Please don't!

To save your time and mistakes when you come to try Cuca, I compile a list of what you should not do here in Bali:

• Don’t give or receive anything with your left hand (it is considered unclean).
• Don’t point with your fingers or feet (you better start practicing pointing with your thumb, it will take you time to get used to it, I haven’t managed to do it yet…).
• Don’t stand with your hands on your hips or crossing your arms over your chest (or people will believe you are angry at them).
• Don’t dare to touch anyone’s head!  It is considered the seat of the soul and sacred.
• Don’t walk with your shoes on when entering a home.
• Don’t visit a temple when menstruating or having open cuts and wounds.
• Don’t honk when being stuck behind a procession.
• Don’t take it personal when being asked about your age and marital status by the cashier in the supermarket. And I am afraid you should not take it as a pick up attempt, Balinese love small talk (“obrol” in Indonesian).
• And finally, don’t ever get angry in Bali… you would be wasting your time and probably getting nowhere.

Well, now you are a step closer to be ready to visit us!

Heavenly Babi Guling...

As days pass by we are getting to try different Balinese dishes. So far there is a stand out winner, one of the most popular delicacies in the island. The succulent Babi Guling is a stuffed suckling pig slowly roasted on a spit. “Guiling” means “to turn” and such the cooking methods involves a constant turning of the pig. A well-made babi guling requires a lot of skill and patience as the heat should be concentrated on the head and tail and not in the middle so as not to crack the skin of the stomach.

There is much controversy on who serves the best babi guling in Bali but for us it is difficult to believe that it can get any better than in Bapak Dobiel. This is undoubtedly a favourite among the locals (our friend Nyoman strongly recommended it to us) and it is still Pak Dobiel himself who cooks and serves the meal. The pigs are roasted early every morning on the back of the dining-room. 

  

As in most warungs (local restaurants), the dish is served as a bed of rice topped with different parts of the pig adding an array of exciting textures (crispy skin, slow roasted lean meat, cartilage, fried liver, cracklings, etc. ) and with some of the spiced veggies used to stuff the pig. 

One of the highlights of this dish is the soup... a broth made from the roasted flavorful bones left over from cleaning the pork meat. I have never tried anything so rich and tasty...

I am getting dizzy just from writing this post... I need to go... Guess where? J

Bahasa Indonesia

This is the official language in Indonesia, derived from Malay but with Javanese and Dutch influences. Although I had heard English was widely spoken in Bali, we have encountered many, many people we cannot communicate with, specially outside the tourist industry. They speak either Balinese (supposedly a language quite difficult to learn) or Bahasa as they come from other parts in Indonesia. I am ashamed to admit that after living for 9 years in Malaysia, I never put too much effort to learn Malay. I took a few courses but everyone spoke to me in English and furthermore I never consciously planned to stay in Malaysia for that long (let alone to move to Indonesia!) so my Malay is pretty basic. 

This time I am determined to not repeat the same mistake and I am everyday putting a bit of time to learn Bahasa. Being quite obsessed with linguistics, I find extremely interesting the logic behind this language… These are some examples that amuse me:

• Apa kabar? 

It is used as “How are you?” but literally means something like “What are the news?” The answer is "Kabar Baik", literally “The news are good”. It makes me smile every time I here it...

• Plurales

Guess how is the plural make? Overwhelming logic…

Anak = child Anak anak = children
Buku = book Buku buku = books

• Tenses

The Indonesian tenses make anyone learning a language like Spanish depressed… Look at their simplicity…

       PRESENT:
             Saya makan ayam (= I eat chicken)

       PRESENT PERFECT: with sudah
             Saya sudah makan ayam (= I ate or have eaten chicken)

I absolutely love the use of this “sudah”… They apply it whenever they find that something must undoubtedly  happen. For example, every day I get a “Sudah kawin?” = "Are you married yet?" Or a “Sudah punya anak?” = "Do you have children yet?" . The answers consider satisfactory are amazing: you either answer “Sudah” ("Already) or “belum” ("Not yet…").

      FUTURE TENSE: with akan
            Saya akan makan ayam (= I will eat chicken)

      PRESENT CONTINUOUS: with sedang
            Saya sedang makan ayam (= I am eating chicken)

      PAST TENSE: with kemarin
            Saya makan ayam kemarin (= I ate chicken yesterday)

Verbs do not have conjugations (persons), tenses, modes... and they are still effective!

I will tell you more about Bahasa in posts to come!