Fun facts about cooking and eating in Bali:1. Children start learning to cook at age seven.
2. Women are responsible for the daily cooking duties. However, men must cook on ceremonial days.
3. All Balinese dishes attempt to balance the four flavors – sweet, sour, salty and spicy. Seasonings are mixed and ground into a paste, using a mortar and pestle.
4. Balinese women cook once daily, in the morning; throughout the day, family members can help themselves from covered dishes set out in the kitchen when they become hungry. Thus, most Balinese dishes are traditionally served at room temperature.
5. Balinese people eat in silence. Talking during meals “kills the spirit” of the food.
6. Only one onion – the small red shallot – is used in Balinese dishes.
7. Most families do not own refrigerators, and shop for fresh food in the market daily.
8. Ideally, coconut oil is used in all Balinese dishes. However, coconut oil must be made fresh; after five days or so, it starts increasing in cholesterol.
9. There are about eight varietals of eggplant in Bali, but most dishes use the young white eggplant.
10. Rice is cooked by soaking, boiling, steaming, boiling a second time, and steaming again – the entire process takes approximately one hour.
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