Archive for May, 2008
Janet DeNeefe
Breakfast at the Four Seasons hotel in Jakarta the morning after The Jakarta Post’s 25th birthday party and the effects of a few too many “sherbets” were making me feel a little under par (don’t you just love parties).
Rows of shiny bain-maries filled with plump sausages, pink bacon, potato roesti and baked beans beckoned. Smiling croissants, glossy Danish pastries and sultry multi-grain breads stared back at me. Sliced fruits, dazzling in their arrangement, tempted me like Eve’s apple. How to resist?
But then I spotted the sparkling server of my choice — golden Indonesian curries of eggs, green beans with tempeh and lontong, a compressed rice cake.
My thoughts drifted off to “curry” and its many incarnations across the archipelago and, in fact, the world. Don’t you love how the mere taste of a dish can send you into a global culinary spin? The power of food does this to you, or, at least, to me. It even halted my early morning sms frenzy while my mind floated down the Ganges, through tropical jungles, rice fields and other exotic curry-eating destinations.
Can you imagine a world without curry? Heavens, no! But let’s start with the word “curry”. It is said to be an Anglicized version of the Tamil word, kari, which is, in fact, a type of vegetable stew that is eaten with rice. The word itself is believed to simply mean “gravy”.
Nowadays, in the Western world, it is synonymous with any dish that is simmered in coconut milk and a gutsy curry powder or spice paste.
In Britain, the favorite curry dish is chicken tikka masala. Marks & Spencer sells about 19 tons of chicken tikka masala curry every week and 23 million portions a year are sold in Britain’s more than 8,000 Indian restaurants, many of which are located in and around London. Needless to say, Britain is full of curryaholics.
Former foreign secretary Robin Cook famously announced that chicken tikka masala was so popular that it had become “Britain’s national dish” thus demoting fish and chips to second place.
Back to the emerald isles of Indonesia. Gulai, kari, kalio and opor are what you might call Indonesian curries (please correct me if I’m wrong).
In Bali, my favorite jackfruit dish, jukut nangka, is affectionately called a curry in English, although it bears no resemblance to a classic curry and does not usually contain coconut milk. In reality, it is more like a stew but “curry” sounds more luscious, don’t you agree?
And there’s something about a curry that conjures up a dreamy blanket of seductive flavors, like snuggling under a duvet on a cold winter’s night, with a chilled champagne, of course, and umm, a few other comfy extras.
There are wet curries and dry curries. Rendang, from West Sumatra, is a perfect example of a slow-cooked dry curry and reigns supreme in the flavor department. You can find rendang standing handsomely in large bowls behind the glass windows of Masakan Padang restaurants across Indonesia. And what a divine dish it is.
I remember in my early days in Bali, a visit to Denpasar was always timed to include an early lunch at the Padang restaurant in Batu Bulan, just as the steaming bowls were pouring forth from the kitchen. Can you imagine my fervor on my first visit watching as plate after plate was piled before me.
Another favorite Indonesian curry is gulai, especially gulai kambing or goat curry. Gulai kambing is the star on the menu of the village “bazaar” events that the Balinese hold to raise money for their temples and so forth. In my family, it goes without saying that a meal at these gatherings must include a bowl of luscious, soupy gulai kambing with rice.
Opor Ayam or white chicken curry is another perennial favorite that I overdose on every time I go to Yogyakarta. In this land of lesehan or street-side cafes, I sit back and relish each mouthful of tender chicken bathed in a gentle coconut milk gravy while serenading street musicians hover around strumming their guitars.
And then there are my favorite Balinese curries that include torch ginger and a touch of long pepper and nutmeg, the queen of sleep.
But what makes a curry so divine? For me, it’s the delicate balance of fresh gingers; of galangal, turmeric, ginger and even kencur, followed by the supporting role of coriander seeds, fresh lemongrass, chili, lime leaves and others. Coconut milk adds the finishing touch and turns that family of flavors into pure comfort food.
Indonesian curries are the symbol of a nation; of home-cooking that sums up the integral character of Indonesia, a succinct blend of vitality and sunshine, of simmered flavors born of the Spice Islands. Unity in diversity.
