Authentic Balinese Cuisine: From Ceremonial Food to Daily Consumption

Mebat
Authentic Balinese cuisine is the original ceremonial food. The most popular being lawar, saté, and babi guling. Lawar is made of minced meat, vegetables, finely cut crackling, mixed with a lot of spices and uncooked-blood as a binding sauce. Saté or satay is grilled chopped meat that can be beef, pork, or chicken. Babi guling is a spit-roasted suckling pig. In the past, these foods were only made for religious rituals, celebrations, or festivals. Their social consumption was the extension of these celebrations. Thus, celebrations like Galungan and Kuningan, that fall every six months, became fiercely awaited by the Balinese, as a good reason to consume their delicious authentic cuisines.

There were other reasons why the Balinese rarely consumed their authentic food in the past. The first being that the preparation of Balinese food is laborious. Making satay, lawar, and suckling pig involved dozens of men in an activity called mébat, another form of the social Indonesian gotong royong or working together. Held in a spacious room such as a community hall (banjar), mébat was usually led by one or two skillful men in food making and preparation. Mébat actually marks the beginning of celebrations.

Not all the men involved in mébat know the complete food making process. Some of them may only be able to cut onions, chilies or chop meat. Others may only spear meat onto satay sticks or shred coconuts. They come to help as part of their communal social obligations. Apart from being laborious, Balinese food preparation is also time consuming. Usually, the spicy ingredients are prepared the night before, as so many things have to be done during actual mébat time, which should be finished by early morning in time for the ceremony.

The final reason that these foods were kept for celebrations, is that preparing Balinese food is expensive. As the food was prepared by dozens of people, the number of people preparing could end up tripling the final product of what was actually required for the offerings. Some of the foods were needed to feed the people involved in mébat when they finish working. Some of the other food was required to serve guests who were attending the celebration. Therefore, a lot of money was required to support both those requirements. Balinese kings served suckling pig to their superior colonizers at particular occasions as they could afford to do so. As ordinary Balinese people could not afford it, they usually had fried eel, tofu, tempè, fish, eggs, sambals, and vegetables for daily consumption. Some of them even only managed to afford rice and salt. For them, the consumption of authentic Balinese food was part of a religious celebration.

Warung Culture
However, since the growth of Bali's regional economy that was initially brought about by tourism, the Balinese have been able to consume their authentic food more often without needing to make it or wait for traditional festivities. This is not because they are able to afford it laboriously, but because they can now buy the food in warungs or food stalls for a relatively cheap price.

In the last decade, the number of warungs has increased in the main streets around Bali that offer special Balinese food including suckling-pig, lawar, and satay. Most of them open for breakfast, some for early dinner. Nowadays, suckling-pig warungs are available in almost every corner of the main streets in Denpasar and around Sanur, as they are along the bypass road between the Airport and Nusa Dua. Their customers are ordinary people or those who work in the nearby public and private sectors.

The town of Gianyar is also popular with its warung babi guling, both morning and late afternoon. In front of the Ubud palace, there is a well-known warung babi guling (Ibu Oka) which is always packed with people every day until early afternoon. Tour guides, drivers, domestic and foreign tourists can be witnessed sitting down crossed-leg having crispy and spicy suckling pig here. Thus, Balinese people do not have to wait six months if they want mouth-watering delicious lawar, crispy suckling pig, and tasty chicken or pork satay.

With the growth of the tourism industry and the richness of Balinese tradition, authentic Balinese cuisine has been healthily promoted through various channels. Books on Balinese food and its recipes have been published; Balinese food is also offered through various hotel and restaurant menus. Recently, there is also several Balinese cuisine cooking schools offered to visitors of the island, as have Balinese desserts that have been introduced as dishes in hotels, restaurants and cafés. Slowly but surely Balinese cuisine has become as popular among tourists visiting the island as food of other countries such as Thai, Chinese or Mexican food.

The popularity of authentic Balinese cuisine both in the tourism sector as well as amongst the Balinese community is certainly a good thing in one way, but perhaps not in another. As suckling pig has become the daily menu of many warungs, the process of making it has become the work of a 'professional' cook. Warung owners employ special staff to prepare it on daily basis. Therefore, the social activity of mèbat no longer applies in this business. This was brought about by the fact that only particular people could prepare satay, suckling pig, and lawar. When a family needs Balinese food for offerings, and a menu to serve to their guests for their traditional ceremonies such as weddings or tooth filing, they can easily order it from a special catering agent. Consequently, the mèbat activity has become a rare occasion. As it only takes place occasionally at the village or banjar level, it has slowly become an exclusive skill of a small number of people.

Modern Tastes
If you asked any Balinese what their favorite food is, they will more than likely answer lawar and babi guling. They may also comment on how lucky they are being able to feast on it everyday if they so wish, unlike their parents in the past that could only enjoy it during celebrations. Nevertheless, when you ask them whether they know how or can make it, the answer would be 'No'.

In order to provide the younger Balinese generations with their tradition-related skills, a recent effort was made by high-school students in Denpasar. They were invited to perform a mèbat to make lawar at school together. This activity was part of the celebration of the anniversary of Denpasar city, on February 27. While this effort is certainly important for the younger generation to know how to make authentic Balinese food that has become part of their daily consumption, it is also inseparable from the attempt at the solidarity of their cultural identity.

In addition, one may argue that the modern daily consumption of their authentic food as opposed to the consumption as a part of a ceremonial rite can be understood as a form of the Balinese's attempt to reinvent their tradition amidst the wave of globalization, partly brought about by the tourism industry. However, may you enjoy the authentic tastes of Bali in remembering the tradition behind each dish. Selamat makan!

(Hello Bali Magazine)