The first visit to Bali was a shocking experience for Fede, the second she hated the island, the third she started understanding it so much so that she visited it one more time.
If you fell in love with Bali few decades ago your heart would break seeing how many cars are zooming through its narrow roads – of which something like… 90%? are taxis -, how many tourists go there just to get wasted every single night, how many hotels have been built and how pushy people who work with tourists have become. From the ’70s Balinese population has doubled in number so no wonder that now the island is overcrowded, polluted and full of rubbish on the streets, beaches and rivers.
If you’re patient enough to politely say “no” to every person who offers you sarongs, beers, surf lessons, tattoos, massages, food, jewelries, bows (?!), etc. and to ignore the pushy taxi drivers, you can rent a motorbike (or use Perama buses https://www.peramatour.com/transport/shuttle – cheap, clean and efficient) and run away from Kuta – aka “the hell”, for us – to explore less touristic areas, enjoy the beautiful temples, the rice fields and the volcanoes.
Bali is the only Hindu island in an Islamic country, and it’s still quite unique and charming, with a colourful and cheerful culture, summed up by the offerings to the gods on the sides of the streets, the wonderful temples that in the evening become crazily noisy, the kites flying high in the sky, the traditional clothes and dances and the frangipani flowers that spread a heavenly perfume all around.
During the low rainy season even though tourists are still there, there’s a completely different atmosphere, muffled and slow, as if everyone was just waiting for the rainy and steamy period to go away, before going back to business.
Gado Gado is one of the most popular Indonesian dish so, even if it’s originally from Java island, you can find it pretty much all around the country. This is, as usual, a simplified version we created to be able to enjoy one of our favourite dishes even outside South East Asia and, after trying different versions using peanut butter, coconut milk and cooking the sauce or not, we came to the conclusion that this one is the most simple but most similar to the original one.
Gado Gado
In the Gado Gados we ate in Indonesia we mainly found cabbage, cucumber, carrots, potatoes, beansprouts, tofu, tempeh, eggs and some cooked-in-banana-leaves-rice-thingy, with a – sometimes spicy – peanut sauce. You can choose your favourite veggies and if you like spicy food go ahead and add some chilies to the sauce.
Ingredients for 2 people:
For the dressing
1 cup peanuts
3/4 cup hot water
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
For the salad
2 carrots
3 potatoes
1/4 cabbage
200gr green beans
250gr tofu
2 eggs
Cut carrots, potatoes, cabbage and green beans in chunks and steam them until carrots and potatoes are soft, while cabbage and green beans are still crunchy.
Boil the eggs for 10 minutes, peel and cut them in quarters.
Dice the tofu and fry it with a bit of oil in a non-stick pan until it’s crispy (if you want you can skip this and eat the tofu as is).
Process the peanuts with sugar, soy sauce and water and then simmer the sauce for 5-10 minutes, until it thickens.
Pour the still warm sauce over the salad and if you prefer to drench your veggies with the sauce you can double the ingredients, next time – gado gado sauce is never enough! 😉
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