They encapture the majesty of the East in all its finery, from sunburnt yellows to the deepest fragrant browns. So let us rejoice in a cuisine that charms the most jaded spirit that hugs and kisses in the warmest way.
And if you have a favorite curry recipe to share please send it my way. Nothing makes me happier!
Source: The Jakarta Post
May 9th, 2008
Bali’s crumbling environment, poor garbage management, poor city planning, poor infrastructure maintenance and the local government and the people’s indifference toward the environment will very soon lead to the demise of Bali as a tourist destination.
Forget the terrorist bombings, forget the world financial crisis, the Balinese indifference toward Bali itself is enough to make Bali an unfavorable destination. Here are a few examples:
At the intersection of Jl. Kuta and the road to Ngurah Rai International Airport, next to the police post, there used to be a big native Nem tree. It had been growing there for no less then 100 years. Its trunk of no less than 130 centimeters in diameter supported shady and graceful branches, giving it a very beautiful character.
In the beginning of April 2008, I found out that the Nem tree is in the process of being cut down slowly, starting from the small branches to the bigger ones. It’s done so cunningly that most people but me (I love the tree and have admired it for so long) will not notice that the Nem tree is disappearing just to make way for two giant and ugly signboards.
It is my conclusion that the people, the “honorable” legislature, the government of the city of Denpasar, the regency of Badung, Bali province and PT Angkasa Pura, as the Ngurah Rai airport management, do not care about Bali itself but how to exploit Bali for very short-term income, which will cost Bali tremendously in the future.
When you drive from the airport through Kuta, Legian, Seminyak, Krobokan, all the way to Tanah Lot on its bumpy roads with potholes, traffic jams, flooding during rain, you can see piles and piles of trash and garbage along the side of the road, inside irrigation and drainage ditches, and surprisingly in front of five-star hotels and restaurants.
When you drive along the scenic road from Tabanan to Antosari, Belimbing, Pupuan and all the way to Seririt, you can see piles and piles of tree logs waiting to be loaded on trucks night and day.
It is very fresh in our memory how people from around the world came to the earth summit in Nusa Dua to formulate ways to save the earth and Bali. How many thousands of manhours and how many millions of dollars were spent on the event, and did it affect in any way the attitude of the people and government of Bali?
Well, do not just feel your big egos offended. Do something real for once! No more talking.
N. M. WIDJAJA
Jakarta
Source: The Jakarta Post
May 8th, 2008
Whilst February allowed Bali to host over 18, 371 Chinese tourists, tourism in March has fallen 60.7 percent to 7,205 Chinese tourists.
The first quarter of 2008 witnessed 36, 004 Chinese tourists flying directly to Bali, according to Jam Jam Zamachsyari, the head of the distributions statistics section at the Bali provincial statistics office.
Tourists from China are essential to Balinese tourism, as China ranked fourth in terms of foreign tourist arrivals in Bali for the first quarter of 2008.
With Japan as the apparent leader, delivering 94 456 tourists to the shores of Bali, Australia and Taiwan trailed with 57, 647 and 36, 933 tourists respectively.
Despite the reduction in Chinese patronage, the overall number of foreign tourists visiting Bali this quarter escalated 28.7 percent, from 346, 816 to 447, 566 visitors.
The improvement and multiplication of services connecting China to Indonesia ought to have a positive impact on the Chinese tourist numbers, Antara News reports.
“I believe the number of Chinese tourists visiting Bali will continue to increase due to the increasing number of flights from China to Jakarta and Denpasar,” tour operator Tjok Gde Agung said.
The Indonesian flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia, has expressed optimism regarding the future of Bali, proposing to achieve 22, 000 passengers between Beijing and Jakarta this year.
No doubt Garuda has taken into consideration the difficulty of competing with foreign airlines.
The current schedule allows Garuda to fly from Jakarta to Beijing three times a week.
The Ambassador of Indonesia to China mentioned that approximately 300, 000 Chinese tourists are expected to visit Indonesia in 2008.
Source: http://www.etravelblackboardasia.com/
May 7th, 2008
Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA News) - The number of Chinese tourists visiting the resort island of Bali in March 2008 fell 60.7 percent to 7,205 from 18,371 in the previous month, a spokesman said.
