Back from Beautiful Bali

Well it’s been a few days since we returned from beautiful Bali and I miss it already. We spent a lovely week at Peninsula Beach Resort in Tanjung Benoa. One day was spent shopping in the Tuban area and an as always yummy lunch at Batan Waru. A couple of trips back we stayed in the Tuban area and found this restaurant, now every time we go back to Bali we make a point of stopping in and having our favourite chicken panini with the mandatory Bintangs of course!

We dined on room service quite a bit, afterall it was for a birthday celebration and who doesn’t want to live off room service? It was very indulgent….and I loved it! Also ate at a few local restaurants, Laguna being the standout winner, fabulous staff, even had a dance with a couple of them, great food and great cocktails, entertainment was very enjoyable and hard to stay in your seat, a few times I was taken over by the feeling of get up and boogie and well, whilst in Bali you’ve just got to so I did.

It wouldn’t be a complete holiday to Bali without a few massages so across the road we go and have massages and facials. Ah, this is definitely a must and I wish I could bring one of the ladies home with me so she would be on-call to give massages daily.

Oh, and mustn’t forget the karaoke, which is now a must for our Bali trips. We rocked out to a few tunes, had heaps of fun and of course a few cocktails.

We did the cooking class at Bumbu Bali and also made a trip to Tanah Lot where we had a spa treatment followed by cheese and wine on the balcony watching the sunset.

The cooking class was fantastic, very informative and entertaining. The class is conducted by Heinz von Holzen and Chef Bagus assists. These two definitely know what they’re doing and have a bucket load of experience in Balinese cooking. The day started with Balinese coffee (YUM!) and a gorgeous breakfast of Balinese cakes, fruits, black rice pudding and a bowl of tender sweet rice flour dumplings in palm sugar coconut sauce. Actually, the day started earlier for some participants as they went to the market to buy all of the produce fresh. We opted to join the class at 9am instead of the early wake-up call. Definitely missed out on an experience with the market shopping but no matter, we still had a fantastic day. So after breakfast the cookings begins!

We move over to the open air kitchen and gather around Heinz, listening intently so that we can hopefully bring home some of the secrets of Balinese cooking. There are about 12 participants and we all get a chance to cook a meal. The cooking is done as a group with each of us taking turns whilst the group reads out instructions.

The best bit about the cooking class is that all the ingredients are chopped up and ready to go….no preparation.

Here is Heinz doing a little cooking. He is a great teacher, very easy to talk to and explains everything in a way that you won’t forget what you’ve been taught (I hope).

Cooking up some nasi goreng mawut – fried rice with noodles.

And this is the end product, a yummy lunch of everything we prepared throughout the day.

Recipes we prepared:

Kuah Siap – Chicken Stock
Nasi Kuning – Yellow Rice
Bubuh Injin – Black Rice Pudding
Base Be Pasih – Spice Paste for Seafood
Base Gede – Basic Spice Paste
Ayam Betutu – Roast Chicken in Banana Leaf
Be Celeng Base Manis – Pork in Sweet Soya Sauce
Kambing Mekuah – Balinese Lamb Stew
Sate Ayam – Chicken Sate
Base Sate – Peanut Sauce
Sate Lilit Ikan – Minced Seafood Sate
Pesan Wong – Steamed Mushrooms in Banana Leaf
Tum Ayam – Minced Chicken in Banana Leaf
Lawar Gedang – Green Papaya Salad with Prawns
Pecelan – Vegetable Salad in Peanut Dressing
Ketipat – Rice Cake in Banana Leaf
Urab Jagung – Sweet Corn and Coconut Snack
Ayam Pelalah – Shredded Chicken with Chillies and Lime
Godoh Biu – Fried Bananas
Nasi Goreng Mawut – Fried Rice with Noodles

Next up was a trip to Tanah Lot for our sunset spa package. We were greeted with a refreshing drink to have before the pampering began.

This is my pamper room. It is set up with two beds and a shower. The walls are mirrors so it appears the room is much bigger than it really is and looking out from the room is this gorgeous water feature which you can look at and relax whilst the body wrap is on.

This is Tanah Lot and over there on the right is Tanah Lot Temple, of which you can see more from the other side. It was really beautiful to watch the waves crashing up against the rocks.

Our balcony setting with cheese and wine.

A few sunset pictures.

My favourite photo of the whole trip, Bintang and the sunset….beautiful.

And so it is now back to the real world. Until next time …….