs were outside. I enjoy shopping, so I was tempted to look around but our time was limited. We picked up the items we needed and then off to the cooking class we went.
Cooking up something good!!
I enjoy meeting new people. Me saying that would probably lead you to think I’m an extrovert but I’m in the middle. For classes like this, I enjoy meeting new people, just give me my space to cook…LOL. We all gathered around the long wooden table in an open-air second level outdoor kitchen. I’m in heaven!!! Nature sends me to another level, so to be able to cook and be outdoors was making me do a happy dance inside. It was about time to get started but first we were encouraged to try some of the fruit on the table. Two interested me…mangosteen and snake fruit. You can find mangosteen in grocery stores but I had never seen snake fruit before. The outer skin looks just like snakeskin. The inside flesh is a little like an apple texture to me but we were warned not to eat too many because it could constipate you……uhhhh, yeah, enough of those.
Time to indulge!!
Let’s get cooking!!!! We made several dishes and everything was made indeed by-hand. One very unique cooking style that I learned was how in balinese cooking you ground a lot of the ingredients by hand. Our instructor shared that there is a different taste from food cut with a knife or food processor compared to grinding it. He shared that grinding is how they cook in their restaurants as well. This is a LONG process!!! We all took turns grinding. My hands and arms definitely got in a workout for the day. We first cut and separate the ingredients for each recipe and then grounded everything up. Once that step was complete we started cooking. We were going to have a table full of dishes to eat so we started on different dishes at the same time. Dishes that needed to be stir-fried we did that together to give everyone an opportunity to participate and learn the technique. Of course, we ended it with a dessert. It was a banana stir-fry. Everything was amazingly delicious. We had a chicken satay which by far was the best i’ve ever had. Our chef was very accommodating with questions and gave us alternative ingredients depending on where we lived, which was very helpful. We also received a cookbook with all of the recipes we made.
It was an amazing experience that was truly the highlight of our day. If you’re ever in Bali, this is one place that’s worth a visit.