Cumulatively, 36,004 Chinese tourists flew directly from their country to Bali in the first quarter of 2008, the head of the distribution statistics section at the Bali provincial statistics office, Jam Jam Zamachsyari, said here on Monday.
China ranked fourth in terms of foreign tourist arrivals in Bali in the January-March 2008 period.
Japan took a commanding lead with 94,456 tourists, followed by Australia (57,647) and Taiwan (36,933).
Overall, the number of foreign tourists flying directly from their country to Bali in the first quarter of 2008 rose 28.7 percent to 447,566 from 347,816 in the same period last year, he said.
The number of Chinese tourists visiting Bali is expected to increase this year thanks to the rising number of flights from China to Indonesia including Bali.
“I believe the number of Chinese tourists visiting Bali will continue to increase due to the increasing number of flights from China to Jakarta and Denpasar,” tour operator Tjok Gde Agung said.
The general manager of Garuda Indonesia`s operations in Beijing, Pikri Ilham K, said at the weekend the national flag carrier was optimistic it could achieve its target of carrying 22,000 passengers from Beijing to Jakarta this year although it must compete with foreign airlines.
Garuda currently flies from Jakarta to Beijing three times a week.
Indonesian Ambassador to China Sudrajat said earlier around 300,000 Chinese tourists were expected to visit Indonesia this year.
(*)
Source: ANTARA News
May 6th, 2008
Two Long-Lost Sacred Keris (Swords) Receive a Homecoming Welcome to Bali.
(5/3/2008) Two priceless keepsakes of Bali’s ancient kingdoms of Klungkung and Gelgel have made a brief and very emotional homecoming to mark the 100th anniversary of the Puputan sacrifice on April 28, 2008.
On a 100 year-long journey from Bali, Holland, Jakarta and now back to Bali - two priceless bejeweled ceremonial swords or keris have been given a memorial tour of their “old home” in Bali. So revered are the two Keris that each bears it own name – Ardawaike for the sword from the Klungkung Palace and Tombake Ki Baru Gudug for the weapon from the Gelgel Palace.
The two swords are part of a highly-prized special collection kept in the most secure “gold room” of the Indonesian National Museum in Jakarta and are on temporary loan after a long negotiation including complex guarantees issued by Bali to the Museum. Flown from Jakarta with a special escort, the two keris were joyously receives at a special ritualized welcome at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport on Sunday, April 27th, followed by yet another religious rite at the city of Semarapura. Both ceremonies were described by NusaBali as taking place in a profoundly solemn and magical atmosphere.
The weapons, known to be hundreds of years old, were personally escorted to Bali by Gunawan and Sutikno, two senior staff from the National Museum who, among other duties, safeguard the keris from any contact with moisture thought to be harmful to the objects.
The Keris Kenegaraan Ardawalike was once the personal weapon of the last King of Klungkung, Ida I Dewa Agung Jambe, who fell with his wives and “hundreds” of other in the Puputan or “battle to the death” of April 28, 1908. Both swords are made from nickel, gold and rare jewels. Keris Tombak Ki Baru Gudug, which is also known as Ki Baru Ngit, is credited with having saved Ida Dalem Bekung, a King of Gelgel, from death during a palace revolt.
Both swords were taken as part of the victor’s spoils after the Puputan Klungkung in 1908. Some years later, the keris were returned to Indonesia from Holland and have been kept ever since in the Country’s main museum in Jakarta.
Believed to be imbued with a living presence and immense power, both keris were welcomed back to Semarapura with ceremonies, guided tours of the various rooms of their former palatial residence and a rolling escorted tour of the city and surrounding areas.
Source: http://www.balidiscovery.com/
May 5th, 2008
The tastes of Bali are back at the Outrigger Resort Guam with a food festival straight from the exotic Indonesian getaway.
Starting Tuesday, “A Taste of Bali — Bumbu Bali Food Festival” will feature the unique Balinese cuisine from one of the Indonesian island’s most recognized restaurants–Bumbu Bali.
Although Chef Heinz von Holzen, owner of the Bumbu Bali and a Balinese cooking school, won’t be visiting for the food festival, he is sending one of his top chefs for the event, says Richard Rennie, president of the Janus Marketing Group.
