As the brief at the top of the page says I am a chef. I came to cooking later than many professionals. As I recall the interest in cooking started for me after returning from my first trip to Bali when I was 21 years old. I had gone to Bali for 3 weeks with one of my elder brothers, Matt. The trip was amazing, we had booked nothing but the return airfare and he had been told to head in the direction of Poppies lane 2, which was right in the heart of the Kuta Beach area. So that is exactly what we did. That was the entirety of our plans. We spent our days heading to the beach for a surf and in the afternoon and evenings we found the restaurant playing a movie we liked and chose to eat there and wash it down with a Bintang or two. I am now 42, so I guess that means it was half my life ago. Allowing for that I can still remember that first walk through town. It will stay with me forever ( I hope).Originally Matt was supposed to be going to Bali with a friend from University, but his unreliable friend withdrew at the last minute. I was on leave from TAFE where I was studying for my associate diploma of Business (accounting). I was living at home and had some money in the bank so when Matt's mate pulled out he asked if I wanted to go. I don't remember my response but I had a current passport from a week's holiday to Fiji 2 or 3 years earlier so I can't imagine that I was anything but excited to get to try out a new country. So that is what we did. Matt had never been overseas before and I had my week in Fiji so we were pretty raw when it came to travel experience.
Let's get back to that first day. I recall getting off the plane and walking out the front of Denpasar airport to be met by hawkers calling out "you want taxi?". We approached one guy and told him we wanted to go to Poppies Lane 2. He replied that he had a great place, not that far from there and we should go with him. Matt, if I recall correctly, told the guy that we were happy to go with him and check it out but if we didn't like it we could still say "thanks but no thanks". He agreed and so we went. As it turned out, the place looked okay and was a bit of a walk into the main part of Kuta but we said we would stay. I think it was only that first night, maybe one or two more.
Getting off a plane in Denpasar back then was like arriving in another world for 2 young guys like us. It was major culture shock. As I said I had been to Fiji previously, but that just didn't cut it when it comes to culture shock. Fijians are possible the friendliest and most laid back people on earth. They don't put pressure on you for anything. It was the most, and I believe still is the most chilled out place on earth. So absolutely no preparation at all for a first glimpse of Asia. The hustle and bustle, the touting, the constant calls to buy whatever it was they were selling. It was amazing and I think within a very short space of time we were hooked and loving every minute.
We had a look at the room and agreed to stay. We had a banana jaffle lined up for breakie. We put the bags in the room and headed off to explore Kuta Beach. We walked along the beach and then turned the corner and began the walk down Legian Street, Kuta, Bali. Wow. We were in for a shock. Everywhere we looked we got the "you like? Come in , have a look. You try? you buy? good price for me, good price for you?" We made our way along the street, obviously looking like 2 young guys fresh off a plane. The shop owners spotted us from miles away. They know how to spot new kids on the block and were willing to sell us everything they could. I don't recall what purchases we made that day but I do remember that about halfway along we saw a familiar site. The big M of McDonalds and headed there for some relief in something we knew. We grabbed some familiar food for lunch and an hour later we stopped into a pub and grabbed a VB again to get our hands on something we knew to relieve the onslaught of this strange land. Don't get me wrong, I don't want you to thing we were attempting relocate Australia to another location. That wasn't our objective. We were just overwhelmed. I don't mean that in a bad way, it was one of the stand out, most memorable days of my life.It all flowed from there. 3 weeks of going on instinct. We would head to beach and swim, catch some sun, get a massage some days. This was followed by lunch and then some more walking through the shops. I didn't mention earlier on, we went to Bali with only carry on luggage, just a small backpack each. Matt may have had a surfboard as well. When we ran out of clothes we bought more. When there were too many that they didn't fit in the bag, we went and bought a new backpack. We talked with other travellers in the bars, mainly Tubes, the Sari Club and Patty's Bar. Of course the Sari Club and Patty's Bar were the scene of those horrific attacks 8 years later. We I saw those places on my TV on that Sunday morning those years later I really felt the pain and vowed to get back there as soon as I could. I returned 11 months after the bombing for another awesome couple of weeks.
Our food choices throughout were fairly simple. Usually we ate Nasi Goreng (Indonesian fried rice) which was served with a fried egg on top. When I returned home some of my earliest food challenges were attempts to recreate that fried rice. I bought a book on Balinese food and attempted to cook. There were plenty of mistakes and plenty of food heading to a garbage bin. Eventually I did create something edible.
I know at the start I said I was going to write about where my cooking began. I got lost in the memory of a holiday that changed the way I interact with the world everyday of my life. I wish I could pack everything up and travel and I owe that in a massive way to those amazing 3 weeks with my brother in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
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