Balinese cuisine begins with a traditional mixture of spices that are ground together to create a mixture called “base genep,” or “bumbu”, according to a release from the Outrigger Resort Guam. Bumbu, the core of Balinese cooking, is made from eight key spices ground together including shallots, kencur, a ginger-like root, galangal with its pine-like flavors and hint of citrus, ginger, garlic, turmeric, chili and candle nuts.
“Balinese dishes are certainly not spicy,” von Holzen explains, “but rather, are spiced.”
The festival will include traditional Balinese fare, including sate — grilled meat on a skewer cooked over smoking coconut husk charcoal.
“Sate is an absolute must, as this is the one dish everybody expects from Indonesian cooking,” von Holzen says. “We will prepare beef, chicken and minced seafood sates.”
The menu also will include pork in sweet soy sauce, spiced chicken in coconut sauce, and beef braised in coconut milk, the release states. Lighter fare also will be included ranging from tuna salad with shallots and lemon grass and assorted vegetable salad with peanut sauce.
Since the festival began six years ago, Rennie says the response for the cuisine has been overwhelming.
“It’s Balinese food — there’s a mystique about it,” he says. “A lot of people go to Bali and they know this restaurant — that’s one of the reason why its so popular.”
Source: http://www.guampdn.com/
May 5th, 2008
By Sara Webb
TANAH LOT, Indonesia (Reuters) - The tourists who tee off at this golf course on Bali’s west coast are probably unaware that the ground beneath their feet is connected to a global panic over rice supplies.
Once this golf course was a patchwork of rice fields. Now just a few remain, and villagers work as caddies or waiters at Le Meridien Nirwana resort and its Greg Norman-designed greens.
From Bali to Vietnam, rice paddies are being replaced by golf courses, hotels, villas and industrial parks as Asian economies surge ahead, the standard of living rises and locals opt for higher-paying, less labour-intensive work away from farming.
This shift has cut into rice production, a staple food throughout much of the region.
A recent surge in rice prices to historic highs has sparked fears of political unrest in some parts of Asia and highlighted the dilemma faced by Asian governments about how to balance economic growth with food security in the future.
“The call from Malaysia to Indonesia to China is ‘return to the land and be a farmer again’,” said Song Seng Wun, regional economist at CIMB-GK Research in Singapore.
“The lesson is, food security is important, but people have forgotten that in their rush to industrialise. Longer term, they have to focus on the fact that all these people have to be fed.”
In Bali, hotels and other property projects are nibbling away at the picture-postcard rice paddy terraces. Total harvested area for rice, which peaked at nearly 182,000 hectares in 1980, has fallen to 145,000 hectares, the agriculture ministry says.
“I don’t want any more villas here because if all the land is used for villas, there won’t be enough for rice,” said I Ketut Cuet, who farms rice on the outskirts of Ubud, in Bali.
YOUTH SEE NO FUTURE IN FARMING
Stunning rice paddy views are a part of Bali’s appeal as a tourist destination. Last year, foreign tourists contributed about $5.3 billion to Indonesia’s economy, with Bali attracting the lion’s share, or about 40 percent, of all visitors to the country.
But with tourism forming one of the main economic drivers on this Indonesian island, many Balinese are abandoning the back-breaking work for better-paid, easier jobs. Some Balinese farmers now prefer to hire cheaper labour from the neighbouring island of Java to work in their rice fields.
The change is not surprising. Rice farmers spend long hours standing in muddy water, bent double as they plant, tend or harvest their crops.
“Farming is not a good life. You work hard and make a low profit compared with other jobs, for example in tourism,” said Wayan Sugita, a farmer in Canggu, western Bali, who has worked in his family’s rice fields all his life.
He fears that when he grows old, his own children won’t want to take over the fields, which have been in his family for generations.
“Because of the low profit, the younger generation don’t want to be farmers any more.”
Benchmark Thai rice prices have risen nearly threefold to above $1,000 per tonne this year. Yet it is mainly middlemen, such as traders and millers, who are best placed to profit from the increase: farmers rarely reap the benefits as fertiliser prices have gone through the roof cutting into their profits.
In Bali’s Badung district, which includes the popular tourist areas of Kuta, Nusa Dua and Seminyak, the local government said it plans to preserve certain areas for rice production and restrict property development.
Rice isn’t just food but an important element of Balinese culture: it is still grown using complex irrigation methods and a centuries-old co-operative system known as subak. Balinese make rice offerings to the household gods each morning, and to the rice goddess Dewi Sri during the crop cycle.
FOOD SECURITY AND GOLF
Nearby in the Philippines, the government, alarmed by its inability to feed a fast-growing population, has ordered a halt to the conversion of farmland to other uses.
The Philippines, the world’s largest importer of rice, has been hit hard by the surge in rice prices.
It has set a goal to become self-sufficient by 2011 although some experts say the rising population, currently over 88 million and growing over 2 percent a year, poor productivity and a lack of river deltas mean it is unlikely that the Philippines will be able to meet all its rice needs.
Near Bali’s Tanah Lot, golfers are advised to aim clear of rice fields flanking fairways that overlook Pura Tanah Lot, a Hindu temple perched on a rocky outcrop that’s cut off from land at high tide and guarded by poisonous sea snakes.
“A creek running in front guards the approach shot, rice paddies left and wetlands short. The well-contoured green must be accurately read to walk away with par,” explains the course instructions for the third hole.
Golf courses such as this one have torn up paddy fields from Indonesia, to Malaysia, Thailand and even China where Beijing added them to a list of “banned land usages” in 2006.
Yet hotel resorts and golf courses are not the only threat to farmland and Asia’s ability to feed itself in the future.
Vietnam’s government wants to speed up economic development, using industrial parks to attract foreign investment.
Since 2000, Vietnam has built about 40 industrial parks using 10,500 hectares of the Mekong Delta rice basket and has earmarked a further 40,000 hectares of this area for industrial use over the next three years — still, just a small fraction of the 7.2 million hectares planted with rice in that area last year.
But with Vietnam’s annual inflation hitting 21.4 percent in April — the highest in the region, partly due to surging food prices — Hanoi needs to address land use and food security issues, economists warn. Other governments should follow suit, they say.
Part of the problem, says ING economist Tim Condon, is that the market for staples such as rice needs to be more open in order to curb big price swings.
“With rice, so little is traded internationally that a small increase in demand leads to the price going up sharply,” he said.
Further improvements could come from using better seed varieties and fertilisers, and by switching to more efficient farming methods, for instance by moving to large-scale farming as in the United States and Brazil, some economists said.
Asia’s population is forecast to reach around 4.6 billion by 2020, from around 4 billion currently, according to United Nations figures, leading to higher rice consumption even as development and industrialisation whittle away the available farmland.
For this reason, some experts think the soaring rice price may be a blessing in disguise as this might force policy makers to make much-needed changes in the way rice is cultivated and distributed in the region.
“The whole world is interested in the agriculture sector now so maybe this will be a catalyst for more efficient farming,” said CIMB-GK’s Song.
“Perhaps this will eventually open up new opportunities for farmers, a period of greater prosperity.”
(Additional reporting by Mita Valina Liem in Jakarta, Lucy Hornby in Beijing, Manny Mogato in Manila, and Ho Binh Minh in Hanoi)
Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/golfNews/
May 2nd, 2008
Deal: Rs 54,999 a person (ex-Mumbai)
Eight nights, nine days
Visit to Bali, Genting Highlands, Kuala Lumpur.
Deal includes return airfare, accommodation, mediclaim, tour manager services, meals, coach tours, transfers, entrance fees, sightseeing and surface transportation.
Attractions: The volcanic mountains of Bali; the Sea Temple of Tanah Lot; the 10th-century Pura Besakih temple; performances of the Barong and Keris dance; Tirta Empul at Tampaksiring; the Karangasem Palace; the Flower and Spice market; Munduk waterfall; casinos and theme parks at Genting Highlands; the Batu Caves. King’s Palace, National Monument, National Mosque, the Petronas Twin Towers and Menara KL Tower are also included.
Travellers also get to see the port city of Malacca, a one-stop destination for business and pleasure; the Red Indian Show, Animal World Safari and Water World Theme Park.
Package from Cox and Kings
Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/
May 2nd, 2008
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